23 Companies Recognized as Leaders in the Travel Industry for Providing the Best Travel Deals of the Year
Travelzoo (NASDAQ: TZOO), a global Internet media company, last night revealed the winners in 23 categories at the 2009 Travelzoo Awards gala ceremony. The Travelzoo Awards, also known as ‘The Tzoos’, celebrate the companies behind the best deals in travel, including airlines, hotels, vacation companies, cruise agencies, cruise lines, shows & events, car rentals and destinations. Travelzoo’s deal experts around the world evaluated more than 80,000 deals to uncover the companies behind the best deals of the year.
“The 23 Travelzoo Award winners have consistently exceeded the award criteria with their awe-inspiring deals,” said Shirley Tafoya, President, North America, Travelzoo. “It is an honor to be able to recognize and celebrate these leading companies who, even in today’s challenging economic times, have excelled in creating incredible deals that make people want to get up and go. We’ve seen these companies successfully stimulate demand by selling hundreds of hotel rooms, flights, cruise cabins and show tickets.”
Travelzoo revealed the winners in 23 categories last night at the 3rd Annual Travelzoo Awards gala ceremony at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. More than 170 tourism, travel and entertainment industry executives from over 100 companies attended. For more information, please visit http://www.travelzoo.com/tzoos.
Among the 2009 Travelzoo Award winners are:
Most outstanding provider of cruise deals by an agency
CruCon Cruise Outlet
Best overall provider of cruise deals to Europe, Asia or South Pacific
Royal Caribbean International
Best overall provider of cruise deals to the Americas, Caribbean or Bermuda
Norwegian Cruise Line
Leading Provider of Domestic Airfare Deals
AirTran Airways
Leading provider of international airfare deals
British Airways
Best overall provider of airfare deals
United Airlines
Best overall provider of vacation package deals to warm weather destinations
CheapCaribbean.com
Most outstanding achievement in marketing of travel deals for a destination
NYS Department of Economic Development/ I LOVE NEW YORK
Outstanding deals by an online travel agency
Orbitz
In order to determine the 2009 Travelzoo Award Finalists, Travelzoo’s deal experts evaluated over 80,000 deals researched in 2008 on the following 5-point scale:
1. Reliability: Travelzoo’s Test Booking Center™ performed over 115,000 verifications on deals published by Travelzoo in 2008. The Test Booking Center validates both online and offline qualifications including availability, accuracy of information published and ease of booking. When tested for this level of reliability, the deals provided by Finalist companies, met all the requirements of the testing process and scored in the 90th percentile or higher.
2. Appeal: Of the more than 200,000 user ratings collected by Travelzoo in 2008, Finalist companies consistently achieved user rating scores of between 4.5 and the highest score of 6.
3. Competitiveness: Travelzoo Award Finalists offered competitive travel deals that were considered outstanding compared to similar offerings in the marketplace. Qualitative user feedback indicated Finalist companies regularly developed deals that inspired Travelzoo users to book trips they did not otherwise plan on taking. Additionally, proprietary campaign performance data sourced directly from Travelzoo advertising partners was evaluated to determine the level of consumer appeal.
4. Consistency: All companies consistently provided Travelzoo users with exceptional offers throughout the past year that inspired incremental travel, based on both qualitative and quantitative user feedback.
5. Quality: Travelzoo’s deal experts in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, review every day offers from more than 1,000 travel companies around the world to uncover the best deals. All deal experts were surveyed for their nominations in 23 categories to arrive at preliminary nominations. The Travelzoo Awards Committee, comprised of 13 senior deal experts, studied the deals from the Finalist companies, and with the data points listed above, determined the winners in 23 categories.
Travelzoo is a global Internet media company. Travelzoo’s media properties, which reach more than 15 million travel enthusiasts in the U.S., Australia, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Spain, Taiwan and the U.K., include the Travelzoo® Web site (www.travelzoo.com), the Top 20® list, the Newsflash™ e-mail alert service, the Travelzoo Network™, the SuperSearch™ search tool, and the Fly.com™ search engine. Travelzoo publishes offers from more than 1,000 advertisers from around the world. Travelzoo’s deal experts review offers to find the best travel deals and confirm their true value. Travelzoo’s global headquarters is in New York City.
