About the Awards

Achieving an accolade in the State's premier Tourism Awards will give your business a valuable marketing advantage. The South Australian Tourism Awards form part of the Australian Tourism Awards, which aims to recognise and promote excellence in tourism.

The Tourism Awards are an annual online submission and site visit based competition for tourism businesses and industry suppliers.

Since the state awards were implemented in 1983 the diversity and calibre of entrants has matched the vitality and growing professionalism of the South Australian tourism industry. The range of categories has evolved to reflect the changes that have occurred within the industry, with 30 categories currently available.

The Awards Presentation Ceremony and Gala Dinner provides the opportunity to publicly recognise and showcase this state’s finest tourism operators.

The Awards aims to:

• Publicly recognise and reward excellence in the tourism industry.

• Encourage and celebrate creativity, professionalism and innovation in South Australian Tourism.

• Support improved business planning, development and internal analysis among tourism operators.

• Provide a benchmark for best practice within the tourism industry.

• Continuously improve and raise standards.

• Reinforce the value of the tourism industry.

• Reinforce consumer confidence in the tourism industry.

• Provide a better South Australian visitor experience.

The Awards

Depending on the standard of entry, entrants may be acknowledged with a gold, silver or bronze medal. The winner (the entrant with the highest score) in each category will go on to contest the Australian Tourism Awards.

Winner - awarded to the entry which is judged to be the most outstanding in its category.

Gold Medal - presented to entries of a very high standard, where the judging panel awards the entrant a score of 90% or higher.

Silver Medal - presented to entries of a high standard, where the judging panel awards the entrant a score of 80% or higher.

Bronze Medal - presented to entries of a very good standard where the judging panel awards the entrant a score of 75% or higher.

Hall of Fame - awarded to an entrant winning the same category three years in a row.

They will be acknowledged for their achievements for a three-year period, during which they are still able to contest the state awards.