Major tourism award in sight for Winchester

22 June 2010

Winchester City Council has been nominated for a major tourism award alongside Air France KLM and TripAdvisor. The Travolution Award for Best Use of Social Media recognises brands who excel in the fields of online travel distribution, digital marketing and technology.  Previous winners include EasyJet, Expedia and Travelsupermarket.

The awards will be presented at The Boiler House at Battersea Power Station in the autumn and are judged by a panel of proven business leaders, experts and entrepreneurs. Widely recognised as the UK travel industry’s highest accolade for innovation and excellence online, nominations are hotly contested.

Ellen Simpson, Winchester City Council’s Tourism Marketing and Development Manager said,

“We are absolutely delighted to be short-listed.  The innovations that we have introduced to the service include the twitter presence of ‘King Alf’ who tweets up to four times a day from his vantage point overlooking the Broadway. We’ve also been overwhelmed by the positivity of the reception that the four films at www.youtube.com/visitwinchester have received.”

Winchester City Council’s Portfolio Holder for Economic Development, Cllr Dominic Hiscock added:

“This is a well-deserved reward for all the hard work of our tourism marketing team. Their fresh approach to marketing the city online to new audiences has seen monthly rises in website visitor statistics of almost 50%. Winchester is very proud of its tourism attractions and this nomination illustrates that we’re getting the message out loud and clear that there is so much to do here, just when our businesses need our support the most.”

The tourist information centre is open from 10am to 5pm Monday to Saturday and can be contacted on: 01962 840 500 or e-mail: tourism@winchester.gov.uk or via the website at: www.visitwinchester.co.uk. 

1. To follow King Alf on twitter visit www.twitter.com/king_alf
2. To see the four new tourism films on YouTube see www.youtube.com/visitwinchester
3. For further information on Winchester City Council’s Tourism service contact: Ellen Simpson, Tourism Marketing and Development Manager, Winchester City Council, tel: 01962 848 219 or e-mail esimpson@winchester.gov.uk or Eloise Appleby, Head of Cultural Services, Winchester City Council, tel: 01962 848 181 or e-mail: eappleby@winchester.gov.uk
4. For further Information on the Travolution Awards contact:
Lee Hayhurst
Travolution Editor
Email: lee.hayhurst@travolution.co.uk
Tel: 020 7881 4865