1 / 19

PROMOTING & MANAGING CARIBBEAN TOURISM ON-LINE Arley Sobers, Caribbean Tourism Organization, November 2005

PROMOTING & MANAGING CARIBBEAN TOURISM ON-LINE Arley Sobers, Caribbean Tourism Organization, November 2005. Caribbean Tourism. Visitation 22.5 million tourists 20.8 cruise passenger visits Economic Contribution Spending: US$22.5 billion; 34% of total exports Total Employment: 950,000

vilina
Download Presentation

PROMOTING & MANAGING CARIBBEAN TOURISM ON-LINE Arley Sobers, Caribbean Tourism Organization, November 2005

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. PROMOTING & MANAGING CARIBBEAN TOURISM ON-LINEArley Sobers, Caribbean Tourism Organization, November 2005

  2. Caribbean Tourism • Visitation • 22.5 million tourists • 20.8 cruise passenger visits • Economic Contribution • Spending: US$22.5 billion; 34% of total exports • Total Employment: 950,000 • Other • Main Markets: North America 55%, Europe 30%; Other 15% • Hotel rooms: 270,000

  3. Caribbean Tourism Organization • Government Membership: 31 countries in English, French, Spanish and US Caribbean; varying in size and level of tourism development; • Private Sector membership: market and destination-based travel related businesses; close working relationship with the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA); • Main Activities: Regional Marketing, Statistics & Research, Education & Training, Tourism Development;

  4. Impact of Information Technology • Driven by marketplace changes in consumer behavior and in distribution systems; initially in US • Opportunity or threat? • Variable quality of member country websites; • Loss of natural URLs; • Destination management information • First regional site in 1994; current system implemented in 2001

  5. Caribbean Regional Approach • Three Inter-related Systems • Consumer Internet Site DoItCaribbean.com • Regional Intranet OneCaribbean.org • Management Information System CTO-MIST

  6. Consumer Site www.doitcaribbean.com

  7. Consumer Site: DoItCaribbean.comto attract and “funnel” site visitors to the official internet sites of CTO member countries Enquiries – Trade and Consumer DoItCaribbean.com member country official sites Technical Support to Member Countries

  8. DoItCaribbean.com (cont) • information in six languages; • country sections, with link to official website • targets 16 specific market segments (Gateways), each with link to the relevant section of the country site • modular design for easy addition/deletion of gateways • management system for in-house editing, etc • other Features include: • Interactive Vacation Planner, Interactive Map • Calendar of Events (database-driven), Travel Agent Finder, Weather, Currency Converter, etc

  9. Regional Tourism Intranet www.onecaribbean.org

  10. Regional Intranet: OneCaribbean.org • to share information and enhance communication between Caribbean tourism interests • hierarchical access; • self-administered “virtual groups” with controlled access, chat forums, document storage and retrieval, etc • web-based email, member directories, etc • shared resources with the consumer site (DoitCaribbean) e.g. calendar of events, travel agent database • tourism statistics & reports, market research/intelligence • sale of reports, conference registration, PR releases, etc • some information accessible by non-members

  11. CTO-MISTTourismManagement Information System • to advance the tourism planning, marketing and research processes through improved use of IT • earlier work • three main modules • Performance • processing & analysis of Immigration cards • visitor surveys, other indicators (economic, etc) • Product Inventory • accommodation, restaurants, attractions, events, etc • Market Data • market research/intelligence, etc • travel agent & tour operator databases, fam trips, etc

  12. Inter-related Systems

  13. CARIBBEAN INTERNET NETWORK

  14. Management Issues • Consumer Site: • Managed by Research Department with direction and significant inputs from Marketing Department; • European chapters role in foreign language sites • Marketing Department to play a greater role in future • Intranet: OneCaribbean.org • Intranet Administrator, in association with other staff • Inputs from established groups and member countries • CTO-MIST • Technical support to countries provided by Research Department • Some maintenance work by developer

  15. Performance • Consumer Site: DoItCaribbean.com (DiC) • Approx 150,000 visits per month; • Consumer preference for single site; DiC more self-contained than initially planned; • Information only site; addition of booking engine • Intranet: OneCaribbean.org • Approx 30,000 visits per month; • Navigation issues • CTO-MIST: Management Information System • Used in 7 countries; 2 more using inventory module

  16. Towards the Future • Plans to upgrade the entire system in 2006 • DoItCaribbean.com (DiC) • Joint with the Caribbean Hotel Association • Will have a more commercial orientation • Third party review underway • OneCaribbean.org • Upgrade navigation • CTO-MIST • Completely re-build system • New model Immigration card: barcode, e-mail address and “survey” questions • CRM

  17. Thank You!! *****

More Related