Tourism goes Digital

Monday, 14th May 2007

Categories: General News, What's New, IT & Technology

North East England's tourism industry is going digital with one in four tourism businesses already able to take bookings via their website.

Tourism goes Digital

North East England's tourism industry is going digital with one in four tourism businesses already able to take bookings via their website.

The first regional tourism e-business survey shows that our visitor economy is switched on to the Internet with over 80% of those questioned operating their own website.

Over 600 tourism businesses took part in the survey (401 telephone/255 online) that is designed to give a picture of the level of ICT and e-business use in the region following the introduction of the Desti.ne, North East England's e-business platform by Regional Development Agency One NorthEast.

A total of 68% of telephone respondents stated that e-business had helped their business performance in the last three years and less than 20% felt that e-business was not relevant to them.

Attitudes indicated that there are still opportunities to raise awareness and provide advice on aspects of e-business such as on-line security (30% have concerns), advice on the right software (33% felt they did not have the right software) and skills to use e-business (40% felt they did not have the skills).

In total, half of businesses (50%) seemed interested in taking payment and bookings online. Over a third (37%) stated that they did most of their marketing online.

While overall North East England is well represented on the web, there is significant variety between individual sub-regions in the percentage of businesses with their own website offering an online booking service:
- Tees Valley 48%
- County Durham 40%
- Tyne and Wear 34%
- Northumberland 12%

Louise Davis Head of Tourism at One NorthEast said: "It is encouraging to see that a significant number of tourism businesses are already switched on to the potential of e-business.

"UK residents spent £1.8bn on holidays over the internet in 2006, up 65% since 2003 and this figure is growing all the time. In an increasingly competitive market place it is vital that the region is well represented online.

"The regional website www.visitnortheastengland.com, will allow visitors to access information about the North East's accommodation, attractions and events online and then direct them straight to the information they are interested in."

The results of the survey will also provide information on the region's tourism business ICT training and support needs.

One NorthEast will repeat the survey over the next three years to measure the region's capability and the impact the introduction of Desti.ne has had.

For more information on accessing and using Desti.ne Extranet call Karen O'Donnell in our Tourism Team on 0191 229 6831 or e-mail Karen.o'donnell@onenortheast.co.uk

To book a no obligation demonstration, take up the software or just to find out more about Desti.ne Frontdesk, call Eviivo on 0800 422 0088 or email desti.nefrontdesk@eviivo.com

For more information please contact: Stuart Boyd, press office, One NorthEast on Tel: (0191) 2296485
e-mail : stuart.boyd@onenortheast.co.uk

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