About the Award

Submissions are now open for the 2026 APAC Travel Buyer of the Year Award, recognising a travel buyer who has excelled in their work, significantly advanced corporate travel practices through innovation, and demonstrated a commitment to pushing boundaries.

Building on the 30-year success of the Business Travel Awards Europe and Business Travel News’ coveted Travel Manager of the Year and Best Practitioner Awards, this honour is the first of its kind for the APAC travel buyer community. It will be presented to a travel buyer or manager who is based in the APAC region and/or oversees a global travel/meetings programme with APAC responsibility. The award will be presented at the conclusion of the Business Travel Show APAC on 15 April 2026.

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Awards timeline

  • Submissions Open: 17 November 2025
  • Stage One Entries Close: 6 February 2026
  • Finalists Announced: Week of 2 March 2026
  • Winner Announced: 15 April 2026 at the conclusion of the Business Travel Show APAC

Stage one

Stage One: Submit your online entry by answering a series of questions about your achievements over the past 12 months.

  • Please note that strict word limits apply. We encourage entrants to take full advantage of the space available to provide meaningful detail. While it is not necessary to use the maximum word count for every question, we strongly advise avoiding overly brief responses that lack sufficient context.
  • Only one submission per travel manager will be accepted. If multiple individuals wish to support an entry, they may provide a letter of support as an optional supplementary document.

Stage two

Finalists and their key supplier partners will be interviewed by the BTN editorial team. Finalists will also participate in a panel session on day two of the Business Travel Show APAC.

The APAC Travel Buyer of the Year Award is judged by an independent panel of senior corporate travel buyers and independent travel management consultants. The BTN Group ensures the panel is diverse and representative of the industry, with participants from across the APAC region and from a range of industries with varying programme sizes.

Judges review and score entries individually during Stage One, using BTN’s criteria and scoring rubric. To ensure fairness, judges are recused in cases of conflicts of interest. Finalists are determined by the highest scores, after which the BTN editorial team conducts interviews with the buyer finalists and their key suppliers to determine the winner.

Our judges

*Additional judges to be announced

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Speaker profile image for Amy Zuo

Amy Zuo

Capability Community Lead- Travel & Expense Management APAC, Bayer
Speaker profile image for Rob Davidson

Rob Davidson

Global Category Lead- WRB & CABM, Standard Chartered Bank
Speaker profile image for Mike Orchard

Mike Orchard

Head of People & Performance, Festive Road
Speaker profile image for David Golding

David Golding

Travel Services Manager, UNSW

FAQs

Once applications are open for 2026, we will post a link to the form.

Once applications are open for 2026, there will be a guide of submission questions you can view.

No, it is free to enter the APAC Travel Buyer of the Year award.

Initial entries are reviewed and scored by an independent panel of judges made up of experienced travel buyers and independent travel consultants. We hold our judges to the highest standards of fairness and integrity. The awards finalists are scored only by the judging panel whose scores and decisions are in no way be influenced by the event organisers, or any other outside influences. The top scoring entries will be identified as awards finalists and from there, the BTN editorial team will conduct extensive interviews with all finalists and their key suppliers that have supported their efforts to determine the winner.

Self-nominations, as well as nominations from industry peers, consultants or supplier partners are encouraged!

Contact BTN Senior Director of Content Solutions and Conferences, Jen Bankard at  jbankard@thebtngroup.com if you have any questions.