Excellent advice. Some very useful ideas. Outstanding and interesting talks...
These are just three of the comments left as feedback by tourism operators who attended e-tourism workshops held recently at various locations throughout the Highlands and Islands. Approximately 130 businesses attended at Tarbert, Oban, Fort William, Elgin, Inverness, Stornoway, Portree and Wick and were enthusiastic that the workshops had been of benefit to them.
The purpose of the workshops was to engage with tourism businesses in order to maximise sales from e-business, one of the driving forces identified by the Tourism Framework For Change strategy (PDF) to help achieve the 50 per cent growth target in tourism. And, as every piece of research points to the consumer researching and buying more online, it is vital that tourism businesses are well equipped and skilled to meet changing consumer demands.
Among some of the interesting statistics* highlighted by the workshops were:
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70% of UK adults use the web for holiday research
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94% of tourism turnover is home market
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52% of accommodation businesses get 50% of all business from their web site
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75% self catering and 65% B&Bs take at least 50% of their trade through the web
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95% agree that web bookings are increasing
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40% believe training would improve Return On Investment
The key objectives of the HIE-sponsored workshops were to improve awareness of the importance of e-business and changing consumer buying trends, and allow businesses to better understand where their business sits in relation to e-business and how they can make immediate improvements to their e-business capacity. In the longer term, there is also a wish to assist businesses to plan future e-business improvements.
The Scottish Tourism Forum, who devised the workshops, carried out a full evaluation of at the end of each event asking each delegate to fill in a two page evaluation form. Commenting on the feedback, it was stated, “The overall evaluation and delegate feedback has been very positive with the majority of attendees making very positive comments.”
Of those who attended 47 per cent rated the events as excellent, 51 per cent rated the events as good, 2.5 per cent rated the events as fair and 0.5 per cent rated the events as poor.
Some of the other headline results of the evaluation included the following responses to questions:
What aspects were most helpful?
Were any aspects of the event NOT useful?
- 88% said “No”
- 8% said that as retailers they felt there was too much emphasis on accommodation
What actions do you plan to make as a result of this day?
- 53% - Make improvements to online presence (keywords, optimisation, register on search engines, review website, check website stats, competitors analysis, get broadband, employ a website designer, etc)
- 21% - Set up a website
- 14% - Make further appointment with workshop experts (e.g., VS, HIE, Plan B)
- 7% - Initiate online booking
- 5% - Share info with clients
Will you recommend others to a similar event?
- 94% said they would
- 6% said they would recommend the event if it was appropriate
The events came about as a result of a partnership between the public and private sectors. Namely, Highland and Islands Enterprise and LEC network, VisitScotland, VisitScotland.com, Tiscover, Scottish Tourism Forum and Plan B
* Source: Highland Business Research Report
