The Visitor Centre Association of Western Australia (VCAWA) is pleased to announce that nominations are now open for the 2012 West Australian Newspapers Golden i Award – Visitor Centre Manager of the Year.

This annual award recognizes a nominee’s outstanding contribution to the many aspects of visitor servicing and how that contribution has been of benefit to the development of tourism in their area.

The recipient will be presented with a cash prize of $1,000 kindly sponsored by West Australian Newspapers, a framed certificate and a Golden i Award trophy for their keeping, as well as receiving a free full registration to attend the 2013 Visitor Servicing State conference.

Mr Ian Jones from West Australian Regional Newspapers said “We are now in our 6th year of this fantastic award and we are so proud here at West Australian Newspapers to be recognising, supporting and acknowledging the hard work that Visitor Centre Managers do for our Tourism industry in WA”.

Previous winners have included –
- 2007 - Glenys Russell from the Kojonup Visitor Centre
- 2008 – Felicity Anderson from the Bunbury Visitor Centre
- 2009 – Scott Fleming from the Swan Valley Visitor Centre
- 2010 – Narelle Brook from the Kununurra Visitor Centre
- 2011 – Justine Nagorski from the Denmark Visitor Centre

Mr Scott Fleming from the 2012 Judging Panel said “As the winner of this award in 2009, I understand how valuable the Golden i Award is for recognising not only the individuals but the whole of the Visitor Servicing sector in our State.

Visitor Centre Managers work tirelessly to ensure that the visitor experience is of a high quality, so it’s wonderful that we can take time to reward and recognise their individual efforts”. On behalf of the judging panel, we are looking forward to finding that manager who constantly strives for excellence and adds value to Visitor Servicing”.

Nominations open on Wednesday 11th July and close on Wednesday 1st August.

A written submission is then required to be submitted and the closing date is Friday the 17th of August 2012. Once the written submissions have been received the judging panel will commence a desktop assessment and announce the finalists for the awards.

The finalists will then participate in a 30 minute telephone interview with the judging panel and the winning entrant of the 2012 West Australian Newspaper Golden i Award will be announced at the Gala Dinner, which is part of the Annual Visitor Servicing Conference being held in Mandurah on Thursday the 20th of September 2012.

The Visitor Centre Association of WA is a not-for-profit peak industry body, representing more than 102 Visitor Centres and sub-representation of approximately 4,500 tourism businesses throughout Western Australia.