The night of nights in the industry calendar saw Skydive Australia take home three awards; Melbourne win Best Destination; United Backpackers win the National Accommodation award and Tony Brown taking home ‘The Excellence Award’ for his incredible work saving the Great Barrier Reef. 

The Adventure Travel Awards took place Friday 7 Nov at Rydges World Square, Sydney – a massive 250 guests were in attendance for the inaugural event and it was an absolute corker! MC’d by the one and only Kerry O’Keeffe, 34 trophy’s were awarded to the Best of the Best in the Adventure Travel industry across Australia and New Zealand.

In just two months we received 33,000 votes from 11,000 tourists voting for over 350 businesses – these votes allowed us to announce the list of 124 finalists and just 34 winners on the night. A rating system was used in the awards with voters able to rate between 1-10 based on their experience. We also used OTA ratings from popular accommodation sites for the accommodation winners.

We are already looking forward to next year’s events and a big thank you for all the support we received – we could not have pulled it off without you and of course, our sponsors.

Victorian Awards – Sponsored by Relocations 2 Go

BEST ACCOMMODATION VIC

Finalists – Urban Central, Greenhouse Backpackers & Base St Kilda

Winner – United Backpackers 

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY VIC

Finalists:  Autopia Tours, Bunyip Tours, Groovy Grape

Winner: Wildlife Tours 

New South Wales Awards – sponsored by Global Gossip

BEST ACCOMMODATION NSW

Finalists: Base Sydney, Arts Factory Byron Bay,  Nomads Westend

Winner:  Bounce Sydney

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY NSW

Finalists: Aussie Adventures, Surf Camp, Lets Go Surfing

Winner: Skydive Australia – Byron Bay

Queensland Awards – Sponsored by Gold Coast Tourism

BEST ACCOMMODATION QLD

Finalists: Brisbane Backpackers Resort, Gilligans Cairns & Nomads Noosa

Winner: Bunk Backpackers, Brisbane

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY QLD

Finalists: AJ Hackett Cairns, Drop Bear Adventures & Deep Sea Divers Den

Winner: Skydive Australia – Cairns 

 South Australian Awards – sponsored by Wwoof

BEST ACCOMMODATION SA

Port Lincoln Hotel, Backpack Oz Adelaide & Shakespeare Backpackers, Adelaide

Winner: Port Lincoln YHA 

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY SA

Finalists: Nullabor Traveller, Adventure Bay Charters & Kangaroo Island Adventure Tours

Winner: Calypso Star Charters 

Northern Territory Awards – Sponsored by THE WORD

BEST ACCOMMODATION NT

Finalists: Melaleuca on Mitchell, Darwin, Youth Shack, Darwin & Chilli’s, Darwin

Winner: Toddy’s Backpackers, Alice Springs 

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY NT

Finalists: Mulga’s Adventures, Adventure Tours Kings Canyon & Jump Tours

Winner: The Rock Tour 

Western Australian Awards – Sponsored by WWOOF

BEST ACCOMMODATION WA

Finalists: Perth City YHA, Billabong Backpackers & The Old Swan Barracks

Winner: Witch’s Hat, Perth

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY WA

Finalists: Australian Adventure Travel, Nullarbor Traveller & Kimberly Adventure Tours

Winner: Adventure Tours Australia – Perth to Broome 

 Tasmanian Awards – sponsored by Byte Custom Media

BEST ACCOMMODATION TAS

Finalists: YHA Hobart, Launceston Backpackers & Bicheno Backpackers

Winner: Pickled Frog, Hobart

BEST TOUR/ACTIVITY TAS

Finalists: Under Downunder, Wayoutback Australian Safaris & Adventure Tours Australia

Winner – Jump Tours 

NEW ZEALAND AWARDS sponsored by Taxback.com

BEST ACCOMMODATION NZ

Finalists: Base Auckland, Base Queenstown & Downtown Backpackers, Wellington

Winner: Nomads Queenstown

 

BEST TOUR/TRANSPORT NZ

Finalists: Stray, Intercity & Naked Bus

Winner: Kiwi Experience

BEST CAMPER RENTAL NZ

Finalists: Mighty Campers, Jucy Rentals & Wicked Campers

Winner: Spaceships

BEST ACTIVITY NZ

Finalists: AJ Hacket – Nevis, Zorb Rotorua & NZONE

Winner: Canyon Swing, Queenstown

 

BEST NIGHT OUT

Finalists: Nomads Blend Bar, Wellington, Big Night Out Queenstown & Minus-5 Ice bar Queenstown

Winner: Globe Bar Auckland

 

Australian National Awards – Sponsored by Website Travel 

BEST TRANSPORT

Finlaists: Integrity Coachline’s, Premier Motor Service, Tigerair

Winner: Greyhound Australia

 

BEST NATIONAL TOUR COMPANY

Finalists: Topdeck, G Adventures & Wayoutback Australian Safari’s

Winner: Adventure Tours Australia

BEST CAMPER RENTAL

Finalists: Hippie Camper, Jucy Rentals & Mighty Campers

Winner: Spaceships

BEST NIGHT OUT

Finalists: Scubar Downunder, Sydney, Gilligans, Cairns & Nomads KB’s Bar Noosa

Winner: Scary Canary, Sydney

BEST RECRUITMENT SERVICE

Finalists: Workerswanted.com.au, Job Shop Perth  & Job Search Australia

Winner: Fruit Picking Jobs

BEST ONLINE ONLY TRAVEL AGENT

Finalists: Bookme.com.au, Tours To Go & Hostelworld

Winner: One Stop Adventures

BEST INDEPENDENT TRAVEL AGENT

Finalists: Woodduck,  Adventure Cairns and Beyond & Travel Bugs – Urban Central

Winner: Gilligan’s Travels

BEST LARGE TRAVEL AGENT

Finalists: Adventure Travel Bugs, Backpackers World Travel & STA Travel

Winner: Peterpans Adventure Travel

BEST DESTINATION 

Finalists: Cairns, QLD, Noosa, QLD & Gold Coast, QLD

Winner: Melbourne, VIC

BEST ACCOMMODATION AUSTRALIA

Winner: United Backpackers

United Backpackers opened it’s doors less than 12 months ago but has quickly become one of Melbourne’s best hostels. This 240 bed hostel has some of the best ratings coining the motto Sweet vibes, cool people, happy days

 BEST TOUR ACTIVITY AUSTRALIA

Winner: Skydive Australia – Cairns

Skydive Australia have been operating for nearly 30 years. The East Coast of Australia has always been a wonderful skydiving destination with beautiful beaches and Cairns is no different. Skydive Australia jump over 50,000 people each year and is clearly an adventure activity not to be missed. 

Industry Awards – sponsored by WWOOF

Best Innovation Award – Wherewolf

Wherewolf has been awarded the Innovation award for it’s customer management app.Wherewolf was designed to remove paper and streamline the way adventure tour companies operate. Wherewolf helps businesses to make more money from allowing targeting marketing, referral business, significantly increased reviews and ratings, capturing organic likes and initiating word of mouth.  wherewolf.co.nz

Best Newcomer – Alex Harper – Nomads Westend

Alex first started with Nomads as an 18 year old trainee while studying tourism and hospitality management and quickly climbed the ladder to become the GM of Nomads Westend at just 23 years old.

The Website Travel Excellence Award – Tony Brown – True Blue Sailing

Tony’s hard work and drive to stop dredge material being dumped on the reef has fortunately resulting in success. He has travelled to France, Germany and England to lobby the big banks not to invest in fossil fuels and inform them of the potential damage the reef would sustain if the dumping went ahead at Abbott Point.

He has raised awareness of the plight of the Great Barrier Reef nationally and internationally in the media through documentaries such as ABC’s 7.30 report and Four Corners. He has given over 60 live radio interviews and has been quoted in over 100 newspapers.

Thanks Tony for all your determination.