Post on 22-Dec-2015
What is ExploringMacedonia.com?
• National Tourism Portal that promotes Macedonia and a wider range of tourism services via strong Internet campaign and off-line promotions
• One-stop-shop for every aspect of tourism that individual visitors or tour- operators need
• DMC – Destination Management Company
What ExploringMacedonia.com IS NOT?
• It is not a travel agency
• It is not a tour operator
• It is not a transporting company
• Does not offer any type of own travel services
Internet browsers
BannersOnline
information
Tour Operators Business tourists
Direct tourism services
• Hotels Travel agencies Air travel Rent-a-car agencies Passenger services Tour guides Banks, exchange offices Restaurants, bars, night clubs, casinos Museums, galleries Recreational centers ...
Individual visitors
Indirect tourism services
• Phone services Financial services Medical services Insurance companies Real- estate companies Car services Laundry services Security agency Printing and copying services ...
Promotion, booking, sale, customer support...
ExploringMacedonia.com
Promotions Ads and
brochures
Basic portal services
• PROMOTION– Macedonia as a tourist destination– Tourism providers MEMBERS of the portal
• SALE– (accommodation, excursions, rent- a-
car, ...)
• Customer Support– For the tourism providers– For sale
The Solution
• Business plan• Organizational structure • Financial model• Sale model and customer support• IT program model• Proven content concept• Education and knowledge transfer • Promotional plan and promo- partners
Business plan
• Based on the concept PPP- Private-Public Partnership
• Selected for the best business plan for a tourist portal by EDC, New York and int‘l committee, 2005
• Sustainability in a period of 2 years• ROI in 5 years
Financial model
• Initial investment• Sources of current financing
– Annual membership – for all tourism providers presented on the portal.
– Agency commission fee – for every service sold via the portal (accommodation, excursions, rent-a-car, ...)
– Internet advertising – banner contracts
Sales model and customer support
• Membership sales – 3 packages depending on the size of the
presentation Prices: 100 – 250 Euro + VAT– Sale of additional services – Surround
video, PDF brochures, Home page listing, ...
• Sale of tourism offer• Customer support
– 24x7 e-mail response– 1 day for human response
Implemented IT solutions
• Content Management System – Nextsense webBuilder
• MS Share Point Portal (Intranet collaboration portal)
• MS CRM – Customer Relationship Management
• Online Shopping system• Credit card payment system• Administrative tracking requests system• Search engine optimization tool • MS Exchange Server • Mobile Solution
Promotions
• On-line promotion– Yahoo Adventure!– Banner promotion– Google Ad Words– Newsletter
promotion
• Off-line promotion– Presentations– Fairs– Brochures – Leaflets – Postcards– Promotional tours
(London Season, Princess Katarina, Velo tut Terain, ...)
Promo partners
• Yahoo Adventure Team, Richard Bangs• London Season Royalty Association • Conde Nast Traveller • Mountain Biking Magazine: “Velo tut
Terain”• HTTPool, Internet Marketing company• Pop-stars: Kaliopi, Vlado Janevski• ...
WHY ExploringMacedonia.com
• National Tourism Portal• Efficient sale• Selling experience, not rooms & cars• Continuous Customer Support• Client feedback• Dynamic update of offers
(Last-minute offer!)• ...
Achievements of ExploringMacedonia.com
• 169 commercial members of the Portal• Content of 2000 pages and 2600 images• More then 200.000 page views monthly• Over 4100 sites link the portal• Average 15 mails daily in Customer
support• Listed on the first pages of Internet
browsers (“Macedonia”)– #4/#84 Google
• Best e-business portal nominated for World Summit Award