News Release -
Shannon Development Secures Top Internet Guru for their Pilot eMarketing Tourism Seminar
“Internationally more people than ever are booking holidays on-line. In the US for example over one third of all holiday booking last year were made on-line directly by the consumer. Armed with these statistics Shannon Development is organising a special E-Marketing Seminar to help Co. Clare tourism trade members boost their business. This will be a pilot project, and if successful will be rolled out to other counties in the Shannon Region,” said John King, Heritage and Tourism Director, Shannon Development.
The Seminar will take place at 7.00 pm on Wednesday 22nd February ‘06 at Innovation Works Information Park, Gort Road, Ennis. Shannon Development has secured the help of internet guru Alex French, author of the new internet book DOT ie published by Mercier Press and recently featured on the RTE Marian Finucane radio show. The book is a practical guide to using the internet in Ireland. Alex will give the seminar practical troubleshooting tips and advice geared to all standards of internet users.
John Quinlivan, Shannon Development Regional Manager, Clare will introduce the seminar and act as MC. Alex French, will give a general talk on E- Marketing. He will be followed by a representative from James Threapleton from Ennis base company Magico, established in Ennis in 1999 and now one of Ireland’s leading ebusiness solution providers. They will discuss options available to Small Medium Enterprises (SME’s) when creating new website or refreshing existing website.
Next to speak will be Dominic Considine CEO, Shannon Showcase, the Ennis based company with over five years experience of working with the leisure industry. The company provides direct revenue to over 2000 hotels and 6000 holiday homes worldwide, and undertakes a range of marketing services. It also operates a 150 seater multilingual contact centre included services from inbound call handling to outbound telesales. Mr. Considine will cover the topic of selling through the internet.
The final speaker will be Niall Heenan from Tir na Fiuise Cottages in Terryglass, Co. Tipperary, a self catering owner who uses successfully uses the internet to sell and promote his business. The Seminar will conclude with a questions and answers session chaired by John Quinlivan.
Stressing the importance of the internet to SME’s John King said, “National tourism agencies now recognise that the benefits of tourism growth are not being felt in more rural areas of the west of Ireland, and that a lot of tourism growth is benefiting the east coast. To address this problem Shannon Development has designed and E-marketing programme with smaller tourism operators in mind.”
“While larger tourism operators in the Shannon Region have the resources to keep up-to-date with e-marketing trends, it is often harder for smaller businesses with fewer resources to keep abreast of the ever changing e-marking environment. We are trying to show that e-marketing is just as relevant to the smaller tourism businesses,” said Mr. John Quinlivan, Shannon Development Regional Development Manager, Clare.
The Seminar is being subsidised by Shannon Development and a nominal €10.00 charge will apply. To ensure that each tourism trade member gets the most from the seminar, places are limited to 25 on a first come first served basis. Advance booking is essential. To book a place pleases contact: Oonagh Kelly Tel: 061-710218 kelly0n@shannondev.ie
“With over 1.2 million Irish people on-line a particular focus of its Ireland marketing efforts will be on electronic marketing. Conscious that the Internet is playing an increasing role in the planning and booking of holidays in Ireland, Shannon Development reshaped and widened the content of their Shannon Region tourism website, www.ShannonRegionTourism.ie , making it more informative and user friendly, inputting more of the Region’s tourism product, and promoting it more aggressively,” said Mr. King.
“In 2005 Shannon Development introduced its ‘Shannon Calling’ ezine on-line newsletter, and three issues were produced in the last quarter of 2005. the first of eight to ten issues of the ezine planned for 2006 has just been produced and distributed to tourism trade and various interest groups at home and overseas,” says Aisling McMahon tourism marketing executive, Shannon Development.
As part of Western Regions tourism alliance which Shannon Development initiated in 2003, a new website www.gowestireland.com was developed to promote the three participating tourism region namely Shannon Region Tourism, Ireland North West Tourism and Ireland West Tourism.
To further enhance this website Shannon Development is working with their partners to develop a ‘special offers’ section which will go online before the main tourist season. This will form part of Shannon Development’s active participation in the Western Regions Alliance which aims to continue to help strengthen the branding of the western regions. The ‘special offers’ element of the website is just part of an overall €1.2 million campaign planned for 2006 covering promotions and related activities in the UK, US, and key European markets, with the objective of enticing more visitors to holiday in the West.
As another part of refocusing its e-marketing initiatives on its own tourism website, and following the success of its 2005 Pigsback.com e-marketing campaign, Shannon Development will again work closely with Pigsback.com in 2006, who have over 200,000 members, to promote year-round holiday offers, on a special ‘Shannon Region’ Holiday Zone.
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