VisitAbuDhabi.ae, Abu Dhabi’s online destination resource, has been listed among top government portals by the 17th annual Webby Awards, the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet.

The Webby recognition from the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences named Abu Dhabi ‘Official Honouree’ in the Government category alongside brands like Nasa, New York and the City of London.

This is the first Webby award for an official destination portal in the Arab World.

Some 11,000 entries from over 60 countries contested this year’s awards with the ‘Official Honouree’ distinction going to the top 15 per cent of all work submitted that demonstrated remarkable achievement. Honourees were chosen by the academy’s international jury.

“Over the past year we have devoted considerable effort to upgrading our destination’s digital presence and this drive is still gathering pace with more product development in the pipeline,” said Khalid Al Hadi, executive director, Marketing & Communications, Abu Dhabi Tourism & Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi), which owns and operates Visitabudhabi.ae.

“Naturally we are very gratified with this award which will spur us on to further expand the destination’s digital footprint.”

An upgraded version of Visitabudhabi.ae was launched in June last year with a visual, user-friendly look and a new information architecture highlighting what to see and do in the emirate, with more than 200,000 words in eight languages (English, Arabic, French, German, Italian, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese) and over 3,000 images.

The website’s multilingual hotel search, aggregating live deals and room availability from over 50 booking engines, was complimented in late 2012 / early 2013 by the launch of a multilingual flight and car search engine with real-time results, and a trip planner facility which allows travellers to build and share their virtual trips to Abu Dhabi.

Reaching over three million visits a year, with a daily average of over 8,000 clicks, further planned visitor experience enhancements include mobile applications on all key platforms: iPhone, iPad, Android and Windows Phone. – TradeArabia News Service