Dubai, October 6, 2011: Definitely Dubai, the user-friendly and informative dedicated portal for Dubai visitors from the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), has won The Internet Awards Middle East in the Best Government Website category, beating nine competitors from the UAE, Oman and Saudi Arabia.
Presented by Dubai Media City, Dubai Studio and International Media Production Zone (IMPZ) in cooperation with the awards organizers, Terrapin, the 2011 edition of the annual awards programme have been created to recognise and celebrate the leaders, innovators and pioneers in the online industry in the Middle East.
The finalists in the Best Government Website award category were Abu Dhabi Tourism Authority, Dubai International Financial Center, Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority, Information Technology Industry Development Agency, Oman’s Ministry of Manpower, Information Technology Authority of Sultanate of Oman, Sheikh Khalifa Medical City, Oman’s Ministry of Education and Capital Market Authority of Sultanate of Oman.
The judging panel was comprised of Mr. Stanley Moss, CEO, The Medinge Group, Mr. Diego Semprún de Castellane, Managing Director of Online Emerging Markets for EMEA at Nielsen, Mr. Dan Healy, CEO Real Opinions research consultancy and Mr. Ahmed Nassef,
Vice President and Managing Director of Yahoo! Middle East.
The winners were announced at the awards ceremony on September 27 at Splash Gardens of Aloft Hotel in Abu Dhabi.
Entry to the Best Government Website category was open to all government and municipal departments in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. This category was designed to recognise the government website that has been most effective in providing government services via their websites.
Mr. Khalid A bin Sulayem, Director General of DTCM, said: “The latest recognition reflects the popularity of Dubai as a tourism and commercial hub and also the DTCM’s successful initiative in making latest information about the destination available to the people online.
“Our Definitely Dubai portal is perhaps the first of its kind globally to deploy several unique features including a fully-immersive and navigable interactive video. This was part of the efforts to help renew the vision and promise of Dubai.”
He added: “Definitely Dubai brand identity has a contemporary edge, reflecting the Dubai offering and making it relevant to the diverse market to which the destination appeals. Its strength is its simplicity. It heralded an exciting new era for the DTCM in our marketing and promotional drive to promote Dubai and Definitely Dubai now provides the umbrella for a consumer brand campaigns by us.”
The strategic direction behind creating the Definitely Dubai portal was based on the need to distinguish between a government entity and consumer brand, and to be firmly anchored around the tourism value chain.
It was launched at the Dubai Stand at the Arabian Travel Market (ATM) in 2009 by His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Civil Aviation Authority, Chairman of Dubai Airports and Chairman and Chief Executive of Emirates Group.
Dubai.
Considering the importance of marketing Dubai on the Internet a dedicated team comprising of senior management was established. This team collaborated extensively within the DTCM and drew inspiration from benchmarking with other destinations as well as comments from the industry.
The Definitely Dubai brand is a copyright of the Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing and has been the result of contracts with Market Gurus, Xische & Co, Infynita and Idea Spice.