Council’s tourism website scoops national award
4 July
Scarborough Borough Council’s tourism website, www.discoveryorkshirecoast.com,
has been awarded the prestigious British Destinations National
Holiday Website award for 2011.
The site, which has been re-developed in-house by the Tourism
and ICT web team in conjunction with the private sector members and
Advisory Board, receives almost three quarters of a million visits
a year.
The Discover Yorkshire Coast website has recently undergone a
huge facelift and features fantastic new quality images, improved
navigation, season special offers, key events, quick search
referencing and banner advertising opportunities.
The site was announced 2011 website of the year at this year’s
British Destinations annual conference held in Wales.
Senior Scarborough Borough Council figures are delighted with
the honour, among them Cllr David Jeffels, the portfolio holder for
tourism and culture, who collected the award on behalf of the
council.
He said: “This was an outstanding success for the Yorkshire
Coast’s tourist industry because the competition from holiday
destinations nationwide was the toughest yet. With more and more
people booking holidays on the website it will be a great asset to
our hotels, guest houses and attractions at a time when an
increasing number of people are opting to stay in Britain for their
holidays.”
Welcome to Yorkshire Area Director Janet Deacon added: “The
award is a great accolade for all those who have been involved in
the transformation of the Discover Yorkshire Coast website. Having
such a fantastic site will support our campaign in encouraging more
and more visitors to this beautiful part of Yorkshire. I am sure
the site will develop even more and provide our potential visitors
with a raft of information to ensure they enjoy their visit.”
The Discover Yorkshire Coast website was originally launched in
2005 and won the Yorkshire Tourist Board Tourism Website of the
Year award in 2006. The revamped website, launched in April, has
now gone one better to scoop the national award.
In the past 12 months the website has attracted more than
650,000 visits, generating more than 3.4 million page views. It is
fast becoming the number one source of information for
holidaymakers visiting the Borough’s coast.
Judges from British Destinations – formed after the merger of
the British Resorts and Destinations Association and Destination
Performance UK – said the homepage of the website works well due to
various factors including the colour scheme used, the slideshow and
quality of images used.
They said it was a “very easy to use website, clear to
understand and contains enough content to find what a user would be
looking for from the home page”. And they said the footer links
also work well with the design that has been incorporated.