Tourism Whistler has another prize to add to its trophy shelf, winning the Best Online Media Centre award from the Canadian Tourism Commission at their ninth annual GoMedia Conference in Whitehorse, Yukon.
Nominees for the award, which was announced on May 30, are judged based on overall content and visuals, as well as usability, design and innovation.
Tourism Whistler's media room, found at www.whistler.com is a source for journalists and other media practitioners looking for story ideas, information, and contacts.
The award is open to Canadian tourism partners including convention and visitor bureaus, PR firms, media relations representatives, tourism organizations, transportation, hotel and other travel and tourism sectors.
Visits to the media room have totalled 3,418 so far in 2012.
"We're very excited and honoured to receive this recognition," said Kerry Duff, Tourism Whistler's Travel Media Manager.
"It was important to us to build a media site that would be of the utmost convenience to media sourcing information, images and video footage for their Whistler coverage," she said. "We are thrilled to be able to provide this resource and are extremely pleased that it meets the needs of our audience."
Barbara Tong, a producer at Business News Network and a judge in the competition, commended the Tourism Whistler site for understanding the various needs of media on deadlines.
"It alerts me to three things that all media want to see right away: search, images and contact information. One click on these topics and I'm in," she said in a release.
"The many categories on the 'Media Marmot' search page are useful, providing the media user with additional ideas and info. The Fresh Image Gallery allows the user to download the images right away, without cumbersome sign-in and passwords."
