TravelMole Web Awards shortlist revealed

SYDNEY – After long hours of scrutiny of nominations, the judges have spoken – and TravelMole can reveal the finalists in the 2010 Web Innovation Awards.

Chairman of the judging panel Ric Shreves, founder and partner of Water & Stone, said the quality of this year’s nominated companies is extremely high and those short-listed for the awards can 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

The short-listed websites are connected to some well-known names in the travel business as well as young, largely unknown companies who are marking their mark in a competitive and challenging environment.

Shortlisted companies range from heavyweights like Air New Zealand, Qantas and V Australia to one-person start-ups like newyoungtravel.com, which focuses on the senior (over-50s) market, and cleancruising.com, which offers new ways of searching for cruise voyages.

The winners will be announced at Travel Distribution Summit Asia in Singapore April 28-29.

Shortlisted companies:

Best Website Design

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

Travel Innovator of the Year

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

Best Travel Startup of the Year

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

Best Use of Social Media

• https://www.airpointsfairy.co.nz
• http://www.4320LA.com
• http://travelinsider.qantas.com.au/

Most Exciting New Use of Technology in Travel

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

Most Creative Marketing Campaign

• http://www.4320LA.com
• http://www.nothingtohide.co.nz/
• http://www.youtube.com/user/AirNZnothing2hide
• http://www.zestpj.com
• http://www.extraordinarytaxiride.com.au

Best Web 2.0 Mash Up

• http://airnz.co.nz
• http://www.zestpj.com

Most Innovative Use of Video

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

Most Effective Use of Mobile Technology

• http://www.airnewzealand.co.nz/mpass
• http://www.travelsim.net.au

Best Ancillary Revenue Strategy

• http://carrental.com/RentCar/airnewzealand/index.html
• http://www.passport2theworld.com
• http://www.travelsim.net.au