Tourism Websites Win Top Awards in Texas
Georgetown’s tourism website and Red Poppy Festival website were named the best in the state at a recent tourism conference. The Georgetown Convention and Visitors Bureau won the awards at the annual conference of the Texas Association of Convention and Visitors Bureaus held on August 8.
RedPoppyFestival.com won for best website and VisitGeorgetown.com won for best mobile site. The Judge’s Choice pick for each site was awarded by a panel of tourism experts from across the state. Competition included tourism bureaus in cities of all sizes, including large cities with annual budgets exceeding $1 million. Both Georgetown sites were designed by City of Georgetown Webmaster Erin McDonald and Rhyme and Reason, a design firm in Atlanta. Content for the sites was provided by Georgetown Convention and Visitors Bureau staff.
Pictured left to right are City employees Erandine Lewis, Erin McDonald, Marcy Renneberg, and Cari Miller. McDonald is in public communications and Lewis, Renneberg, and Miller work for the Convention and Visitors Bureau.
The RedPoppyFestival.com and VisitGeorgetown.com sites are among the first in Texas to employ responsive design, which delivers website content optimized for any type of device, including smartphones, tablets, or computers. In recent years there has been a significant increase in mobile users online, which is a key reason for responsive design.
Over a six month period this year, McDonald and Renneberg reworked all the website coding and content, incorporating new images and design elements created by Rhyme and Reason. The new RedPoppyFestival.com and VisitGeorgetown.com sites offer a web experience for mobile devices that equals that of users on computer screens.
In addition to the Judge’s Choice awards, RedPoppyFestival.com and VisitGeorgetown.com each won People’s Choice awards in a popular vote at the conference for best website and best mobile site, respectively. The People’s Choice awards were among convention and visitors bureaus with budgets below $350,000.
