The names of those shortlisted for the 2015 ANZ Fiji Excellence in Tourism Awards have been further broken down to only 30 finalists in the Business and Industry categories.

This means each of the 10 categories now has three finalists each.

Fiji Excellence in Tourism Awards–Organising Committee Chair and Board of Trustees Member, Olivia Mavoa has announced this.

The gala dinner awards night will be held at the Denarau Convention Centre on Denarau Island this Friday.

All shortlisted business and industry candidates received a site visit from judges, usually anonymously and were scored against the criteria.

Meanwhile, the organising committee said preparations for the event on Friday were well advanced.

“The theme set up and decoration will be done by Party and Events Hire with Staging Connections providing all of the AV,” the committee said.

There will be technical support from Skyward Industries who are providing film content for the event and the official event photographers.

Tickets for the event have been sold out with 550 guests expected to attend.

The chief guest is Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama with our Rugby Sevens coach Ben Ryan as a guest speaker.

The other three categories

Meanwhile, this year will see three newly-introduced individual categories which are Fiji Pride Champion, Emerging Tourism Leader and Tourism Leader awards.

The names were submitted to a separate panel of industry leaders and experts headed by an independent chairperson with broader business focus for judging.

However, the names for these finalists have not been revealed but winners will be announced during the day of the awards.

The Fiji Pride Champion recognises tourism professionals who have been employed in the tourism industry for more than five years and demonstrate a passion and commitment for personal and product excellence.

The Emerging Tourism Leader category recognises tourism professionals under the age of 35, employed in the tourism industry.

The Tourism Leader category recognises an individual’s outstanding contribution to Fiji tourism over many years.

Feedback:  rachnal@fijisun.com.fj