The Mackay Region Tourism Awards 2018 Rules for Entry: All entrants must adhere to the following rules and guidelines Nominating for categories: You are encouraged to enter the category that best reflects your core business. If you are entering more than one category, a separate and complete entry must be submitted electronically for each category. Entrants may only enter one submission in any one of the following group of categories: a) Attractions b) Festivals & Events c) Tour and Transport Operators d) Accommodation Qualifying Period: a) The qualifying period will be based on the financial year in which the Awards are held in this instance 1 July 2017 30 June 2018. All activities, achievements and innovations referred to within submissions must have occurred within this period. Trading period: a) All entrants must have traded for the entire qualifying period except for those entering the New Tourism Business category. b) Specifically, entrants in the category New Tourism Business must have commenced trading/visitation or service delivery within the qualifying period. No minimum period of trading has been defined for the New Tourism Business category. c) Exceptions apply to seasonal businesses and facilities, festivals, events, marketing campaigns. Media entries, training and tourism development projects, however the activity being put forward for consideration, must have occurred within the qualifying period. Nominated Region: a) Entrants must be based or operate in The Mackay Region b) Should a company have branches in more than one region they must choose the most appropriate region to enter based on a single entity. If a company wishes to enter as a group, then they can only enter in one region s Awards program, and focus on the activities undertaken in that region. Memberships: a) There is no requirement for entrants to be members of any associations or related bodies. However, operators should be encouraged to take up membership programs where they exist. Multiple Products: a) An entrant, such as a chair or franchise that has multiple products, must enter each product individually if they want each property to be able to promote the achievement of winning a tourism award. Alternatively, the corporate head office may enter but the winner logo may only be used by the corporate entity not the individual products and/or property. b) Aside from those categories where stated, one business can submit two entries, including two entries in the same category.
Submission Rules: Mackay Tourism will be following the old process for submissions and not using an online submission portal for 2018. The submission must be formatted as follows: a) Cover Page The cover page of the submission must be included and must be clearly marked with: i. the name of the entrant; ii. the category entered; iii. the region tourism awards entered; iv. 100 word description of the business or individual entrant; and v. an image(s) representative of the product entered. (Note: the cover page is not included in the 30 page allowance) b) Margins: No minimum requirement. c) Font: All font (questions, answers, tables) must be no smaller than 12 point Times New Roman, Calibri or Arial. No variation, such as narrow or condensed font styles, is acceptable. However, image captions may use a smaller font size down to a minimum of 8 point. d) Format: All text must be 1½ line spacing (Microsoft Word) or equivalent, with the following exceptions: i. Text contained within a multi-column table may be single line spaced ii. Question text and captions may be single line spaced. iii. iv. All pages must be numbered. Text should be presented in a portrait letter document format i.e. no newspaper column format. e) Layout: State the question, how many points the question is worth and then your answer. f) Pages: The submission must have no more than 30 pages including text, graphs and images. Note: This does not include the cover page and contents page. Whilst a cover page is mandatory, a table of contents is optional. g) Hyperlinks: Hyperlinks are not permitted within your submission. h) Size of pdf: Your submission should be no more than 20MB when you send to the Development Officer a development@mackayregion.com Compliance with Competition Rules a) To ensure consistency and fairness in judging, the Rules for Entry must be strictly met. Failure to follow the rules may attract a deduction of up to 9 points. Note: In some categories the competition is very close and the deduction of any points could be the difference between winning and losing.
i. Font that is less than 12 points attracts 4 penalty points ii. More than 30 submission pages attracts 1 penalty point per page. A maximum of 5 points will be applied iii. Failure to format to 1½ line spacing attracts 4 penalty points Submission Deadline a) Submissions must be sent as a PDF to the Development Officer at development@mackayregion.com no later than 5pm on Friday, 24 August 2018. What Do I Submit? a) Nomination details b) Entry details c) A PDF version of submission, including cover page. Refer to the rules for entry for specific formatting guidelines. d) A description of no more than 100 words of your company/product, which will be used by media, for announcements at the presentation ceremony, in promotional material and on website listings. As this will be edited and compiled by people who have not viewed your submission. Please remember to include your company/product name and where you are located geographically. e) Ten images jpeg format only, illustrating the entrant's operation should accompany each submission in each category entered. By supplying images, you ensure maximum exposure at the presentation ceremony and in official advertising and publications. (Note: 500 dpi files in a JPEG format are preferred) f) Double check your PDF document before sending once it has been submitted, no correspondence will be entered into. Make sure all pages are there, the number of pages do not exceed the 30-page maximum (excluding the cover page and contents page) and ensure that all tables, images, maps etc are clear and easy to read. Entries a) A submission will not be accepted after the due date b) An entry cannot be moved into another category following the closing date for submissions. c) If at any time following submission of an entry, the business being put forward goes into administration, voluntary receivership, liquidation or bankruptcy, the entrant is required to advise the Development Officer (Terri development@mackayregion.com) and accepts that the submission will no longer be eligible for an award. d) There is no direct entry into the Queensland or Australian Tourism Awards. Only state or territory tourism award winners in categories 1 through to 26 will be nominated as finalists in the Qantas Australian Tourism Awards. For more information please visit www.queenslandtourismawards.com.au Hall of Fame: a) Hall of Fame will be introduced to The Mackay Region Tourism Awards in 2018. These Awards will be presented to entrants who have won their selected category for three consecutive years, starting from the 2016 awards. This does not stop the entrants from applying for the category in which they receive the Hall of fame for future Award events. Benchmarking:
a. The Mackay Region Tourism Awards 2018 will include benchmarking for Gold, Silver and Bronze Awards. This ensures submissions are of high quality based on merit. The benchmark has been set in line with the Queensland Tourism Awards as per the following: i. Gold: 85 points or higher ii. Silver: 75-84 points iii. Bronze: 65-74 points Site Visits a) The purpose of the site visit is to assess the business being nominated and for verification of claims that may be made within the submission. Operators are under no obligation to offer a free experience of their product. The site visit will be prearranged at a mutually convenient time and the judges have a proforma from which they work. Site visit judges will ask to see the following (if applicable): i. Customer Service Policies ii. OH&S policies and Risk Management Policies iii. Human Resources Policies iv. Sustainability Policies v. Marketing Plans vi. Business Plans b) The absence of these documents will be reflected in the score. The site inspection is worth 20 points of the total score being added to the submission score. All entrants will receive a site visit with the following exceptions: i. Festivals and Events: Entrants in these categories will be asked to provide relevant documents via email. The allocated judge will call the entrant direct to discuss requirements and where applicable will visit their workplace/site office. There will be no points awarded. ii. New Tourism Business These categories will be visited and evaluated but due to the potential diversity of entrants will not be awarded any points. iii. The following categories; Outstanding Contribution by a Volunteer or Volunteer Group, Young Achiever Award and the Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Individual do not undergo a site visit. Compliance with Competition Rules a) You must ensure your submission is sent to the Development Officer development@mackayregion.com by the specified time 5.00pm, Friday 24 August 2018. After this time, the ability to complete a submission will be removed from the website. b) Once you have submitted your submission it cannot be accessed again for changes. c) All categories will be available at www.mackayregion.com/corporate/mackayregiontourismawards. d) If you are having trouble with submissions, require assistance or would like more information please contact Development Officer (Terri McIntyre - development@mackayregion.com or (07) 4944 5888.) Disclaimer By entering The Mackay Region Tourism Awards 2018, you authorise the use and/or reproduction of images and the 100-word description provided in relation to any editorial/advertising purposes initiated in conjunction with the awards and The Mackay Region Tourism Awards 2018. Your contact details may also be supplied to agencies engaged on behalf of award organisers and/or committees for promotional purposes.
Under no circumstances will judges be held responsible for any comment, viewpoint or expression, whether expressed or implied, concerning the standard or quality of an entrant s submission. By entering The Mackay Region Tourism Awards 2018, you agree not to bring a claim against any Judge, or Mackay Tourism Ltd in relation to feedback on your submission. Judges Decision The decisions of The Mackay Region Tourism Awards 2018 Judging Panels are final. More Information For further advice and information contact Terri McIntyre on (07) 4944 5888 or development@mackayregion.com