African Lion in Tourism website design
It seems to be a South African thing, Service levels under perform, workers under perform and web sites under perform. In a study of over 100 South African tourism websites we found them to be pretty useless at doing what their owners set out to do. Having dealt with many clients in the tourism industry we can put our finger on the problem.
It seems our aspirations exceed our knowledge or our abilities. Rather than work with other professionals in our arena, we want to go it alone. We would rather spend twice as much on advertising as we need to, than join forces with others and market as a team. Tourism companies are particularly good at not wanting to advance their oppositions case.
What we have noticed is that Tourism websites tend to be a copy of the brochure that gets handed out. The sad thing as this is a route that is proven not to do the job. People visit once, find very little of interest and move on. I don’t know how many B & B owners I have told that they should not be selling bums in beds. That is the result of their marketing not the where the focus should lie.
The trend however for B & B’s is to have information about how many rooms and what the rooms offer as the only focus on their websites. The functionality on most was minimal. Very few allowed the potential tourist to book online. Facts are that most Accommodation venues were leaving this function to accommodation aggregators.
Online inefficiency will hinder the growth of South African Tourism versus other more internet savvy destinations. Should the local market not begin to provide efficient websites, business will be lost to foreign competitors.
I cannot tell you how many South African Tourist companies have said “This internet stuff just doesn’t work for me.” When I look at their websites I know why.
Do you want a website that will get the visitors in? Do you want a website that will keep them coming back? Do you want to use the internet to grow your tourism business? Call Guy now 013 745 8337.
