SATA 2016: Judging ends, ready for gala event

After the judging phase ends, the most prestigious tourism award in the region, the South Asian Tourism Awards 2016 is ready for the award ceremony.

This year’s SATA would have awards for 39 categories through ten segments.

With a little over two weeks remain before the two-day retreat gala award ceremony on 15 and 16 November 2016, preparations began months ago.

Global brands for the award:

The South Asian Tourism Award is sought by the most popular hotel chains in the world as the most prestigious award in the region.

The support for SATA received when nominations opened five months ago serve as proof that the South Asian Tourism Awards remain the most dominant, honorary award of the region. A number of global brands are battling for the SATA award this year.

Hideaway, Jumairah, Park Hyatt, Coco Collection, Villa Group, Sun Siyam, Adhaarana along with Constance, Atiken Spence, Leela Group, KingBerry and Taj Samundra are competitors for this year’s SATA.

And with only 39 awards would be given this year through ten segments, only 273 nominees made through the vigorous screening this year.

Massive support for online voting:

Nominees for the South Asian Tourism Awards this year would be judged by a panel of experts which would account for 50 percent of the votes while the remaining 50 percent depends on online votes.

And so online voting was opened on 15 August to 5 October and received massive support.

Expert panel of judges:

The flourishing of an award show is determined by the quality of the said award show. To ensure that the said quality is maintained, fair judging by an expert panel is highly important.

In that regard, the South Asian Tourism Awards have a judge’s panel of notable experts in the field. The panel consists of experts from India, Sri Lanka and the Maldives that have served the tourism industry for a long time.

SATA nominees were judges by the expert panel from 18-27 October each nominee at their respective country.

Support of Regional Organizations for SATA:

This year’s South Asian Tourism Awards is special in numerous standings ranging from nominees, organizers all the way to partners.

The South Asian Tourism Awards being held this year in association with the Colombo Chamber of Commerce is being organized by the popular and experienced organizer from the Maldives, High Rise.

From tourism events to music show and launching brands, every event by High Rise is a distinguished event.

South Asian Tourism Awards has received endorsement from major regional organizations such as Confederation of Credit Tour Operators from Sri Lanka alongside the Colombo Chamber of Commerce, Maldivian Association of Travel Agents (ATA) and Liveaboard Association of Maldives (LAM) along with the Association of Tourism Trade Organization India (ATTOI), Kerela Hotel General Manager’s Club (KHGMC) and the third largest tourism organization in India, Association of Professional in Tourism (APT).

And recently, the Maldives Marketing and Public Relations Corporation (MMPRC) too have endorsed the South Asian Tourism Awards.

Further perfection through partners:

Every event has a hardworking team behind the scenes. It is difficult to successfully complete an event without the help and support of the partners.

This year, SATA has signed numerous partners. Among them, one of the most notable partners is the popular Sri Lankan luxury hotel Mount Lavinia which has a 200-year long history. Mount Lavinia has set special rates to stay at their hotel for people coming for South Asian Tourism Awards.

And the hospitality partner is the Champaa Central Hotel from the Maldives while the official Photography Partner is Digital Studio.

The South Asian Tourism Awards also received a strong team of media partners with Sri Lanka’s popular RED FM as the Radio Partner, Ceylon Today as the Print Media Partner and the Sri Lankan private TV channel ART as the TV partner.

The only Maldivian media partner is the event’s Online News Media Partner, Sun Online.

Asian Travellers, Asian Diver, Asian Geographic and Floating Asia along with Corporate Maldives has signed on as Tourism and Maldives.net.mv and Corporate Medias.