From attracting to seducing, the internet has changed tourism as well

The Internet has become the means of attraction of tourists for many “inexistent” Tourist Destinations worldwide. Places like New Zealand, Slovakia, Montenegro or regions such as Murcia or Extremadura in Spain almost did not “exist” before the Internet Revolution. They took very seriously their online potential and invested time and money on their online actions and strategies. Here below I try to will give you a different approach with 3 different methods of how Destinations could or do use the power and the potential of the internet to seduce visitors.

1. T.U.I: Traditional Uncovered Influence.

In T.U.I mode the destination gives to Thomas Cook, Thomson-Tui, American Express Travel or whoever other Big Tour Operator, lets say 3,5 million Euros each in form of “marketing expenses” and seeks ROI. This money is used by the tour operators to “market” the destination and of course to market it online since 50% of the sales of the big tour operators are now made online and almost 98% of total sales are confirmed using online tools. Thomsons-Tui for example last week was promoting Tunisia on their UK site and defiantly they were not doing it for free. If Cyprus for example is an expensive destination and Turkey or Tunisia are not so expensive then obviously the tour operator will prefer to promote an easy to sell destination than a hard one, since we are in S.H.I.T, (Stupid Hospitality Industry Turbulence) caused by real estate speculation

2. D.I.Y.O: Do It Yourself Online:

D.I.Y.O is a rather new way of attracting visitors. As all other D.I.Y methods, this requires new skills, new way of thinking, new strategy, new planning and especially lots of courage and faith in what you are doing. It works the same way as D.I.Y for plumbing. If you do not have enough confidence in what you are doing or if your skills are not yet well developed then you may end up with the house flooded. In politics flooding is dangerous, voters can punish you severely, just look what happens in the UK. Ministers fall over their chairs one after the other, but anyway that is in the UK, those things do not happen in the southern areas of the ex British Empire.

3. N.E.T: Neo-technological Effective Tourism:

N.E.T has 3 legs: The Destination, The Suppliers and The Customer all working in a team.

1. The Destination: a.k.a the Tourism Board: With N.E.T the Destination belongs to all and not all to the Destination. It needs to have proven flexibility, credibility and ability, not proven incapability. It needs to give answers online and not orders from-the-line. It needs to share valuable content and in an easy, indexable, universal and accessible environment and not hide content behind bureaucratic monsters and technological myths. In N.E.T “mood” the Destination to has a regulatory role and not a regular role.

2. The Suppliers Travel Professionals : In a N.E.T environment the airlines have online services and not online barriers, the taxis are booked online together with public transport and not “hitched hiked”, the hotels have online price parity and not online price asperity, the incoming agents are destination experts and not the destination desperates, in N.E.T suppliers practice online customer care do not customer scare.

3. The Customer: a.k.a the One who Pays Our Salaries.: The Customer is not only the receiver anymore but also the transmitter. He/She determines online how he/she wants to receive the service, he/she feels the value from home on the PC screen and he/she Pay Palls it. He/She is not scared to share and shout it loud. How does he/she does all that? By Blogging and not Blocking, by Commenting and not Complaining , by Face-booking and not Face-hiding, by Twittering and not Twisting , being on Youtube and not on Our Tube, by Trip Advising and not Trip Forgetting, by being Seduced online and not Ignored even online.

The article was originally published on the Cypriot Newspaper
Financial Mirror on Wednesday 1^st July 2009.

Cyprus hotels and travel agents alert

A new report is out and is indicating that the main tour operators that operate in Cyprus have an increase on their online platforms.

• In the year to September 2008, 33% of TUI UK's mainstream business came from online, making it the tour operator's biggest sales channel.

• Thomas Cook's recently launched e-commerce platform, Starfish, is helping increase conversion rates on thomascook.com by more than 300% and web sales in the UK have reached 27% of total bookings.

• EyeforTravel Research indicates that 26% of all UK hotel rooms are now booked online and we predict this rate will continue to increase at 15% per year till 2011.

• In a recent Expedia survey, 50% of respondents expect to save GB£250 on next year's holiday by booking their trip online, with 30% planning to switch from a traditional high street agent to an online source in 2009.

The question now is. Do you as hotelier or incoming agent know enough about online marketing? Do you have the knowledge to compete in this global market called online market? Are you ready to learn, to adapt, to adopt and improve your everyday business practices?

Internet is a free or almost free space but knowhow and expertise is something that we all need to pay for. So invest in expertise and knowhow so the free internet world makes money for your company!!


Post originally posted on www.emrgence2009.com Blog platform

Let's go to Cyprus for Holidays

The annual conference of the Cyprus Hotel Association was this year really interesting.

We had the opportunity to hear how Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays - TUI Group asked publicly the hoteliers of Cyprus to lower their prices even more so those two companies would be able to help the Cypriot Hotelier. Well I think is time to see reality. Thomas Cook and TUI Group are profitable organisations who are asking us to lose money so they make money because they drive tourist traffic in Cyprus. My question is do we really need them?

I ask the hoteliers to wake up and see that their hotels in Cyprus the only thing they need is to forget about the intermediates and go for the end user alone. This can only be achieved on-line. There are more than 20,000,000 (twenty million) travellers that plan their travel online every week. How much would the Cyprus Tourism Organisation would pay to have a slice of this pie? How much would the hotels invest to have their finger in this honey pot?

With this opportunity I would like to thank Dr. Dimitry Shevchenko for his clear vision and his real support to Cyprus as destination, also I would like to ask Mr. Jez Clarke to be more honest to the hoteliers (According to this customer Thomoson Holidays is selling excursions to "North Cyprus",) as well as Mr. Len Mina to look back and see the history and learn from it. Thomas Cook is recommednding the undiscovered noth of Cyprus.

Both tour operators thanked the Cyprus Tourism Organisation for the support in their marketing campaigns to bring tourist to Cyprus. This support I assume is not moral but monetary.

Last but not least, I would like to ask for our politicians to care more and care with real care for the industry and not use the name of the Cyprus Tourism industry to gain local impressions.

Thanks for your time and I really appreciate your loyalty reading this blog.

Emergence2009

The Cyprus Tourism Organization's commitment to its strategic objectives remains resilient despite pressing short-term needs. As a key initiative, hosting EMERGENCE 2009, is yet another contribution in the support of effective e-marketing and digital connectivity for the Tourism industry.

Providing the Tourism Sector of Cyprus with perspectives on how to overcome the current economic situation is the single most important task that the Cyprus Tourism Organization has proposed upon itself so as to enhance competitive capabilities of the local tourism industry with the launch of the upcoming E-Tourism Forum.

Managing digital, widens the scope of opportunities and it remains today as the single most important source of leverage for destinations and travel businesses. The mandate for Avantless in creating the eTourism Forum as a facilitator event with international speakers will definitely result in bridging the digital gap in the business of travel.

• Discovering genuine strategies that work more for businesses,
• Sustaining customer satisfaction in anticipation of market needs and dynamics,
• Managing conversations and online presence effectively

These are all part of formulas to navigate with success the emerging digital scape and a unique opportunity to allow for the sector to be empowered about braving the New Year with clear individual action paths that will bear also collective benefits.

The event EMERGENCE 2009 is to be celebrated in Limassol, Cyprus on the 18th and 19th of February, 2009 at the Grand Resort Hotel in attendance of the greater part of the national tourism sector.

For complete information, go to www.emergence2009.com


EMERGENCE 2009 is hosted by The Cyprus Tourism Organization and promoted by Avantless Ltd.