Coast travel site an overnight success
This is an article that Shannon Willoughby at The Gold Coast Bulletin wrote on etourism.com.au.
March 30th, 2009
THERE’S one area where industry is not slowing down this year — in cyberspace.
And the crew at eTourism is using that growth to the company’s advantage.
The Gold Coast website solutions company, which specialises in holiday bookings and hotel websites, is tapping into the growing world of social networking to generate business.
ETourism managing director Bryan Marsh said the company was looking at different ways to generate traffic to clients’ websites from social network sites such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter.
“We are integrating our existing business with social media with things like hotel reviews,” said Mr Marsh. “We are able to create a following through social media quite quickly.”
The company, which has a $70 million turnover, did more than build accommodation booking sites, said Mr Marsh.
“Our revenues are achieved by increasing the property’s online brand awareness and generating additional revenue via online reservations, and through the eTourism Holidays’ call centre,” he said.
“We also build and manage websites of hotels if the operators want us to.
“The internet has become one of the most popular ways for domestic and international travellers to learn about their destination and choose accommodation.”
Queensland Tourism figures show 48 per cent of tourists book their holidays online.
This year, it is predicted that at least 60 per cent of all hotel bookings will be made online.
ETourism, which is based in Southport and employs about 20 people, started in 2001 after Mr Marsh’s other business I4U — a website development company — was approached by major hotels to develop one of the first commercially available, complete online reservation system, providing simple, automated online bookings.
UK hospitality guru Lee Tester joined the group to become the ‘middle man’ between the IT guys and the hotels.
ETourism established a relationship with Sunland and S8, which is now part of the Stella brand.
The group worked with Legends Hotel, Sea World Resort and Palazzo Versace.
Mr Marsh said that the company had more than 350 clients in Australia.
As well as using social sites to post reviews, creating more traffic for their clients’ sites, eTourism also has developed two new products aimed at servicing large and small businesses.
Mr Marsh said iLaunch was designed so that people could manage their own websites with the ability to update content and photos straight from their internet browser.
“With the global economic downturn, eTourism has developed an aggressive marketing program for hotel and accommodation properties that need increased bookings,” he said.
Shannon Willoughby - The gold Coast Bulletin
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