World Travel Awards has teamed up with leading mobile web development company, World Mobi, to create a state-of-the-art mobile site, worldtravelawards.mobi. The innovative mobile site provides mobile users with everything they need to know about WTA – all live, using just their mobile handset.

WTA hosts regional award ceremonies around the world to underline excellence in the travel and tourism industry, and brings together the leaders of the industry as well as the global media.

Over 3,500 guests travelled to the events in five continents to attend the 2009 ceremonies. worldtravelawards.mobi is therefore tailored specifically to the needs of mobile users visiting WTA events, allowing them to have easy and immediate access to information on the events, maps of the venue, as well as other important information such as winners’ lists, news and photos. The portal is accessible via all internet-enabled mobile phones.

Kelly Footit, World Mobi, Head of Development, says: “The launch of worldtravelawards.mobi will make the awards increasingly accessible to both travel industry professionals and the general public on the move.”

“The mobile internet has changed the way the travel industry does business by empowering consumers with tools to search, plan, book and share their holidays instantaneously. The mobile internet is a new marketing channel that is predicted to generate $150 billion by 2011.”

Manon Han, Executive Vice President of WTA, says: “Advances in technology are leading to an exponential growth in mobile web usage. WTA’s partnership with World Mobi ensures that we keep at the forefront of technology that is shaping the tourism industry today. World Mobi’s full optimization and bespoke mobile site solutions ensure we can extend our presence to a growing mobile audience, which is key to our online strategy.”

Mobile websites are specifically designed for internet browsing on mobile devices and formatted for the smaller screen size. Mobile sites are therefore quicker to download and allow users to search for information with fewer clicks and scrolls. According to Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt, not having a mobile website means you are missing out on a rapidly-expanding media channel where mobile search will overtake PC Search in just a few years.

worldtravelawards.mobi includes two event pages, a winners’ page, plus a news section with the latest press releases. There is also a link to WTA’s Youtube channel where the users can watch all WTA videos on the mobile, and a link on each event page to a mobile map.