Spirit of Hospitality Awards
Nominations are OPEN for the 2025 Iron Range Spirit of Hospitality Awards. Anyone can nominate, so get busy! Deadline to nominate is August 15, 2025.
Nominate your favorite hospitality worker for a 2025 Spirit of Hospitality Award!
The Spirit of Hospitality Awards were created by the Iron Range Tourism Bureau (IRTB) in 2012 to honor employees in the tourism/hospitality industry who enhance visitors’ experiences in the 12 communities that make up the IRTB service area. Individuals may be nominated in one or more of the categories listed below. Only COMPLETE nomination forms will be considered. It is only necessary to nominate an individual once.
All nominees must represent a lodging property, campground, restaurant, bar, attraction or retailer in the IRTB service area, which includes the communities of Hibbing, Chisholm, Buhl, Mountain Iron, Virginia, Eveleth, Gilbert, Biwabik, Aurora, Hoyt Lakes, the Town of White and Embarrass. Employees of Fortune Bay are also eligible to be nominated.
Nominations for 2025 will be accepted through August 15, 2025. Nominations will be reviewed in confidence. To be eligible for an award, nominees must be interviewed by SOHA committee members, and photographed. Each nominee who wishes to participate will meet with two SOHA committee members and answer a set of questions. These questions are the same for each nominee (they’re easy, don’t worry! We just want to get to know our nominees.) Nominees are scored on their answers and the person who has the highest score in their category is the winner, but please know that ALL nominees are winners!
An awards gala event will be held in the fall of 2025.
Award Categories:
(our award categories may vary depending on the type and number of jobs represented by nominees)
- Bartender
- Behind the Scenes – includes candidates from lodging properties and campgrounds, restaurants/bars and retailers, including maintenance, dishwashers, hotel housekeepers, room attendants, hotel laundry, bussers, stockroom, etc.
- Food Production — includes executive chefs, line cooks, pastry cooks, salad prep
- Guest Relations — front desk staff, customer-facing staff at Chambers of Commerce, recreation facilities or attractions, greeters, restaurant hosts/hostesses, tour guides, etc.
- Retail Sales – in retailers only where face-to-face service occurs; cashiers, team leads, floor associates
- Server – restaurant, banquet/catering or bar
- Leader — To be awarded annually to any person in the tourism-related industry who exhibits leadership impacting their team, business and community. Managers, supervisors and owners of hospitality related businesses as described above.
This event is to recognize those individuals specifically working in the hospitality industry. While we recognize that awesome customer service exists in many professions, our goal is to lift up and honor those who assist and serve the traveling public. Please limit nominations to the categories listed above.
If you have questions about the nomination process, please contact (218) 749-8161.