'Biggest NTIAs ever': Travel industry's annual night of nights rocks Melbourne

Singapore Airlines was the Major Sponsor of the 2023 NTIAs

Flight Centre and The Travel Corporation were the big winners to emerge from tonight's 2023 National Travel Industry Awards, with the two organisations seeing success in seven categories combined.

Melbourne’s Crown Casino is used to glitz, glamour and pageantry but for the first time in 19 years, Australia’s travel industry rolled the dice to see who would come up aces as NTIA winners, with 35 hotly contested categories decided in the annual showpiece event.

Flight Centre Travel Group as a parent company counted five wins with Most Outstanding Travel Consultant Leisure, Most Outstanding Employee Engagement and Recruitment Program, Most Outstanding Hybrid Online Travel Agency, Most Outstanding National Travel Management Company and Most Outstanding Travel Agency Group all heading its way.

Over at The Travel Corporation, the gong for Most Outstanding Sales Executive - Land Supply went to the company’s Perth-based Sales Manager, Mickey Mann, while Uniworld Boutique River Cruises picked up the award for Most Popular River Cruise Operator.

Both of the latter two awards were met with rapturous cheers upon their names being announced.

The team from Avis take out Most Popular Car Hire Operator.

Another of the big winners from the evening was MTA Travel, which picked up the award for Most Outstanding Mobile Advisor Network, while Most Outstanding Mobile / Home Based Travel Advisor went to the company’s Perth-based advisor Wendy Brockbank.

Other major wins saw Destination Canada pick up the award for Most Popular Tourism Office, while Viking claimed Most Popular Ocean Cruise Operator and Uniworld took out Most Popular River Cruise Operator.

“We are absolutely thrilled to win this award,” Michelle Black, Managing Director, Viking ANZ, told Traveltalk after their debut NTIA victory.

“We constantly win lots of awards globally but we've not really won any awards locally here in Australia. So, everyone's pretty pumped that after all our hard work we’ve finally been recognised.”

Asked for the secret of their success, Black said they concentrated on just one thing.

“We just focus on us, on Viking, we don’t probably focus on anyone else and just do what we do.

“We are also a marketing driven organisation, we’re not yield driven or operationally driven, which I think a lot of the bigger cruise lines are.

“It’s all about marketing and the brand, building awareness and selling the right products.”

Nathan McLoughlin, Account Director - Trade, Australia (left) collects the award for Destination Canada

Entire Travel Group took out Most Outstanding Wholesaler – Product/Service while Travellers Choice followed up their success at last year's event by taking out the 2023 NTIA for Most Outstanding Non Branded Agency Group.

Major aviation awards for the year, decided via a popular vote by thousands of submissions in the lead-up to the event, went to Virgin Australia as the Most Popular Airline – Online, while Lufthansa Group picked up the corresponding award for Offline carriers.

A special Sustainability Award to recognise the environmental efforts of certain travel operators went to Hurtigruten Norway, which is rapidly progressing the ‘Sea Zero’ project which will see it debut a zero-emission cruise ship by 2030.

Australian Travel Industry Association CEO, Dean Long, said the 2023 NTIAs was truly a night to remember.

"This is in no small part due to the high calibre of entries we received and the exemplary standard of travel professionals and businesses all throughout Australia," Long said.

“Events of the scale the NTIAs 2023 celebration do not just happen, and on behalf of everyone I thank the hardworking ATIA team and the generous support of our sponsors for helping us realise our vision for this event.”

“Our vibrant travel community is our greatest strength, and through events like the NTIA we will continue our focus on harnessing the skills and expertise across our network to benefit our industry, our clients and our businesses.”

The 2023 National Travel Industry Awards was sponsored by Singapore Airlines.

For the full list of winners, see below.