Nominations are now open for the 2019 Australian Hotels Association (AHA) ACT Hospitality and Tourism Awards, which highlight excellence in the Territory’s hospitality venues and their staff over the last year.
Nominations are now being accepted for local accommodation hotels, pubs, restaurants, bars, cafes and nightclubs, ahead of the gala dinner which will be held at Hotel Realm on Monday, 22 July 2019.
The judging process and judges for this year’s awards has changed and none of the judging is being conducted by AHA ACT.
Speaking about the process the association said: “The 2019 AHA ACT Awards will have new judges, selected for their expertise and knowledge of the hospitality industry. These judges will be completely independent of the AHA ACT.
“While the exact identity of our judges will remain confidential, anonymous biographies of the judges will be released in April.”
A number of judge profiles have already been posted on the AHA ACT’s Facebook page and the AHA told TheShout that the association has chosen judges based on the experience and background in the industry or area relevant to the award they are judging.
The association also said that after the awards, nominees can ask to be provided with the feedback and scores given by the judges.
This year sees 32 awards available, with the AHA ACT, telling TheShout: “We included a Best Italian Restaurant category in this year’s awards to reflect the growth of fantastic Italian offerings in Canberra at the moment.”
A number of the awards require submissions in addition to completing the nomination form, while others are judged based on a 100 per cent anonymous site inspection. Full details of who you can nominate a venue and what the judging process entails is available on the AHA ACT’s website. There is also further information regarding the association on its Facebook and Instagram channels.