European tourism marketing portal poised to go live
A new internet portal to promote European tourism worldwide is due to go live at the end of the year.
Work on the European tourism portal project by the European Travel Commission started in 2004 and is now nearing completion.
Development of the e-marketing strategy comes as Europe loses tourism market share despite claiming to be “the world’s tourism superpower”.
The portal at www.visiteurope.com will allow ETC to work both in established markets and in developing the potentially huge markets of the future such as China, Russia and India, according to the organisation.
ETC executive director Rob Franklin (VisitBritain) said: “These are exciting but critical times for ETC.
“The portal will go live at the end of 2005, when we will begin to see the results of all the work we started in 2004. We feel more and more certain that this development will mean that Europe is better placed than ever to stand up to its competitors.”
ETC president Dr Arthur Oberascher (Austrian National Tourist Office) said: “The portal will be an exciting new tool which will motivate people from all over the world to come and visit Europe.
“The new www.visiteurope.com will allow us to become a ‘virtual organisation’ with a global reach.”
The European portal has been developed by the European Union with funding from its Interchange of Data between Administrations programme. ETC will take over operation of the site when it goes online in late 2005.
Report by Phil Davies
Phil Davies
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