There are nine judges. One chosen by each association for each category. Judges are independent and not members of any GTMA association.
2020 Global Travel Writer Award Judges…
Mark works full-time as a copywriter, speechwriter, ghost-writer and author. He came to prominence in 2003 with his hilarious ‘Best Dad I Can Be’ column in the local newspaper and then, when it became a blog, the world started taking notice. That column – originally intended to run for 6 weeks – is still going strong 17 years later. In 2016 Mark suffered the latest in a long line of mid-life crises and invited his youngest son to go for a walk – 5 days and 90 miles. The result was a series of books with the latest – ‘Father, Son and the Kerry Way’ – just released. When Mark’s not writing – or falling into Irish bogs – he helps other writers find their way, speaking at travel blogger conferences and giving writing masterclasses.
Domini Clark
Domini Clark is the Travel Editor of The Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper, a role she has held for more than seven years. She is responsible for assigning feature stories for a weekend audience of nearly two million readers across the country, and often brings her own voice to the pages. She regularly represents The Globe at international networking conferences such as IMM, IPW and Virtuoso Travel Week, is often a guest panelist at industry events, and has appeared on numerous TV and radio programs. A fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, she travels frequently for pleasure and for work, and has visited 40 countries.
Tony Wheeler
A trek along Asia’s ‘hippie trail’ in 1972 led to the creation of Lonely Planet and the New York Times to describe Tony as ‘the trailblazing patron saint of the world’s backpackers and adventure travelers.’ Since selling Lonely Planet Tony has been involved with Melbourne’s Wheeler Centre for Books, Writing & Ideas and the Planet Wheeler Foundation’s developing world projects. His work with the archaeological organization Global Heritage Fund gives him another excuse to travel a lot. Recent publications include On Travel from Melbourne University Press and Islands of Australia from the National Library of Australia. In the last couple of years Tony has been to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Eritrea, Kosovo, Moldova, Belarus, Cyprus, Azerbaijan, Maldives and even Transnistria.
2020 Global Travel Photographer Award Judges…
Conor MacNeill
Conor is a fine-art travel and destination photographer who specialises in landscape, cityscape and astrophotography. As well as aiming to visit and photograph every country in his lifetime, Conor leads photography expeditions and teaches workshops around the globe. Coupling his emotive and inspiring travel photography with his large Instagram following, he also works to promote brands and projects with his engaged social media audience.
Danita Delimont
Danita founded her photo agency representing 300 worldwide travel and nature photographers in 1999. Her degree in Cultural Anthropology led her to a job with Society Expeditions where she researched and wrote their brochures and worked on the World Discover adventure ship on the Amazon, Micronesia and Melanesian cruises. She has over 30 years licensing images to clients, including cruise ship and travel brochures, publishing, retail, calendars and hospitality. She served as the President for The American Society of Picture Professionals and was awarded the prestigious Jane Kinne Picture Professional of the Year Award in 2009. While serving on the North American Nature Photography Association board, she was named a NANPA Fellow in 2007. She also judges photo competitions and lectures at various college photo programs.
David Kirkland
David is one of the most widely published tourism photographers in the world.
For more than 20 years, he has specialised in capturing promotional photographs for national tourism authorities, resorts and cruise companies throughout the South Pacific, South-east Asia, the African continent and the Middle East. Sixteen books have been published of his work. He owns the largest on-line photo library dedicated to travel and tourism in the South Pacific region.
His company has also produced a stable of high quality souvenir publications and photographic merchandise on the countries he has photographed. His work appears frequently in travel magazines and newspapers worldwide.
David is based in Queensland, Australia. He travels on commissioned assignments for up to eight months of a year. His work can been seen in his commercial photo library (www.davidkirklandphotography.com, and previews of his most recent assignments appear on his blog (www.kirklandphotosblog.com) or in his Instagram feed at (instagram.com/davidkirklandphotography).
2020 Global Travel Communicator Award Judges…
Alison Cryer
In the last thirty years, Alison has completed consumer and trade marketing, PR and/or social media campaigns or projects for 75+ destinations, 25+ hoteliers/hotel groups and 60+ DMCs/tour operators across all continents of the world. In addition to her company, Representation Plus, she acquired CIB in 2003 and First Public Relations in 2012. She has proudly trained and/or mentored many of the PR stars of today’s industry, and is a Fellow and former Board Director of the Institute of Travel and Tourism, one of the first Chartered Marketers of the Chartered Institute of Marketing, and a Freeman of the Guild of PR Practitioners.
Robyn Sefiani
As founding principal of Sefiani Communications Group, one of Australia’s leading strategic communication firms, Robyn oversees the group’s two agencies: corporate and financial firm Sefiani and consumer and digital agency Kite Communications. Prior to establishing Sefiani in 1999 Robyn spent 12 years with Edelman, the world’s largest PR firm, where she held senior executive roles including Co-President Asia Pacific. She was also a member of Edelman’s international Board. Over her three-decade career Robyn and her team have worked closely with leaders in the travel and tourism sector including Qantas, Tourism Australia, Tourism NT, Expedia, Hotels.com, Qatar Airways and Hamilton Island. Robyn is a sought-after speaker on the topics of crisis and reputation management and regularly participates in crisis hypotheticals and crisis drills for organisations. Teams under Robyn’s leadership have received numerous awards for outstanding work in Australia and Asia-Pacific. Robyn is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and a Fellow of the PRIA.
Christine Barney
Christine M. Barney is CEO of rbb Communications, a four-time national Agency of the Year award winner. rbb is a leading integrated communications agency that offers media relations, digital marketing, influencer engagement, corporate communications, reputation and social media management and creative services/advertising.
She is the author of “The Breakout Brand ™ Strategy: An Evolutionary Approach to Creating Customer Passion” and her firm, with offices in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Los Angeles and New York is known as the Champion of Breakout Brands ™.
Barney’s innovative management style and “employee-driven workplace” philosophy makes the firm a repeated winner in “best place to work” rankings nationwide. She is the 2016 Bill Adams Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Lifetime Achievement Award recipient.