26 June 2008

Tourist boards slammed for ignoring the web

Tourist boards are missing a trick by doing little or no online advertising, according to web-based suppliers.

Speaking at a YouTravel.com travel industry lunch debate in conjunction with Travelmole, the feeling that tourist boards have failed to get to grips with the internet was unanimous.

YouTravel sales and marketing director Paul Riches said: Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe majority of tourist boards have not got a clue.

"They spend millions of pounds on TV advertising but they donÃ¢â¬â¢t spend money where people book holidays, which is with a travel agent or on a website.Ã¢â¬~

He said the tourist boardsÃ¢â¬â¢ collective lack of response to the internet was regrettable as they could affect peopleÃ¢â¬â¢s choices about where they holiday.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœThe Egyptian tourist board did a fantastic job in rebranding Egypt five years ago,Ã¢â¬~ he said. Ã¢â¬ÅâœThey called the Red Sea a Ã¢â¬ËœRivieraÃ¢â¬â¢ and suddenly everyone wanted to go there. That proves that if they are more active they can have a significant impact on bookings and they should be more active online.Ã¢â¬~

Hays Travel homeworking consultant Audrey Singh said she had no contact with tourist boards.

Ã¢â¬ÅâœI donÃ¢â¬â¢t even think about contacting them for information or advice,Ã¢â¬~ she said.

Ben Braude, sales director of Fleetway Travel, which sells budget holidays worldwide, said he had little contact with tourist boards.

by Linsey McNeill

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Your Comments (8)

It's like saying hotels are ignoring the web,

With regards your comment "It's like saying hotels are ignoring the web, an equally stupid comment" being into domain names and having over 300 hotel sites online. Can you tell me any hotel companies that have internet hotel names for their business? Why did none of the big chains buy or register the name hotel.com Hotels.com or any of the other Hotel names. When it comes to the web most travel and holiday businesses will get a shock one day when they relise their online strategy is wrong. Having the correct domain names for keywords will get you more traffic than spending your advertising budget on some SEO or other advertising

By Tommy Butler, Friday, June 27, 2008
Tourist boards slammed for ignoring the web

The diffrence with tourist boards and commercial firms are commercial firms have to have results on their spending while tourist boards get tax payers money and then have cheek to charge local tourist businesses for supplying public services. It's just a gravy train for some people

By Tommy Butler, Friday, June 27, 2008
Define me "ignoring the web"

@butler OK, maybe your local tourist board is asleep at the switch. That doesn't mean they all are. I'm far from being a fan of how many spend their marketing funds but these blanket statements show an ignorance what the role of a professional DMO is. It's like saying hotels are ignoring the web, an equally stupid comment.

By Joe Buhler, Friday, June 27, 2008
Tourist boards are not ignoring the web

Tourist boards are not ignoring the web, I laugh at that. Tourist boards are so far behind the rest of the travel tourist industry when comes to online it makes me laugh. Gone are the days of using one website address to attract customers, you need to have a online strategy of development. In Glasgow we are developing over 200 websites to bring customers to our advertisers, we have more visitors to our network than anyone else and that's how its done. glasgow.com main portal click on local section you then see other sites and internet names that we have bought over last 5 years to bring tourists to Glasgow and Scotland. Tourist boards are good for one thing only and that's taking local business people's money and spending it on corporate junkets.

By Tommy Butler, Friday, June 27, 2008
Tourist boards are not ignoring the web

MySwitzerland.com was mentioned. They have had a strong web presence since 1999! Over the past five or so years most tourist boards have invested increasing amounts to establish a web presence. Usually, however, they are not leaders in using the latest tools to leverage that presence and many still shy away from turning their websites into commercial revenue producing platforms, which might be one reason they are not as active in web based marketing to generate site traffic like commercial online travel players do.

By Joe Buhler, Friday, June 27, 2008
IGNORE LOCAL TOURIST BOARDS AT YOUR PERIL - TAKE A LEAF OUT OF CRUISE LINE OPERATORS...

Am I really alone here? Ignore the local or regional tourst board at your peril... Cruise lines are way ahead and ensure that at each port of call the tourist information bureau is kept fully up to date. Tourist boards and their front line information staff havea captive audience 4,000 passengers pour off the Independece of the Seas in say Vigo. 3,00 come back on board laden with brochures for a extended stay as the next holiday. Personally I would take my top sales and promotional teams and treat every individual member of the Vigo Tourist Borad to the most expensive educational I could provide. Vigo is unique as most cruise companies use Vigo as the last port of call. The vistors are already planning the next one and have a day at sea following Vigo before rthey get back to Southampton. Who needs a website when you can capture the people ona one to one basis.

By JULIAN BRAY, Thursday, June 26, 2008
Looking for reactions or sales?

Perhaps they should also look at www.austria.info as well as my own website www.innsbruck.info which has amongst other things an integrated bookingplatform, etc. Maybe their argument should be that tourist boards are not spending their budgets with their companies. As far as not contacting the tourist boards for information, that would be a big mistake, as there is a plethora of information there. I am sure my colleagues in Switzerland feel the same way, not to mention Germany and other countries!

By Nicholas Boekdrukker, Thursday, June 26, 2008
Switzerland is different.

Maybe this is an exception of the general rule: http://www.MySwitzerland.com They really do a great job.

By Klaus Oegerli, Thursday, June 26, 2008