Nine tourism websites have been voted the best in England and will go through to the Excellence in England Tourism Awards 2004, in association with Enjoy England*. The winner of the Tourism Website of the Year category will be announced at the national awards ceremony at Kensington Palace in London on 22 April 2004, on the eve of St George’s Day.
The finalists have all come through rigorous awards run by England’s nine regional tourist boards, where they battled it out against hundreds of other entries for a chance to win the Excellence in England Tourism Award accolade for Tourism Website of the Year.
The winner will have shown commitment to providing an excellent service through the website, with an attractive design and easy to navigate web pages. The website will also have reasonable measures in place for disabled site visitors, in line with the new Disability Discrimination Act (DDA)* coming fully into force in October this year. In addition, the site will fit perfectly for the target market and will demonstrate proven success with promotion and sales.
The Tourism Website of the Year national finalists are:
Tullie House Museum & Art Gallery – Cumbria Tourist Board www.tulliehouse.co.uk
The Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery runs a fascinating website which introduces visitors to the history of the area in an interactive and imaginative way. An easy to navigate site with lots of information, colour and photography. Icons on the home page include: History, Wildlife & Geology, Fine Arts, Current Exhibitions, Shop and What’s On.
Holkham Hall – East of England Tourist Board www.holkham.co.uk
Holkham Hall’s website is informative and easy to navigate. User-friendly maps show interesting walks to take in the area. From this site you can access information on other places to visit in the region and it explains how interesting they are – promoting tourism for the whole area and supporting the local community.
Cotswolds Japan Partnership – Visit Heart of England www.the-cotswolds.org
Gloucestershire Tourism has developed and led the Cotswolds Japan Partnership with eight district councils and sixty-five commercial partners to promote the Cotswolds to the Japanese market through this new website. The site is a key element of the business and marketing plans for the partnership with the aim of attracting independent travellers and small groups to stay longer in the area. For the first time, the new website offers Japanese visitors advice on how to plan their trip and get the most of out of an extended stay in the region. Since its launch in 2002, it is now recording 11,500 unique visitors each month – 8,500 using the Japanese language version and 3,000 the English language version. Other key benefits of the website are: fast downloads, easy navigation and good use of imagery and design.
British Airways London Eye – Visit London www.ba-londoneye.com
The British Airways London Eye website is impressive. It combines an outstanding design and innovative technology with an insistence on getting the important basics right, such as on-line booking and ensuring the site is accessible to all users. Added extras include a search facility and recruitment and services like the River Cruise Experience have broadened its appeal. The site encourages users to build a virtual London Eye of their own, which shows great innovation. There is also good educational material for schools.
Lumley Castle Hotel – Northumbria Tourist Board www.lumleycastle.com
An excellent web site that is well laid out and holds your attention. The virtual tour is brilliant.
Museum of Science & Industry – North West Tourist Board www.msim.org.uk
The Museum of Science and Industry focuses on Manchester’s scientific and industrial past. Entry to the museum’s permanent collections is free. Its website gives a virtual tour of the museum, featuring an interactive map and 360 degree photography. It provides an easy-to-navigate website with an extensive resource for teachers and students. It is also designed with accessibility guidelines in mind.
Exmoor National Park – South West Tourism www.exmoor-accommodation.co.uk
The site went live in August 2001 as a direct result of foot and mouth disease devastating my tourism business. I was a computer illiterate with total belief in the power of online marketing. Exmoor needed a website that acted like an attractive live area brochure with links to everything potential visitors could see, do and enjoy. The combination of my 35 years of tourism experience and PC Webshop technical knowledge and design - put together a site that was fast, visitor friendly and like good accommodation constantly upgraded and updated. 78,000 unique visitors during 2003 ; 46,000 unique visitors during 2002.
Red Funnel Ferries – Tourism South East www.redfunnel.co.uk
The Red Funnel site is an excellent resource for anyone wanting to book a tailor-made holiday or ferry crossing to the Isle of Wight. It is informative and easy to navigate and has developed as an invaluable marketing and distribution channel. The site allows users to book tailor-made holidays online offering the freedom to package accommodation, crossings, car hire, event tickets and a range of activities in the one session.* www.redfunnel.co.uk is one of the top 3 performing Isle of Wight websites and is responsible for attracting a significant number of visitors each year.
Harewood House Trust – Yorkshire Tourist Board www.harewood.org
Harewood’s new, improved website builds on the strengths of the earlier version, presenting Harewood¹s diverse constituent elements in an impactful, clear, accessible way. Linked subsites expand information on core attractions, covering in detail, through innovative multimedia formats (including video and talking heads¹) the Chippendale and portrait collections, the Bird Garden and Education. A hugely improved data management system gives much easier and quicker access to events and exhibitions details and the online booking facility for events is showing excellent returns. According to one user it is simply "The best country house website I have ever seen"!
