TravelMole Web Awards winners revealed

SINGAPORE – New Zealand has excelled in the 2010 TravelMole Web Innovation Awards.

The Kiwis produced a swag of winners among the 10 categories with Air New Zealand taking our four individual awards.

Chairman of the judging panel Ric Shreves, founder and partner of Water & Stone, said the quality of this year’s nominated companies was extremely high and both winners and those short-listed for the awards could be proud of their compelling websites.

Shreves was joined on the judging panel by Liz Craig, principal – Oneglobe Network; Joe Buhler – Buhlerworks – principal and PhocusWright – Social Web Marketing Consultant and Senior Destination Marketing Analyst for PhoCusWright; Ron Ramanan – founder & managing director GoQuo; Reece Gladstone – consultant TravelZoo; Aaron Koh – consultant and Meraj K Huda – founder/principal of Forumline.com

Commenting on the awards, Joe Buhler said, “Reviewing the various candidates reveals some creative and innovative approaches to website development and web based marketing in the region.

“What needs to happen also, however, is more integration with social media, user generated content and traveller reviews within sites rather than just for specific campaigns.

“As for design, less is often more and simple, logical user interface design is better than adding all the latest bells and whistles.”

Meraj Huda said, “The winners in each category have indicated that travel industry-related websites are utilising more and more of the ‘best practice’ features. There were several finalists and winners that had a balance of rich content, technical competency, as well as functional focus.

“Clean Cruising was a clear winner in its nominated categories for its exemplary use of new technology to make interactive user experience an integral part of the overall e-marketing process.

“Gap Adventures was a great example of a niche product provider with a highly competent website experience. It includes all features that makes a website both relevant for the user and address all the technical features. This is about as good as it gets.”

THE WINNERS

Best Website Design

WINNER: Gap Adventures

• http://www.gapadventures.com

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.grabaseat.co.nz
• http://oodles.com

Travel Innovator of the Year

WINNER: Clean Cruising

• http://www.cleancruising.com.au

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.venuemirror.com
• http://www.passport2theworld.com

Best Travel Startup of the Year

WINNER: Urban Adventures

• http://www.urbanadventures.com

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.newyoungtravel.com.au
• http://www.Vaustralia.com
• http://www.venuemirror.com

Best Use of Social Media

WINNER: AIR NEW ZEALAND

• https://www.airpointsfairy.co.nz

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.4320LA.com
• http://travelinsider.qantas.com.au/

Most Exciting New Use of Technology in Travel

WINNER: Clean Cruising

• http://www.cleancruising.com.au

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.urbanadventures.com
• http://www.venuemirror.com
• http://www.travelsim.net.au

Most Creative Marketing Campaign

WINNER: Air New Zealand

• http://www.nothingtohide.co.nz/
• http://www.youtube.com/user/AirNZnothing2hide

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.4320LA.com
• http://www.zestpj.com
• http://www.extraordinarytaxiride.com.au

Best Web 2.0 Mash Up

WINNER: Zest

• http://www.zestpj.com

SHORTLISTED

• http://airnz.co.nz

Most Innovative Use of Video

WINNER: TV Trip

• http://www.tvtrip.com

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.cleancruising.com.au
• http://www.youtube.com/user/AirNZnothing2hide#p/u/

Most Effective Use of Mobile Technology

WINNER: Air New Zealand

• http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/mpass

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.travelsim.net.au

Best Ancillary Revenue Strategy

WINNER: Air New Zealand

• http://carrental.com/RentCar/airnewzealand/index.html

SHORTLISTED

• http://www.passport2theworld.com
• http://www.travelsim.net.au

The TravelMole Web Innovation Award winners were announced at Eyefortravel’s Travel Distribution Summit Asia in Singapore this week.