Capturing the imagination of the online traveller

Tourism is not only the largest industry in the world but also the number one online segment. The online travel market is experiencing explosive growth. Moreover, many forecasts suggest that travel and tourism's share of e-commerce will continue its rapid increase, possibly reaching 50 per cent within the next couple of years.

The phenomenal boom in website creation and the explosive growth of online traffic has intensified the battle for the consumer's attention. According to the American Travel Industry Association, the number of travellers who used the internet for travel-related and other purposes topped the 70 million mark in 2002, half of whom consulted the internet to get information on destinations or to check prices and schedules.

In today's world, a tourism marketing strategy is just not complete without incorporating the internet.

At last December's Malta Tourism Authority annual conference, one of the speakers referred to research findings that highlighted the internet's role in travel and tourism to Malta. These revealed that 36 per cent of travellers to Malta had utilised the internet as an information source on the Maltese islands. Significantly, the internet came as a close second to travel agencies in the ranking. These were sourced by 40 per cent of holidaymakers who visited Malta and Gozo. The islands seem to be ahead of other Mediterranean destinations in this regard, with the regional average of travellers to the Mediterranean utilising the internet standing at 28 per cent.

With 1.5 million visitors a year, the MTA's destination website www.visitmalta.com can be said to be Malta's flagship tourism promotional tool on the internet. The site, launched in November 2001, is available in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch and Chinese. Spanish and Polish versions are in the pipeline.

Visitmalta.com harnesses the potential of the internet as a marketing and communications tool by making extensive use of interactive features and by encouraging visitors to engage with the site through the innovative use of dynamic content. In line with our branding strategy for the islands, visitmalta.com attempts to bring to the international traveller the essence of what the "Malta experience" is all about.

The site is extremely rich in content. More importantly however, it is geared towards guiding the visitor to discover Malta and find out about leisure and other options available in as few clicks as possible. Data reveals that the "What's on" and "What to do" sections are in fact among the most visited on visitmalta.com. Late last year, the MTA also launched a Malta Movie Map as part of the site's offer.

Other interesting features include "My Malta", a personalised travel guide which visitors put together for their own use, the interactive map of the Maltese islands and a series of 360 degree images of some of the islands' major attractions. The site has a "search" facility for ease of use.

Visitors can now also download Malta e-brochures directly from the site and view Malta videos on demand.

The number of visitors to www.visitmalta.com totalled nearly 1.5 million in 2003 compared with one million visitors in the previous year. This means that during last year, an average of 4,000 internet users accessed the site every day. The primary points of origin for visitors to this site were Italy (24.1 per cent of hits), the UK (14.2 per cent), France (10.6 per cent), the Netherlands (5.5 per cent), Germany (5.4 per cent), Belgium (5.1 per cent) and Austria (five per cent). There were also a considerable number of users with .com and .net addresses, whose nationality could not be traced.

Marketing gurus nowadays place a lot of emphasis on the potential of the internet as an important avenue for the creation of relationships with potential customers. Through visitmalta.com, the MTA has been working at developing brand loyalty by trying to establish relationships with those who are interested in the Maltese islands even if these do not intend visiting Malta in the immediate to short-term. All those who access the section called "Keep in touch" are asked whether they would like to register, telling the MTA where they come from and what their areas of interest are. Information and news/updates of particular interest to them is then sent to these users, usually through the authority's overseas network of tourist offices.

The next stage of the visitmalta.com project will be to continue developing the website in such a way as to enable it to provide a wider range of personalised services that would allow the traveller to search even more effectively through this content-rich site and which would allow the visitor the facility of putting together his or her own holiday.

Nowadays, visitmalta.com plays a pivotal role in the MTA's global marketing efforts to promote the destination and the past two years have seen an energetic process aimed at integrating effectively the marketing tools available to the authority. The website features on every piece of promotional material, every billboard, press advert and TV spot. In fact, the spot for the authority's global campaign on the Discovery Channel last year centred on visitmalta.com as the gateway for a virtual "Malta experience".

What's great about the internet is that you can focus the message of a TV spot, a press advert or a billboard on getting consumers to visit your site - and once they're there you can engage them in a way which no other medium can achieve.

Mr Zammit Munro is senior manager, corporate communications and business development, Malta Tourism Authority.