GATE # 6: E-Commerce and Secure Transaction Management

E-commerce secure booking engines, with the capability to manage Hotel Room only bookings, multi-element packages including air, hotel, ground, spa-treatments, golf packages, food and beverage and attractions ticketing, in real-time, when the customer has decided they are ready to buy, are beginning to get the attention of consumers in their quest for destination information and knowledge through their Internet research.

Converting the sale for the destination or supplier is an expected norm, either through call centered assisted agents using a back of the house CRM approach, or the on-line, realtime completion of a reservation using a secure data and bookings management process, through any web browser. Cost effective and quickly adaptable solutions are required to meet the unique e-branding demands of a destinations web strategies.

Over the course of the past decade, there have been great strides in technology which lower costs. Much of the time however, there is a true lack of understanding and appreciation for the Internet customer and how destinations can take advantage of the efficiencies being created.

Just so you know, we are not altogether against on-line agencies, we want you to know that we feel they have a solid place in the development and sustainability of a healthy destination distribution mix. But it needs to be driven by the destination on a question of what the destination needs and not by the threat that comes with volume selling.