Founders of Tourism Tribe talk digital tourism

man in jeans holding tablet computer with app hotel booking on screen

We don’t know if you heard, but it was World Tourism Day last week.

To celebrate and reflect on the tourism industry worldwide, the founders of Tourism Tribe gathered some killer data about Australian tourism operators digital capability.

In 2017, over 50 per cent of Aussie tourism businesses offer consumers the ability to book online with an instant confirmation and over 90 per cent of Aussie tourism businesses have got a Facebook business page. This is a significant leap forward from five years and puts Australia ahead of other destinations. Yay us!

However, CIO of Tourism Tribe, Fabienne Wintle, ran into some digital-related problems in Europe.

“I could not book online with an operator directly once over a four-week period in Europe,” she said.

“Their websites are eithernon-existent or not mobile friendly and they do not seem to actually know they could use a booking button. I had to rely on tools like Booking.com and Airbnb companies that have invested millions into ensuring their customers’ online experience is exceptional.”

“As a digital marketer, it is really frightening to see how tourism operators of two of the iconic tourism destinations seem to be left behind. Australia started addressing the digital gap over 12 years ago through initiatives like the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and the Tourism ekit and it took a decade for the results to pay off,” Wintle continued.

“Tourism is 100 per cent lead by the digital consumer and the majority of Australian tourism operators now appreciate that and are more receptive to adopting digital technology and continuing to learn how to improve their businesses.”

Tourism Tribe have also supported various state governments and tourism regions with programs and initiatives aimed at building a more online capacity for their industries (so we don’t end up like Europe, obvs).

This has included the Best of Queensland Experiences benchmarking model and Tourism Northern Territory’s Digital Leap program – which includes a consumer-centric digital assessment with key recommendations to embrace the digital economy.

Tourism Tribe CEO, Liz Ward, said that they have not only been providing education and support to the Aussie tourism industry, but also capturing an enormous amount of data about Aussie tourism’s digital capability and transformation.

“We can see from the data and our continual engagement with industry that there is still a long way to go to get the majority of industry to a standard that aligns with consumers’ expectations.

“We recognise variations in regions and sectors, but there is no doubt that the dial has shifted in terms of tourism operators’ understanding of the importance of digital and their appetite for learning”, she said.

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Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

Digital Tourism Tourism Tribe world tourism day