Barely a year has gone by since the European tourism portal visiteurope.com was given its worldwide launch at the European Tourism Ministers` Conference in Vienna on March 21st 2006. The portal, developed by…
Barely a year has gone by since the European tourism portal visiteurope.com was given its worldwide launch at the European Tourism Ministers` Conference in Vienna on March 21st 2006. The portal, developed by the European Commission under its IDA Programme (Interchange of Data between Administrations), has been run and managed by the Brussels-based European Travel Commission (ETC).
Year one of operations has already seen many new developments to this unique European web portal. 2006 saw the launch of several versions to cover ETC`s target markets in The Americas – starting with versions for the USA (English), Canada (English & French) and Brazil (in Portuguese), followed by a Spanish version (launched in April) to cater for the rest of Latin America.
While a principal focus of the ETC’s activities is marketing in the North American markets, lively visitor interest in the new website quickly made apparent the need for an English-language version of visiteurope.com catering to the needs of potential guests in Europe, Australia, South Africa, Asia and the Middle East. ETC plans to launch localised versions of the site in Japanese, Chinese and Russian, starting this year.
“For the first time ever, 37 European National Tourist Offices are collaborating on a daily basis to showcase Europe to the world. visiteurope.com provides our visitors with all the information, imagery and inspiration they need to get fully prepared for their next vacation to Europe.” said Rob Franklin, ETC`s Executive Director.
Karine Bruere, Online Marketing Manager for the portal, revealed that ETC is currently working on many new projects to further develop visiteurope.com. “You will soon be able to browse our brand new interactive map of Europe, contribute to our new collaborative website, and discover a wide range of `pan-European` experiences on cross-border themes and regions such as the Baltic States, the Danube, the Pyrenees, National Parks in Europe to name but a few. Every day we try to focus on making the visitor experience on visiteurope.com richer and more enjoyable.” said Karine.
2007 has been designated as ETC`s `Year of Operational Excellence` which includes the vision of outstanding efficiency in realising NTOs’ mission. “In today’s world this means managing change. We are all confronted by the challenges of new markets, new competitors, new tasks, new technologies, new skills, new structures, laws and regulations. In other words: NTOs are faced with a new game and new rules. The visiteurope.com portal is a vital tool which can help Europe to meet these challenges by extending its reach to new and expanding markets” said ETC President Arthur Oberascher.
Currently more than 48% of the portal`s visitors come from ETC`s main target markets (USA, Canada, Brazil and Japan) of which 34% come from the USA. 85% of the visitors are new visitors to the portal, with 54% coming from search engines. The average page visit is 3.7 pages, with 67% of all visitors staying between 0-5 minutes on the portal.
Theodore is the Co-Founder and Managing Editor of TravelDailyNews Media Network; his responsibilities include business development and planning for TravelDailyNews long-term opportunities.
