With the tourist season - expected to be the biggest ever - almost on us, Ivory Tower Internet Solutions is ready and has launched its improved and expanded suite of travel industry tools. These include Virtual Voyager Destination Management, Hotel Select and Vasco TOP.
Phil Southwell, CEO of the Ivory Tower Group, said: "We upgraded and completed the highly efficient Virtual Voyager Destination Management suite in time for the Western Cape Tourism Board to go live for Indaba.
"This destination guide is a directory of travel services indexed by categories, sub-categories and location. It is easy and quick to use - the visitor can go to various sections such as things to do, routes, satellite sites for different interest groups such as wine, cycling, golf, escapes and so on, plus there is travel and regional news, virtual tours and a hot enquiry system."
Ivory Tower developed Hotel Select - a hospitality directory and booking system - to present information about a hotel or restaurant group. The system displays six standard pages, and up to 20 standard pages can be configured for each establishment. Sophisticated navigation enables visitors to match their requirements easily.
Built into the software is an image bank, full content and image management, virtual tours, loyalty programme and complete booking system, search engine optimisation, as well as campaign and search engine tracking, satellite sites, news and press release management, special offers, flash maps, plus more powerful searches.
Southwell added: "New features in Version IV also include an image bank system from which travel professionals can download high resolution images plus full marketing-campaign tracking and ROI analysis.
"Previous versions of our hospitality software have won numerous industry awards, but with the upcoming season, we have also upgraded the database, moving to MYSQL to allow licence-free offline management and data replication."
Protea Hotels has just commissioned Ivory Tower to revamp its entire site - built three years ago - to incorporate advances in technology. It is the first group in the process of rolling out Ivory Tower`s Version IV of Hotel Select. The upgrade will be completed for the start of the coming season.
A new Botswana eco-tourism site is using Ivory Tower`s latest Vasco TOP (Tour Operator) system which manages excursions, overland safaris, adventure trips, destination guides, vehicle and 4x4 hire, special offers, weather conditions, exchange rates, plus an itinerary builder with an enquiry system.
In addition, it has all the standard features such as send-to-a-friend, printer-friendly page formats, searches, newsletter registration, search engine optimisation, and market campaign tracking.
Multiple Web sites can be controlled off the same account and administration through satellite sites, and the latest version includes benchmarking services, as well as optimising the look-and-feel and text for different target markets such as adventure, romantic breaks, incentive groups and so on.
All Ivory Tower`s software can either be leased or purchased outright. The company has introduced a unique licensing structure, which goes into hibernation during the lean off-season months, for its travel software. To find out more, contact Phil Southwell at (021) 418 8230 or mail phil@ivorytower.co.za or visit www.ivorytower.co.za.
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