eBSN Workshop, Oslo

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eBSN Workshop, Oslo 4 December
2007 www.amas.ie
Aileen OToole, Managing Director, AMAS
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Presentation content

• Ireland
• Profile of Irish tourism
• eBusiness in Ireland
• The Internet
• Opportunities and problems for tourism SMEs
• Our research study for the Irish tourist industry
• An online maturity model for tourism businesses
• eBusiness policy
• Role of State agencies

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• Ireland
• Profile of Irish tourism
• eBusiness in Ireland

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Irish tourism key facts

• Population
• Irish Republic 4.3m
• Northern Ireland1.7m
• Irish economy
• Fast-growing, export-led
• Employment 67 services, 27 industry, 6
  agriculture
• Tourism in Republic of Ireland
• Worth 6 billion to economy, 4.7 billion of
  which comes from overseas (2006)

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Irish tourism key facts

• Overseas tourists
• 7.4m (2006) up from 5.9m (2002)
• UK 51
• Mainland Europe 30
• North America 14
• Rest of world 4
• Employment
• 249,000, 68 Irish nationals
• C. 12,000 businesses, mostly SMTEs
• Spread
• Greater concentration in urban areas, Dublin in
  particular
• Rural, peripheral locations impacted

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Irish tourism whos who

• Tourism Ireland
• State agency responsible for marketing island of
  Ireland overseas
• Fáilte Ireland
• Enterprise agency for tourism, markets Ireland
  domestically
• Northern Irish Tourist Board
• Develops, promotes tourism in Northern Ireland
• Irish Tourist Industry Confederation (ITIC)
• Represents Irish tourist industry

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Internet and Irish tourism
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Source 2006 Census
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Broadband growth

• 5th highest growth level
• among OECD countries
• Fast but not fast enough

Source OECD, broadband subscribers per 100
inhabitants, by technology, December 2006
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• The Internet
• Opportunities and problems for tourism SMEs
• Our research study for the Irish tourist industry
• An online maturity model for tourism businesses

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ITIC research project background

• Objectives
• Establish the status of online adoption among
  SMTEs
• Assess the barriers
• Analyse impact on Irish tourism product
• Produce roadmap and actions
• Research methodology
• 16 interviews from across the sector
• Survey among ITIC constituent bodies
• Other original research
• International comparisons

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Why online?

• Through investment in ICT and
• online marketing, SMTEs can
• Reach new international markets cost-effectively
• Develop new co-operative relationships
• Respond more flexibly to market changes
• Provide information and services anytime,
  anywhere
• ICT use and online marketing favours remote,
  peripheral and
• insular destinations

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Strength of online brands
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SMEs and online adoption

• Small businesses have particular difficulty in
  accessing,
• absorbing and exploiting new knowledge
• Small Business Forum, set up by Irish
  government
• Reasons
• Owner-managers dont appreciate contribution ICT
  can make
• SMEs lack skills to evaluate, implement and
  exploit ICT
• Costs are thought to be too high

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SMTEs and online adoption

• ICT adoption levels are low
• Fear of displaying ignorance to peers
• Unfamiliarity with language of ICT
• Lack of IT and keyboard skills
• Dependence on external expertise, poor experience
  of experts
• Time involved in replying to emails

Source Study by Séan Duffy, Letterkenny
Institute, focus groups of 140 SMTEs in west and
north west
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Interviewees - perceptions

• Many SMTE businesses
• Part-time
• Marginal in terms of profitability
• Carriers, larger hotel groups considered to have
  adapted well to Internet
• SMTEs less so, particularly BBs/other
  accommodation and attractions
• Congestion between State agencies and projects on
  Internet projects

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Industry survey

• Internet has had very positive
• or somewhat positive impact on tourist
  industry
• Importance of Web highest among hotels and BBs,
  lowest among self-catering and restaurants
• Up to 80 of hotels have online booking, half of
  BBs estimated to offer online booking
• Barriers to great online use identified
• Lack of IT and online marketing skills
• Broadband availability
• Inadequate IT infrastructure
• Awareness gap evident about latest online
• trends e.g. Web 2.0

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Guinness Storehouse
Guinness-storehouse.com
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ICT and eMarketing maturity model
5. eBusiness enabled
Integration, interoperability
4. Website (eCommerce)
Online booking , CRM
3. Website (interactive)
CMS, databases etc.
ICT
Static site
2. Website (basic)
1. Email
Comms.
eNewsletter alerts
Information
Web 2.0 SEO/SEM
Online fulfilment campaigns
Advanced online marketing
eMarketing
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• Policy issues
• Roles, responsibilities of State bodies
• How they work with tourist industry

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Irish tourism policy roles, responsibilities
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eCommerce and Irish tourism
New Horizons in Irish tourism
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Tourism Ireland online

• Online marketing core part of international
• marketing drive
• Online presence
• 36 overseas sites, 14 languages
• Email marketing programmes, 19 countries
• Worldwide consumer databases, over 600,000 opt-in
  email databases
• Sophisticated eStrategy, next phase involves
• Metasearch facility
• Extranet
• eCRM
• Search, navigation, content improvements
• Up to 25 of marketing budget to be spent online

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Fáilte Ireland supports to SMTEs

• 1. Platform to promote
• properties on its consumer site
• 2. Tourism Content System (TCS) product
  database
• 3. Enterprise supports
• 4. Training programmes

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Fáilte Ireland website
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Fáilte Ireland eBusiness supports
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Fáilte Ireland supports

• Tourism Content System (TCS) single
• central database of Irish tourist
• product 16,000 entries
• Training
• Tourism Learning Networks, collaboration
• with industry
• eBusiness training
• Sector-specific programmes
• Enterprise supports provided through industry
  associations, rather than directly to businesses

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Online community
Talktourism.ie
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Policy issues that need to be addressed

• Digital divide
• SMTEs, larger tourism businesses
• Urban, rural businesses
• Younger, more mature business owners
• Congestion between various State-funded
  initiatives
• Consolidation of various web and training
  projects
• Enterprise support strategy for SMTEs

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Questions and answers