The value of recognition

With the annual cruise industry awards looming, it is timely to consider the value of industry recognition and what winning awards can bring to your organisation. The soul of every organisation’s success stems from its staff and there is no bigger thrill than sharing the accolades with your team when they come your way. Over the years we have experienced many recipients doing this very well whilst others remain focussed on the belief that “this is for me”. For those organisations that make the finals this year, bring your team with you to share the spotlight. Winner or not on the night, the cruise industry awards are where the who’s who of cruising get together to celebrate the continued success of our segment of the travel industry. The objective of the Cruise Industry Awards is for the cruise lines to be able to recognise and reward the many outstanding achievements from within the travel industry over the previous 12 months. Most of the award categories are determined through a process where the cruise lines are voting for the top achievers so there is no need for agents to be putting forward submissions – except for the Cruise Promotion of the Year awards. This does not mean that the office with the highest volume of sales each year wins the award – far from it. Each cruise line member of CLIA is asked to submit its top five offices in each category. Nominations are based not only on sales volume, but also sales growth, marketing efforts, attendance at training and overall product support throughout the year. Nominations from the cruise lines are collated with the top nomination earning five points, second nomination four points, third nomination three points, fourth nomination two points and fifth nomination one point. Winners are then determined from total points earned across all cruise line member nominations. Strong support of multiple cruise lines over the year would give nominees a greater chance of award recognition than an office that was selling one product exclusively. There are also three award categories open for submissions - Agent Promotion of the Year, Network Promotion of the Year and our new category of “Best Plan a Cruise Month Promotion”. These categories are now open for selfnomination by any Travel Agent or Retail Network member of CLIA Australasia. Submissions must be based on consumer cruise promotions undertaken during the 12-month period to 30 November 2016 that feature CLIA Cruise Line Member product. Potential finalists will be judged on the efforts and success of a specific FIT or Group Travel campaign as well as overall strategy of the campaign in any form of media. Submissions will be judged by an independent panel. Your campaign doesn’t have to be the biggest to be the winner. Judges are very keen on seeing your Return on Investment (ROI) and submissions must be received by Friday 18th December. To download an application form, click on the Awards tab at the CLIA website