Tourism misses the Net

By Candice Jones, ITWeb online telecoms editor

Johannesburg, 22 May 2007

Research shows only 12% of online tourism sites have content about the 2010 World Cup.

With most travel bookings and research being made through the Internet, South African tourism businesses must significantly improve their Web offerings before 2010, says Ian Kruger, director of BlueRiverStone. The company recently completed a dipstick research project into South African tourism Web sites.

He says: "Online inefficiencies will hinder the growth needed to elevate our tourism industry to a similar status as that of our international counterparts."

The research showed that within the tourism sector, most companies are doing less than half of what they could be doing. This indicates that, for most of the industry, the Internet is still an emerging commercial channel.

South African Tourism, First National Bank (FNB), the Tourism Enterprise Programme and Quirk eMarketing sponsored the study.

"Essentially, most sites are functioning as little more than virtual versions of their brochures and marketing material. This means the full value of the Internet has yet to be realised, lying more in the functionality, connection and community elements that help build strong relationships with customers," says Kruger.

Enticement needed

"Of great surprise to us is the fact that only 12% of the sites reviewed contain any content about the 2010 FIFA World Cup," says Pieter de Bruin, head of FNB's Solutions for Tourism. "We urge tourism businesses to provide content on their sites about the event, so that people can have some sense of the experience of being in SA for it."

Fiona Buchner, head of e-business for South African Tourism, explains the 2010 market represents a different "purpose-driven" traveller. "They are not coming to SA because it is a preferred holiday destination. They are coming because of the World Cup."

She says the true test will be to get the 2010 experience to become a springboard by which local business can become leaders in the African and global landscapes.

Investing in search

However, Rob Stokes, CEO of Quirk eMarketing, says there could be big potential for growth in the tourism sector online market. "Companies on the whole are doing it really badly, with the exception of the airlines." According to Stokes, it could be as simple as paying for a search.

He says, at the moment, businesses can get away with a bad Web site, because most of South African tourism is internal. However, with 2010 acting as a catalyst for future external tourism, businesses need to get on the map, he adds.

"Twenty-five percent of people will make a booking on a brand other than the one they were initially searching for on the Internet." He says this is because these brands were found near the top of a search. "People will pay a fortune for a television ad, but will not look into the much cheaper option of paying for a spot on a search engine."

Being first

Stokes says improving the Web sites of the tourism sector could have a huge impact on the South African economy, even aside from 2010.

"If someone does a search for 'safari holiday', they could come up with something in Kenya. By adding a South African site to the search engine, they will probably come up with that site first."

"The aim for South African Tourism is to try and consolidate South African products in search engines and try to beat out the competition like Kenya and Australia," says Buchner.