Airbnb screenshot Airbnb has emerged the big winner in this year’s edition of the Webby Awards for travel, taking the top honors in categories like best travel website and best mobile travel app. Winners of the 18th edition of the Webbys were announced Monday, an event that spotlights the best in digital media.
While the short-term vacation rental site took the Webby Award for best travel website, the world’s largest travel review site, TripAdvisor, took the People’s Voice award.
In just six years, Airbnb has become one of the leaders of the sharing economy, with a user base of more than 11 million members across 34,000 cities in 192 countries.
Airbnb also took the Webby for best handheld travel app.
Also in the travel category, a somewhat outrageous marketing campaign from German airline Lufthansa took the Webby Award for tourism and leisure in Interactive Advertising and Media.
To promote its Stockholm-Berlin route, the airline launched the “Are you Klaus-Heidi?” campaign which offered one Swede the chance to begin a new life in Berlin, complete with a one-way ticket and pre-paid apartment. The catch? Applicants had to legally change their name to Klaus-Heidi, “a gender-bender double name fit for the modern Berliner.”
In the end, 42 Swedes changed their names, but all except one had to settle for a VIP Lufthansa Silver Card.
A panel of more than a thousand web experts, captains of industry, creative celebrities and visionaries including actor Kevin Spacey, Arianna Huffington and Tumblr founder David Karp help sift through 12,000 entries from 60 countries around the world to come up with the Webby Award winners.
Here are the noteworthy Webby Award and People’s Voice winners in the travel category:
Web
Webby Award: Airbnb
People’s Voice: TripAdvisor
Online Film and Video
Travel and Adventure
Webby: The List, AOL
People’s Voice: Living Galapagos, University of North Carolina
How-to & DIY channel
People's Voice: How to Travel, Sonia Gil
Interactive Advertising and Media
Tourism and leisure
Webby Award: “Are you Klaus-Heidi?” Lufthansa
People’s Voice: Space KLM
Mobile & Apps
Travel handheld
Webby Award: Airbnb
People’s Voice: TripIt
Tablet and all other devices
Webby Award: Kayak
People’s Voice: Hotel Tonight for iPad
For the full list visit http://www.webbyawards.com/winners/2014.
Source: Relaxnews