5 May 2020

MEDIA STATEMENT / STATEMENT TO INDUSTRY

 

2020 Australian Tourism Awards

 

The Qantas Australian Tourism Awards have been a longstanding, and significant, program for our tourism industry.

In its 36-year plus history the Australian Tourism Awards program has celebrated businesses that have demonstrated their commitment to quality visitor experiences, as well as providing a business development tool which has assisted businesses to review, assess and share their business goals and strategies.

This year, Tourism businesses around Australia are facing the worst ever disruption to their operations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, impacting on their ability to focus on anything other than survival.

After careful deliberation, the Australian Tourism Industry Council (ATIC) has made the following determination regarding the Awards program for 2020:

  • The Australian Tourism Awards national program and associated national event will not be proceeding for 2020
  • Individual State and Territory Award programs may continue, at the discretion of each State and Territory. However any ‘Gold’ Award achievers will not have a national program to progress into for 2020.

The Australian Tourism Awards is delivered as a part of the Quality Tourism Framework (QTF). During this time ATIC will continue to deliver other business development programs, including a recently launched COVID-19 Business Recovery module within the QTF which assists businesses in their critical thinking for response and recovery to COVID-19 business disruption.

The Australian Tourism Awards program will be back in 2021 with the gala event anticipated to be held on the Sunshine Coast in early 2022.

 

Further Comment:

Daniel Gschwind          CEO, QTIC                                 M: 0419 219 795

Simon Westaway         Executive Director, ATIC          M: 0401 994 627