A panel of industry judges will sift through the nominations to create a shortlist before a vote by AWTE members.
The winners will be announce at a ceremony on September 10, sponsored by The Travel Network Group.
A new award has been added for 2018, the Ambassador Award, which seeks to honour male colleagues in the industry actively encouraging, supporting and championing female employees in their business.
The awards date to 2008 and are the legacy of founder member Joan Richardson, the AWTE’s three annual awards presented in her honour.
Sarah Clayton-Turner, ATE chair, said; “This year’s AWTE awards is going to be bigger and better than ever. I’m delighted we’ve got some amazing judges on board and that we are also able to recognise our male colleagues in the industry who go a long way to develop women in their businesses.
“We have some amazing talent in our businesses and so we look forward to seeing some fantastic nominations and celebrating with them at the Mayfair hotel on September 10.”
The 2018 awards in full are:
- AWTE Honorary Award – Nominees must be AWTE members who have contributed significantly to the association or the travel industry specifically over the past 12 months.
- Business Impact Award – Nominees can be any female in the travel, tourism and hospitality sector who has shown great innovation and made an impact in her role, either as an employee or her own business, and as a result positively impacted her business and/or the industry.
- Company Award – A company in the travel industry that has shown its support and commitment to equality on its board and within its management structure, allowing women to reach their potential within the company and impact the business or the industry with the company’s support.
- Ambassador Award - Celebrating male colleagues who actively encourage, enable and support women in business.
Members can nominate themselves, a deserving colleague or someone they admire as well as a company they believe really supports women with their career in the industry so the AWTE can publicly recognise their contribution.
Upon its 60th anniversary in 2014, the AWTE published a list of 60 influential women in travel and a commitment was made to add five names each year - nominations are also encouraged for this category.
Nominations for all four Awards and the 60for60 honours list can be completed through the AWTE website. The deadline for nominations is July 18.