WalesCymru.com

A recent review of the Welsh Tourism Industry conducted by L&R Consulting on behalf of the Wales Tourism Alliance recommended that three task and finish groups be established.  The one that is of particular interest to me is the “Digital tourism business framework for Wales task and finish group”.

This group is Jointly Chaired by Julian Burrell, of the Wales Tourism Alliance, and Roger Pride, of Visit Wales/WAG and comprises the great and the good of Welsh Tourism (see the full membership list here).

The role this group is to “consider, agree and be responsible for decisions taken in respect of the appropriate framework for digital tourism business for Wales”.

The Objective of group is:

To consider and agree a Digital Tourism Business Framework for Wales, to achieve this, the group will need to agree:-

• Key principles
• Component parts and how they might best be delivered
• The risks and how they will be managed
• Required actions and timeframes,  including whether or not to submit an application for European funding;
• How to ensure the tourism industry is content with the direction of the project and remains engaged as it progresses.

With a total Project Cost circa £18,500,000; I advice everyone with an interest in Digital Tourism in Wales to keep up-to-date on the working of this group by reading their blog (something I’ve only just discovered myself today):

http://dtbp09.wordpress.com

If anyone has any comments, observations of views on this, please feel free to post them here - I’d love to know what you all think; and esp. if WalesCymru ‘might’ have some role to play in this development.

Today a colleague emailed details of a new listing on the Welsh Assembly’s Sell2Wales website. It appears the Assembly is inviting suitably qualified companies to quote for “Writing the WEFO (funding) application for the Digital Tourism Business Project“.

So what is this all about and more importantly what can a £24m ‘Digital Tourism’ project do for Welsh Tourism?

According to the Project’s RFQ the “Digital Tourism Business Project aims to transform both the data infrastructure and strategic landscape of Wales.”

The intention is to “deliver an environment whereby the tourism industry … can use a definitive and accessible information feed as part of a platform for marketing and the development of innovative business networks” and “prepare tourism in Wales for integration into a wider digital business network.”

In order to achieve this it is proposed that the project will:

• Provide innovative opportunities for tourism SME’s to fully embed ICT in business marketing and business processes including environmental best practice.
• Create virtual tourism business networks in order to create wider industry penetration and increase business generated in the online/digital marketplace.
• Establish an innovative digital tourism business framework to encourage additional digital/online business enquiries and ensure that efficient technological structures are in place so that enquiries generated can be easily and quickly converted by SME’s to improve bookabilities at all levels.
• Provide networking opportunities for tourism SME’s to capitalise on business opportunities stimulated by Visit Wales and encourage technological improvements & enhancement to key partner websites to further assist businesses
• Create a new e-CRM approach to working with tourism SME’s and establish support channels for SME’s
• Establish and implement a SME engagement Programme with ICT surgeries, focused tourism ICT advice and signposting to other providers

As a user of VisitWales data WalesCymru.com applauds this initiative. Access to high quality multilingual profiles, feature lists, accessibility details and availability - all updated by their owners in real time - can only help in the digital marketing Wales.

Let’s hope the project can deliver this promise, is inclusive in coverage, and embraces open systems and internationally recognized data formats.

The only concern is likely to be with the investment averaging £20,000 per operator. Some may question if this a good use of public money.