DAMIAN COOKMANAGING DIRECTOR

E-TOURISM FRONTIERS

E-Tourism Africa

16 years in East Africa

Worked with Destinations and Private Sector

Saw emerging crisis

Developed E-Tourism Africa as a solution

It’s Not Just Africa...

Many parts of the world face the same challenges

Low Web visibility and inventory

Image problems and negative media

Untapped potential

Communities and Environments that can be saved and sustained...

Our MissionTo develop a sustainable and equitable online tourism sector in emerging destinations by education and provision of resources to both the private and public sectors to enable a shift from traditional sales and marketing methods and to create locally based, business driven environments for online travel distribution and e-commerce.

What is E-Tourism?

I have a website already

My clients contact me by email

I have someone who handles all that for me

I’m a hotel... not a website

E-Tourism means

Communicating the right

Content across a variety of

Channels to the best value

Clients who will

Convert to a sale and keep

Coming back

Net Generation

Over One Billion People are online

The first ‘digital generation’ has arrived- aged between 11 and 31

They grew up with access to computers and the internet

Vastly different from previous generations

They’re Awful

They have no attention span

They don’t read books

They are addicted to pop culture

They are immoral- and have no shame

They play ultra-violent video games

Right....?

WrongThey are smarter- IQ is on the rise

They research, write and read more than any previous generation- some teenagers are writing over 10,000 words a month online

They are safer and cleaner

They get behind causes- Ask Obama

They have highly advanced visual and problem solving skills through gaming and challenging entertainment

They Think DifferentThey read 8 books, 2,300 web pages and 1,281 Facebook profiles each year

64% never read a newpaper... ever

They use the Internet more than they watch TV

They are connected to extensive and trusted networks of friends

They increasingly use their phones rather than their computers

Critical FactorsFreedom- Give Me Choice and the More the Better

Customization- Make it My Own

Scrutiny- I will check it out before I buy

Integrity- Does this company deserve my money?

Collaboration- Let me Help you Make it better

Entertainment- Make it Fun

Speed- Serve Me Now

Innovation- Give me the latest (Don Tapscott- Grown Up Digital)

What’s changed for Tourism?

E-Tourism Over a Billion people are now online

Online activity has become habitual and practical including shopping

For the past 3 years Travel is now the best selling commodity online

For over 70% of travellers it is their primary source of information about travel- and increasingly their means of selecting booking and buying- 48% on average

40% of all US online spending in 2008 was on travel

Over US $120 Billion in Online Travel Sales

Changing BusinessOffline Sales Online Sales

New Sales Models

Direct Sales - Direct purchase via a supplier website (buying a plane ticket or booking a room)

New Sales Models

Meta-Search that seeks out and compares offers from different suppliers

New Sales Models

Tour operators who combine and sell travel inventory

New Sales Models

Online intermediaries or OTAs offer direct online sales of travel with ‘dynamic packaging’ which allows you to build your own trip from different suppliers

New Sales ModelsAll of these have one thing in common:

All this requires realtime access to reservation inventories

Not next week

Not tomorrow

Not in an hour

NOW

Destination Management

Increasing Focus on Overall Destination Management

Management AND Marketing of Resources

Creating a Business Environment, not a Business Solution

Showing rather than telling

What About Emerging Destinations?

Global Marketplace

In the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and parts of Asia- an estimated less than 5% of tourism consists of online sales- compared to 48% globally

Content can be difficult to find and access

Two Main obstacles:

Lack of E-Commerce

Lack of available inventory

An example- Africa online...

The Vanishing Continent

Starts to Appear...

Or Does it?

Opportunities

Capacity gaps allow us to learn from the experience of the rest of the world and to learn from their mistakes

The web is a democratic environment and a level playing field, unburdened by borders

The web allows a greater culture of choice, and access to greater demand- and ‘long tail economics’

The Web is Changing Fast...

It’s a Visual Medium:Show Me Don’t Tell Me

Base JumpingThe acronym "B.A.S.E." was made up by film-maker Carl Boenish, his wife Jean Boenish, Phil Smith, and Phil Mayfield. Carl was the real catalyst behind modern BASE jumping, and in 1978 filmed the first BASE jumps to be made using ram-air parachutes and the freefall tracking technique (from El Capitan, in Yosemite National Park). While BASE jumps had been made prior to that time, the El Capitan activity was the effective birth of what is now called BASE jumping. BASE jumping is significantly more dangerous than similar sports such as skydiving from aircraft, and is currently regarded by many as a fringe extreme sport or stunt.

BASE numbers are awarded to those who have made at least one jump from each of the four categories. When Phil Smith and Phil Mayfield jumped together from a Houston skyscraper on 18 January 1981, they became the first to attain the exclusive BASE numbers (BASE #1 and #2, respectively), having already jumped from an antenna, spans, and earthen objects. Jean and Carl Boenish qualified for BASE numbers 3 and 4 soon after. A separate "award" was soon enacted for Night BASE jumping when Mayfield completed each category at night, becoming Night BASE #1, with Smith qualifying a few weeks later.

During the early eighties, nearly all BASE jumps were made using standard skydiving equipment, including two parachutes (main and reserve), and deployment components. Later on, specialized equipment and techniques were developed that were designed specifically for the unique needs of BASE jumping.

• In 1912, Frederick Law jumped from the Statue of Liberty • In 1912, Franz Reichelt, tailor, jumped from the first deck of the Eiffel Tower testing his invention, the coat parachute. He died. It was his first ever attempt with the

parachute and he had told the authorities in advance he would test it first with a dummy. • In 1913, Štefan Banič jumped from a building in order to demonstrate his new parachute to the U. S. Patent Office and military • In 1913, a Russian student Vladimir Ossovski (Владимир Оссовский), from the Saint-Petersburg Conservatory, jumped from the 53-meter high bridge over the river

Seine in Rouen (France), using the parachute RK-1, invented a year before that by Gleb Kotelnikov (1872-1944). Ossovski planned jumping from the Eiffel Tower too, but the mayor of Paris didn’t allow that. (Information from the Russian edition of GEO magazine, issue 11, November 2006, GEO).

• In 1965, Erich Felbermayer jumped from Cima piccola di Lavaredo, in Italia. • In 1966, Michael Pelkey and Brian Schubert jumped from the cliff "El Capitan" in Yosemite Valley • On 9 November 1975, the first person to parachute off the CN Tower in Toronto, Canada, was Bill Eustace, a member of the tower's construction crew. He was fired. • In 1975, Owen J. Quinn, a jobless man, parachuted from the south tower of the World Trade Center to publicize the plight of the unemployed. • In 1976 Rick Sylvester skied off Canada's Mount Asgard for the opening sequence of the James Bond movie The Spy Who Loved Me, giving the wider world its first look

at BASE jumping. • In 1990 Russell Powell (British) BASE 230 illegally jumped from the Whispering Gallery inside St Pauls Cathedral London. It was the lowest indoor BASE Jump in the

world. • In 2008, two men, dressed as engineers, illegally jumped off the Burj Dubai, the tallest man-made structure in the world.Video documentary about the jump from the

Burj Dubai tower • In 2009, three women, a Venezuelan Ana Isabel Dao 28 years old, a New Zealander Livia Dickie 29 years old and a Norwegian Anniken Binz 32 years old[1] base

jumped from the highest waterfall in the world with a height of 979 metres (3,210 ft) and a clear drop of 807 metres (2,650 ft) Angel Falls located in the Gran Sabana region of Bolivar State in Venezuela. Ana Isabel Dao was the first Venezuelan woman to jump off Angels Falls.[2]

However, these and other sporadic incidents were one-time experiments, not the systematic pursuit of a new form of parachuting. After 1978, the filmed jumps from El Capitan were repeated, not as a publicity exercise or as a movie stunt, but as a true recreational activity. It was this that popularised BASE jumping more widely among parachutists. Carl Boenish continued to publish films and informational magazines on BASE jumping until his 1984 death after a BASE-jump off of the Troll Wall. By this time, the concept had spread among skydivers worldwide, with hundreds of participants making fixed-object jumps.

Beyond TextDon’t just read it, see it hear it, experience it

Video is changing the way we view and use the web

An increasingly visual medium- particularly for motivational content

Users generate VLOGS

SKYPE and other video communication applications let us see each other

My WebUsers can now create their own content without understanding programming

Within three years it is estimated that 70% of the content on the web will have been created by users

By 2011 the total amount of content on the web will double every 11 hours

The Rise of USER GENERATED CONTENT UGC

UGCBlogs

Images

Video

Wikis

Reviews

Social Profiles

Tweets

Our Users Are In Control

The RevolutionThe control of the web has shifted from information suppliers to information users

‘Wikinomics’ has handed power to users, and groups of users

Consumers are now ‘Prosumers’ who control what they see and how they see it

Marketing direct to consumers and databases is now critical

Content Content Content is King

Viral Marketing

Cloverfield, Lonely Girl and Rick Rolling

This may sound silly- but it’s fun and it WORKS...

Major brands now using viral media...

Content Goes Viral

Content is easy to produce and easy to share

Once released into cyberspace, users share, refer and pass on content to each other

It spreads and it spreads fast...

One Day in Canada

Sometimes Good... Sometimes Not...

So What?

What About Emerging Destinations?

ONE DAY IN KRUGER...

Africa goes Viral‘The Battle at Kruger’ a tourists video shot in South Africa has become the 12th most popular video on YouTube

It has been viewed over 50,000,000 times and counting

Social NetworkingBlogging and Multimedia sites give us highly personalized information that is used and shared by individuals and communities online

Social Networks are communities of individuals linked by common interests, accessing, gathering, creating and sharing content

Web identities are created via Facebook etc as a means of communicating with a vast social network

Destination Campaigns

Become Social....

Positive User Generated Content is not just Powerful- it’s part of the sales process

Decision Making

30% 69% 23% 11%6% 12%

33% 61% 35% 22% 22% 8%

36% 64% 19% 7% 5% 8%

39% 65% 22% 24% 14% 5%

42% 47% 20% 26% 23% 4%

43% 60% 14% 23% 11% 7%

44% 62% 26% 9%7% 10%

47% 31% 26% 25% 8% 6%

49% 50% 25% 19% 17% 11%

49% 57% 25% 33% 26% 1%

50% 63% 29% 39% 21% 13%

50% 36% 13% 29% 13% 7%

51% 65% 50% 44% 35% 11%

52% 53% 33% 26% 12% 7%

54% 58% 12% 22% 16% 16%

54% 55% 8% 20% 21% 15%

59% 51% 27% 32% 31% 1%

59% 37% 24% 32% 13% 7%

0% 50% 100% 150% 200% 250% 300%

Korea

Italy

France

UK

PoIand

Netherlands

Spain

Mexico

Canada

Germany

Australia

Brazil

China

Japan

USA

Denmark

India

Russia

Personal recommendation Web search Visit travel agent's office See TV program Read a newspaper Other

SOCIAL NETWORKS AND BLOGS COMBINE WEB SEARCHING AND PERSONAL RECOMMENDATION

Trust and Reliability

12%

5%

0%

10%

11%

12%

15%

15%

21%

0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25%

Sites with reviews by other travellers

Online tourist guides

Local tourist guides

Travel agent sites

Search results

Airline sites

Advertising eg banner ads

Other

Don't know

Most trusted online source for reliable travel information according to UK Internet users,

September 2006 (% of respondents)

SOURCE: NIELSEN//NETRATINGS COMMISSIONED BY ADVIVA AND HARVEST DIGITAL, JANUARY 2007 – QUOTED BY EMARKETER IN JUNE 2007

Trip Advisor

Online Opinions

Trip Advisor is now a major part of the travel channel

User reviews are of great value and can be mashed in or directly entered into sites- but NOT managed

When other users opinions and content become part of our sales process, we have a total Web 2.0 sales environment

Mobile WebRate of phone growth is phenomenal

Phones are no longer just for talking- they are an online means for accessing and publishing content

People Travel with their phones as a tool, guide and assistant

SATNAV directs the Tourist as they travel

SMS communication to in-destination travellers

Mobile Payments

Marketing PowerTweeting now creates realtime, discussion, reviews and referrals

The movie BRUNO suffered a Tweet backlash from users that saw box office drop by 34% on second day of screening

Travellers now Tweet before, during and after holidays and ask for advice as they go

Tuesday is #TravelTuesday Are you tweeting?

The Age of Immediacy

Connected in-market travellers using devices to access, consume and comment

Realtime is more real than ever

The curse of the #fail

The power of the positive retweet

Don’t Be a Copycat...

Be Cool...

Be Aware...Things are still changing...

+ +

=

“DANCES WITH THUNDERSMURFS”

User Driven Technology

Augmented Reality

Getting Directions

Places...Why Not Faces?

Face the FutureMany of us are firmly rooted in traditional sales and marketing techniques

We have frequent repeat customers- but do we have their children?

What’s happening to our agents, suppliers and partners?

How visible are we in the new media?

Change is here and it’s getting faster.. we only have one option...

EVOLVE

What We NeedInfrastructural development

E-Commerce facility

Education and exposure to global best practice

Local coopetition

Global relationships

Innovation and vision…

What We Need

Rethinking of priorities, budget and approach

Public and Private Partnerships

Local and Global relationships

Locally based solutions not Global Gurus

Practical Realistic Solutions not Talk Factories

Results

E-Tourism FrontiersPractical real world examples and opportunities

Travel Distribution

Destination Management

E-Marketing

Social Media and Networking

Content

Multimedia

Mobile Data

Commerce

Regional Co-opetition

Innovation

Training

Let’s Get Started...damian@e-tourismafrica.com

Twitter: @damiancook