Travolution Awards 2009: Winners and photos

See the full Travolution Awards gallery on travelhub

Marketing Awards

Best Use of Social Media

• Winner: STA Travel

“Once again, STA Travel is a leading light in this area, ensuring that it engages people in as many of the relevant channels to its target audience as possible. Most importantly, customers engage with one another AND the brand.”

Best Cross-Media Advertising Campaign

• Winner: Tourism Queensland – ‘Best Job in the World’

“A campaign of pure genius, attracting coverage and product placement – much of it free – across a number of key media channels. The mark of true success was getting the media completely behind project, rather than having to pay for expensive and often unreachable advertising space.”
 
Best Use of Search Engine Optimisation

• Winner: Bigmouthmedia for Kuoni

“A fantastic demonstration of when SEO and user experience work hand-in-hand to create a powerful new proposition, especially with Kuoni’s new i-Travel proposition. The agency met all the client’s objectives and produced premium results with a clear return-of-investment.”
 
Best Agency for Website Design

• Winner: Fortune Cookie
• Highly commended: Reactive Media

“Showing a passion for their craft and boldness in design, the judges were impressed by the investment in research as well as originality and innovation in design for clients.”

Blog Award 

Best B2C Travel Blog

• Winner: Mr & Mrs Smith Blog

“A brilliantly executed site which has managed to provide readers with a wide range of content – from clothing to trip ideas and gadgets – but never deviating from its core proposition.”

Travel Portal Awards 

Best Meta Search/Price Comparison Website

• Winner: Travelsupermarket
• Highly commended: Kayak

“A hugely improved website and offering to users, the winner showed how to create a product that not only manages to display results in a simple way but strike a balance between being practical and inspirational.”

Best Travel Information Website

• Winner: Worldreviewer.com

“The judges were impressed with a clear and single minded proposition, fantastic design and user experience, clever and intuitive tools, and a clever equilibrium between the emotional and practical requirements needed for a modern content-led website.”

Technology Awards

Best Technology Provider

• Winner: CarTrawler

“The winner has built a scalable and well executed service which has emerged as a leader in its field. The innovative functionality for partners customers stood out in a business which has managed to create an end-to-end system across a wide range of distribution channels.”

Best Mobile Application

• Winner: Pocket Places Guide
• Highly commended: Frommer’s

“The judges were impressed with the compelling content and multi-media approach which has done more than simply regurgitate the guide book experience onto a mobile device.”

Best Online/Desktop Application

• Winner: Hostelworld - Backpack online

“The winner showed a clear understanding of how to aggregate content and help partners in what is a difficult market to crack. The tools created are incredibly useful for accommodation owners to the extent that it would appear difficult for them to revert back to their previous processes.”

Agent and Operator Awards 

Best Agent-Only Website

• Winner: Viator
• Highly commended: Interactive Resorts

“The winner showed a clear love of its product, with design and functionality clearly executed and focussed with a strong sense of community through user generated content.”
 
Best Tour Operator Website

• Winner: Kuoni
• Highly commended: The Adventure Company

“Inspirational and classy, the judges felt the winner included some excellent functionality alongside strong design and an ability to reinforce the company’s brand as a provider of quality product.”

Best Accommodation-Only Website

• Winner: LateRooms

“In what was an extremely close contest, the winner has created a clear offering with extremely intuitive display of results, extra content and easy to use booking facility. An excellent job in a competitive arena.”

Best Agent-Operator Website

• Winner: Lowcostholidays.com

“A clear and coherent design, no-nonsense approach which sticks to its core product offering. A fantastic example of how to stick to the basics but ensure the proposition is well-executed for its target audience.”

Supplier Awards 

Best Airline Website

• Winner: Easyjet.com

“Straightforward and easy-to-use, this much improved website has managed to integrate discreet use of up-selling and has integrated its partners in a smart way, all with some cutting edge user experience tools.”

Best Hotel Website

• Joint winners: Travelodge and the Maybourne Hotel Group

“Our judges were unable to decide on an overall winner as two entries performed exceptionally well across the criteria used. So in an unprecedented move, both sites were declared winners, with equal points for excellence in attention to detail, design, user experience and the ability to target their respective audiences in the most effective way.”

Best Car Hire Website

• Winner: Argus Car Rentals
• Highly commended: HolidayAutos

“A thoroughly deserving winner, with a quick-click search and booking process, excellent clarity of deals and vehicle details, and extremely solid design.

Best Travel Insurance Website

• Winner: EssentialTravel

“The judges found that the winner performed extremely well across key tasks such as functionality, clarity of products, and – most importantly – credibility of the services on offer.

• Best Cruise Website: P&O Cruises
  “This is an outstanding website and a clear winner. The booking engine, functionality, design, adherence to brand and much more in terms of tools and widgets is a benchmark for others to follow.”

Travel Pioneer Award 

• Winner: AddictedToTravel

Newcomer Awards

Rising Star of the Year

• Winner: Alex Gisbert (Expedia)

Rising Brand of the Year

• Winner: Isango!

“The winner has implemented a string of high profile partnerships and established itself alongside some long-standing brands in this sector. A redesigned website in recent months can only do more to enhance its presence – and all this in a little less than three years.”

Online Travel Brand of the Year

• Winner: Travelsupermarket.com

Travolution Achievement Award

• Presented to Stephen Kaufer, President and CEO, TripAdvisor
  

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