
The trade’s leading luxury magazine, Aspire, will once again celebrate the achievements of the high-end travel sector with an exciting awards ceremony honouring the dedication and determination shown by outstanding individuals and companies.
Celebrating the very best brands, the most passionate trade teams and most innovative agents in the industry, the Aspire Awards is an unmissable evening that will give the shining lights of the industry a chance to celebrate their achievements.
This year, the event will be held on December 14 at Kimpton Clocktower Hotel in Manchester. It will be the fourth year Aspire has held its annual awards ceremony in Manchester after relocating the event in 2023 to reflect the wealth of luxury travel brands and agencies based in the north of the country.
This year’s entry process will once again combine both a written submission and a short, recorded piece to camera, both of which will be shown to judges. The two-minute video should simply sum up why each entrant believes they should win the respective category they’re entering.
As is the case every year, there will be multiple judging panels, some of which will take place virtually and some in person, to ensure there is no bias in the process. Judges will submit their chosen winners individually, and the Aspire team will combine the results to establish the winners. As always, judges of each category will not know who has won until the winners are announced on the night.
Virgin Atlantic is headline sponsor of the Aspire Awards for the first time, with other sponsors including Above by CV Villas; AMOH, a Luxury Collection Resort, Rhodes; Domes Resorts; easyJet holidays; Explora Journeys; Grecotel Hotels & Resorts; Kerzner International; Oceania Cruises; Pure Luxury; Regent Seven Seas Cruises; and Silversea.
We’re delighted to return to Manchester for a fourth year to host our prestigious Aspire Awards – our favourite night of the year. Every year, the awards gets bigger and better and we’re already busy working on ways to make the 2026 edition one to remember with some exciting plans in the pipeline.
I’m thrilled we’re rolling out a series of Unsung Hero awards. In prior years this award has always created a wonderful moment – with the shortlisted supplier representatives unaware of their nomination. We’ve also announced new categories to honour individual agents, meaning we can celebrate those with outstanding work ethic in the luxury space. We believe these new categories will create some very special moments on the night.
As always, it’s an honour for us to showcase the talents of the luxury travel.