New categories include Young Industry Professional and Making Coaches a Better Choice
Nominations for the UK Coach Awards 2012 opened this week – which means coach operators and their customers can nominate people, companies and organisations who have excelled during the 2011 season.
Entries will be accepted up to and including December 9, 2011, and the shortlist will be announced in February. The results will be announced at the Annual Presentation Ceremony, to be held at the Ramada Jarvis Piccadilly Hotel in Manchester on Thursday April 19, next year.
There is an expanded list of awards for 2012 which is designed to reflect excellence and good practice across a whole range of activities, and a cardinal principle of the scheme is that people who actually use the services are the ones who should do the nominating. New categories for 2012 include Making Coaches a Better Choice and a Young Coach Industry Professional Award.
There are 21 awards in total and the categories are divided into the following groups:
- Industry people;
- Coach operation;
- Management of coaching;
- Coach friendliness;
- Manufacturers and support service suppliers;
- Suppliers of services for coach passengers.
UK Coach Awards director Jamie Cash commented: “Our goal is to raise awareness, recognise the hard work, dedication and professionalism of the diverse organisations and of the people involved in coach tourism.
“The scheme is designed to recognise and reward excellence, original thinking and innovation,” he continued, explaining that each award would be independently andimpartially judged using objective criteria. “That way, we can promise that taking home a UK Coach Award really is a badge of achievement.”
The award categories cover the full range of services provided by and for coach operators and their passengers. There are prizes for industry people, for excellence in coach operation and management, in coach friendliness by attractions and local authorities. Suppliers of services for coach passengers, such as catering and venue ticketing, are recognised too, alongside manufacturers and support service suppliers.
Nominations can be submitted online via the UK Coach Awards web site or using specially designed forms that can be downloaded from the site. The web site, at www.ukcoachawards.co.uk also contains detailed criteria for each award category plus news and information about current and previous winners.
Organisations which support the awards include the Coach Tourism Council, the Confederation of Passenger Transport, the Group Travel Organisers Association and media partners Coach & Bus Week.
For further information about the awards, visit the UKCA website.
