IGTOA Award Categories
The National Gala Irish Golf Awards
– Celebrating Excellence in Golf Tourism
Each year The IGTOA serves to celebrate and reward excellence in golf tourism through The Gala Irish Golf Awards. The current awards are as follows:
- IGTOA Links Golf Course of the Year
- IGTOA Parkland Course of the Year
- IGTOA Large Golf Hotel of the Year
- IGTOA Boutique Golf Property of the Year
- IGTOA Golf Manager of the Year
The above awards are selected by the IGTOA Tour Operator members.Industry partners can submit their own nominatiosn for both The customer Experience and Sustainability awards.
- There are two Customer Experience Awards presented and awarded based on individual nomination by providers. The IGTOA awards selection committee will adjudicate and determine the recipients based on the nomination received.
- The Sustainability awards, introduced in 2024, highlight and promote winners who have demonstrated how they are leading the way in sustainable initiatives, renewable energy projects, waste reduction programmes, conservation efforts and overall community engagement to create a more sustainable environment and reduce carbon footprint.
These awards recognise the ‘across the board’ excellence provided to visiting golfers. These award categories are open to all IGTOA Industry Partners to enter.
Does your golf hotel have the facilities and exceptional customer experience to win one of the customer experience awards? Does your golf course welcome new visitors to Ireland with a hundred thousand welcomes? Are you the best of the best in the golf tourism industry? If so, we invite you to apply and submit your nomination.
The awards will be evaluated and decided on by a subcommittee of IGTOA Golf Tourism Professionals.
The winners of all awards are advised in advance of the annual Gala Irish Golf Awards which take place in late October.
How to enter for the Service Excellence and Sustainability awards
All entrants must submit a document of no more than 3 A4 pages that show why they deserve to win, along with a cover page to the following email:
Email: awards@igtoa.com or barry@igtoa.com
Subject Line: IGTOA Awards Entry (Insert organisation name here)
Submitting your Entry
Before making your submission, please ensure the following:
- Please ensure your submission fits onto 3 pages of A4 portrait format, including any supporting materials such as pictures, graphs, tables etc.
- Your submission is portrait in format, and saved as a PDF file.
- Each page of your entry is numbered clearly.
- You have included an additional cover page. Cover page must clearly outline the following:
- Award Category: (Service Excellence)
- Organisation name:
- Organisation address:
- Organisation telephone:
- Organisation website:
- Organisation email:
- Applicant/Contact name:
- Applicant/Contact job title:
- Applicant/Contact telephone:
- Applicant/Contact email:
- The name and position of the person that will accept the trophy on your organisation’s behalf should you be successful.
- A high-quality jpeg version of your company logo (at least 300dpi) to upload for use in the Awards AV presentation and event programme.
- High-quality jpeg photographs relevant to your entry (at least 300 dpi) to upload which will represent your entry in the Awards AV presentation.
In order to assist you with your preparation please read carefully the criteria below that we will use to assess and score each entry.
The IGTOA selection committee will be judging and awarding scores on your entries for the service excellence award using the following criteria;
- Overall composition, structure and design of your submission
- Quality of supporting evidence, customer feedback, performance and results, data to support your submission
- Innovation, originality, creativeness and novelty factor of your submission
- Alignment to your company’s customer service values and commitment to golf tourism and IGTOA tour operator requirements
- Team spirit and creation of supportive environment for colleagues
To assist you with your submission for the sustainability awards please read carefully the criteria below that we will use to judge and score entries for this award.
- Overall composition, structure and design of your submission
- Quality of supporting evidence, performance and results achieved, data to support your submission that clearly indicates the difference your sustainability project/s have delivered
- Innovation, originality, creativeness and new ideas that positively impact sustainability efforts including creative solutions for specific environmental challenges
- Resource conservation (water, energy, materials) as part of the daily operation in your organisation
- Employee involvement and practices that reward individuals or teams who are implementing practices that clearly align to the organisation’s values and commitment to sustainability
- Community engagement, evidence that demonstrates your efforts to support sustainability go beyond your own organisation and extend to the local community
- Sustainable supply chain management showing evidence of sourcing and procurement from likeminded environmentally conscious suppliers