Tourism Australia were announced as the overall winner of the World Routes Awards 2013 during the Las Vegas Networking Evening which took place in the Garden of the Gods at Caesars Palace sponsored by Caesars Entertainment. This is the first time that a tourism authority has taken the top spot in the World Routes Awards and speaking just after receiving the highly regarded accolade Andrew McAvoy, Managing Director, Tourism Australia said, “It means a lot to be overall winner in the World Routes Awards 2013. I think it is one of the great partnerships we have in the world, which is our aviation partnerships; our state and territory partnerships and our airport partnerships. So it means a lot to Team Australia. Tourism has gone up to accept the award but quite genuinely it’s an award that Australia has achieved together.”
The awards, which are voted exclusively by airlines, were split into five categories this year comprising of four airport categories, split by size and a destination category for the best destination marketing campaign by a tourism authority, which was also awarded to Tourism Australia.
Changi Airport Group was named as the winner from the Over 50m Passengers category whilst Copenhagen Airport was honoured from the 20m-50m Passengers group. From the 4m-20m Passengers category San Diego International Airport took the top spot with Darwin International Airport winning the Under 4m Passengers category.
Created in 1997 to recognise excellence in airport marketing as rewarded by airlines, the annual Routes awards provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport they think provides the best overall marketing services to them.
Nigel Mayes, VP Commercial – Routes, UBM Live said, “We would like congratulate all of this year’s winners but much deliberation our panel of judges felt that Tourism Australia should be crowned overall winner due to their clear strategy and their submission which plainly illustrated that it provides support for airlines in all the right areas showing excellence in route development.”
