Online strategy to boost tourism

The British Tourist Authority (BTA) is revamping its web sites as part of a strategy to increase visitor numbers after the disaster of last year's foot and mouth crisis.

The organisation believes an improved internet presence will boost annual revenue by £15m as a result of new technology that will power its web sites.

The plans are based on a content management system with knowledge management functionality, from vendor Tridion.

According to Ray Veal, BTA business analyst, the BTA is responsible for generating £1bn of revenue every year, with 15 per cent coming from online activities.

He believes the addition of a content management system will increase revenue derived from the web by 10 per cent, some £15m.

'We are talking about generating this revenue over the next three years,' Veal said. 'Benefits of the content management system are really starting to present themselves, which is virtually straight away.'

The technology will be used to ensure, among other things, that information on its core visitbritain.com web site is timely and accurate, co-ordinating with associated sites across 27 other countries.

The BTA is in the process of conducting small pilot projects before tackling the main web site, which is expected to take three years.

Veal says it is unclear how much the project will cost at this stage, but he anticipates it will be a 'seven figure sum'.

'Once the foot and mouth crisis was over, funding was made available for the BTA to help the country recover from foot and mouth. We starting working on this at the end of last year,' Veal said.