It’s the one night that travel professionals across the country meet in Sydney dressed to the nines to recognise the best of the best in the travel industry.
That’s right, it’s almost time for the Australian Federation of Travel Agents (AFTA) NTIA Awards.
And with the big night only 63 sleeps away, AFTA has unveiled the companies, agencies and people that could be taking home the travel industry’s version of a Grammy award.
Nominations were unveiled for 37 categories two days go. Click here for the full list.
helloworld branded and independent agents received 52 percent of the individual agents and more than one in three of the agencies in the finalist list.
helloworld is up for ‘Best Travel Agency Group’, competing against Flight Centre and Travellers Choice.
It has also been nominated in the ‘Best Branded Travel Agency Group’ along with the Magellan Travel Group, ATAC, Independent Travel Group and Select Travel Group.
Meanwhile, in the ‘Best Travel Agency Retail – Single Location’ category, helloworld Lane Cove is up against Bicton Travel, Gippsland Travel Centre, MTA Travel and TravelManagers.
“With our agents making up over half of the finalist list and almost 40 percent of the agencies being helloworld branded or independent members, the power of the helloworld network is well and truly on display.”
helloworld, CEO Elizabeth Gaines
In addition to ‘Best Travel Agency Retail’, Western Australia-based Bicton Travel is up for three awards this year including ‘Best Travel Consultant – Retail’ and ‘Best Travel Agency Manager – Retail Single Location’.
Flight Centre is also a finalist in a number of categories this year including ‘Best Travel Agency Manager – Retail Single Location’ and ‘Rookie of the Year – Agent’.
Other newbies up for the title of ‘Rookie of the Year’ are Jonathan Pichaloff from helloworld Newcastle Corporate and Alex Castillo Suncity Travel from Caloundra QLD.
In aviation, Qantas and Virgin continue to fight it out for ‘Best Domestic Airline’, while Air New Zealand, Emirates, Etihad, Qantas and Singapore Airlines campaign for ‘Best International Airline – Online’.
Royal Caribbean has two nominations in the ‘Best Cruise Ship – Domestic Deployment’ category for Voyager of the Seas and Radiance of the Seas. The two ships are competing against Carnival Spirit, Celebrity Solstice and Diamond Princess.
Click here for the full list of nominations.
