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Dec 10, 2019

How this Judge Chose our GetYourGuide Awards Winners

GetYourGuide
Careers Team

Vincent Sim, senior destination manager for Indonesia and Singapore, was on the selection team for the GetYourGuide Awards 2019. We spoke to him to learn about the process and how these awards help our customers, suppliers, and local communities.

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Can you tell us a bit about yourself and your role as a destination manager?

I’m originally from Indonesia and relocated to Thailand three years ago when we opened our Bangkok office. I’m the senior destination manager for Indonesia and Singapore and I work closely with local suppliers, which includes onboarding tour guides and operators.

For those who don't know, can you briefly tell us what the GetYourGuide Awards are? What's the purpose of this initiative?

The GetYourGuide Awards recognize the world’s best travel experiences. This is the second year we’ve given these awards to our suppliers from around the world. The winners are individuals or companies that have truly lived up to our brand promise of helping people love where they're going. They equally delivered performance, inspiration, and a positive impact to the local community. We want to make sure these efforts did not go unrecognized.

Who were the judges and why were they chosen?

Tilly Hemperger, senior destination manager for Canada; Lizzie Butcher, senior destination manager for Dubai, and myself were on the selection team. We wanted a cross-departmental, cross-continental collaboration. We also had support from a few GetYourGuide team members from Supply, Marketing,  and PR team. We were chosen to give a fair assessment using multiple scoring criteria based on our expertise to identify the winners. These nominations were analyzed by a panel of judges against a rigorous set of standards including reviews, customer excellence, differentiation, and contribution to the local community.

How do local communities impact the awards?

We have many incredible products but we want to highlight the most incredible ones. In order to find this, not only do we look for products with great reviews and high ratings, but also those that bring positive impact and inspired the local community.

For example, I worked with this cooking class in Bali, From Ubud: Balinese Cooking Class at an Organic Farm. The host believes in supporting the sustainability of his local community and village. He employs 16 local villagers to work on the site with him. They also support the locavore concept, also known as the local food movement, where they try as much as possible to use produce from neighboring farms. All of these aspects make this cooking class very special for our customers and of course made the company a winner for two consecutive years.

How does being an award winner help the tour guide, activity, or community?

We just want our customers and the whole world to know about them, whether it’s an individual tour guide, the activity or the community through these awards. We have prepared several offline and online marketing assets for the winning suppliers and launched the winning badge on the winning products on our website. Our PR team is also working with media across the world to publish this good news.

What was the hardest part of the selection process?

We had to combine different metrics from supply, marketing, and PR aspect so that we have a fair assessment for all nominations. There were many great nominations this year but in the end, we had to select only the best of the best, which is the hardest part of the process.

Also, the judges are not only based in our headquarters in Berlin, but also one in NYC, one in Dubai, and myself in Bangkok. Despite the time differences and our daily job, to form this committee and produce the list of winners is something we are super proud of.

What role do our customers play in the awards?

Customer reviews are valuable and an important metric that we used to score and gather the winners for the awards. We never stop learning from our travelers. I always think of reviews as gifts from the customers to us. We love knowing what went well and what we can do to make their experience even better.

What makes a good tour? What makes a good tour guide?

It’s that moment when you feel fulfilled and inspired, whether it is the excitement, the local interaction, the knowledge you gained or the memory that lasts forever. This is for me what a good tour should give.

I believe the guide's passion is the essence of a good tour. It’s the ones who are always excited, engaged, and making sure customers will bring those great memories home. Thousands of travelers visit the Colosseum everyday but they might experience it differently. This is where an incredible tour guide will play their part and turn those mixed experiences into consistently incredible ones.

How can these awards help travelers?

By publishing these awards, we have carefully evaluated and shortlisted the best of the best experiences from across the world. We have also displayed the winning badges for the best products on our website. With this, we hope our customers are inspired to discover more experiences.

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