Online start-up Walkhighlands.co.uk has walked away with both the Tourism Award and the trophy for the Overall Winner at the Herald Digital Business Awards.

The awards were presented on Friday 4 December at the Mitchell Library in Glasgow, by David Milne, the Digital Editor at the Herald and Times Newspaper Group. The judges said that the panel was unanimous in its decision to declare Walkhighlands the overall winner across all business sectors, despite fierce competition from some of Scotland’s biggest digital media companies.

Walkhighlands won the award for being able to demonstrate how digital technologies help attract more visitors to Scotland’s countryside and encourage walking. The business, which was founded in 2007, is run by Paul and Helen Webster from the Isle of Skye. It provides a whole range of walking information using innovate digital technologies such as downloadable routes for hand held GPS and Gaelic podcasts of the hard-to-pronounce Scottish hill names. The site has been a hit with users, with over 4000 people visiting the site a day, downloading over 10,000 of the free walk descriptions, many of them contributing their own reports from the walks.

On winning the award, Walkhighlands co-founder, Paul Webster said, “It’s great to receive recognition at these important awards, stressing the importance of embracing new digital technologies in the tourism sector. To win the overall award for all sectors as well is completely unexpected – and a real honour. We’d like to thank all our users for their support and enthusiasm for Walkhighlands, and also our advertisers who make it all possible.”

Link to The Herald

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