In this blog we explain how to improve your chances in winning a Tourism Award.
Why enter your business in the Tourism Awards?
Winning an Australian Tourism Award, whether at a Regional, State or National level gives both you and your business a huge boost. Not only is the award prestigious and the gala dinners a chance to network and enjoy yourself, but elements of the award judging process force you to take a close look at your business practices, policies and procedures, this alone is a valid reason for entering.
What is a Tourism Award?
“The Australian Tourism Awards are the tourism industry’s premier awards program and most anticipated event, celebrating and recognising excellence in tourism.” See here for more information
The awards are divided into categories and it is important that you nominate in the correct category more information about these categories can be found here
How do I improve my chances of success?
Careful preparation, attention to detail and allocation of the right amount of time are the keys to success. We recommend that you treat your application as a project and commence your evidence gathering phase as soon as possible. We also suggest that the application is a team effort, even if you are a small business, engage with your accountant early, enlist friends and family to proof read your application and most importantly make sure you read and answer the questions like you would an exam paper.
How are the Awards judged?
At a State level industry colleagues judge the applications in small groups and must follow strict criteria, the applications also include a site visit which accounts for an additional 20 points on top of the total possible written score of 100. The winning State awards documents are then sent to straight to the National awards, where your submission is judged again on a national level.
I’m very busy in my business, how do I find the time to submit an application?
Plan..plan..plan
Allocate a certain amount of time each week to the application and develop a plan, for example “this month I will work on question one, each Wednesday, from 11 to 1” although you may not be able to commit every week due to business pressures you will not find yourself in panic mode when the deadline arrives.
Each section of the award is allocated a certain amount of points, so it is essential that you give every question a similar amount of effort. If you find the required information a little daunting, perhaps break down the application into each question and tackle individually. By planning in advance you should mitigate these issues.
Our top tips to success
- Start collecting evidence now
- Get your team working on it too
- Engage a graphic designer
- Take advantage of any free support that is offered by your state tourism organisation
- Give each of the 5 questions equal consideration
- Be mindful of the amount of points you could earn for each sub-question
- Collect suitable pictures all year round
