Travel event pulled out online competition due to misuse of twtpoll

(TRAVPR.COM) UK - September 20th, 2013 - Travel Trade Gazette Travel Awards 2013 launched an online competition for the best dressed attendee. The theme for this year's award was 1920s ‘vintage chic’.

Voting was done online via Twtpool, used to create web surveys across social network sites.

Very soon finalists realised that they could vote for themselves repeatedly. Twtpool settings soon changed only allowing votes to take place via users Twitter accounts but votes were not going through for all finalists, which caused the industry some concern.

The prize for the winner would have been:

• Five-night shopping trip to Shanghai for two at the first Chic Outlet shopping village outside Europe in Suzhou
• Five nights at the Jing An Shangri-La Hotel
• Flights, guides, excursions & visas from Wendy Wu Tours
• VIP trip to Suzhou Village, £250 gift card, and a two-course lunch

The winner was going to be announced at the end of the competition on the 19th of September but the voting page was deleted without any explanation via any of TTG social media channels.

The competition attracted over 20,000 visitors to the voting page and increased their number of twitter followers with no result to those who voted.

The finalists were:
Aisha Battersby, Corporate Traveller; Alice Cunningham, The Goring
Hotel; Dan Caplin, Click With Technology; Debra Hall, Corporate
Traveller; Emma Sanger,Wexas; Ian Brooks, Pure Genie Digital
Recruitment; Marianne McPhee, Hurtigruten; Melissa Donnelly,
Publicasity; Nancy Turner, Gail Kenny Group; Russell Knight, Visit
Britain; Ruth Bligh, Your Car Hire; and Sally Turner, JG Collection. 

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