Tourism industry encouraged to embrace Web 2.0

 
Tourism industry encouraged to embrace Web 2.0

The launch of ONZAMAP.CO.NZ and ONZABIZ.CO.NZ tackles the social networking phenomenon

The founders of ONZABIZ and ONZAMAP are calling for the New Zealand tourism industry to embrace the second generation of internet tools available to them, to ensure the industry is responsive to the changing economic environment.

The national launch of ONZABIZ and ONZAMAP at the Nelson Marlborough Institute of Technology on August 17th will be the first ever coordinated regional tourism social networking event, where tourism businesses will learn how Web 2.0 and the social networking phenomenon is altering internet usage and the travel experience globally.  The Nelson launch will be the first of a series of nationwide promotional activities.

Web 2.0 refers to the second generation of web development and web design. It is characterised as facilitating communication, information sharing, user-centered design and collaboration on the internet. It has led to the occurrence of web-based communities, hosted services, and web applications.  ONZABIZ is a free online social networking tool for tourism operators and is a complementary web tool to ONZAMAP, an interactive map-based tourism website for visitors to New Zealand.

ONZAMAP Ltd Co-Director John Jepson says ONZABIZ and ONZAMAP enable the tourism industry to leverage the current trend of networking via the internet, and were developed in response to direct feedback from the tourism sector.  He says they offer a new breed of tool in the arsenal of marketing tools needed in the industry.

“ONZABIZ and ONZAMAP have been developed following year long discussions with more than 250 tourism operators throughout New Zealand,” says Jepson. “These tools build on what we all know - that the internet, and now social networking online, have fundamentally reshaped the way tourism related information is distributed and the way people search for, and undertake, travel.

“New Zealand’s remoteness makes it even more crucial for our tourism sector to use the internet well, especially during an economic downturn,” he says. “Now more than ever the tourism sector needs to nurture relationships, with each other and with the global interactive traveller, and the second generation of internet tools can help the industry do this most effectively, hence the birth of ONZABIZ and ONZAMAP.”

John Jepson points out that the New Zealand Tourism Strategy 2015 provides targets for the country’s tourism sector, with one of the desired outcomes (Outcome Four) calling for the sector and communities to work and communicate together for mutual benefit. 

“We believe that ONZABIZ and ONZAMAP will help the industry to better communicate with each other and the target tourism market, helping to meet the goals of the national tourism strategy,” he says. “The strategy also states that communities are the setting for almost all our tourism businesses as they welcome visitors in the spirit of manaakitanga (hospitality). With its emphasis on the use of images and bite size chunks of information, ONZAMAP can deliver to the world a strong impression of the unique way that New Zealand welcomes visitors,” he says.

Meanwhile, Tourism industry expert Craig Wilson from Quality Tourism Development says the tourism industry is worth $20 billion dollars to the New Zealand economy each year, contributes over 9 percent of GDP and supports 10 percent of the workforce.

“The tourism industry is significant to our country’s cultural and monetary wealth, and by bringing our widely spread and sometimes very remote tourism businesses more closely together we can ensure the industry makes the most of New Zealand’s competitive advantages and seizes all opportunities,” Wilson says. “I believe the tourism sector is well placed to leverage the next generation of internet tools, in order to reach out to each other and new markets in clever ways.

“It is a great time for a nationwide tourism industry blog site, allowing tourism operators to post questions and provide answers,” Wilson says. “Imagine how much time could be saved and how many new opportunities to increase profit could be pursued by sharing good ideas more quickly and cost effectively. Instead of struggling in silence the industry can help each other find answers to the burning questions.”

John Jepson adds that the industry also has to be more aware that the visitor experience starts before people even arrive in New Zealand; from the excitement of planning a trip to sharing the tales and pictures long after they return home. 

“Tourism is globally competitive, so it is important that New Zealand provides the best possible experience for travellers,” Jepson says. “Independent travellers expect an online experience that is visual, allows for social networking, and expresses the traveller’s own voice, and these are the key elements to ONZAMAP. 

“ONZAMAP is where travellers can go to explore and discover the colour and personality that New Zealand exudes,” he says. “In an age where it’s the norm to turn real life friends into online databases through social networking sites such as Facebook, travellers can trust ONZAMAP to introduce each other to an online community while they’re away. In the same way ONZAMAP helps to build relationships between travellers and local tour operators.

 “By promoting the right content at the right time to the right people through its innovative online interface, interactive vacation planning tool and social networking capability, ONZAMAP delivers what the modern interactive traveller expects,” Jepson concludes.

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