Russian Travel Awards (Rusta Travel Awards), supports, promotes, and develops the global travel and tourism industry. By defining excellence, it rewards and encourages practitioners to continuously raise the standards of their product and service offerings.

Each year, RTA conducts and manages a comprehensive awards program to recognize the most significant areas of the hotel industry. Awards are presented in three stages: country, regional, and world awards.

Nomination Methodology

Country Awards

Country awards reflect the range of product and service offerings in a country’s travel and tourism industry. The annual final candidate list for each country award is determined based on the following criteria:

• Last year's country award winner and two finalists
• Reviewed and approved applications
• Reviewed and approved RTA compliments

Regional Awards

For each regional award, the annual final candidate list is determined based on the following criteria:

• Last year's regional award winner and two finalists
• Reviewed and approved applications
• Reviewed and approved RTA compliments

World Awards

World awards represent the highest stage of the RTA program and include regional award winners. Nominees have a proven track record of being the best in the world. The annual final candidate list for each World award is determined based on the following criteria:

• Winners of the relevant regional awards
• Reviewed and approved RTA compliments

Voting Process

The voting process is conducted online and global participation is encouraged through a communication campaign throughout the year. Votes come from qualified managers working in the travel and tourism sector and consumer travel buyers.

A standard vote carries a point weight, but votes cast by verified travel professionals count as two points. Users wishing to apply for this upgrade must fill out the Travel Industry Voters section during registration and cast at least 10 votes. Votes are internally audited to ensure the validity of each individual vote.