Gulf Shores/Orange Beach-- Successful Meetings magazine�s February issue ranked 140 convention & visitors bureaus web sites for the fastest, most useful and user-friendly in the nation. The Alabama Gulf Coast Convention & Visitors Bureau�s (CVB) web site ranked 8th, scoring 29 out of a possible 30 points, based on speed, usability and quality content in an easy-to-access searchable format.

Shelley Piraino, CVB internet marketing manager said, "When we first began brainstorming for our website, we researched what other CVBs were doing and how to best organize our information to meet the needs of visitors, meeting planners and writers." Piraino continued, "The result is a collaborative effort of our communications and sales departments and four years of tweaking. We're proud of our website and the honor of being recognized by Successful Meetings magazine."

Mike Foster, CVB vice-president of marketing said, "It is very exciting to be ranked 8th out of 140 CVB web sites in the country. It is a credit to our staff and our web site development partner. There are many CVBs with 10 times our budget who are ranked below us on the list." "This certainly affirms our hard work to continually update the site and explore new and different ways to make the site fast, complete and user friendly," Foster concluded.

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Media Contact: Bebe Gauntt +1 251-974-1510 bgauntt@gulfshores.com