Win With Navman Peoples Choice Awards

Five, six, seven, eight ... which town do you appreciate?

Tidy Towns asks all Australians to vote in first-ever People’s Choice Awards.

Tidy Towns, the much-loved iconic competition that has been putting Australian towns on the map for more than 40 years, today announced it is, for the first time, asking people to vote for their favourite town in a partnership with Australia’s favourite GPS brand, Navman.

Run by Keep Australia Beautiful, Tidy Towns’ judges travel the length and breadth of the country judging towns not only on tidiness but on a rigorous set of social and environmental attributes. However, unlike the official competition, “Navman People’s Choice” award is purely about popularity and designed to allow everyone around the country to have a say in Tidy Towns by making sure their town is nominated or voting for their favourite town in Australia.

Scott Lyall, executive officer, Keep Australia Beautiful said, “Tidy Towns goes from strength to strength each year with more than 1,000 communities and over 90,000 volunteers involved and Navman People’s Choice will complement this existing competition by getting everyone from all over Australia to have a say and add their town to the map.”

Wendy Hammond, marketing director, Navman Technology said, “As a sponsor of Keep Australia Beautiful, we wanted to do something to encourage people to get out and discover new places and see more of Australia.

“Our aim is to have as many towns involved as possible, so we’re also encouraging the many towns that have entered Tidy Towns over the past 40 years, as well as any new towns, to make sure they are nominated as we will be awarding the winning town a $10,000 grant towards a community project.

“Let us know what makes your town special! Everyone who votes or nominates a town goes in the running to win one of 10 top of the range Navman GPS to put them in the right direction when they hit the roads,” she added.

It’s a move Vivienne Palmer, Network Manager, Australian Regional Tourism Network, encourages.

“Australia is packed full of amazing regional towns that offer incredible experiences for visitors. This is a great way to get recognition and encourage people to check out their country and, importantly, spend some tourism dollars that are vital to the sustainability and vibrancy of our towns,” she said.

Motoring icon Dick Johnson was at the launch of the awards to show his support for this great initiative. In his speech he spoke of the early days driving through towns to get to racing events and highlighted the amazing community spirit in towns across Australia.

The nomination and voting process is very simple. Simply click here and nominate or vote for their town (if it has already been nominated) and give a reason why their town should win. They can upload photographs of the town onto the website too.

The website also contains a clear definition of what constitutes a “town” as cities or suburbs will not be eligible to enter. The competition will run until 31 May 2010 with the winners announced in June.