Italian Tourist Board engages IVIS Group for website, content management and expansion

Background

IVIS Group helped the Italian State Tourist Board by re-launching their website, based on a new content management system, improved design with enriched customer experience and preparing the site for international adoption. The solutions were delivered using IVIS Professional Services, a range of multi-channel consulting and delivery services.

The Italian State Tourist Board provide a range of services on behalf of the Italian government in cities around the world, supporting the development of Italy as a destination for tourism, information for travel agencies and travel information for tourists.

The evolution of tourism has seen a huge increase in the demand for online services to support research for trips prior to departure, support in booking, general information and historical facts. This has been in parallel with the demands for richer experiences and new technologies such as video.
Yet truly great online experiences are a combination of the technical aspects of efficient pages together with the creative input from marketing activities. Therefore good quality content is as important as the delivery, as online readability is crucial for promoting interest.

Solution

IVIS Group worked with the Italian State Tourist Board to provide a range of enhancements to their side, including improved credibility & perception through improving usability, accessibility, faster downloading etc; all of which helped contribute to improved user satisfaction, increased site visits and an opportunity to build a “destination” for travellers.

Improving the online presence started with creating W3C Standards compliant pages which formed the building blocks for future proofing the website & providing the benefits of Internationalization for both end-users as well as search engines.

Beyond this, areas of the site were created specifically for the press, including download and training areas, as well as separate sites for holidaymakers and business people. Content was targeted towards the specific users to provider a richer online experience. Multi-media and social networking were integrated with the site via the more famous providers such as YouTube and Facebook to add an extra dimension to the whole site.

Business Benefits

IVIS Group helped the Italian State Tourist Board to develop their dual streams of attracting holidaymakers and also businesses either for trade shows and events or indirectly via the press and trade associations:

• Increase visitor numbers Improve support for travel agencies
• Press area for high quality content and promotion
• Provide a platform for global expansion – rollout to all Italian tourism offices
• Content monetisation – membership schemes, subscription, advertising
• Increase trade through trade club management, event management
• Improve customer experience through surveys, polls and feedback forms

PROJECT DETAILS

DELIVERABLES: IVIS Group Professional Services helped the Italian Tourist Board to re-launch their website