Announcing OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards 2009

Press Release for the 2009 OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards

Hidden Jewel 2009 – win a tailored tourism website

The stakes are higher than ever for this year’s OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards, with one national winner set to take out one major prize.

The winner of the national Hidden Jewel Awards 2009 will receive a five-star website created by online tourism specialists, OM4Tourism.com

The judging panel will choose the winning entry based on answers to four questions submitted by small tourism operators from around the country.

This year’s entries will be subject to the scrutiny of five peer judges drawn from a cross-section of travel businesses and regions:

• Daniel Hackett won the national 2008 Hidden Jewel Award for his Tasmanian fly-fishing tours, Riverfly.
• Drew Bernhardt is General Manager of Cape Lodge, a hotel in the Margaret River region that was awarded Luxury Travel Magazine’s Best Boutique Hotel in Australia for 2009.
• Pip Chalk is Chair of Wildlife Tourism Australia, based in New South Wales.
• Phil Walcott manages the multi-award-winning Rainbow Connection – a resort hotel in Alice Springs, which took out the Northern Territory Hidden Jewel Award 2008. He is also Northern Territory Director of GALTA (Gay and Lesbian Tourism Australia).
• Liz Hatherley is Marketing Manager of the Great Escape Charter Company, which runs small-boat luxury cruises around the stunning Kimberley Coast and to the Rowley Shoals.

This year’s lucky Hidden Jewel winner will be able to choose to set up a brand new site, or have their existing one completely revamped and restructured for greater success.

Either way, they will get everything a small tourism business dreams of – a dedicated team to create an attention-grabbing site tailored to suit their unique needs.

Demand for OM4Tourism’s websites is growing rapidly among tourism operators looking for detailed attention to design, functionality and optimisation.

“Switching to an OM4 website has been the best business decision I’ve made over my five years of operating guided Tasmanian fly fishing trips,” said 2008 winner, Daniel Hackett.

“In 18 months, my OM4 website has generated five times the visitation rates of my previous website, which has been the key catalyst for substantial business growth in a competitive industry.”

The Hidden Jewel winner will also have access to OM4Tourism’s online education and resource centre, to enable them to maintain complete control over their own website.

The OM4Tourism Hidden Jewel Awards is now in its third year, and has provided recognition to smaller businesses that don’t have the resources to submit entries to state tourism awards.

“One of the benefits of these awards are the many jewels in the Australian tourism industry that otherwise remain hidden from the limelight,” said OM4Tourism Director, Glenn Nicholas.

“Yet it is often boutique accommodation or guided tours that visitors treasure most about their holiday. At OM4Tourism we believe in helping these important little gems compete in one of Australia’s largest and most exciting industries.”

To enter the Awards, tourism businesses simply answer four questions in less than 100 words each, and provide relevant links to pages on their existing website, or other websites that represent their business.

Timeline

The Awards are now open. Tourism businesses can find out more and register to enter the awards at this link: Hidden Jewel Registration

Entries must be received by midnight EST on Saturday 14 November *UPDATE* Saturday 21 November, 2009.

The Hidden Jewel winner for 2009 will be announced on Monday 30 November on the OM4Tourism website.

For more information, please contact:
Jane Hammond jane@om4.com.au
Glenn Nicholas glenn@om4.com.au

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