Choosing the winners

Since TravelGround opened only 6 months ago we have received almost 250,000 page views (see our blog post about our Traffic Growth in 2009) and thousands of accommodation enquiries, bookings and reviews. To choose the winners we simply calculated which accommodation establishments drew the most attention, potential bussiness and completed business in each region.

So, in truth we didn’t choose the winners – our users did!

The prize

Each winner has received a custom badge made for their website. Below we have a sample of the Award that was designed in-house here at TravelGround.com.

A sample of what each of the awards will look like when displayed in full

And the winners are…

We have 35 winners of TravelGround’s Most Popular Accommodation Awards for 2009. Each award is for a distinct region of South Africa. Click on any of the awards below to see the winner’s page on TravelGround.com.

You can have fun trying to figure out what the winner’s might have in common. You will quickly realise that the winners have extremely varied accommodations – from price ranges to star-gradings to service. Yet the specific prospects of each property drew guests to that page more than any in the surrounding region, and then prompted them to action. If you can figure out the pattern, please let us know!

Today is one year to kick-off of the 2010 Fifa World Cup!!!

It’ll all get going at Soccer City, Johannesburg at 4pm on 11 June 2010, and today at 4pm citizen across the country will join President Jacob Zuma and a crowd of soccer lovers at Green Point Stadium in Cape Town to sing the national anthem in unison. Every home and workplace will sing along too the anthem’s broadcast over TV as South Africa counts down to what will likely be the biggest event that the continent has ever hosted!

Mansoor Mohammed, who co-received the award on behalf of “Cape Town Tourism“, said that this reaffirmed their belief in Cape Town’s infrastructure led economic and tourism growth strategies. It also helps to promote Cape Town as one of the top destinations for the highly anticipated soccer world cup in 2010. Mariëtte du Toit Helmbold, CEO of Cape Town Tourism, also drove home the fact that it is the service and hospitality provided by so many that makes Cape Town so fantastic.

There were a number of factors that swayed the choice between Britain and South Africa in our direction, but mostly it came down to the fact that SA acted as if we actually wanted the event, while Britain acted, well… British… But jokes aside, it should have been obvious that South Africa’s predictable weather, welcoming attitudes towards tourists, low production cost and affordable accommodation would sway the vote in our favour.

All South Africans should be excited to be hosting these 59 high adrenalin games, because this is a form of cricket that even the most sceptical sports fans can enjoy. Hopefully the infectious feeling as the games approach will help bring new youngsters with more diverse backgrounds into the game. After all, as the 1995 Rugby World Cup taught us, nothing has the power to unify quite like sport does. When it comes down to it, South Africa simply has to be the best country in the world, so what other choice would there be?

At least Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu and former president FW de Klerk (whose signatures were on the Dalai Lama’s original invitation before it was revoked) have publicly denounced and decided to boycott the conference. Now even Nelson Mandela and the Nobel Peace Prize Committee will not be in attendance.

When 2010 comes I hope that South African leadership will show more forsight than they have this week. The potential to promote this great country of ours is simply staggering, but if the organizers and South Africans at large can’t keep their heads above water the event may become a national embarressment. Truthfully I think that in the end it is South Africans that make South Africa great, and I am proud to be amongst them. Hopefully our hospitality will speak volumes about the country.