Zoocha Wins Design / UX Award at the International Splash Awards 2026

Splash award winners!

Zoocha has won the Design / UX category at the International Splash Awards 2026 for its work with Global Touring. Presented at DrupalCon Rotterdam 2026, an event Zoocha was proud to sponsor, the award recognised the project "Transforming Three Global Travel Brands with One Drupal Platform" 

Alongside celebrating the Splash Award win during the conference, Zoocha CEO Will Huggins took part in a group session to deliver a talk titled "Help shape Drupal’s story: A global marketing call to action" which explored bridging the gap between how Drupal is engineered and how it is promoted worldwide, urging community members to get involved in elevating its market presence.

One shared Drupal platform, three distinct experiences

The award-winning initiative brought Topdeck Travel, Back-Roads Touring, and Grasshopper Adventures together onto a single, modern Drupal architecture. Previously, Global Touring operated on separate, outdated systems that created technical complexity. Consolidating the brands onto a shared Drupal codebase reduced maintenance risk and simplified future updates, while accommodating distinct payment gateways and diverging checkout flows for each brand.

Our UX and service design approach shaped the user experience through collaborative design thinking workshops to map out brand ambitions and optimise the booking funnel. User research highlighted a demand for richer visual touchpoints, prompting the team to build interactive maps and clickable itineraries to spark trip inspiration. We also tested language across booking flows to ensure messaging remained welcoming, clear, and inclusive.

Measurable results powered by Drupal

Placing user needs at the heart of the new Drupal architecture generated clear, positive outcomes for Global Touring:

• 28% year-on-year increase in overall bookings.
• 120% increase in conversion from the customer details screen to the payment screen.
• 16% increase in overall site traffic, alongside longer dwell times across destination and itinerary pages.

An award-winning partnership

This Splash Award win follows the project’s Gold award in the Website/Travel category at the 2025 NYX Awards. Together, these accolades reflect a successful long-term partnership with Global Touring and showcase what can be achieved with a flexible, user-centred Drupal setup.

Congratulations to everyone across the Zoocha and Global Touring teams who contributed to this achievement!