TOURISM SECTOR MUST EMBRACE WEB MARKETING TO GROW BUSINESS
Tourism Ireland launches Marketing Campaign in Virtual World of “Second Life”
The tourism industry must harness web-based marketing activities and adapt to the growth of tourist chat-rooms in order to remain competitive and successfully grow business, attendees at Tourism Ireland’s eMarketing Symposium heard today. By 2010, Tourism Ireland forecasts that over 75% of overseas holidaymakers will book their Irish holiday on the internet. At the conference, which discussed exciting new developments in the world of eMarketing, Tourism Ireland officially launched a new marketing campaign on the website Second Life; the first ever marketing campaign launched by a destination or “real world” tourist board in the internet-based, virtual world of Second Life.
As part of this marketing campaign, Tourism Ireland will sponsor a range of events and activities from now until St Patrick’s Day 2008 in Second Life’s replica city of Dublin. The events kick-off this weekend (26th–28th October) in virtual Dublin with the “Discover Ireland Festival”. Five bands and seven DJs will play on a stage located on Grafton Street. A fashion show will take place on a bridge on the River Liffey, there will be photographic exhibitions of Irish landscapes on Grafton Street, and big screens will showcase promotional videos of Ireland.
Since its establishment in 2003, Second Life has grown significantly and currently has more than nine million registered users or “residents”, 1.6 million of whom are considered regular users. Sixty per cent of Second Life’s users come from Ireland’s four biggest tourist markets: Great Britain, US, Germany and France. Half of those users are aged over 30 – a key demographic for tourism to the island of Ireland. These “residents” can explore, socialise, participate in activities, trade items and services using Second Life’s currency, the Linden Dollar.
ZenithOptimedia forecasts that spend on global internet advertising will grow by 28.2% in 2007, while at the same time spend on advertising in other media will grow by only 3.9% - in other words, online ad spending will grow seven times faster than that of other media. ZenithOptimedia also projects that the internet’s share of total advertising spend worldwide will increase from 5.8% in 2006 to 8.6% in 2009.
The growth of websites such as Tripadvisor, the online travel advice portal, and Flickr, the online photo-sharing site, is testament to the impact that the internet has had on the travel and tourism industry. Almost 19 million people used Tripadvisor last week to plans trips abroad, while Flickr hosts more than 1 million photos of the island of Ireland.
This explosion of online activity is reflected in Tourism Ireland’s marketing budgets. “Tourism Ireland is committed to using eMarketing to the best possible effect in promoting the island of Ireland as a holiday destination and our involvement in Second Life is about finding new ways to connect to today’s web-savvy consumer”, says Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Central Marketing. “The organisation has already doubled its digital marketing spend over the past three years, to 14% of all marketing activity – an investment of €6.5 million last year. Tourism Ireland plans to spend close to a quarter of its entire marketing budget online in 2008.”
Tourism Ireland internet advertising campaigns currently run in over 16 markets and email marketing programmes in 19 countries. The organisation has 36 international websites in 14 different languages.
This year’s eMarketing Symposium focussed on optimising the marketing mix in a digital world as well as using information effectively to convert business. The latest developments in branding in an online world, maximising data and information using analytics and search engine marketing, as well as Tourism Ireland’s international web strategy and online platforms, were discussed.
Speakers at the eSymposium included Daniel Kerzner, Online Marketing Regional Director with Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, who discussed how to “Give our customers what they want, by knowing what they want”; Jonty Kelt, Vice President, Search International (Doubleclick), covered “Travel Search Optimisation - Maximising Return on Investment”; while Lisa Shields, eDistribution Channel Manager, Jury's Inns Group, explored “How to Succeed in Search Marketing”.
Valentina Doorly, Marketing and Sales Manager for Guinness Storehouse, talked about how she optimises the Guinness Storehouse presence online; David Shiell, Founding Partner, WebLiquid, discussed “Harnessing Consumer Empowerment in a Commercial World” and Asmundur Saevarsson, Manager eMarketing, Icelandair, examined how companies are “Converting Lookers to Bookers’”.
-ENDS-
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION:
Tourism Ireland: Sinéad Grace Tel: 01 476 3493 / 087 685 9027
Weber Shandwick: Louise Cassidy Tel: 01 676 0168 / 086 383 5727