TOFTigers Wildlife Tourism Awards 2016 Voting

By voting you agree to be bound by the following terms and conditions:

1. Voting is available online at www.toftigers.org/awardsvoting/
2. Categories involving public voting will take into account the number, quality rating and comments as part of the judges’ overall assessment.
3. Voting times may be subject to change.
4. TOFTigers reserves the right to cancel or suspend voting at any time.
5. The eligibility of any vote is at the sole discretion of TOFTigers.
6. TOFTigers reserves the right to disqualify votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent voting has occurred or if it considers there has been any attempt to rig the voting.
7. TOFTigers, its subcontractors and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with the internet connectivity or line, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any vote being lost or not properly registered or recorded.
8. TOFTigers reserves the right to make the final determination as to which of the nominees will be declared the winner of the award.
9. TOFTigers’ decision in relation to all matters affecting the voting is final.
10. Any personal data collected will be used solely in connection with current UK data protection. Please see TOFTigers’ Privacy Policy for further details.
11. TOFTigers reserves the right to amend these Terms and Conditions with out prior notice. Any changes will be posted on this website and such posting shall be adequate notice to all participants. Please check these Terms and Conditions each time you wish to vote.
12. These Terms and Conditions shall be governed by English Law.

•   Applicants agree that if they are short-listed this decision will be made public, together with outline details of their project. In addition, in some categories, a short film report may be made of the nominees and their project. The applicants agree to cooperate in such filming and to be filmed and that such film may be used to promote the Awards as the Organisers may decide. Such uses may include web, broadcast television, dvd, or other medium and may also be shown at the Awards. All Material is the sole property of TOFT.

•   At the Sole discretion of TOFT, TOFT can use all materials provided for Award’s promotions and publicity. TOFT does not however guarantee promotion of any winner or finalist.

10. Applicants consent to their images, trade marks, logos etc being made public in promotional material related to the Awards and this may include press, web, radio or broadcast.
11. Awards may be withdrawn in the event that information subsequently becomes available to show that information provided at the time of judging was incorrect or unavailable and that such information had it been available would have made the award inappropriate.
12. Winners of cash prizes agree to be bound by the conditions stipulated in the individual Awards in regards to acceptable uses for such cash prizes.
13. Where appropriate the Organisers may arrange for the money due in cash prizes to be paid only when appropriate invoices, and or, receipts are available, and or, that the organisers are satisfied that the goods, services etc to be provided to the person community, organisation, or group have in fact been supplied.
14. In the case of cash prizes the Organisers decision that the conditions described in Clause 12 have been fulfilled will be at the Organisers’ absolute discretion and no correspondence on its decisions in regard to these clauses will be entered into.
15. No responsibility is accepted by the organisers for any application submitted by email but not received by the organisers. Applicants concerned about whether an application has been received have to make their own enquiries to ensure their applications have been received.
16. The Organisers can terminate one or more of the Awards if they see fit or shorten or curtail the award ceremony should circumstances prevail that do not allow it to continue.

Eligibility rules of each award category

A) Most Inspirational Eco Lodge of the Year 2014 - The Lodge must be in an area associated with tiger watching and must predominantly cater for tourists who intend to watch wildlife within an Indian subcontinent park. The lodge need not be a member of TOFTigers or accredited to the PUG Eco-Certification scheme but must meet the minimum PUG standards of a PUG Eco-audit.

B) Wildlife Guide of the Year 2014 - Open to a Park Guide who must be working in, or for , a park that is recognised as a tiger habitat and must have worked there for at least 2 years prior to the closing date for entries.

C) Lodge Naturalist of the Year 2014 - Open to a Lodge Naturalist who must be working in, or for , a lodge that is recognised as a tiger habitat and must have worked there for at least 2 years prior to the closing date for entries.

D) Visitor Friendly Wildlife Destination of the Year 2014 - This category is open to any park that has tigers within its boundaries and where sightings have been documented in the 6 months prior to the closing date for nominations. The park does not have to be currently covered by TOFTigers, but must be able to highlight its efforts to work with and use tourism more effectively for conservation and support.

E) Wildlife Promotion Company of the Year 2014 - This award is only open to Destination Management Companies with a registered office in India and the company must have been a full TOFTigers member for at least 3 months prior to the closing date for entries.

F) Wildlife Tourism Related Community Initiative of the Year 2014 - Nominations are open to any community related tourist initiative connected with tourism in parks where there are tigers. The definition of what constitutes a Community Initiative will be decided at the absolute discretion of the judges but for general guidance it would be expected that ownership of the initiative would reside within the local community (5kms. radius of the project) and not involve commercial operations such as a tiger lodge(s) having a commercial interest of greater than 49%. Nominations must be supported by at least one lodge catering for tiger watching tourists and the lodge does not need to be part of TOFTigers.

G) Wildlife and Tourism Initiative of the Year 2014 - This is a very wide category intended to encourage innovative thinking around wildlife tourism in the Indian subcontinent. The projects need not be related to tigers but should be capable of application in tiger areas.

H) International Wildlife Tour Operator of the Year 2014 - This award is only open to International Tour Operators with a registered office in their respective country and they must have been a full TOFTigers member for at least 3 months prior to the closing date for entries.
The nominated company itself must also have paid any outstanding subscriptions due to TOFTigers in full and prior to the closing date for final Information.