Looking forward to e-tourism booking portal

Two weeks ago the Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) held an information seminar in collaboration with the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association (MHRA) to discuss the new e-tourism portal.

The portal, a sort of one-stop shop for potential tourists to book on internet all the services they need to enjoy their stay in Malta, was announced last April by Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi at the end of a crisis meeting with MHRA in Castille. The announcement said the portal would be ready "in summer".

Procedures to kick-start the development of this kind of e-tourism portal proved lengthy and much more complicated than envisaged, proving the Prime Minister's promise to MHRA unrealistic. At the end of August the request for proposals closed and Alert Communications, the same company that has designed the http://www.gov.mt portal and other government websites, was chosen from among the companies asked to submit by the MTA. The call was not open but a limited list of companies with a track record in e-government projects were asked to submit their proposal.

Almost seven months after the Prime Minister's announcement, works are still in the early stages and it is envisaged the portal will be ready in early 2007.

However, i-Tech can reveal that MHRA already has its very own online booking engine and this occurred before the announcement of the new e-booking portal.

"MHRA felt the need to find a partner for its members, who can deliver the necessary level of exposure and facilitate potential visitors who are looking for accommodation in Malta and Gozo to book online. In this respect, ChooseMalta.com was approached and agreement was reached to offer MHRA members exposure on this ever-increasing popular site. ChooseMalta.com is an associate member of MHRA," the association said on announcing the new partnership.

ChooseMalta.com was launched in January 2005 and claims individuals that booked a hotel through it have an average stay of five nights and an average room rate per night of Lm39. To date ChooseMalta.com has generated sales of over 1,900 room nights to individual travellers.

"ChooseMalta.com has an online booking portal and therefore we thought this would be another opportunity for hotel members to be exposed on the internet for room sales," explained to i-Tech George Schembri, CEO of MHRA.

Jonathan Shaw, sales and marketing director at ChooseMalta.com, gave more details on how this partnership works.

"ChooseMalta.com offers the MHRA and its members the possibility to promote Malta and Gozo hotels online through our website. In just 18 months we ranked in the top five results on Google for Malta hotels related keywords. Hotels have the ability to directly manage their rates and availability and customers book online through ChooseMalta.com. Hence, this is an extra channel to generate exposure and increase the chances of generating online direct bookings. Hotels do not pay to be featured on hotels and a commission is taken on any bookings generated."

Asked whether MTA's new e-tourism portal will compete with their portal, Mr Shaw said: "One can debate if the government should compete with private industry and do its own booking engine. Nonetheless, it's also positive to note that the government understands the importance of the internet as a booking tool".

Mr Schembri insists ChooseMalta.com is just another channel and is not in competition with the MTA's new e-portal.

"Hoteliers have got to obtain the widest exposure possible and therefore eventually they will be on MTA/Ministry of Tourism portal too once this comes on stream. Hoteliers can have their establishment on several global portals at the same time."

The promise of the new e-tourism booking portal is to provide a complimentary service to the established information portal http://www.visitmalta.com.

Albert Vella, the initiative's project manager at MTA, said the e-tourism portal represents a progressive improvement from the current and highly-popular http://www.visitmalta.com, which is regarded as an "information website", to a portal capable of providing online transactions and payment facilities.

Requested to comment on the technical aspects of the project, Mr Vella told i-Tech he would be in a better position to do so once the portal starts to take shape.

So where does internet stand in the current trends in the Maltese tourism industry?

"Over the current two years hoteliers have reported that there has been an increase in bookings through the internet. However, tour operator business remains the highest contributor to our industry," explained the CEO of MHRA.

"The Visitmalta.com website is very informative and well structured and we are sure this is of benefit to the industry too," he added.

The sales and marketing director of ChooseMalta.com provided more focused opinion on internet and tourism.

"You cannot generalise and classify the various players in the tourism industry altogether," said Mr Shaw. "Having a website or online booking facilities is also not enough. What in my opinion is lacking is the concept of regular yield management whereby the rates are managed according to capacity and bookings. Taking hotels as an example, most of the four- and five-star hotels do it but the problem lies in the two- and three-star hotels. Ironically, these are the ones that are complaining that they have a decrease in business and profitability."

Maybe the most important views come from tourists themselves. Serena Mitchell from East Sussex, England, a few weeks ago wrote to the editor of this newspaper to share her experience of booking her holiday in Malta on internet as an independent traveller.

"Website development should be at the heart of any integrated marketing campaign, but from my experience of Maltese websites this is not the case. Easier navigation, better links, more in-depth info about accommodation, eating out and places to visit, and plenty of photographs are all needed on Maltese websites. I managed to book online what so far has been a very enjoyable holiday, but only after hours of internet research, with web pages that were often very slow in uploading."

The MTA said it plans to hold more information seminars which will discuss the e-tourism portal currently under development. Valuable feedback from internet-savvy tourists like Ms Mitchell should be taken into account.

http://technology.timesofmalta.com/article.php?id=2436