Earlier this week voting for the European heat of the Routes Marketing Awards opened and airlines from within the European region are being asked to consider the efficient use of marketing activities by an airport over the last 12 months when deciding who to nominate.

Winners of the awards, which recognise the marketing performance of airports within Europe, will be announced during the Routes Europe Networking Evening which will be held on Monday 7^th April at the event in Marseille.

The annual Routes Marketing Awards are highly regarded as the most prestigious awards in the industry as they are voted for and judged by the airline network planning community. They provide the airline community with the chance to have their say as to which airport or tourism authority they think provides the best overall marketing services to them whether this relates to their particular relationship, effective results, provision of data and information or innovative techniques to establish new or maintain and develop existing routes.

These much sought after awards are a great way for the winning airports to have a credible recognition which they can proudly talk about to their customers and other stakeholders. Munich Airport was announced as the winner of last year’s European heat and speaking at the time Munich’s Director, Traffic Development, Alexander Schroll said: “We are really looking forward now to the World Routes Awards and we are very optimistic. We are very happy to receive this award and very excited because the competition in Europe is becoming very fierce between the airports so it’s great to be number one again after a couple of years!”

This year the awards will be split into four categories as follows:

• Over 20 Million Passengers
• 4 – 20 Million Passengers
• Under 4 Million Passengers
• Best Destination Marketing Campaign

The overall winner of the Routes Europe Marketing Awards 2014 will be automatically shortlisted, along with the winners of the other regional heats taking place through the year at all other Routes events, for the World Routes Marketing Awards which will be announced in Chicago this September.

Simply click here and log in to your Routesonline profile to nominate (in priority order) up to five airports or tourism authorities in your network within Europe, irrespective of their size. Voting will remain open until Thursday 20^th March 2014 and shortlisted airports and tourism authorities will be announced shortly after this deadline.