9 October 2007
Enjoy England was named Europe’s leading tourist information website at the 14th annual World Travel Award on Tuesday 9 October 2007.
Embargoed until: midnight 9 October 2007
ENJOY ENGLAND: EUROPE’S LEADING TOURIST INFORMATION WEBSITE
Enjoy England, www.enjoyengland.com, was named Europe’s leading tourist information website at the 14th annual World Travel Award on Tuesday 9 October 2007. The website faced stiff competition from other countries including Spain, Ireland, Sweden and Portugal.
Enjoy England, the domestic marketing division of national tourism agency VisitBritain, re-launched enjoyengland.com last year with the support of leading digital communications agency Seriously. Together, they aimed to create a world class tourism website that would serve as the premier source of inspiration and information for domestic travel.
A core aim of the site is to encourage more day trips and short breaks for English tourists, by inspiring visitors with the incredible variety of things to do and by providing new functions for online booking of thousands of places to stay. More than half a million unique visitors a month now explore the site using its inspirational and practical information to plan and book holidays at home.
Collecting his organisation’s award, Laurence Bresh, general manager for England Marketing at VisitBritain, says: “This is fantastic news proving that travel agents and tour operators around the world agree that we have created a world class, rival-beating tourism website. However, we won’t be resting on our laurels – wenow aim to implement a range of social media with user reviews, comments and fora complementing the existing ‘blog’, Smart Agent and enhanced search functionality.”
Joanna Baldwin of Seriously says: “This new site has been designed to support a strategic business transformation from print to web-based communications, making use of new technology to deliver a rich, inspirational and user-friendly experience for customers and industry partners alike. It brings together an incredible resource of information on all aspects of tourism in England and we are delighted the travel industry has bestowed this accolade on enjoyengland.com.”
The World Travel Awards is among the most comprehensive and prestigious events in global tourism calendars. More than 167,000 travel professionals worldwide, including more than 110,000 travel agents vote to decide the winners. VisitBritain was also nominated for Europe’s leading tourist and convention bureau.
For further information, please contact:
Sian Brenchley, Corporate Press Officer on 020 8563 3220, mob: 07971 497047
Elliott Frisby, Corporate PR Manager on 020 8563 3035, mob: 07951 996241
Notes to Editors
· VisitBritain is responsible for promoting Britain as a world class tourist destination and for developing England's visitor economy through Enjoy England campaigns and initiatives.
· UKresidents took 101 million trips, spending £16.2 billion in England in 2006.Since its launch in 2003, Enjoy England has been responsible for £450m of incremental spend on short breaks in England. In addition to national TV advertising campaigns to inspire British visitors to share their secrets of England, the current portfolio of campaigns focuses on city breaks, outdoor activities, food and drink and indulgent escapes. Enjoy England also markets England in France, Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.
· Visit the England press centre at www.enjoyengland.com/presscentre.