All it takes to demonstrate the fallacy of these travel awards is the patience to check off the advertising customers over a two-year period. It s the shame of the travel industry. Travel publication that cannot muster more than a few hundred replies from readers are attempting to act as quality quartermasters. Traditionally, the travel industry does not respond well to coupons and questionnaires. E-mail is changing the profile slightly but the bottom line is even if you give away airline tickets it s an uphill battle to get the average travel agent to respond.
Publications have to come clean on the statistics.
Then the judges are often award recipients in their own right or close friends of the publication anyway so they are not considered independent. Finally when it s all done the magazine puts its corporate hand out to ask for a thank-you advertisement. It s plainly a circus. Somewhere up the ladder are the consumer publications. They fair a little better on the scrutiny scale because their high circulation targeting consumers who traditionally respond to questionnaires produces an acceptable base for selecting award winners.