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This month Tourisme Montreal received the prestigious Webby Award in the tourism category for the organization’s website, finishing ahead of four other finalists, namely Tourism Australia, Asbury Park Boardwalk, City of Austin (Texas) and VisitSweden.
Each year for the past thirteen years, the Webby Awards have recognized website excellence in over 70 different categories, including consumer products, sports, science and education. Two winners are chosen in each category: one receives the actual Webby Award, while the other merits the People’s Voice Award. Some 10,000 organizations from over 60 countries and 50 US states took part in the 2008 edition of this prestigious awards contest.
The rethinking of Tourisme Montreal’s website, inaugurated in May 2008, was carried out jointly with Sid Lee- responsible for strategy, user experience and design, and Cactus- responsible for programming.
In recent years, Tourisme Montreal has gradually shifted to a Web-based strategy designed to render the tourism experience more tangible while repositioning the destination based on target audiences. This new approach is in keeping with the organization’s three-year technology plan and strategic plan for 2005-2010. The Web platform implemented by Tourisme Montreal is designed to be appealing, user friendly and interactive, while spurring onsite consumer buying decisions and enabling browsers to plan their trip and take full advantage of their stay in Montreal. Tourisme Montreal’s shift to the Web has proven tremendously successful given results to date in terms of campaign performance and increased website traffic.
“Within a year, our site has received more honours than we could ever have expected,” stated Charles Lapointe, President and CEO of Tourisme Montreal. “We are, of course, extremely proud of results achieved to date but there is nothing more gratifying than having awards bestowed upon us by industry professionals who appreciate our cutting edge vision. The prestige associated with this latest award, combined with that of three other recent honours, reflects favourably upon Montreal and enhances the city’s profile on the world stage,” Mr. Lapointe went on to say.
On April 8th, 2009, Tourisme Montreal was awarded the Crea Grand Prize in the promotional website category. Last December, the organization was the chosen recipient of the 2008 Boomerang Grand Prize in the interactive marketing category as well as the Grand Prize in the promotional site category. Crea is a contest which endeavours to underscore and promote excellence in advertising creation in Quebec, whereas the Boomerang Awards recognize the best in interactive communications and websites developed at home in Quebec.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
