Tourism e-accessibility and e-inclusion, a niche loyal maket is forgotten

In their effort to find niche markets, the tourist destinations have finally realised that disabled people constitute an advanced market with advanced needs and lot of perspectives; a market that belongs among the most loyal groups of clients. Let’s not forget that Europe is getting older and the obligations of the countries members of the European Union (http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/activities/einclusion/index_en.htm) increase, therefore more and more opportunities are given to the disabled individuals to travel under the same circumstances as the rest of the citizens.

The journey starts from their house, from their personal computer, usually by searching Google. However, as Abbott (2001) argues, even though internet provides opportunities of democratization of society through freedom of expression, sometimes of even radical opinions, it is still predominated by websites which usually reverberate the dominant ideology and stereotypes, or it is rich in advertising websites which rarely consider disabled individuals as a remarkable market. Therefore, the trip of a person with disabilities is mandatorily continued only on those websites of suppliers or tourist services which can cover their first need of accessibility, by following the various protocols of accessibility for the web design and content, like the ones developed by the World Wide Web Consortium, known as W3C.

Most of the Cypriot and Greek websites of the big tourist enterprises do not meet those criteria and therefore are not accessible, also evidenced by the research of Zafiris and Zacharias (2001 and 2003). The high importance given on the artistic design and not on the usability and accessibility of a website, lefts disabled individuals out of the online marketing. To avoid any possible misunderstandings, at this point we need mention that most of the criteria defined by W3C are easy to achieve, since clear guidelines are given. Those criteria do not necessarily deprive the artistic design of a site. On the contrary, they strengthen good design and facilitate the designer to avoid any possible excesses and mistakes which without realizing may affect the success of the website. The various accessibility protocols include special design guidelines of the web material with regards to accessibility for particular disabilities (e.g visual disability, motor disabilities, etc.) but at the same time include general instructions as to the usability of the website, its readability, the content presentation, the search engines, the easy and well understood reservation systems, like www.sybelio.com, and many more, which contribute in the creation of a human oriented website, which is easily accessible to every citizen of the modern society. Research findings have shown that the accessible design of a website can increase at least 10% the number of the people visiting the website.

If the tourist enterprises of Greece and Cyprus want to attract, and please allow us to repeat here the word want, an inclusive market which doesn’t exclude disability, they should not only build ramps next to the staircases, or create rooms with special equipment, and doors suitable for wheelchairs etc., but they should also give the possibilityof accessibility next to their well designed websites, so that online material, advertising and information will be appropriate and accessible to people with for visual, hearing, motor and learning disabilities, etc. Everybody has the right and we have the obligation to offer exactly the same and equal services we offer to the rest of the community.

The website accessibility should belong in the same legal framework as the physical accessibility. If one organisation offers internet services to the public, the legislation should have enforced it to offer the same services in accessible websites, as has already started in a number of European and other countries with the guidelines of Universal Design.

If Greece and Cyprus become leading markets through accessible internet and offer their tourist services in accessible websites, and this is well advertised, then we “endanger” to become accessible destinations. After all, the conviction of the European Union is that by 2010 all the public websites to become accessible then why not all the tourist websites, too? Of course it is not enough our websites to be accessible. We are obliged to have our towns, villages, beaches and mountain resorts accessible and inclusive, and this is only achieved though real and feasible human oriented plans and strong political decisions by the local authorities, decisions that can be materialized quickly.

My recent experience, in teaching an e-commerce course to 10 young people with hearing disabilities, under the Synergia Programme of the European Union, has confirmed the many opportunities those people have in online marketing.

Direct Online Hotel Marketing can make a difference in times crisis

Have we invented everything on the internet ?

Sometimes it seems that innovation on the internet is either impossible or very expensive. Well I must say that the young MBA Greek student at Kingston University UK has proven us that things can be neither expensive nor impossible.

Spyros Pyrgiotis has created www.thetextpage.com looking at it as a cheap way of advertising. Pay per character model, a newish way of charging advertising that attract the attention of media such as BBC.

Now, how can the travel industry benefit from initiatives of this type? The travel industry is the leader in offers. Hotels and other accommodation facilities with the help of user friendly online booking engines (like Sybelio which is fantastic for special offers) could publish their special offers at a very low cost on this web. Google is indexing this site every 20 minutes since and the fact that it renews its content very often is an advantage for keeping it high in Google rank.

So, if you are an hotelier and you suffer from the low production of the tour operators it is time to take action. Get a non commissionable online booking engine that helps you create offers. ( I personally recommend Sybelio) and spread your offers online using Social Media correctly and why not pay per character at www.thetextpage.com.

Sybelio online booking system

View more presentations from Petros Mavros.

How can you increase hotel bookings online in times of crisis?

The internet is full of special offers from hotels that sell their rooms at very low prices especially through portals. The big guys in the market, Expedia, Booking.com, Last Minute and so many others are squeezing the hotels and especially the independent hotels to give low, very low prices to the visitors of those portals. The crisis is the perfect excuse to make more money for the portals. The lower the prices the more the hits, more bookings so more commissions.

Now, my proposal is simple. Now is the time to use our brain as hoteliers, we need to work out a simple strategy of online pricing, maintaining or not price parity since today parity parity is only a theory and give to ourselves more visibility.

Visibility means, presence, professional presence in the different social media, serious and professional SEO and really user friendly mostly customer friendly online booking tools. Tools that give you the functionalities you need to spread your offers in the Blog sphere, in the Social Media Jungle and reach your end customer without a cent of commission.

Do those systems exist? The answer is yes. A Spanish company has developed this system and it works really well. Sybelio has the capability to do that without the hotel to need to invest crazy amounts of money and without a cent of commission.

I was talking to Daniele Pesavento, the Sales and Marketing Director and he has given me a demo of the system which at the beginning seems to be another online booking tool. After seeing that it does the job in 14 languages, it has a very powerful special offer module that can create any type of offer and the way that those offers can be linked to all the Social Media I was more than convinced to connect it my hotel web site if I had one.

Time sharing in Cyprus - From time Sharing to Profit Sharing in Cyprus Tourism - A curse or a blessing?

A “war” against time sharing has started the last few days by the Municipalities and the Tourism professionals. It is a fact that this issue is becoming a “threat” for the tourists who, as they get away from the “All Inclusive Packages”, run into the sales people of the time sharing.

I really do not understand why in Cyprus we “hide behind our finger”. Isn’t it obvious that those selling time sharing are working for eponymous Cypriot businessmen? Maybe they are not on their payroll system but they serve their interests indirectly. Time sharing is a networking, a phenomenon well spread in holiday areas and Cyprus is not an exception to the rule. Cypriot businessmen have made deals with time sharing suppliers and have entered this network. This is neither illegal nor immoral. But the so called time sharing “sales people” in Cyprus may sell buildings in Egypt in the same network. This is what confuses the Authorities and they do not understand that the network is made in a certain way so as to sell anywhere and everybody is benefited.

Time sharing is a widespread method of selling holiday accommodation and first started from the USA and was spread all over the world. Countries like Aruba, Bermuda, USA, Latin America and many more have accepted it and gave the institution a legal coverage. The most well know time sharing company in the world is Marriott (www.marriott-vacations.com) with more than 50 locations from USA, Spain, France, Aruba, Thailand etc. Another company is the world known Starwood (www.starwoodvacationownership.com) with again many locations.

There is of course the opposite side of time sharing. During the 1990’s in the region of Malaga in South Spain (Torremolinos, Benalmadena etc) English and Belgians with guileful ways have taken millions from tourists in order to sell them time sharing in projects under construction. In this trap some Spanish land developers participated since they believed that their “collaborators” had their customers ready and since they took an advanced deposit started to build. The problem arose when the English and Belgians “collaborators” took 80% of the money and disappeared leaving the Spanish developers exposed. In this story many Cypriots, staying in England lost their money since they invested in the project.

In Cyprus since ownership is allowed time sharing found its way of spreading out quickly. The “sales people” do not even have the basic knowledge of how to sell. They become extremely pushy and try to sell by giving out free accommodations etc. Those sales people work without any contract and undertake the risk of getting arrested by the police and pay the fine. They work only on commission basis and therefore nobody can figure out their relationship with Cypriot enterprises and businessmen. In reality what is happening is in everybody’s knowledge. The end result, sales, is at the benefit of the businessmen and this is what everybody is not telling whey they speak publicly.

The names of the companies dealing with time sharing can be found easily on the internet and you can find those at www.vpresales.com, www.rci-timeshare.com, www.sellmytimesharenow.com, and many more. There you will find out which Cypriot companies are involved in this type of business. I would say that in order to solve the problem, we should look into the Board of Directors of many companies and find out the people who brought this to Cyprus. The issue which remains is whether those people who speak publicly are in reality willing to solve the problem.

If we get deeper into the issue, we will see many interesting things. Just ask Google for “Pafos time sharing” and in two seconds will give you its results. Have a look and make your own conclusions.

The question is whether Time Sharing is good for tourism and the economy of Cyprus. Well, if it is well organised, legal and institutionalized in a way that each ones role is clearly defined, and if the so called “sales people” stop bothering then yes it is good because at the end new tourists will come on the island with tourism consciousness since they will be owners as well. If though, the “sales people” continue to act in a fraudulent and pressing way and if the Cypriots selling the time sharing do not undertake the responsibility to clear out the situation, then this will be another factor of the tourism crisis Cyprus will have to face.

The internet is full of complaints about Cyprus; complaints and discussions take place in social media and forums. Many angry tourists complain about the “harassment” they get into. If this continues without taking any serious steps then the consequences will be destructive for the reputation of Cyprus as a tourist destination.

Paphos International Airport - (PFO) – A great Experience

In the eighties Pafos was written on the international airport map with its PFO airport. Then the society in Cyprus was divided. Was Paphos was big enough to host an international airport? The area was basically abandoned by the Cypriot State since the connection between Limassol (Lemesos) and Pafos was made by a narrow curvy and dangerous road and there was indication that the high way was soon to be built. Today after 20 years, Pafos has the highway and Pafos – Limassol is just 30 minutes drive. In November 2008 the new Pafos International Airport was inaugurated. Today I had the opportunity to fly to Thessaloniki (Makedonia Airport) from Pafos.

I invite all of you who want to travel from Cyprus and to Cyprus to choose Paphos Airport (PFO). The building is full of natural light, the decoration is smooth, the walls are decorated by works of art from local artists, the character of the place is modern and is has nothing to envy any modern European Airport, its size is just ideal for the area, human and friendly atmosphere that inspire you security and comfort.

Finally Pafos left behind its 20 years of bad airport history, finally we have an airport we, the citizens of the area and all the Cypriots, deserve. Thank you Hermes Airports for the effort and please keep the quality high, now is time to work to get more flights and boost tourism and business travellers to Pafos.