Last December, Totally Barbados was voted the “World’s Leading Travel Destination Website” at the 2008 World Travel Awards Grand Final in Turks & Caicos, capping a year of unprecedented success for a website that started small but has gained a mass following for all things Barbados.

(Pictured: Brett Callaghan, Managing Director, http://www.TotallyBarbados.com receives award from David Falcon, Senior Vice President of the World Travel Awards at the World Travel Awards 2008 World & Caribbean Ceremony on 2 December 2008 in Turks and Caicos)

In the first round of voting, Totally Barbados (http://www.TotallyBarbados.com) beat the likes of Antigua & Barbuda (http://www.antigua-barbuda.org), Jamaica One Love (http://www.visitjamaica.com), St Kitts (http://www.stkittstourism.kn), The British Virgin Islands Nature’s Little Secret (http://www.bvitourism.com) and Turks & Caicos Islands (http://www.turksandcaicostourism.com) to win “Caribbean’s Leading Travel Information Website”.

It then progressed to the Grand Final featuring regional winners from six other continents, beating the likes of Enjoy England (Enjoyengland.com), India Tourism Board (Incredibleindia.org), South Africa Tourism (http://www.southafrica.net), Switzerland Tourism Board (http://www.myswitzerland.com), Toronto.com and USAtourist.com to claim “World’s Leading Destination Information Website 2008”.

(Right: the show was held at Beaches Turks & Caicos)

Hailed by the Wall Street Journal as the “Oscars of the travel industry”, the World Travel Awards rewards excellence and achievement in the travel and tourism.

Speaking about the Totally Barbados victory, Founder and Managing Director, Brett Callaghan, said: “By carefully planning the structure and layout of the site, all information is easily accessible, quick to download and easy to navigate.

(Left: Disco legends Sister Sledge headlined the World Travel Awards gala ceremony)

“I have the awards displayed at the top of our homepage and all emails – this helps in providing brand recognition and increasing value to my VIP members and web visitors,” he added.

“TotallyBarbados.com complies and conforms to the W3C’s (World Wide Web Consortium) recommendations and other standards in website design for web documents in formats like HTML, thereby ensuring 99% cross browser platform compliance unlike none of our competitors who comply with these standards.”

Totally Barbados also now has the opportunity to showcase its prestigious awards throughout the tourism industry by using the World Travel Awards exclusive range of print, television and online media opportunities, thereby raising its profile and increasing return on investment.

(Right: One of the many reasons to visit Barbados - the beautiful Sandy Lane Bay)

Graham E. Cooke, President and Founder of the World Travel Awards said: “The winners are able to display the official World Travel Awards symbol with pride on their sales and marketing literature, offering travellers a cast-iron assurance that what they are buying is a guarantee of travel excellence.”

“In addition to the inevitable prestige of winning one of the awards, there are real long term commercial benefits to the winners in recognition of their excellence and hard work.”

The World Travel Awards was launched in 1993 to acknowledge and recognize excellence in the world’s travel and tourism. Attended by senior executives from major travel companies, operators and destinations, World Travel Awards events are also respected globally for providing top-level networking opportunities.