Your tourism business has a retarded website, it must GO
06. Jan, 2010
7 Comments
We’re operating in a highly competitive tourism industry, which depends largely on the internet to generate bookings and communicate with potential guests. Other forms of communication still do play a role, however the internet is superior compared to any other means of conducting business…because of its limitless distribution network (reaches all corners of the world and is affordable).
Take Travelwires.com for an example, I update the look and feel of this blog on a regular basis (annually going forward). Together with published content, it’s always kept current. This is pretty simple to understand…I hope. If I do not revise the look and feel of the blog, you’re bound to get bored of the tired look. The same applies to content, if I do not publish fresh content, you’ll be happy to move on and seek interesting content on other industry blogs/websites…therefore I would have lost you as a reader.
The same principle also applies to your business website as well, irrespective that you’re not running an industry blog like myself. In your case you’ll not be expected to publish new content daily, however the frequency can be per week, bi-weekly or monthly. Websites today can have a blog added on them for the purpose of publishing news. Besides promoting your next discount offer, start informing your potential/existing guests about aspects of your operation. Some of the ideas that come to mind include sharing future business developments, achievements, lessons learnt on an incident, events etc can all be used to generate content for your blog/website.
Therefore is it very important that tourism businesses always have effectively designed and managed websites to conduct profitable business. The brochure style websites which were designed and left to gather dust are LONG gone. Today’s business environment requires ongoing fresh content on any tourism website to capture the interest and attention of potential guests.
Assigning a dedicated team/individual to actively ensure all available internet platforms are explored at all times is the route to follow. Again if you don’t have an in-house team to manage your online space, outsourcing such duties to a dedicated third party is a solution. An effective online presence for any tourism business is NOT an option, but a prerequisite now.
Starting next week Wednesday, I’ll be running a weekly feature taking a critical look into tourism websites and giving solutions to obvious problems. From my observation there is still a large pool of tourism businesses that own Stone Age websites which don’t offer any value to their operations. It’s my mission this year to instill a sense of responsibility to such operators for them to see the bigger picture and tap into the available online opportunities, instead of wasting valuable resources which could be improving their bottom line.
Lookout for next week where I take a closer look into Swaziland Tourism Authority’s website www.welcometoswaziland.com which is meant to represent Swaziland as a tourism destination…see where is it failing and what are the remedies.
My name is Muzi Mohale a full-time travel blogger, your host at Travelwires.com responsible for all editorial on this blog. I blog about the travel and tourism industry in Africa. Apart from blogging about tourism, I also run 
I agree.. more than 90% of SA Tourism Websites are outdated and just so bad that their bounce rate must be close to 100%. It seems like the SA accommodation industry still believe that having a website is just a bonus and not a necessity.
My recent post Hitch A Ride On Rovos Rail
The majority of owner-managed tourism products are owned by senior citizens who don't have the skill or experience of the world wide web…
I dont agree that a website needs to have a new look once a year – I think that once a good clean design has been found thatss easy to use and intuitive to your readers you should refrain from 'redesigning'.
Redesigning for the sake of redesigning doesnt help anybody!
You make sense Craig, if you don't have anything new to introduce, then it's not worth doing it just for the sake, however if there is value to add, then go ahead…
My recent post SA Roadlink a delinquent child of the tourism industry
You make sense Craig, if you don't have anything new to introduce, then it's not worth doing it just for the sake, however if there is value to add, then go ahead…
My recent post SA Roadlink a delinquent child of the tourism industry
You make some good points Vuzi about keeping content fresh, but I agree with Craig that one does not need to have an annual redesign. Remember that "tinkering" too much can obstruct the SEO process
For sure there is no point in updating website frequently if there is nothing new to add. The example I gave pertains to myself and I did not say everyone must follow suit.
My recent post 2010 accommodation websites, what’s on offer?