A record number of visitors flocked to the award-winning TradeArabia business news and information portal last month.

Tradearabia.com - which won a prestigious eMedia award from the government of Bahrain earlier this week - drew two million viewers to its site in February – the highest monthly tally in its eight-year history.

The latest figures confirm that TradeArabia is the business portal of choice among industry professionals in the region, according to Ronnie Middleton, the managing director of the Bahrain-based Al Hilal Group, the parent company of the portal.

The record comes on the heels of the website winning the Bahrain eContent Award in the eMedia category for 2009.

Instituted by Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority and the Bahrain Internet Society, the awards recognise quality e-content from the public and private sectors while promoting creativity and innovation in new media applications within the kingdom.

The awards were presented by Deputy Prime Minister and Chairman of the Supreme Committee for Information and Communication Technology (SCICT) Sheikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, at a ceremony held at the Sheraton Hotel in Bahrain earlier this week.

Commenting on the award, Mr Middleton said: “We are delighted to have won this award, which is an indication of the portal’s popularity. This demonstrates that TradeArabia has its finger firmly on the pulse of the region’s business, trade and industry.”

The tradearabia.com website is managed by TradeArabia.com Network & TradeArabia Web Services, also part of the Al Hilal Group.

TradeArabia’s director of online services Rana Lababidi said that online media was witnessing exponential growth and TradeArabia was proud to be “at the forefront of this market”.

TradeArabia.com covers more than 20 economic sectors of the region. In addition, the portal has extensive directory listings of company contact details, enabling users to interactively search for detailed information. It also provides the latest tenders and project information.

While TradeArabia draws an average of 70,000 visitors a day, the portal’s page views total around 14 million a month.

TradeArabia.com Network & TradeArabia Web Services also manages the website of the Bahrain’s Arabic newspaper Dar Akhbar Al Khaleej, which also received a 2009 eMedia award.