E-tourism in England a strategy .pdf

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Appendix 1: Definition of terms For the purposes of this report, ‘e-tourism’ is taken to mean ‘e-business for tourism.’ The World Tourism Organisation report, ‘E-Business for Tourism’, explains the concept of e-business as follows: ‘….for tourism destinations and businesses, e-business is about realising the opportunities of improved connectivity both externally, through the Internet, and internally, through intranets. The external dimension is about transformation of the value chain, linking the tourism supplier (or service provider) to the customer, and of the supply chain, linking the tourism supplier with its own suppliers. This brings in e-marketing, e-commerce and e-procurement: • e-marketing exploits the Internet and other forms of electronic communication to communicate in the most cost-effective ways with target markets and to enable joint working with partner organisations, with whom there is a common interest • e-commerce is the sales activity undertaken through electronic distribution channels • e-procurement streamlines the purchasing process by allowing a business to tie its inventory and procurement systems into the despatch and billing systems of its suppliers, or vice versa. Not only does this reduce costs through automation, it also facilitates identification of best value sources of supply.’ The internal dimension is about transformation of the way in which the organisation functions, enabling it to work in a fully integrated way, through the use of common systems. The transformed organisation should: • Be fully networked for internal and external communication • Use a common set of tools, protocols and standards • Share product and customer data as a common resource • Have staff operating as teams, focused on maximising shared resources. 34/44 A strategy for modernising English tourism through e-business – July 2002
Appendix 2: E-tourism in other countries ETC has drawn upon published sources and commissioned comparative reviews to compare progress on e-tourism initiatives in comparable competitor countries. Scotland and Wales each have their own tourism e-business projects. The Scottish Tourist Board launched its Ossian project in 1997. This project was re-branded visitscotland.com in 2000 and a public-private partnership (PPP) with SchlumbergerSema was launched in May 2002. A new product database structure was designed and populated in 1998, and is now being maintained by the Area Tourist Boards. The development of visitscotland.com was undertaken in-house and the investment since 1997 has been estimated at £5m-£6m. E-commerce (in the form of accommodation transactions) was launched in 2000. Some elements of the original development programme remain to be completed, and up to £11 million of further investment is planned under the new PPP. The Wales Tourist Board initiated its project in 2001 and has taken a different route, inviting tenders in response to a very detailed specification. The contract for system supply was awarded to World.Net, which offers fully web-enabled software for use both by destination organisations and by tourism businesses across various sectors. This solution is now under construction. In Europe, Austria, Finland, Sweden and Denmark all have fully integrated systems linking all parts of the tourism support structure. In Switzerland and the Netherlands, partnership web projects have been implemented at the national level and participation is being extended to regional and local tourism organisations. The Netherlands Board of Tourism decided not to proceed with a planned public-private partnership company, but rather to fully integrate all aspects of e-business within its own operations, whilst still working in partnership with key commercial players. In Germany, Belgium, France and Spain, the picture is more fragmented, with the main focus of activity at the regional/provincial and local level, as in England. Many different systems have been implemented at these levels in each country with a lack of consistency and interoperability. In all cases, except Belgium, there have been national initiatives to achieve a greater degree of co-ordination and establish certain basic standards. The situation in England is perhaps most analogous to that in Germany and France, where different destination systems have been developed across the country. Action has been taken jointly by the German regional tourism organisations to achieve a consistent approach, but with limited success to date. France appears to have made more progress through the Tourinfrance project, which has focused upon developing interoperability standards to link regional DMS services within a national framework. Implementation of this is, however, still at an early stage. It seems clear from these examples that a key issue for the success of a national solution in England will be the ability to achieve interoperability between existing regional and local destination systems. 35/44 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
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Page 13 and 14: This strategy and the EnglandNet pr
Page 15 and 16: 4.2.2 Travel trade Potential requir
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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
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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
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