Country Portal for Finnish Tourism

In this development travel & tourism has maintained its position as one of the leading e-commerce areas. In Europe 80 % of hotels have web sites and, in online sales have steady growth rates between 20 % and 50%. Destination Management Organisations (DMOs) were among the first to use the Internet, already in the mid 90s. However, one can also observe problems, especially with respect to online transactions. A crucial issue is the identification of a successful business model, taking into consideration legal constraints.

But destinations have advantages: they have a unique, not exchangeable brand; they are trusted partners for networking; and they have experience in information management and delivery. The crucial issue is to maintain an independent position in the e-market, based on a distinctive brand, and to enable access to the e-market for all suppliers within a destination (not just "cherry picking" with few strong suppliers). But DMOs have to provide added value for both suppliers and users.

The Finnish Tourism Portal responds to these challenges with some outstanding features:

• An all-embracing information platform - meeting newest technological standards - integrating content from all the different players, providing at the same time efficient access for all users, i.e. travellers, companies, national and international tourism organisations. The principle is to reuse as much as possible content from external sources in order to lower the workload as well as to provide up-to-date information.
• The portal will support booking and bundling of tourism elements from hotels, regions, ferries, airlines and other players. Specific features such as recommender systems will increase the added value for users.
• In addition, the platform will be based on a wide range of community services. It is known that involvement of tourists can increase their loyalty. The portal will therefore focus on user interactivity by providing discussion boards, blogs and travel reports from other users.
• And, finally, mobile services will provide access to both information and services, with new forms of user interaction.