British Travel Awards introduces agony aunt to revamped website

The British Travel Awards website has been given a fresh look with the introduction of intelligent registration and an ‘agony aunt’.

Users can complete their voting form over a number of visits by logging in with an email address and postcode and picking up from where they left off. 

Full listing of the “BTA Academy” – the panel of judges – is also featured on the site, along with details of The British Travel Awards background, an attitudinal survey within the voting form to gather data of consumer and trade visitors and details of holiday prizes which voters will have a chance of winning.

Lorraine Barnes Burton, CEO of awards owner UK Travel Awards, said: “To fit the new company structure, we wanted the website to have a much fresher look and modern appeal – and it needed to be much more user friendly and informative for both industry professionals and consumers.”

The new-look website also features a travel agony aunt in the form of Holly Holiday’s Helpful Hints page.

Barnes Burton said: “Holly is just a bit of fun to enhance users’ experience and time spent on the website – thereby giving our sponsors more exposure via their web-ads and featured profiles.  

“Holly’s page is essentially an Agony Aunt column for the erstwhile British traveller with a sense of humour.   

“The office receives numerous calls every week from consumers with various holiday and travel conundrums – some of which are totally off the wall, so we have compiled some of the best of these and passed them to “Holly” for her answers and holiday hints.  

“Holly will also host our blog-site after the awards this year and we will be asking consumers to write in with their experiences of holidays taken with the nominees and winners of this year’s awards.  

“The idea to encourage more consumer interaction on the website came about as a result of the number of calls we receive from travellers wishing to confirm the status of winners who display the British Travel Awards logo on their websites and brochures – prior to making their bookings.  

“This clearly demonstrates that there is strong brand recognition and understanding of what the British Travel Awards logo means to the consumer and an acceptance of the independent voting and judging procedure we have implemented.”   

*The British Travel Awards takes place on November 6 at Battersea Evolution, Battersea Park in London.  Visit the website at www.britishtravelawards.com