Galveston.com Wins 2006 W³ Award

The Winners of The 2006 W³ Awards were recently announced by the International Academy of the Visual Arts today. Receiving over 2,300 entries, The W³ Awards honors outstanding websites, web marketing, and web advertising created by some of the best interactive agencies, designers, and creators worldwide.

Galveston.com, the official website of Galveston Island, Texas was a Silver Award winner in two categories, one for Tourism, which included websites spotlighting destinations; and, second, for Travel, which included travel industry websites including airlines, hotels, resorts, and themeparks.

The W³ Awards is sanctioned and judged by The International Academy of the Visual Arts, an invitation-only body consisting of top-tier professionals from a "Who's Who" of acclaimed media, interactive, advertising, and marketing firms. IAVA members include executives from organizations such as Alloy, BRANDWEEK, Coach, The Ellen Degeneres Show, Estee Lauder, HBO, iNDELIBLE, Monster.com, MTV, Omnicom, Polo Ralph Lauren, Refinery, Sotheby's Institute of Art, Victoria's Secret, Wired, Yahoo!, and many others. For more info, and a full member roster, please visit www.iavisarts.org.

“We were amazed at the caliber and quality of work we received this year. Our winners continue to push the envelope of internet creativity and web design, and it is gratifying to see such great work from the smallest agencies to the biggest firms” said Linda Day, the director of the IAVA. “On behalf of the over 200 members of The International Academy of the Visual Arts, we are honored to recognize our winners as they continue to set a high standard of excellence for Web development.”

Rich with interactive polls, site-wide searchability, a robust message board, audio and video podcasts (the first Convention & Visitors Bureau-related website in the world to offer such), tourism-related rss feeds, tourism-related member pages for local businesses, continuously updated AccuWeather, city-wide megapixel webcams, personalized itinerary builder, "one-click" expandable navigation, and complete interactive reservations for lodging, cruises, cruise parking, and airport transfers, the recently relaunched Galveston.com was produced over a two-year period by a team of designers from both Texas and the United Kingdom.

According to Galveston.com & Company’s Vice-President Jim Cordell, “It’s been a great year for our team here at Galveston.com.  From the Stevie Award in June, to our Interactive Media Award in September, to these wonderful two W³’s – it’s great to have our efforts awarded by these respected organizations. We couldn’t be more pleased.”

About Galveston.com & Company...

Galveston.com & Company, Inc. is a destination marketing corporation based in Galveston, Texas. Additional website ventures by Galveston.com & Company include Galveston.org, GalvestonCruises.com, HoustonAreaHotels.com, and Kemah.com. The company specializes in destination portals, as well as online lodging, cruise, parking, and transfer reservations via its proprietary DestinationNext_^TM reservation module. For more information, contact Galveston.com & Company at via phone (409)763-8676 or email at websites@galveston.com.

About The W3 Awards...

The W³ Awards honors creative excellence on the web, and recognizes the creative and marketing professionals behind award winning web sites and marketing programs. Simply put, the W³ is the first major web competition to be accessible to the biggest agencies, the smallest firms, and everyone in between. Small firms are as likely to win as Fortune 500 companies and international agencies.

Sponsors and partners include The Creative Group, the leading creative professional staffing company in the world, ADWEEK magazine, and the American Marketing Association.