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News Printable version
07 March, 2008 Adjust font size: Increase Font Size Decrease Font Size
 
TravelMole 2008 Web Awards announced
Comments: 9


Nominations are being sought for the 2008 TravelMole Web Awards, recognising outstanding online presence in the travel industry.

Three new categories have been introduced this year " for accommodation-only, rail and use of video.

Travel companies are being asked to nominate in a total of 16 categories.

The deadline for nominations is Apil 30 and the awards ceremony will be held for the second year running at the Canadian High Commission in London on the afternoon of May 15.

The web award nominations will be whittled down to a shortlist by MBA students who specialise in technology and tourism/travel.

The shortlist is then given to an independent panel - to be announced shortly - who rank each category 1, 2 and 3 and then pass the results to a independent adjudicator.

The UK awards are part of a global family of TravelMole Web Awards, with dedicated events in Asia, Australia and the US.

CATEGORIES:

Best Accommodation-Only site - New for 2008

Best use of video site - New for 2008

Best Travel agent site

Best Tour Operator site

Best Airline site

Best Hotel/Resort site

Best Cruise Line site

Best Rail site " New for 2008

Best Ferry Operator site

Best Tourist Board site

Best Car Rental site

Best Recruitment site

Best Responsible Tourism site

Best Technology site

Best Holiday add-ons site

Best Deployment of Mobile Technology

*To nominate,go to:www.travelmole.com/webawards_2008.php
 
 
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Categories: Travel Technology, Cruise, Travel Agent, Hotel & Resort, Tour Operator, Airline, Business Travel, Luxury Travel, MICE

 
USER COMMENTS
 
Jason Grist
Head of ContractingHotelConnect Ltd

12 March 2008, 18:28:22 GMT

Tom - no apology required
My comment wasn't intended to be controversial either, and the ‘us’ was always clear. However for all concerned I think that a bit of clarity would be nice when people talk of 'industry' awards whether they are specific to the trade per se, or the industry as a whole. On your second point, I think the kind of web interaction in which you guys have seen success is here to stay and develop further, arguably it will be a matter of time before TripAdvisor-type sites are a staple of the service provided by agencies, whether on or offline. You only have to look at the States to see that the Agents who buy our product already rely on it.

 
Tom Griffiths
Foundergapyear.com

12 March 2008, 16:35:48 GMT

Reply to Jason - "Possibly"
Hi Jason,

I hadn't meant to be so contentious! Travolution has a 'Travel Information Award', so I was referencing that in truth - the 'Us' wasn't about a gapyear.com nomination, 'Us' was for our 'online travel portal / information' sector - "Worth considering us all?". Sorry not be be clear.

I feel the online portals / information sites are delivering value to the travel industry, are regularly cutting new turf and moving forward at quite a pace and so I feel it would be interesting to see how they are rated by the industry each year. The leaders in our (fairly broad) field such as Tripadvisor, Yahoo Travel, Expedia, Teletext, Lastminute.com, TravelSupermarket, Opodo etc. make for quite an interesting category.

As for gapyear.com, with around 1.8 million unique IP's p.a. we've been servicing trade clients in the youth sector around the world for many years but now that 'Gap Year' / independent travel is aging and becoming more mainstream (with TUI Travel now being active in this market) you may well see more of our market (and more portals) appearing.

Hence why I had hoped that I had made a useful / helpful request. Sorry again to be contentious - not planned!

 
Jason Grist
Head of ContractingHotelConnect Ltd

12 March 2008, 13:44:27 GMT

Have I got the wrong end of the stick here?
Tom - with respect, who on Travelmole (ie in the travel industry) is supposed to vote for you and why? Do you have many people in the trade using your site and as TM puts it, have "outstanding online presence in the travel industry"?

 
Gary Phillips
ara

12 March 2008, 12:17:24 GMT

Good to know...
Thanks for that Graham, I am sure that TM awards are of the highest ethical standards.

Sure enough, all the awards that Eurodestination has received over the years have been based purely on excellence alone.

 
Graham McKenzie
MDTravelMole

11 March 2008, 17:40:08 GMT

Best way to get an award
Gary I appreciate your cynicism with regard to awards. I think that the vast majority of the industry think the same.

I am delighted therefore to tell you that TravelMole Web Awards does not have a dinner at which you can buy tables, has no involvement in the judging process and does not link Ad spend to winning. In fact our Awards event is free to those that are invited and you will not find any correlation between our past winners and any financial incentive.

I would like to think that winning a TravelMole award is worth while due to the fact that it is not related to the size of your marketing, advertising or entertainment budget.

 
Gary Phillips
ara

11 March 2008, 16:03:34 GMT

Best way to get an award...
...just book some seats at the dinner, and you're in the running

 
Neala Schwartzberg
04 March 2008, 18:07:56 GMT
travel information websites also ignored
When people want information on destinations, they go to sites like OffbeatTravel.com and others.

Perhaps there should be a category for these sites as well.

Neala

 
Matt Cheevers
Managing DirectorTeletext Holidays

04 March 2008, 12:33:16 GMT

good point .....
Portal sites and media companies always get forgotten. Thankfully Travolution have now recognised our role in the industry and hopefully others will follow. Maybe Travelmole, TTG and Travel Weekly should take note

 
Tom Griffiths
Foundergapyear.com

03 March 2008, 11:44:32 GMT

Where is the Online Travel Portal Award??
Tremendous growth in the online portals at the moment and we're expecting an exciting 2008. Arguably the portals are leading the way in how we interact with our customers online.

Many great names in this category who are unable to enter the other categories - including Tripadvisor and also gapyear.com! Worth considering us for this year?

Regards,
- Tom

=============
Tom Griffiths
Founder
gapyear.com

 
 
 
 
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