Guest comment: English Destinations need to plan their future IT needs

Comment by Ken Male, destination management consultant EnglandNet marches relentlessly on with the announcement that the ‘pathfinder polling project’ should be operational at the end of April.

For those not in the gobbledegook speak this means that when someone is looking for accommodation availability on Visitengland (the website powered by EnglandNet) they will find a selection returned in the destination of their choice. Listed will be three types of choice for the client; – firstly, the live ‘book now button’ where the system will be able to interrogate live availability and the client will book and pay for the room; secondly, where the hotel has indicated that they have rooms available but a booking request is needed to confirm; thirdly, drawing establishments from the database but with no clue as to if they have rooms available.

The ‘polling’ means that EnglandNet will check with all the consolidators who have accommodation in the destination and list them for the client to select. This means that an hotel could show as available with more than one operator and with different prices according to the deal they have done with the consolidator. This could be good news for the consumer but will need some careful thinking from hoteliers if they are to maintain working relationships with their sales channels.

If the client wants to book on line they will select their preferred option and then be transferred to the consolidator’s site as EnglandNet is no longer going to provide for commercial transactions within its development. What this means in the short term is that EnglandNet could support the Visitengland website with links to the likes of Superbreak, Marriott hotels, Hilton, and the Destination Management Systems in Regional Tourist Boards or Local Authorities.

Accommodation providers need to be planning how they can get their product on line for live reservations, if they want that service, and decide with whom to get into bed. For most of the larger establishments this is not a problem as they have already got links through their central reservation systems, or through marketing groups. The SMEs, however, who appeared to be getting some help from the original form of commercial sales within EnglandNet will now have to find a consolidator. Destinations, in my opinion, will need to decide if they are going to get this to happen or possibly lose that income stream to others. This could mean the destination promotional activity will suffer if these income streams are curtailed. It makes the current discussions about the new destination management organisations very much more urgent.

If decisions are not taken quickly, the risk will be that the organisations are formed after the bulk of the private sector operators have found alternative channels, leaving the small operators only to be picked up by the destinations, and the revenue streams generated will be insufficient to fund the activity.

Comment by Ken Male, destination management consultant