[back]

Get Training for the Olympics
5 August 2005

What are you doing about the Olympics? After the excitement of last month’s winning announcement it’s really worth doing some long-term planning. 2012 may sound a long time away, but you cannot afford to sit back and relax. You really need to start working out how you are going to capitalise on this fantastic future event.

The opportunity our industry has been presented with is enormous. For example, during 1993-96, after Sydney was named host of the 2000 Games, international visitors grew by 78%. After hosting the Olympics, Barcelona experienced an increase in tourism arrivals of 40 percent. According to London Mayor Ken Livingstone’s comment last month, the Olympics may cost every household the price of a weekly Walnut Whip in increased Council Tax, but for the travel industry, there is going to be money to be made, particularly in the years running up to 2012, as world interest in our country increases.

For the UK travel industry, this is a great online opportunity. With its worldwide reach, the Internet is the ideal distribution channel for inbound markets. Also if the travel trade adopts the new common standard for grading properties just launched by UK-wide tourism organisations rather than each travel company using its own grading scheme, overseas visitors will have that much more confidence to purchase online. Visitors will be able to compare like with like rather than having to decipher what each travel company’s scheme really means.

However, you cannot just create a Web site and expect the bookings to roll in. You need to be carefully considering your strategy. A good starting point is to think about the product you will be selling. What can you offer that is not easily replicated by outbound specialists overseas? What additional value can you bring by being located in the UK? This might be centred around local knowledge, more competitive pricing or some other proposition that is not easily achieved by overseas operators. Are you going to launch a new brand or will you continue to use your existing trading name? A whole host of Olympic domains such as london2012travel.com, londonolympichotels.com or visitlondon2012.com are already registered, so the options of building a specific brand are already becoming quite limited.

Given that the Web is the most cost-effective way to reach global inbound markets, how familiar are you with online marketing? This discipline needs to be as second nature to you as producing a brochure. Which geographic markets will you aim at? Which are the countries where online purchasing is most prevalent? The US certainly, but perhaps Europeans will be more likely to make the journey to the UK. Will you need a multi-language/multi-currency Web site or will English language and Sterling be sufficient?

Once you have built your online presence, you will need to attract visitors. Are you going to rely on organic search engine listings? Probably not. You will no doubt have to supplement these with pay per click marketing and will need to understand how to get the best out of this form of promotion. You will also need to foster a favourable look to book ratio, the vital factor in gaining positive return on investment to search engine marketing. Do you know the techniques required to achieve this? There are experts who can help.

If you are not familiar with any of these terms, you’d better gen-up. This will be your primary sales channel. You need to feel totally at home with its language and its idiosyncrasies. You may not wish to become an online expert yourself, but you will need enough knowledge to converse with the specialists, enough knowledge to know whether your online strategy is heading in the right direction or whether it needs some tweaking.

The Games may be seven years away, but don’t wait to get geared up. Start your online Olympic training now and you will be able to hit the ground running as the 2012 finish line comes into view.

[back]