KL Mayor’s Tourism Awards In Its Third Edition

The Mayor of Kuala Lumpur, YBhg. Datuk Seri Mhd Amin Nordin Bin Abd Aziz,  officially launched the third edition of the Kuala Lumpur Mayor’s Tourism Awards programme.  

The inaugural programme was held in 2011 with the second edition held in 2014. Organized by Kuala Lumpur City Hall through the Kuala Lumpur Tourism Bureau, this tri-annual programme will culminate in a glitzy gala awards ceremony event on the 24th of May 2017.  

The official programme website (www.klmayortourismawards.com) also went live today. The website offers information on the awards participation criteria, the judging and nominations processes, the distinguished panels of judges, as well as the past winners. Nomination forms can be downloaded at the site as of today. 

In his address, the Mayor mentioned that he was happy with the growth of the awards programme and the positive response it had received from the industry players in the past. Citing an increase of 77% in nominations from the inaugural programme in 2011 to the second edition in 2014, he said he was confident that the industry players would once again support the programme fully, and that the timing of this year’s programme was ripe given the current global tourism climate. 

The Chairman of the Awards Committee for this year’s edition is YBhg. Tan Sri Dr Ong Hong Peng, Chairman of ASWARA and former Secretary General to the Ministry of Tourism & Culture Malaysia.  

Tan Sri Dr. Ong Hong Peng expressed his confidence in this year’s judging panel heads as being industry leaders and experienced veterans in tourism. “The integrity of this or any awards programme is heavily dependant upon the quality of judges. I am very confident with the members of the awards committee for this year’s programme. They have the required experience and industry knowledge to know how to effectively identify the best nominee for the awards,” he said.  

There are a total of 14 categories and sub-categories of awards to be presented in this third edition of the awards programme. Only two awards will be presented in each category and sub-category, except for the Mayor’s Commendable Awards for Front liners where up to three recipients will be identified. There will be only one recipient for the Mayor’s Commendable Award for Outstanding Contribution.  

In an effort to fine tune and update the award categories, new measures have been taken. A new category, Education Tourism, has been added to the 2017 list. In addition, the Dining category has been expanded to include food courts and food centres.  For 2017, the award categories have also been streamlined to represent the main nucleus of the city’s tourism industry. 

The Mayor explained the inclusion of the Education Tourism category is because Kuala Lumpur is fast becoming an international education hub with the increase in foreign students coming to the city for their tertiary education. And because Kuala Lumpur is also positioned as a gastronomic destination, the additional sub-category for food courts was an inclusive approach to the many dining options in the city.

After a stringent judging process, the panel of expert judges will determine the most deserving nominee who has achieved the highest level of excellence to receive the Platinum Award in each category. The nominee whom the panel of judges deems to  have achieved the second highest level of excellence will receive the Gold Award.

Nominations are open to all Kuala Lumpur tourism industry players who fall within the awards categories. There are three methods of nomination that are accepted, although not all methods are applicable for all categories. The methods of nomination are self-nomination, by invitation and third-party nomination. Nomination forms can be downloaded from the official website from 7th March 2017.  

Completed nominations forms and supporting documentation (where applicable), must reach the Kuala Lumpur Mayor's Tourism Awards secretariat by the 31st of March 2017. 

Only shortlisted nominations in each category will progress to the judging stage. The judging sessions will be conducted from 7th April 2017 until the 5th of May 2017. During this period, the on-line public voting will also be available for selected categories. The judging sessions will make up 95% of the total marks awards to each nominee while the remaining 5% will be determined through public votes. Not all categories will include public voting to determine the award recipients. 

Nomination forms can be downloaded at the official programme website (www.klmayortourismawards.com) where there is comprehensive information on this and past years awards.  

The closing date for all forms is 31st March 2017.