TTD: Date set for TravelMole Web Awards
The 2006 TravelMole Web Awards are to be presented on June 22 in London.
More than 400 nominations for travel websites in 12 categories have been received so far in advance of the deadline of May 31. The categories are: travel agent, tour operator, web-based agency, airline, hotel/resort, cruise/ferry, tourist board, car rental, recruitment, travel management, responsible tourism and technology.
From here a shortlist will be created by a team of tourism MBA students based in an international school in Paris headed by Liz Craig of Oneglobe Network.
The winners and runners up will be determined by a set of judges who will rank each site independently. On the judging panel are:
*Debbie Hindle – managing director of London-based travel PR company BGB
*Dr Hilary Murphy – Ecole Hoteliere, Lausanne, Switzerland
*Joseph E. Buhler – executive vice-president Level 9, Connecticut, USA
*Sofia Reino – PhD student, Queen Margaret University College, Edinburgh
*Reet Wiseman – vice-president, northern region and global accounts, Sabre Travel Network
All will be instructed to look for attractiveness, simplicity of use, design, speed and how easy it is to conduct business with each shortlisted site.
Other factors such as search engine optimisation, site interaction, site feedback and use of technology will play a part. Where necessary, they will not be asked to vote on awards that may conflict with their own interests.
All three short listed parties plus sponsors and guests will be invited to the awards on June 22 at the Slovak Republic Embassy in London.
This year’s sponsors include BGB, Capela Travel Marketing, CarTrawler, Complete Cruise Solution, Dataflexnet, Dolphin Dynamics, Slovakia and World Travel Market.
To nominate your favourite website, go to www.TravelMole.com and click on the Web Awards logo.
Phil Davies
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