Visit Britain makes a potentially very dangerous move……………

VisitBritain the leading global UK government owned and operated national tourist office for Britain has made what the industry describes as a potentially dangerous and unusual move, by announcing that they have entered into a sole global car rental distribution partnership with UK based car rental broker CarTrawler.

The information received by The Mole says that CarTrawler will offer car rental on the 46 www.visitbritain.com websites in 26 languages around the globe and on the domestic site, www.enjoyengland.com, with concerns being raised by the trade in Australia whether the partnership was the subject of a tender, the issue of an NTO’s impartiality in dealing with commercial partners in not promoting one in preference to another and finally, whether this means that VisitBritain will only deal or work with CarTrawler and no other car rental company or broker?

Judy Watkins, newly appointed Manager Australia, New Zealand for VisitBritain and Mark Haynes, Marketing Manager are both in the UK at the moment and unavailable for comment, but The Mole was advised this morning by the VisitBritain office in N Sydney that clarity regarding the relationship will be provided tomorrow.

VisitBritain says that their online network is one of the biggest tourist board portals in the world, registering 20 million visitors per annum and that the addition of the CarTrawler booking engine will give visitors to any VisitBritain.com and EnjoyEngland.com site access to every major branded and independent car rental company across the UK seamlessly, in real time and in their own language.

The information also says that CarTrawler is the latest partner to offer facilities for international and British consumers to search for and book with suppliers of flights, train journeys, taxis and now car rental and that it furthers VisitBritain’s ambition to drive business success for the country’s £85 billion visitor economy ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.

With 11% or 3.6 million overseas visitors using a rental car in the UK, VisitBritain says that the partnership means that many more of them, as well as British travelers, will be able to rely on visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com as a single source of tourist information.

VisitBritain adds that CarTrawler’s offering will be in a stand alone Metasearch format as well as a dynamic cross sell model alongside the other VisitBritain products and visitors will be able to book car rental in both the “book and buy” and “travel and transport” sections of the websites.

CarTrawler’s Bobby Healy, Chief Technical Officer, said, “This deal with VisitBritain is a very exciting one for us.” 

“VisitBritain.com’s reach is in excess of 20 million users, giving us access to a phenomenal new distribution channel, and enabling us to demonstrate the breadth and reach of our content and the capability of our technology.”

“In this deal we have shown how the CarTrawler platform seamlessly connects with VisitBritian’s, is flexible enough to drill down to provide in-country car rental only and is simple and easy to translate into more than 25 languages.”

“We are proud to be a chosen VisitBritain partner in the roll out of its new website.”

Georgia Cleland, e-Commerce Account and Marketing Manager for VisitBritain said, “Millions of potential visitors rely on our websites to plan their trips to and around this country.” 

“Through partnerships such as this, we aim to provide them with the best experience possible and give them the reassurance of booking through a trusted source.” 

“The size of our network in the UK and overseas, and the sheer volume of people using our websites, means that we can forge strong partnerships to benefit the tourism industry.”

“Self-drive holidays are an important holiday option for many visitors and our agreement with CarTrawler is critical in ensuring that they can choose from the most comprehensive car rental options available today.”

Michael Hay, Chairman of Holiday Autos in Australia told The Mole, “I am very surprised that this is described as a sole partnership and does this mean exclusive?”  

“I look forward to hearing from VisitBritain how they now see the relationship between themselves and all the other car rental suppliers/car rental wholesalers proceeding.” 

Does this mean that we can’t work with them or that they will not work with us and promote our products?”              

“It will also be interesting to find out if it was put out to tender and even more interesting if it wasn’t.”     

Please let the Mole have your comments by clicking below.

The Mole awaits the industry and Visit Britain’s response with interest!

Report by The Mole

VisitBritain the leading global UK government owned and operated national tourist office for Britain has made what the industry describes as a potentially dangerous and unusual move, by announcing that they have entered into a sole global car rental distribution partnership with UK based car rental broker CarTrawler.

The information received by The Mole says that CarTrawler will offer car rental on the 46 www.visitbritain.com websites in 26 languages around the globe and on the domestic site, www.enjoyengland.com, with concerns being raised by the trade in Australia whether the partnership was the subject of a tender, the issue of an NTO’s impartiality in dealing with commercial partners in not promoting one in preference to another and finally, whether this means that VisitBritain will only deal or work with CarTrawler and no other car rental company or broker?

Judy Watkins, newly appointed Manager Australia, New Zealand for VisitBritain and Mark Haynes, Marketing Manager are both in the UK at the moment and unavailable for comment, but The Mole was advised this morning by the VisitBritain office in N Sydney that clarity regarding the relationship will be provided tomorrow.

VisitBritain says that their online network is one of the biggest tourist board portals in the world, registering 20 million visitors per annum and that the addition of the CarTrawler booking engine will give visitors to any VisitBritain.com and EnjoyEngland.com site access to every major branded and independent car rental company across the UK seamlessly, in real time and in their own language.

The information also says that CarTrawler is the latest partner to offer facilities for international and British consumers to search for and book with suppliers of flights, train journeys, taxis and now car rental and that it furthers VisitBritain’s ambition to drive business success for the country’s £85 billion visitor economy ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games.

With 11% or 3.6 million overseas visitors using a rental car in the UK, VisitBritain says that the partnership means that many more of them, as well as British travelers, will be able to rely on visitbritain.com and enjoyengland.com as a single source of tourist information.

VisitBritain adds that CarTrawler’s offering will be in a stand alone Metasearch format as well as a dynamic cross sell model alongside the other VisitBritain products and visitors will be able to book car rental in both the “book and buy” and “travel and transport” sections of the websites.

CarTrawler’s Bobby Healy, Chief Technical Officer, said, “This deal with VisitBritain is a very exciting one for us.” 

“VisitBritain.com’s reach is in excess of 20 million users, giving us access to a phenomenal new distribution channel, and enabling us to demonstrate the breadth and reach of our content and the capability of our technology.”

“In this deal we have shown how the CarTrawler platform seamlessly connects with VisitBritian’s, is flexible enough to drill down to provide in-country car rental only and is simple and easy to translate into more than 25 languages.”

“We are proud to be a chosen VisitBritain partner in the roll out of its new website.”

Georgia Cleland, e-Commerce Account and Marketing Manager for VisitBritain said, “Millions of potential visitors rely on our websites to plan their trips to and around this country.” 

“Through partnerships such as this, we aim to provide them with the best experience possible and give them the reassurance of booking through a trusted source.” 

“The size of our network in the UK and overseas, and the sheer volume of people using our websites, means that we can forge strong partnerships to benefit the tourism industry.”

“Self-drive holidays are an important holiday option for many visitors and our agreement with CarTrawler is critical in ensuring that they can choose from the most comprehensive car rental options available today.”

Michael Hay, Chairman of Holiday Autos in Australia told The Mole, “I am very surprised that this is described as a sole partnership and does this mean exclusive?”  

“I look forward to hearing from VisitBritain how they now see the relationship between themselves and all the other car rental suppliers/car rental wholesalers proceeding.” 

Does this mean that we can’t work with them or that they will not work with us and promote our products?”              

“It will also be interesting to find out if it was put out to tender and even more interesting if it wasn’t.”     

Please let the Mole have your comments by clicking below.

The Mole awaits the industry and Visit Britain’s response with interest!

Report by The Mole