5 things to do before you start your tourism award submission
Tilma Group awards client Darwin Festival winning the NT’s Gold tourism award - they went on to win Gold at the Australian Tourism Awards
Writing a tourism award submission can be a very intense, time consuming, yet rewarding process.
Before you start writing your submission, it is important to spend some time planning and preparing to ensure your responses are clear, to the point, and can be backed up with evidence.
Here are the top 5 things we recommend doing before you begin drafting your submission.
1. Read the guidelines
The awards program has specific guidelines to help writers highlight the information that judges are looking for. These can change from year to year so make sure you revisit them before preparing your submission, even if you have entered in previous years.
Note important dates, such as the qualifying period that answers must relate to, information sessions being held by the award organisers to help people with their submissions, and submission deadlines.
Ensure your business complies with all the rules of entry, such as its location and structure, certification/accreditation requirements, and the guidelines for entry into relevant categories.
2. Review the categories
Ensure you select the best category for your business by reviewing the category descriptors and guidelines. Sometimes there will be multiple categories that your business falls into. The descriptors will help you to identify the most relevant, and the one that your business can best support in your responses and back up with data.
A good tip is to look at the finalists and winners from previous years for the categories you are considering. This may be a good indication of where your business best fits.
Once you have selected your category, ensure you are able to provide all the information that is being requested. Note down anything that you need to follow up in order to start the writing process.
3. Develop a timeline
Award submission writing takes time, and there is often a lot of back and forth as you gain important feedback and input from others. As a guide, we spend over 40 hours on our clients’ submissions.
Start with the final submission date and work backwards, scheduling in time to work on your draft, gain feedback and make changes. Then schedule time in your diary where you can work uninterrupted on your submission.
4. Brainstorm dot points for your answers
Gather together your staff or family and friends that know your business well and start brainstorming dot points for each answer, ensuring you are specifically addressing the requirements for each question.
This will make the writing process much easier and ensure your answers are clear and to the point.
5. Prepare data
Your responses need to be backed up by data. Ensure your business plan, marketing plan, policies and procedures are up to date so you can reference them in your submission.
Other data that is important to have includes:
budgets and financials
examples of contributions to your local, state and national tourism industry and local community
innovations that have taken place in the qualifying period
staff training and development records
marketing activities and their success
visitation/booking data
customer/client satisfaction data
sustainability actions
While writing an award submission is an intensive process, it is a great opportunity for you to review your business, its achievements, and how it is tracking against its goals.
We can help you
If you need help with your tourism award submission, we have a decade of experience of writing and reviewing submissions, and winning Gold at the national level for two of our clients.
