Increased Marketing Ownership through Social Media adoption in Cyprus
The project was originated after the initiative of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation (CTO) to change its practices from being mostly an off-line organization to move on a more online management. Following to the Strategic plan 2003-2010 put in practice by the Management and the Board of Directors of the Cyprus tourism Authority, the CTO has educated its staff to start using online tools in order to make their job more effective, more productive and mostly more visible.
After the in depth training for all its staff, the CTO together with the Cyprus – E Tourism Forum (www.etourism-Forum.com) have organised the first congress about online marketing in Tourism last February in Limassol. During the this two day event we were able to work with professionals from all over the world, specialists on online who gave us their vision on tourism in a very innovative and comprehensive manner. The event was open to all the Cypriot Industry of tourism and it generated the need for more in depth knowledge of the Online Tools. During the event all participants and first the Director General of the Cyprus Tourism Organisation, Mrs. Pheobe Katsouri have pointed out the need of using the online to attract new markets, boost the existing and create new relationships with our clients.
In April 2009 the Human Resource Development Authority (www.hrdauth.org.cy) has approved and partially financed the first training programme concerning Online Marketing and Online Reputation on Tourism. The programme has been elaborated by Avantless with the objective to improve the digital performance of the tourism sector. Avantless created the first online community for the Cypriot Tourism Industry online (www.avantlessimproves.com) where the industry players can meet online to share training experiences and discuss matters that interest them and where the agenda of the seminars was published.
The training team of Avantless organised four one day seminars in Limassol, Pafos, Agia Napa and Nicosia. Forty companies have attended the seminars and shared their views in a workshop type seminar where they had in depth analysis of the latest trends. The participants were top level marketing people from hotels, travel agents and tour operators who shared the same “anxieties” about the future of tourism in Cyprus. During the workshops a very clear conclusion has been reached. -All need to work in a more collaborative and especially more innovative manner in order to gain more share on the big online travel market. Starting from more transparent pricing, more collaborative marketing, more authenticity in product forming and defiantly more in house education in order to use effectively the available tools the internet provides with such generosity-. The programmes will start again in January 2010 and there are six more sessions planned targeting small tourist enterprises that have less resources but larger flexibility.