About the British Travel Awards
The British Travel Awards (BTA) is - by far - the largest poll of consumer opinion on who they consider to be the best holiday companies and leisure travel services providers.
Since 2008 the BTA has been polling the public on who they consider to be the best companies operating in the leisure travel market. The results are determined solely by the number of verified votes cast and the year’s winners announced at our annual Gala Awards Night held every November.
The BTA is an independent organisation and has no stakeholder ties to any travel or travel publishing companies. The awards programme is financed by:
- Sponsorship funding from enterprises in return for their brand presence across our communications channels, at the awards night and the opportunity to present selected awards on-stage and introduce their company.
- Nomination fees from companies wishing to be listed on the BTA voting form which includes licence to use the direct voting app and other approved lobbying assets.
- Receipts from ticket sales for the Gala Awards Night.
Our bespoke voting program, operations and methods were inspected inspected, over a period of years, by one of the Big Four accounting firms - passing their tests for accuracy, integrity, and security. This is the program we continue to use; our due diligence and the level of consumer engagement has established the BTA as the “Oscars of the Travel Industry”.
A BTA accreditation is prized by the travel industry and recognised by holidays buyers as an endorsement of consumer confidence. Winning companies can display the official BTA logo across their
marketing collateral as an aid to business development.
Accredited company’s details are also published on the main BTA website - with links to their website - until the results of the following year’s awards are announced.
Award Categories
The annual awards programme features between 70 and 80 categories to discover who the public consider to be the best companies/brands for:
- Holidays to destinations
- Holidays by type
- Cruise lines
- Ferry operators
- Hotel accommodation
- Travel agencies
- Travel planning, booking and marketing
- Airlines
- UK airports and airport services
- Holiday Add-ons
- UK/Domestic Holidays
Size Graded Categories
To recognise the achievements of SMEs in the holiday categories, the awards are graded by size based upon the number of passengers carried - small, medium, and large. Subject to the number of votes
cast reaching the size threshold, up to nine accreditations are awarded in each of these categories.
Open Categories
The open category results - winner, silver, and bronze - are based solely on the number of votes cast for each competing company. Past results show that in many cases it is not the companies with the
largest customer base that win but those who most effectively lobby their customers.
Whether entering size graded or open categories the most successful companies are those who nominate, include the link to their direct voting app and display their nominee logo across their
consumer communications.
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