The emergence of e-commerce offers exciting new opportunities for tourism promotion and tourism policies. It has the potential to impact on each part of the tourism distribution chain including suppliers such as hotels and golf courses, intermediaries such as tour operators and travel agents, sectoral, regional and national marketing organisations and finally, the perceptions, behaviour and purchasing patterns of consumers.
In the past five years Bord Fáilte, in conjunction with the industry and its strategic partners, has been at the forefront in introducing essential changes to avail of the opportunities presented by e-commerce.
Bord Fáilte introduced its Tourism Brand Ireland Website in 1997 and almost immediately it became a primary source for information on Ireland and the range of tourism attractions available countrywide. In 1999, two million visitors accessed the Bord Fáilte Internet services which offer a wide range of services including dedicated sites specific to overseas markets, regional tourism marketing sites, as well as the on-line reservations service provided through one of its strategic partners.
Infrastructure has been put in place to ensure greater access to dynamic information, provision of inventory on all available accommodation and other tourism services, as well as a range of motivational tools to encourage visitors to Ireland as a tourism destination.
The main markets now have their own tailored world websites and this enables non-English speaking countries to travel around Ireland in their own language. The overseas tourism marketing initiative and the regional tourism authorities also have their own sites.