• MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes with the three Macao winners of the 2017 PATA Gold Awards
  • MGTO has been sponsoring the PATA Gold Awards Luncheon and Ceremony for the 23rd consecutive year

PATA Gold Awards 2018 Now Calling for Submissions

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Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is now encouraging tourism industry organisations and individuals making outstanding contributions throughout the Asia Pacific region to submit entries to the PATA Gold Awards 2018. The deadline for submissionis 11th May, 2018. The Awards presentation will take place during PATA Travel Mart 2018 on 14th September at the Mahsuri International Exhibition Centre (MIEC) in Langkawi, Malaysia.

MGTO continue to sponsor PATA Gold Awards Luncheon and Ceremony

This year marks the 23rd consecutive year that Macao Government Tourism Office (MGTO) has sponsored the PATA Gold Awards Luncheon and Ceremony. MGTO Director Maria Helena de Senna Fernandes remarked that the PATA Gold Awards have devoted much effort to gathering and highlighting the successful achievements of tourism stakeholders across Asia Pacific over the past two decades, making a valuable contribution to promoting responsible and sustainable tourism in Asia Pacific.

MGTO is honoured to help facilitate this far-reaching initiative, she said, especially as Macao has just been designated a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy. She also encouraged organisations and individuals to join the PATA Gold Awards in order to continue building a better future for the tourism industry.

PATA CEO Mario Hardy expressed his gratitude to MGTO for sponsoring the PATA Gold Awards in 2018, mentioning that the PATA Grand and Gold Awards reward the best the Asia Pacific travel industry has to offer. He also believed that the winners of these awards set industry standards for excellence and innovation and serve as examples for others to follow, and encouraged all organisations to participate in the awards.

Two new categories added this year

Judged by an international panel of experts, the Gold Awards recognise exceptional achievement in seven broad categories, which include: Marketing Campaign (eight Gold Awards and one Grand Award), Environment (three Gold Awards and one Grand Award), Corporate Social Responsibility (one Gold Award), Heritage & Culture (three Gold Awards and one Grand Award), Education & Training (one Gold Award and one Grand Award), Marketing Media (ten Gold Awards) and Travel Journalism (four Gold Awards).

This year's awards also included two new categories - Community Based Tourism (CBT) and Women's Empowerment Initiative (WEI).

Submissions for Community Based Tourism will be accepted for both CBT supporter or CBT initiative, with judging based upon the benefit of the initiative, impact on local community, awareness of the programme and effectiveness of the programme.

The award for Women's Empowerment Initiative will be presented to travel and tourism-related organisations or destinations which embrace initiatives that forge the positive visibility of women. These include encouraging women in leadership or women-led tourism projects; raising awareness of gender parity and contributing to advancing women; facilitating women's access to jobs and creating possibilities for career enhancement in tourism, and so forth.

For more information, please visit: www.pata.org/pata-gold-awards.