E-tourism in England a strategy .pdf

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Tourism businesses will be marketing-focussed and will seek: • Cost-effective access to powerful distribution mechanisms. Tourism businesses need distribution mechanisms which are appropriate for their products. Distribution services should: - Enable control of distribution channels - Enable online control of prices and availability - Enable control of automatic confirmation or confirmation after intervention by reception staff - Offer distribution to re-sellers with negotiation of sales terms - Secure and cheap payment/clearing mechanisms - Clear and up-to-date back-office services - Be supported by call centre services. • Support from DMOs for linking up with other complementary local products, destination marketing and fulfilment (eg brochure distribution, TIC booking services). 4.2.6 RTBs and local DMOs E-business has the potential to permeate virtually every area of the work of RTBs and DMOs. Most have a destination marketing role targeted at consumers and travel trade intermediaries. Additionally RTBs and many DMOs require access to data to underpin research and business support activities. Local authorities also have a requirement to demonstrate value in the delivery of their services. Particular needs include: • Increase in number of clients/members from an enhancement of the services they can offer, eg e-commerce services, national and international distribution • Increase in the value of clients/customers by charging appropriate commissions or subscriptions for enhanced services • New revenue opportunities from consolidation of local and regional product • New revenue opportunities from provision of call centre services integrated within a national call centre network • Integration of new marketing services with distribution of bookable, quality assured product • Facilities to enable the building of online communities to support local/regional product creation, marketing and sales • Effective communication and co-operation between public sector bodies involved in providing services to SMEs and consumers • Easy access to national information on tourism products and services • Ability to market cost-effectively. 4.2.7 Tourist Information Centres TICs (and destination-based call centres) deal primarily with public enquiries. They are generally dependent upon local authority funding to support their services. TICs have specific requirements: • to quickly search in-depth, up-to-date, accurate information (including special offers) on available accommodation, activities, events and many other topics – and create schedules and map-based itineraries • to make immediate bookings, based on accurate price information • To open new revenue opportunities via integration of call centre facilities with online booking mechanisms 16/44 A strategy for modernising English tourism through e-business – July 2002
• To be integrated into a national TIC network to obtain advance bookings from national and international customers. Whilst demand may be mainly for local information, most TICs need to be able service enquiries about other parts of their area or elsewhere in England – and therefore to have access to the national database and to be able to communicate quickly with TICs in other areas. 4.2.8 DMS suppliers Destination management systems are specialised software applications which provide the foundation for the management of destinations, enabling tourism product information to used to support marketing and visitor services and for the provision of up-to-date data enabling online booking. The suppliers of DMS software require a market that encourages investment in technical improvement and adoption by DMOs not yet covered. The creation of a national Englandnet infrastructure with open interoperability standards would enable DMS suppliers adopting these standards to offer DMOs the added confidence of national distribution in addition to the other competitive features of their systems. 4.2.9 Suppliers of goods and services The suppliers of goods and services to tourism businesses are faced with the costs and inefficiencies of dealing with a highly dispersed and diverse range of relatively small customers. If tourism businesses had online access to supplier catalogues for product search and price/delivery comparisons and ordering, the suppliers and procurement companies would have wider and cheaper distribution. They may also be able to plan and provide cheaper logistics. Enabling such a procurement service could be built into the EnglandNet national infrastructure. 4.2.10 Suppliers of e-commerce services The take-up of e-commerce services by tourism organisations has been hindered by the lack of data and systems that work together. This has held back the development of e-tourism services, which need a set of national standards to be fully effective. The consequence is that cost economies and breadth of supply of e-commerce services have not yet been achieved. National standards, driven by the requirements of EnglandNet will hasten the creation and use of payment and back-office services. 4.2.11 Commercial operators not primarily involved in tourism This category is made up of organisations and companies that are not primarily involved in tourism but would benefit from access to tourism data, for example: • Distribution organisations – those that could publish England product data through their own distribution routes, for example, Internet service providers or mobile phone companies. • Content providers - those that could provide appropriate content to enhance the main system, for example a train operating company. • Data merchants - those that would pay for the use of the database content for their own commercial purposes, for example media production companies. • Travel goods suppliers, for example hotel furnishings suppliers. 17/44 A strategy for modernising English tourism through e-business – July 2002
Page 1 and 2: E-tourism in England A strategy for
Page 3 and 4: Contents Foreword 3 1. Executive su
Page 5 and 6: time content on the availability of
Page 7 and 8: 2. Introduction Tourism is a major
Page 9 and 10: 3. Background In tourism, as elsewh
Page 11 and 12: likely to reach saturation point or
Page 13 and 14: This strategy and the EnglandNet pr
Page 15: 4.2.2 Travel trade Potential requir
Page 19 and 20: information. Technically, this woul
Page 21 and 22: 6. Key roles in support of e-touris
Page 23 and 24: As EnglandNet develops 3 , the pote
Page 25 and 26: 6.2.5 Regional Development Agencies
Page 27 and 28: Key Actions Lead role Others involv
Page 29 and 30: This same network, with some modifi
Page 31 and 32: Maintain a communications strategy
Page 33 and 34: 8. Monitoring and evaluation To eva
Page 35 and 36: Appendix 2: E-tourism in other coun
Page 37 and 38: 1.1 Internet users’ profile Inter
Page 39 and 40: Thus, over a period of only five ye
Page 41 and 42: It also indicates the reasons cited
Page 43 and 44: 60% 55% 50% 45% 40% 35% 30% 25% 20%

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