AFTA has announced the details for this year’s NTIA awards in partnership with platinum sponsor Qantas, at their Mascot headquarters.
The venue for Saturday July 22 is the Sydney International Convention Centre.
“It’s exciting that the NSW government spent a billion dollars on a really fancy place so that we can hold the NTIA’s there,” AFTA chief executive Jayson Westbury said.
“Every seat will be afforded complimentary extra leg room this year,” Westbury quipped.
Flight Centre Global will not be held on the same day as the NTIA’s for the next five years.
“We’ve negotiated with one of our largest members who have a conflicting event every year to no longer have a conflicting event,” Westbury added.
This ramps up capacity to 1500. “That will be our biggest ever,” Westbury said.
“We’re having 37 awards but we’ll still be finished at 10:30 at the latest,” Westbury said.
The host will be Anjali Rao for the second year running.
“She seemed to be very popular last year and I think this year she will be more vocal, with the new format it will help with the noise challenges we have had,” Westbury said.
At 9am this morning the website went live for nominations.
“In our tenth year operating for the format we are in, Qantas has been with us for a decade and we really appreciate the support they’ve provided us every year,” Westbury said.
“We have many things planned to create an engagement to put the travel agents thinking into the mix of Qantas thinking,” Westbury said.
“We see the value that the trade and the industry provide to Qantas but also to the entire community of Australia,” Qantas executive manager customer and commercial relationships Vanessa Hudson said.
“There’s still speculation around what the future of the travel agent is and I think when we can draw relationships with suppliers like Qantas who see value, that speaks volumes to the fact that they see confidence in the channel as much as those in the channel have,” Westbury said.
2017 NTIA Key Dates;
• Nominations Open – Monday 23 January 2017
• Nominees Announced – Monday 13 March 2017
• Voting Opens – Tuesday 14 March 2017
• Finalists Announced – Thursday 4 May 2017
• Judging Commences – Monday 29 May 2017 (Judged categories only)
• Gala Dinner – Saturday 22 July 2017
