4.6 Distribution

Vision: Victoria's travel and tourism product and information is strategically located within consumers' reach when they want it.

Objectives

• Ensure high levels of tourism information and product are strategically distributed worldwide.
  
• Enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of information flows and transactions within the Victorian tourism product distribution chain.
  
• Encourage and support the integration of traditional and online channels within the Victorian tourism distribution chain.
  
• Develop and enhance the levels of understanding and participation by the Victorian tourism industry in emerging electronic distribution channels.

The Tourism Distribution System

Provision of Tourism Information and Bookable Product

While promotion of Victoria through motivational marketing campaigns stimulates awareness and a desire to visit, effective provision of information and bookable product to consumers is vital in converting this interest to bookings and visitation, and ultimately a positive quality of experience.

There are various channels through which travel and tourism information and bookable Victorian product are distributed. Traditionally, tourism operators have dealt with travel wholesalers and retail travel agents to gain access to consumers in the interstate and overseas markets. However this is changing. In light of the increased use of the internet, and the convergence of tourism with other business sectors, consumers are able to gain more direct access to tourism operators and vice-versa.

Victorian Tourism Distribution chain

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Over the life of this strategic plan there will be more methods of information and product distribution available to the industry than ever before. Both in Australia, and around the world, the internet is increasingly being used to research, promote, book and pay for tourism products and services. This has begun to fundamentally alter the relationship between consumers and suppliers, seeing a shift away from traditional distribution channels to consumers dealing more directly with tourism operators. Consumers are now able to search for travel information and book their holidays more directly than ever before, significantly changing the roles and relationships of traditional intermediaries such as wholesalers and retail travel agents.

In a world of increasing globalisation, the convergence of tourism with other business sectors such as media will also become more significant. In searching for travel and tourism information, consumers will look more and more to areas that fall outside of the traditional travel and tourism distribution channels. It is just as likely that consumers will search for information and bookable product through ticketing companies, global credit card companies, tourist commissions or through websites such as yahoo.com.

This has implications for all players in the tourism industry. It is vital that Tourism Victoria and the Victorian tourism industry best position themselves for the future, using both traditional and emerging online distribution channels to reach and service consumers worldwide.

Key Trends

Technology is rapidly evolving and is one of the most significant factors affecting the tourism sector.

Travellers need information before going on a trip to help them plan and choose between options. They also need more information during their trip as the trend towards more independent travel increases.

Traditional and emerging online distribution channels are converging.

Distribution channels

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Emerging online technologies can effectively facilitate information flows and transactions, and improve efficiencies within the tourism distribution chain.

Consumer travel decision-making processes are contracting, resulting in quicker decisions and shorter lead times prior to trips. There is a greater need to strategically place information early in the consumer inquiry and decision making cycle to meet these needs.

Continued consumer reliance on call centres is anticipated, however there is increased acceptance of emerging technology such as e-mail response and voice recognition call centre servicing.

New opportunities for cooperative activities with non-traditional partners now exist and need to be investigated. Companies from outside what is normally regarded as the travel industry have also identified the potential of internet based distribution, and have attacked and positioned themselves strongly in the distribution chain. These include publishers such as Lonely Planet, software developers such as Microsoft, global credit card companies, and the various elements of the media. Companies such as these, have positioned themselves as general purpose retailers, providing a wide variety of travel information and booking services usually in cooperation with existing intermediaries.

Gradual reduction in industry expenditure on printed collateral is anticipated while information and product distributed through electronic channels is expected to increase. Printed collateral, travel industry partnerships, and visitor information centres will however remain an integral part of the distribution chain, servicing visitors during their travel experience.

Tourism Victoria projected distribution expenditure

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Roles and relationships are changing for many of the traditional distribution channels such as wholesalers and retail travel agents. In many markets, tourism commissions are increasingly becoming the authority that consumers consult on the internet for information on destinations.

Opening up travel information technology standards such as ebXML (Open Travel Alliance) will allow greater information exchange between the travel industry and hotel operators' computer systems - areas that have traditionally been unable to communicate online.

Booking of some travel product, in particular air tickets, on the web is now well established. Booking of ground content on the web will follow, with systems now being built by the private sector that should start to appear in the market in 2002/03. Emerging mobile phone technologies will have implications for travel and tourism into the future. Despite the limited success of Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), access to the internet via mobile hardware is likely to become more significant during the 2002-2006 period.

STRATEGIES

• Provide consumers with high level access to information and tourism product both prior to and during their trip, through a mix of traditional and emerging online distribution channels.
  
• Tourism Victoria programs will further encourage and educate the industry to embrace new online distribution options.
  
• With more and more non-traditional businesses such as media and online retailers playing important roles in the tourism distribution chain, Tourism Victoria and the industry need to investigate possible cooperative marketing opportunities with non-traditional partners. Tourism Victoria will continue to enhance partnerships with media such as Channel Nine's Postcards program, and other business sectors such as global credit card companies.

Wholesaling and Retailing

In the past, Tourism Victoria has harnessed the power of the travel industry to support tourism to Victoria. Strategies to achieve greater exposure through wholesale and retail networks have been pursued including a range of cooperative consumer advertising programs, trade education and familiarisation activities and improving the servicing of retail travel agents to help boost their sales of Victorian product. It is critically important for Tourism Victoria to continue to work with wholesalers, airlines and retail travel trade partners to further increase Victorian representation in major wholesaling programs and increase consumer demand for Victorian product.

Strategies

• Tourism Victoria will continue to work cooperatively with its wholesale partners to maintain a dedicated Melbourne/Victoria program, including adequate representation of regional product.
  
• Educate the domestic and international travel trade about Victoria and its attractions to raise awareness of Victoria as a premier tourist destination and increase the amount and quality of Victorian tourism products featured in travel programs.
  
• Tourism Victoria will lead Victoria's industry participation at a range of trade events in Australia and various overseas markets.
  
• Tourism Victoria will continue to work cooperatively with the travel and tourism industry rather than operate its own wholesale/retail program.
  
• Undertake a range of cooperative marketing activities with airlines.
  
• Continue to produce cooperative, integrated tactical marketing campaigns such as Melbourne's Great Indoors and Victoria's Great Escapes which promotes short breaks to Melbourne and regional hotels and resorts.

Direct Marketing

Direct marketing is an integral part of Tourism Victoria's marketing mix. The direct marketing opportunities emerging from the internet and online marketing mean that it will become an increasingly important tool for both Tourism Victoria and the industry. The future will increasingly allow greater one to one marketing, particularly via e-mail, and there is a real opportunity for competitive advantage for Victoria.

Strategies

• Develop direct marketing initiatives to be integrated with both Tourism Victoria's broader marketing programs and its online marketing.
  
• Encourage and educate the industry to embrace direct marketing opportunities, including online marketing.

Victorian Tourism Information Service (VTIS)

Tourism Victoria currently provides a national telephone service to consumers and retail travel agents, providing tourism advice and brochure fulfilment. Wherever possible, consumers will be referred to the source of the information to obtain more detailed information, or to centres with the capacity to take bookings by phone.

Strategies

• Continually review and enhance the VTIS in response to market demand and technology opportunities.
  
• Continue to provide VTIS staff with training and familiarisations to ensure they are able to provide quality service to callers.
  
• Undertake a review of the VTIS service in 2002-2003 to ensure that high levels of information and collateral are provided to consumers.

Printed Collateral

While consumers are increasingly looking for travel information and gradually booking product online, it is vitally important to maintain printed collateral appropriate to each stage of the trip cycle.

There is an enormous variety of collateral in the market place. Numerous consumer guidebooks are available from retail outlets such as newsagents and bookstores. Travel guidebooks produced by organisations such as AAA Tourism are also distributed through travel retailers such as the RACV, while travel wholesalers and travel agents produce their own range of brochures available free to the public.

The distribution of printed collateral is an expensive process. The significant costs associated with printing, storing, and transporting the free brochures created by Tourism Victoria and regional campaign committees is a major barrier to their effective and widespread distribution. This has meant that distribution has largely been constrained to within Victoria.

In the past, Tourism Victoria has organised and subsidised the cost for regional campaign committees to distribute Jigsaw brochures to visitor information centres, travel agents, consumers shows and direct to the consumer by mail in response to calls to the Victorian Tourism Information Service Call centres.

Increasingly, Tourism Victoria and the industry must identify more cost efficient methods of information distribution. Tourism Victoria is investigating the development of email information provision at the Victorian Tourism Information Service call centre as an alternative to mailing out brochures. The role of Tourism Victoria's online distribution strategy aims to dramatically improve the cost and expanded reach of information provision. Tourism Victoria is also exploring the provision of tourism information through partnerships with a range of other media companies and private sector companies such as television networks, newspapers, and global credit card companies.

Strategies

• Continue to produce and distribute a range of Jigsaw branded brochures, visitor guides, and maps profiling regions and product segments.
  
• As part of an integrated touring program, produce a new touring guide for regional Victoria.
  
• Continue to review the printed collateral distribution strategy to identify cost effective distribution options and improve the reporting system to campaign committees.
  
• Tourism Victoria will work in close partnership with the City of Melbourne in establishing the Visitor Information Centre at Federation Square as the information gateway to the State.
  
• Encourage the industry to gradually reduce expenditure on printed collateral while investigating and taking up opportunities in the areas of online information provision and distribution, and media and business partnerships.

ONLINE DISTRIBUTION - VICTORIAN TOURISM ONLINE

Vision: Victorian Tourism Online (VTO) will maximise the opportunities presented by online and internet technologies in marketing Victoria nationally and internationally, while providing consumers with a complete Victorian tourism online experience.

Objectives

Tourism Victoria and its participating partners in the Victorian Tourism Online (VTO) project, will continue to improve Victoria's competitiveness as a tourism destination by further developing Victoria's consumer website, visitvictoria.com. (visitmelbourne.com in the international market). The main objectives are to:

• Achieve world's best practice online distribution of tourism information and product worldwide.
  
• Develop and enhance the levels of understanding and uptake by Victoria's tourism industry in online and e-commerce opportunities.
  
• Develop a comprehensive digital database of information about Victoria's tourism attractions, operators and products.
  
• Publish information through the visitvictoria.com, and visitmelbourne.com consumer websites, and distribute the data to other online media, including websites such as australia.com through the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse.

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BACKGROUND

The tourism industry is highly suited to take advantage of online technologies. Online travel is one of the most significant e-commerce categories in the world, with projections that online travel could grow to US$32.1 billion by 2004.
Growing consumer confidence in booking through the internet, web only booking discounts by some carriers, easy to use booking engines/software and improved access to fare databases are encouraging travel consumers to book online. This trend is particularly obvious for simple tasks like regular point-to-point airfares for corporate travellers.

Research indicates that a vast majority of internet users also have a high propensity to travel. There is a close match between the demographics of the tourism client (often affluent and well educated) and the internet user. This correlation helps to explain why travel information is so heavily sought online.

Findings from a 1999 study by Schleim and Saint-Amour on internet use within the USA tourism sector, found that the "pace of adoption of the medium continues to be astonishing and the internet is now the most important source of business". For Victoria, the key findings of the study may very well provide a glimpse of the future.

The following table provides an indication of the state of technology adoption in the Australian tourism sector in comparison to all small businesses sectors. Findings include:
· Nearly double the number of tourism businesses have a homepage or website;

• 31% more businesses in tourism receive orders/bookings using the internet; and
  
• 4% more tourism business receive customer payments.

Industry adoption of technology

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Source: National Office for the Information Economy (2000), William Angliss (1999)

Victorian Tourism Online, where we have come from…..

In 1999, the Victorian Government provided Tourism Victoria with funding to undertake the VTO project. A dedicated Tourism Victoria project team together with TIAS Pty Ltd, have worked to make the new state of the art websites, visitvictoria.com and visitmelbourne.com, and the VTO database system a reality.

A number of other strategic partnerships have been established with key organisations such as RACV, AAA Tourism, Parks Victoria, the Product Region Campaign Committees and Map Data Sciences Pty Ltd, in order to strengthen and enhance the VTO initiative. Two companies, Worldres Inc and Bookrite were also appointed to offer fully electronic online booking engine capabilities for Victorian tourism operators wanting to establish e-commerce bookings for their website product.

In March 2001, the VTO system was launched, beginning a very important technology-testing phase for the project. Both visitvictoria.com and visitmelbourne.com went live for the purpose of identifying and resolving any technology and operator issues. A number of site performance issues were identified and corrected during this period. Remedial action also began to address technical problems causing unreliability and slowness in the online operator sign-up process.

One of the key features of the new VTO system is the remote authoring capability on visitvictoria.com. Remote authoring allows operators to enter, maintain and update their own listings and information, set up online booking capabilities, as well as establish links to other associated local tourism products. The commitment to a remote authoring capability will provide Victoria's tourism industry with a strong competitive advantage in future years.

Over two years in development, visitvictoria.com will continually evolve as Victoria's central online hub, providing motivational and destination information worldwide. The site is rich in information about destinations, tourism product and operators in Melbourne and regional Victoria, and both complements and integrates with Tourism Victoria's other marketing activities. The site is linked to all regional tourism sites, as well as key partner sites and provides the capacity for visitors to book and pay for accommodation, tours, attractions, events and services online from anywhere in the world.

ISSUES

There will be a growing opportunity for competitive advantage in the area of personalisation and customisation on the internet.

Due to technological advances there is a move towards interactive television, and development in mobile hardware e.g. third generation satellite mapping in cars.

There is an increased emphasis on online marketing in the marketing mix. The future will increasingly allow one to one marketing, and there is a real opportunity for competitive advantage for Victoria. VTO has the reach to capture potential consumers from all over Australia and the world and feed them directly to the operator.

Online booking will become increasingly more accepted, however the exact timeframes are still unclear. At present online booking of travel products is heavily driven by price. Many products can be booked online on visitvictoria.com but consumer use of online booking remains low.

STRATEGIES

• Continuously improve visitvictoria.com through consumer testing, to ensure it exceeds consumer expectations while driving business to tourism product. In order to continue to provide a cost effective online marketing offering that drives business to tourism product within the State, the VTO project will support:
  
• Quality listing of tourism product that contains up to date information consumers want because the businesses themselves maintain it.
  
• The distribution of product listings through the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse and australia.com.
  
• Exploring approaches that maximise bookings or purchases of tourism product.
  
• Tourism Victoria will continue to communicate and consult with the industry to highlight opportunities linked to online marketing initiatives and new technologies.
  
• Tourism Victoria will review the VTO strategy on an annual basis, starting with a strategic review in 2002-2003.
  
• Tourism Victoria will continue to monitor competitor and world best practice sites to ensure that VTO remains competitive and innovative within the global market.
  
• Develop and evolve the international language variants of visitmelbourne.com.
  
• Tourism Victoria in consultation with regional tourism organisations will develop strategies to better integrate regional tourism websites with visitvictoria.com.
  
• Facilitate and encourage the use of internet technologies within the Victorian information centre network.
  
• Continuously explore new channels and technology options for distribution of content through initiatives such as pilot programs with industry.
  
• Tourism Victoria will ensure that all marketing programs are fully integrated with VTO and maximise the benefits of online marketing initiatives.

Other Tourism Online Stakeholders

Ten of the state's campaign regions, and many marketing bodies, touring routes and other industry players have their own sites to support visitvictoria.com.

Several government agencies also have sites of interest to tourists:

• Parks Victoria's site Parkweb (www.parkweb.vic.gov.au) provides detailed information for visitors on Victoria's parks and reserves;
  
• VicRoads site Road Safety for Tourists (www.vicroads.vic.gov.au/road_safe/index.htm) communicates road rules and allows visitors to calculate travel distances and times around Victoria.
  
• VicTrip (www.vicrtrip.vic.gov.au) provides public transport information.
  
• Melbourne Airport (www.melair.com.au) provides up to date flight information.

Strategies

• Continue to develop internet sites to provide fast, relevant and timely access to information for visitors and potential visitors to Victoria, linked to visitvictoria.com.

INFORMATION PROVISION

Vision: Victoria's visitor services and information provision is strategic, efficient, effective and consumer needs driven.

Objectives

• Provide a range of services and information that meets the needs of visitors at each stage of their trip.
  
• Ensure visitor satisfaction through visitor information services.

BACKGROUND

Information and the service associated with its provision, can create expectations, assist itinerary planning, facilitate bookings, orient visitors, enhance visitor experience and influence reflections on that experience.

The importance of various information services and tools, varies for each stage of the trip cycle and market segment, and will change over time.

Information tools for each stage of the trip cycle

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Selected Information Sources by market

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Source: Long trip (3+ nights) Holiday Tracking Survey, Roy Morgan Research. The Roy Morgan Value Segments developed in conjunction with Colin Benjamin of the Horizon Network

Visitor Information Centres

Background

Visitor information centres provide the opportunity for visitors to obtain information, make bookings and interact with local people. Visitor information centres provide services for visitors both before their visit and during their stay. They are an important element of the yield strategy for Victoria because they offer additional tourism opportunities to consumers.

An average of 25% of visitors to a regional destination will visit an information centre. As a result of information obtained from visitor information centres, people stay additional nights, undertake additional tours and visit additional attractions.

As a result of initiatives from the last strategic plan, Victoria now has a network of 68 accredited information centres, 28 of which are level one accredited.

The Visitor Information Centre Accreditation Program (VICAP) is a component of the Better Business Tourism Accreditation Program. It is based on industry developed best practice guidelines and is approved by the Tourism Accreditation Board of Victoria.

VICAP recognises three tiers of accreditation based on volume of visitors, breadth of information, visitor and parking facilities, communication systems and staffing. Only accredited centres are recognised as official network outlets, eligible for funding and statewide initiatives, included in training programs and listed on visitvictoria.com.

Travellers can distinguish accredited centres by the yellow italicised 'i' symbol on a blue sign, which has become an integral part of the State's signing system.

National minimum standards for visitor information centres, based on the Victorian model, have now been formally adopted by every state and territory.

Issues

The ongoing improvement of accredited visitor information centres is essential. Key issues include:

• Rationalising and centralising visitor services within major regional centres;
  
• Spatial distribution of centres at each level;
  
• Electronic networking and booking systems;
  
• Providing information services for adjoining regions and the State as a whole;
  
• Promotion of accredited and non-accredited operators;
  
• Staff training and development;
  
• Better integration of centres with the communities in which they are based by co-locating them with other local government and business services.

Strategies

• Evaluate the geographical distribution of visitor information centres in relation to gateway locations, visitor flow patterns, key destinations, stopovers and touring routes. Facilitate the development or upgrading of centres where required.
  
• Introduce mechanisms to systematically monitor use and visitor satisfaction in visitor information centres.
  
• Continue to review the visitor information centres accreditation program in line with changing market forces.
  
• Introduce electronic networking of accredited information centres to encourage the development of a booking and information service covering all regions of Victoria.

Other visitor orientation and departure services

Background

In addition to seeking information from major visitor information centres, visitors also use hotels, attractions, transport, retailers and others. Friends and relatives are also a critical factor in visitor orientation, experience and satisfaction.

City of Melbourne offers a range of services to provide a sense of arrival and to assist visitors during their stay. These include the City Ambassadors Program, Melbourne Greeter Service, Cruise Ship Meet and Greet Program, satellite information booths, a telephone, mail, fax and internet enquiry service and the Melbourne Tourism Services map. Melbourne Airport also offers visitor information services.

Strategies

• Continue to coordinate the delivery of visitor information at major arrival and departure points.