PATA President and CEO Mr Peter de Jong said commented on the change, "By opening the door to non-members as well as members, our aim is to grow the PATA Gold Awards to become the undisputed leader of travel industry awards in the Asia Pacific region. All entries - from members and non-members - will be judged on an equal footing. We promise that."
In addition to the 43 Gold Awards, PATA will present Grand Awards for "best of show" entries in the following four categories: Environment, Education & Training, Heritage & Culture and Marketing. Other categories include travel journalism, multimedia and public relations.
All award recipients will be honoured during a special luncheon at the 55th PATA Annual Conference in Pattaya, April 23-27, 2006, and will also be featured in the PATA 2006 Conference Daily as well as having the winning entries on display at the Conference. All winners will receive complimentary copies of the 2006 PATA Gold Awards booklet which will showcase the winning entries. Entries are judged by travel industry experts in the relevant category.
The deadline for submissions for the 2006 PATA Gold Awards is December 1, 2005.
PATA Gold Awards now open to Non-PATA Members
For the first time, the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) is opening its PATA Gold wards to non-PATA members as well as members.