p6-7 Judges copy 11/9/09 13:00 Page 6
THE JUDGING
PROCESS
The TTG Travel Awards strive to be the most whose entries clearly demonstrated outstanding
robust and sought-after in the industry. performances in the past 12 months.
Tonight’s ceremony is the culmination of a An online entry form levelled the playing field
five-month programme that combines for all entrants, and each was expected to
registration, agent rating, stringent entry criteria provide detail and supporting evidence to
and a rigorous judging process. demonstrate excellence in areas including:
We make no apologies for this process; in
fact, we hope that your presence here tonight ■ Commercial success
demonstrates that you have recognised the ■ Trade relations
value of taking part in awards which demand ■ Product innovation and development
and reward only those companies and ■ Strategic planning
individuals who have delivered an outstanding ■ Customer relations
performance in the past 12 months. ■ Staff development
In challenging times, it is even more ■ Corporate social responsibility
important to demonstrate that every single
entry will receive the consideration and respect In some categories, the high standard of
it deserves, and that no company or individual is entries resulted in an extended shortlist of eight.
favoured because of its size, reputation or The judging process itself took place over four
historical performance. days in August at TTG’s offices in central London,
with almost 40 experts from the worlds of
The process travel, finance, retail and marketing weighing up
First, hopeful companies and individuals were the merits of each entry, alongside their agent
asked to register their intent to enter the rating scores.
awards. The online entry process allowed judges to
Those entrants which sell through travel assess every entry before meeting with the rest
agents were then listed online, with agents of their panel to debate and agree an overall
invited to rate them on a scale of 1 to 5 based winner and, in certain categories, highly
on their relationships in the previous 12 months. commended entries.
TTG then took the average rating, rather than TTG does not reveal which judges assessed
counting total votes, to ensure that smaller which categories, but endeavours to ensure
companies were able to compete with larger where possible that no judge has a vested
companies that might have been able to interest in the category or entrants.
incentivise agents to vote for them. All judges also sign confidentiality agreements
Those registering to rate companies were preventing them from revealing details of
assessed to ensure they were bona fide agents, their discussions or discussing confidential
and in total more than 70,000 ratings were information contained within the entries.
logged. The results of the agent rating were TTG would like to take this opportunity to
then used by TTG’s senior editorial team as they thank all the judges who gave up their time to
sifted through hundreds of entries to compile take part in the process this year.
this year’s shortlists.
In addition to the agent rating scores, TTG
was also looking for companies and individuals
6 THE TTG TRAVEL AWARDS 2009
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