Australian Tourism Technology is a world leader

Catherine Wolstenholme of the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW) told The Mole at ATE 2007 that ATDW has grown to the most popular source of Australian tourism content of its kind and positions Australia as a world leader in the digital tourism market.

She said that with now over 24,000 listings, 70,000 images, and the addition of geo-codes for online mapping, the database provides travellers with nationally agreed data standards of information on accommodation, destinations, events and other tourism products.

The ATDW evolved from a collaborative government tourism initiative to provide a comprehensive suite of tourism destinations and products that can be used by travel trade in their digital marketing activities and ATDW distributors include Google, Webjet, Yahoo!7 Australia and New Zealand and Australia Travel Market.

ATDW General Manager, Liz Ward said, “The ATDW has seen an exponential growth in its content syndication now generating more than 6 million page impressions per month for the industry and as a result of the advancement of the ATDW’s technology the Australian tourism industry is fast gaining the status of world leader in the digital tourism environment.”

“The technology expertise that now exists within the organisation positions the ATDW as a global leader in tourism content syndication and provides it the opportunity to now take on the world in its tourism technology services.”

Google and ATDW have also announced a partnership under which information in the ATDW database will be available and searchable on the Google Maps™ service at www.maps.google.com.au

The ATDW extensive database of Australian tourism listings, including hotels, tourist attractions, tour operators and other tourism-related businesses is provided to digital tourism publishers and its content standards are set by Australian Government tourism offices with listings of a consistently high standard and updated daily.

Under the arrangement, Google Maps will provide consumers with a reliable directory of the ATDW’s 18,000 tourism listings and consumers who are looking for a travel or tourism product will be able to use the Google Maps service to search for and find these business listings, by category and by location.

The partnership provides the Australian tourism industry with the potential to reach millions of Google’s Australian and overseas users, with Liz saying, “This easy-to-use, interactive tool will no doubt increase leads to the tourism industry and contribute to marketing Australia as an attractive tourist destination”.  

“Google Maps is the best integrated solution of maps, search functionality and informative content in Australia and makes it so easy for consumers to find travel choices.”

ATDW has not ignored the world of the media either forming a partnership with WriteClick, a global data base of travel writers and photographers designed to forge greater links between almost 400 travel writers and photographers worldwide and the 22,000 plus tourism industry organisations listed with the ATDW.

Under the relationship, tourism suppliers will gain valuable exposure to an international media network which solicits travel articles on tourism products for consumer publications.

Travel writers and photographers world wide can now access ATDWs 9342 accommodation places, 7288 attractions, 2548 destinations, 2726 events, 1609 tours, 170 transport options, 459 hire places and 281 general information listings around Australia.

Tourism suppliers who are members of the ATDW are also now able to subscribe to the WriteClick website, which contains specific details of travel writers and photographers around the globe, including more than 160 Australians and New Zealanders, more than 140 Canadians and Americans, more than 50 British and other talented writers and photographers from Belgium, China, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain, Morocco and Bulgaria.

Report by The Mole on location at ATE 2007