Travel Alberta Launches New Website
OCTOBER 31, 2006. Visitors to Travel Alberta's new website, TravelAlberta.com, find much more than the guidebook-style destination website.
Instead, they find a story. From the new design to new interactive planning tools, the website strives to engage those interested in Alberta travel in the spirit of the province, chronicling all that it has to offer visitors through extraordinary imagery, fascinating seasonal articles and vacation planning resources.
The new TravelAlberta.com site is the first Canadian-owned website designed since 1998 by renowned interactive marketing services firm Critical Mass of Calgary. Critical Mass has designed and built websites and customer experience management programs for clients such as Dell, Hyatt Hotels, Mercedes-Benz USA, Procter & Gamble, Rolex, Citigroup, and Home Depot.
To plan an Alberta vacation, visitors to the new site can choose to search for information in a variety of ways. The EXPERIENCE pages offer information on every activity from arts and entertainment to spas and wellness, with links to a host of additional resources.
The EXPLORE section provides comprehensive information on accommodations and campgrounds. As well, visitors can find data on all cities and towns in Alberta. A search by region will direct the user to the home pages of our six tourism destination regions.
Another new element is the PLAN section. As well as the Alberta Holiday Ideas feature stories, photo gallery and the new Google mapping capabilities, this section contains all the "nuts and bolts" users will need to plan their Alberta holiday, including Canadian Rockies and other Alberta destination packages, travel essentials, transportation, road and weather information, vacation guides and links to international and land only tour operators.
According to Travel Alberta's Managing Director Derek Coke-Kerr, "The redevelopment of TravelAlberta.com focuses on making the site more user-oriented-ensuring that we best serve our audience with timely, comprehensive, and accurate travel planning information." Because Travel Alberta seeks to create a dialogue with users, visitors will find more content, more resources, more tools, and most importantly, more choice about how and what they explore.
New functionality also includes interactive Google mapping technology that allows the user to choose any Alberta destination and receive not only a map of the location, but other pertinent travel information. A search for Banff, Canada, for example, yields the location, a web link, the current temperature, and the ability to retrieve directions from any point of origin. Other Canadian travel information is close at hand in the Travel Essentials feature on the new website. Here visitors find a currency converter and banking information; standard metric conversions; international entry information and directions to visitor information centres throughout the province.
Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MAR) is a global leading lodging company based in Bethesda,Maryland, USA, with more than 4,200 properties in 80 countries and territories. Marriott International reported revenues of nearly $14 billion in fiscal year 2014. The company operates and franchises hotels and licenses vacation ownership resorts under 19 brands, including: The Ritz-Carlton®, BVlgari®, EDITION®, JW Marriott®, Autograph Collection® Hotels, Renaissance® Hotels, Marriott Hotels®, Delta Hotels and Resorts®, Marriott Executive Apartments®, Marriott Vacation Club®, Gaylord Hotels®, AC Hotels by Marriott®, Courtyard®, Residence Inn®, SpringHill Suites®, Fairfield Inn & Suites®, TownePlace Suites®, Protea Hotels® and MoxyHotels®. Marriott has been consistently recognized as a top employer and for its superior business ethics. The company also manages the award-winning guest loyalty program, Marriott Rewards® and The Ritz-Carlton Rewards® program, which together surpass 50 million members. For more information or reservations, please visit our website at 
