Have you heard all about the NTIA's and are unsure of what's involved? The information on this page will explain the awards stages and what to expect. 

The graphic below outlines all the award stages of the NTIA Awards Program, followed by a detailed summary of each stage. 

Please note that you will not undergo every stage — only those relevant to your category.

Unsure of something? Contact us at NTIA@atia.travel

01. Review the Categories and Entrant Guidelines

The full list of #NTIA2025 Award Categories is listed here. View the Entrant Guidelines for the awards process, submission, and interview questions and/or voting information. 

 

02. Make a Peer Nomination

Recognise and celebrate industry excellence by putting forward a peer nomination for #NTIA2025.

We encourage all individuals employed within the Australian travel industry to get involved in the awards and nominate their industry peers and/or preferred suppliers for NTIA 2025.

Nominating is as simple as completing an online form. You will need to provide the contact information (full name, business name, contact email and contact number) for both yourself and the nominee/s you wish to put forward. You may only nominate one person or company for each category. You can put forward a nomination in some or all categories.

Only one peer-nomination is required to participate in the NTIAs. Supplementary nominations will be deemed invalid and will not count in any way.

03. Nominee Acceptances

All nominees will be reviewed in line with the eligibility criteria, to allow their participation in the nominated category. 

Nominees will be sent an email advising them that they've been nominated for a category, and asked to accept or decline the nomination.

If the nominee matches the description of the category, but their business is not accredited - they will have the opportunity to become accredited.

You may also receive multiple emails for each category you've been nominated in. Please double check the email content to verify.

For company awards, the nomination acceptance form will also allow you to confirm the contact person going forward. 

Nominees must accept their nomination to be sent further information about the submission portal. We will cease communications with nominees who decline the nomination or do not respond.

04. Submissions & Nominee Announcement

All submissions will need to be submitted electronically and received through the NTIA Awards Portal. Depending on the category, you'll be asked to either:

• Submit a video submission,
• Submit a written submission, or
• Submit a company profile for industry voting.

Those individuals and businesses who put forward a submission or company profile will be recognised and announced as Nominees. The full list of nominees will be published on the ATIA website and shared with Trade Media. Nominees will also receive an asset kit with an electronic nominee badge and social media banner.

About the NTIA Awards Portal

ATIA uses Award Force as the NTIA Awards Portal. Award Force uses best practice security measures to protect our program participants and their data; is ISO/IEC 27001 certified; compliant with the Australian Privacy Principles and General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and more.

05. Submissions Assessment & Industry Voting

All video and written submissions will be reviewed by the NTIA Independent Assessors. The Independent Assessors are university level educators and assessors, specialising in travel and tourism. They are actively involved in educating students and grading their assessments in line with a pre-determined rubric.

All voting profiles will be published within an online gallery and subject to industry voting. To cast their vote, voters must register an account. Once registered, they can vote for their top pick in each category. Voters are not permitted to vote in a category where their company is nominated. 

06. Finalists Determination & Announcement

For video and written submissions, the top 5 scoring nominees in each category are shortlisted as Finalists. In instances where the leader board is closely contested, a mediator is brought on to provide a second opinion. Shortlisted finalists will also undergo an additional check against the ATIA Accredited Complaints Register and Cancelled ATIA Accredited Participants before they are announced as Finalists.

For voted categories, we verify the validity of all votes to ensure no one has voted for their own company. Votes will be disqualified if the voter has voted for their company. The top 5 companies with the highest number of valid votes are then announced as Finalists. 

Finalists will receive an email from ATIA, congratulating them on making it as a finalist. Finalists will then receive a Finalist asset kit including an electronic finalist badge and social media banner. Unsuccessful finalists will also receive an email notification from ATIA prior to the official announcement being made. 

 Again, Finalists will be published on the ATIA website and announced to trade media.

07. Industry panel judging

Finalists in selected categories will need to attend a virtual, judging interview with a panel of industry judges. Finalists will be asked a different set of questions which are also outlined in the Entrant Guidelines. 

Each category will have 2 – 3 judges from the NTIA Judging Panel. This panel includes professionals from travel and tourism, and other business executives. The diversity of backgrounds helps ensure impartiality and minimises bias. 

Judges will have access to the finalist’s submissions, but only for the categories they’ve been assigned. 

For submission-only categories, the original submission will be reassessed. The judges are not notified of who else is judging that category; each judge will submit their own scores independently. No further action is required from the finalist. 

08. Winners Announced