Tourism Australia Awarded World's Best Tourism Board Website

Daintree Eco Lodge

Australia.com has been recognised at this year's World Travel Awards (WTA), being voted World's Leading Tourism Authority Website by more than 220,000 travel agents and other industry professionals from over 175 countries.

Tourism Australia Managing Director Andrew McEvoy said the award reflected the national tourism organisation's increasing leadership within digital marketing tourism, and followed a major refresh of the website earlier in the year.

"Here at Tourism Australia, we are lucky enough to have the job of promoting I'd argue the greatest brand in the world, Australia and Australia.com has built up a deserved reputation for the increasing contribution it makes to this important task," Mr McEvoy said.

"With 50 per cent of global consumers were now using digital channels to research, plan and book holidays, having a strong website is essential. Australia.com plays a vital role in telling our story to the world and, as part of our broader strategy to raise our game in the digital space," he said.

Tourism Australia relaunched its popular global website, www.australia.com in March 2012 with a cleaner design, simpler navigation and additional functionality, aimed at helping international and domestic travellers better research, plan and make the most of an Australian holiday.

Since the refresh, Australia.com has received more than 8.9m unique visitors, already surpassing last year's total of 8.6 million.

"We now have a website which is more attractive to the eye, stronger in functionality and easier to navigate with rich and engaging content which informs and inspires more people to look to Australia for their next holiday.

"More than 29 per cent of the world's population is online today and this number is expected to grow to five billion people, or 66 per cent by 2020, with one in two consumers using digital channels to make their travel plans.

"These sorts of stats only serve to reinforce the importance of a good website, delivering rich, destination specific and appealing content in an engaging and user-friendly way which helps move the user further towards booking an Australian holiday," Mr McEvoy said.

Tourism Australia was also nominated for World's Leading Tourism Board and World's Leading Destination Marketing Campaign for its current There's nothing like Australia campaign. Australia was also shortlisted for World's Leading Culinary Destination in the 2012 awards.

The only Australian operators to also pick up awards were Terry and Cathy Maloney, the founders and owners of Daintree Eco Lodge & Spa, who were voted World's Leading Eco Resort and Lodge.

Speaking about the award win owner Terry Maloney said, "The ecolodge has many imitators, but no equals. This is clearly shown by winning the World's Leading Eco Resort and Spa at this year's prestigious World Travel Awards.

"To be a winner in the "best of the best" world categories is humbling, however is also testament to the growing appreciation of experiential travel," Mr Maloney said.

"This is the biggest travel event in the global tourism industry. It takes 10 months to judge the country, regional and finally the best of the best in the world. This is a huge opportunity for Australia, Queensland and our region to be in the world travel spotlight.

"It's small physical footprint of land, buildings, staff and guests, already has a huge impact on the preservation of ancient culture, conservation of ancient rainforest and the empowerment of Indigenous people - a true example or the 3 P's - people, planet and profit," Mr Maloney said.

World Travel Awards was founded in 1993 to recognise, acknowledge and reward excellence in the travel, tourism and hospitality industry worldwide.

The votes are cast by travel, tourism and hospitality professionals and the consumer traveller whether leisure or business.