And the winners are……
November 11th, 2014 | | news
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.
Stoked to pickup the Best Tour in Tas award – thanks for putting on an awesome night Tom & the Byte team (I think AK’s still recovering)
Congrats to all winners!
What a wonderful night! A huge congratulations to all finalists and winners. Well done everyone!