The Great Barrier Reef, a distinct feature of the East Australian Cordillera, is now featured in Hotels.com mobile app as Tourism and Events Queensland entered a partnership with Hotels.com. The two launched a deep sea diving adventure mobile booking app created and developed by Hotels.com.

The video featured Ben Southall - winner of Queensland's popular "The Best Job in the World" competition - booking a room on the Hotels.com mobile app while deep sea diving in The Great Barrier Reef.

The Hotels.com mobile app is now available for iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Windows Phone 7 and Windows 8 - reaching a whooping 25 million downloads to date.

Neha Parikh, vice president and General Manager for Hotels.com North America said that The Great Barrier Reef never stops to amaze him.

"I had the good fortune to live in Queensland a few years back and no matter how often I got to explore The Great Barrier Reef, I was always stunned by how vivid and beautiful it is. Personally, I am thrilled to get to showcase the Hotels.com mobile booking app in the brilliant backdrop of The Great Barrier Reef. Not only does it bring to attention the breadth of destinations to book on our site, but, with the pair of active scuba divers, it illustrates the power of our 'on-the-go' booking capabilities!"

Kerri Anderson, international director, the Americas, Tourism and Events Queensland is ever proud about The Great Barrier Reef.

"Between the stunning corals, incredibly diverse marine life and hundreds of tropical islands, the coast of Queensland truly is one of Australia's greatest treasures. As the best scuba diving destination in the world and an area of extreme adventure and natural beauty, the Great Barrier Reef just seemed like the perfect setting to book the perfect hotel," he said.

Meanwhile, German and Australian scientists, in a world's first, had launched a high resolution digital map of the entire Great Barrier Reef.

The world's first digital map of The Great Barrier Reef is created using satellite derived depth techniques called the Bathymetry.

Bathymetry is an important tool to identify, manage, preserve and protect the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef.

The project is the first ever conducted in Australia.

The digital map shows 3D water depth maps with a 30 m horizontal resolution showcasing the 350,000 square kilometre of the Great Barrier Reef.

"This information is regarded as essential for any government or company involved with managing the reef environment," said Professor Stuart Phinn, University of Queensland.

"There is often a disconnect between research and industry, where researchers generally look at changes on individual reefs and habitats, but industry wants the overall picture of the reef-this product brings the two together," said Dr. Nathan Quadros from the Cooperative Research Centre for Spatial Information.