World Routes Awards 2013 winners announced

LAS VEGAS - Tourism Australia were announced as the overall winner of the World Routes Awards 2013 which were formally announced last night during the fabulous 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 of 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."

In addition to the shortlisted finalists nominated by the airlines, the regional winners from each of the regional Routes events from 2013 automatically gained a place in the final judging.  A respected panel of judges made up of senior members of the airline network planning community then reviewed the lists and submissions from the nominated airports in order to determine the winners.  The panel consisted of the following experts:

Mr Rick Wagstaffe, Vice President Procurement & Logistics (Airline) for Emirates
Mr Marcus Siebenschuh, Manager Network Planning Commercial Frankfurt for Lufthansa
Mr Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director, International Planning for United Airlines
Mr Jose Montero, Senior Vice President of Finance & CFO of COPA Airlines
Mr Chee Khuan Liew, VP, Network & LT Planning for Malaysia Airlines
Mr Mark Kopczak, Vice President, Network Planning for Spirit Airlines
Mr Keith Green, Manager Network Planning for South African Airways
Mr Lukas Johnson, Vice President, Network and Pricing for Allegiant Air
Ms Jean Ritch, Manager Network Planning Commercial for Cayman Airways

The full list of companies shortlisted under each award category were as follows:

Over 50m Passengers
Changi Airport Group  - Winner
Amsterdam Airport Schiphol - Highly Commended
Dubai International Airport - Highly Commended
Soekarno-Hatta International Airport
Suvarnabhumi International Airport

Between 20-50m Passengers
Copenhagen Airport  - Winner
Incheon International Airport - Highly Commended
Munich Airport - Highly Commended
Kunming Wujiaba International Airport
Sheremetyevo International Airport
Vienna International Airport

Between 4-20m Passengers
San Diego International Airport - Winner
Auckland Airport - Highly Commended
Brussels Airport - Highly Commended
Athens International Airport
Istanbul Sabiha Gokcen International Airport

Under 4m Passengers 
Darwin International Airport - Winner
Kilimanjaro International Airport - Highly Commended
Shannon Airport - Highly Commended
Ekaterinburg Koltsovo Airport
Kyiv International Airport (Zhuliany)

Destination
Tourism Australia - Winner
Greater Fort Lauderdale Convention and Visitors Bureau - Highly Commended
Turismo de Tenerife - Highly Commended
Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture and Tourism
Seychelles Tourism Board

Overall Winner
Tourism Australia

Sourced: TravelDailyNews