A new series of e-business workshops specially geared for tourism businesses in the Highlands and Islands gets underway next month.
This latest round of one-day events builds on a programme of e-business workshops staged last year in the HIE network area and aims to inspire tourist operators to advance to the next level with their online presence.
Firm dates for the ten workshops – one in each HIE LEC area - have still to be finalised, but will take place between October 2007and February 2008. Described as mid-level e-tourism workshops, the events will have two key objectives:
· raising awareness of the opportunities for business growth through improvements to online capability and generation of web based traffic;
· and inspiring and motivating businesses to make use of established e-marketing methods and market their business more effectively online.
The types of tourism businesses most likely to benefit from attendance are those with the potential for, ability and motivation to grow by more effective online business activity. Alternatively, the target audience are local tourism businesses who may not be aware of recent developments and applications available to improve their online effectiveness and web site capability.
Companies attending will receive an overview of the current e-tourism/e-marketing scene and an update on web applications and functionality. A local tourism business will also be on hand to explain how they have used the web to benefit their e tourism activity and to provide an outline and examples of the steps and tools required to make e-tourism improvements.
Practical task in groups and individually, using supplied laptops, are also scheduled, along with a summary of who to go to for what and when. The workshop will then conclude with a round up and the opportunity for one to one advice from e-business experts.
At the end of the session, companies should have gained a better understanding of current web applications and e-marketing, see where web opportunities exist for their business, be able to apply some of the practical tips obtained during the workshop and plan future e-marketing activity.
Check back for details of workshop dates and venues, they will be posted here as soon as they become available.
