Glaciers in New Zealand
Maori children
Northland, New Zealand
Queen Charlotte Sound
Routeburn Track
Boating in Taupo
Tongariro, New Zealand
Wellington, New Zealand

Newsletter : October 2003

brought to you by New Zealand Tourism Online www.tourism.net.nz

In this October Newsletter:

NZTO Comment

by Garry Bond, General Manager, New Zealand Tourism Online

New Zealand Tourism Online began life in 1997 and has progressed steadily over the years. Just last week we were awarded 22nd place in the Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50. The Deloitte/Unlimited Fast 50 is an index of New Zealand's fastest growing companies based on percentage revenue growth and this year the company completed its sixth year of operation with a growth return of more than 285%.

We have worked very hard especially in the past year designing and modifying our Web site so it provides the visitor with a real one-stop shop for tourism and travel in New Zealand. At the same time we have provided our tourism clients such as yourself the opportunity to promote your business and to take advantage of the quality traffic numbers we attract.

Our success not only reflects the positive growth within the tourism industry but the fact that the Internet is an integral part of the marketing mix for tourism businesses in this country.

We would like to thank our existing client base for the continued support and welcome all of our new clients. We will continue our journey to secure even more of the traveller's disposable dollar for your business.

October Member Shield Winner

Congratulations to Marguerite Leadley from Tawanui Farmstay in the Waitomo area. They placed a New Zealand Tourism Online Member Shield on their Web site, entered our free draw and won an extra 6 months membership on www.tourism.net.nz

You too can be a winner. Each month we draw a new name from the hat so if you haven't entered yet it's not too late. You just need to be a current paid member with us, place the applicable member shield on your Web site and register. The sooner you inform us that you have placed the shield on your site, the sooner we can place you in the monthly draw.

Next draw: Monday November 17th 2003.

For more details just visit our exclusive member only business centre www.tourism.net.nz/business-centre

Here's what the two shields look like.

New Zealand Tourism Online Gold MemberNew Zealand Tourism Online Official Member

They are exclusive for our members and they not only look great on your Web site but help aid your search engine status by connecting with a major NZ tourism portal. To check your member status with us, visit our site and pull up your listing. If you have a gold star by your name the you can use the gold member shield. If you have a silver or bronze star by your name then use the official member shield.

Feature Web Pages

Many of you already have our feature Web page as part of the package with your listing on our Web site. For those who aren't sure about the advantages of this then here are the major ones:

  1. The Web page gets picked up independently by search engines relatively quickly because we are a major NZ tourism portal and search engines regularly "spider" us for updates.


  2. The Web pages are optimised for search engines so you not only have the advantage of visitors finding your standard listing but they can also find you directly via a general search i.e. "jet boating west coast new zealand" in www.google.com results in our tourism client being ranked in 2nd spot on the results page.


  3. The Web page is a snapshot of your business and it gives you the opportunity to "take a different angle" if you wish.


  4. The Web page is quick loading which means the load time is often quite a bit faster than your own large site.


  5. Free Web page updates throughout the year mean you can update text or images. Especially useful if you have distinct seasonal activities.


  6. The Web page provides additional search engine coverage meaning you get seen more often and there's a chance your competitor may be bumped further down the results page. More exposure and branding means more business.


  7. The Web page is a very tidy, well laid out design and will give the visitor a good impression. The Web page is similar to "the front door of your shop".


  8. The Web page provides those with no Web presence a chance to market cost effectively on the Internet.

Safe Booking Forms on the Web

by Mark Rocket and Nick Butler, Avatar Web Promotions

Does your heart skip a beat each time you give out your credit card details on the Internet? If so, you're not alone.

A 2002 Webwatch survey showed that only a third of users trust Web sites that sell services or products and research from Ipsos-Reid revealed that about half of us feel that the potential for online credit card fraud is a major concern.

So if you take bookings online you've got your work cut out for you convincing the punters to trust you.

The first step is to make sure you only collect credit card or other sensitive information on a page hosted on a secure server. A secure server uses SSL (Secure Sockets Layer for you acronym addicts) to encrypt the information sent from the Web page to the server so that it can't be intercepted en route.

How do your customers know if a page is secure?

  1. They can look in the address bar. A URL that starts with https will be secure.
  2. Many people also know to look for the small padlock in the bottom right hand corner of the browser.
  3. You tell them. It's a point worth stressing.

If you are serious about securing bookings directly on the Internet it can be worthwhile going a step further to show your customers that your site can be trusted by getting a site seal from a Certification Authority.

These seals have 3 benefits:

  1. They are visible. Not all online shoppers know to look for the padlock symbol and the seal is a reminder to your customers that you take their security seriously.
  2. They are reassuring. A third party seal of approval carries more weight than your own promises.
  3. They prove you are who you say you are.

Certification Authorities include Thawte, Verisign, GeoTrust, Entrust, Globalsign, ipsCA, and Comodo.

Top Search Engines 2003

by Mark Rocket and Nick Butler, Avatar Web Promotions

It's dog eat dog in the search engine world. Today's top dog is tomorrow's Pedigree Pal. This time last year we looked at the top dogs of search. In descending order they were:

  1. MSN Search
  2. Yahoo!
  3. Google
  4. AOL
  5. Ask Jeeves

No prizes for guessing who is leader of the pack in 2003! Google is now so dominant that the word is becoming synonymous with Web searching. Here are the results from 2003*:

  1. Google (32% of all searches)
  2. Yahoo! (25% of searches)
  3. AOL (19% of searches)
  4. Bing Search (15% of searches)
  5. Ask Jeeves (3% of searches)

A few things to bear in mind about the rankings:

  • The figures are skewed towards the US
  • The figures are also skewed away from Google. That's because Google provides search results for Yahoo! and AOL. Taking these into account, Google soaks up between half and two thirds of searches!
  • The companies that measure Internet use regularly change the way they analyse search behaviour and these two lists use different methodologies. The exact figures are open to argument, but the rankings are revealing

* Figures from comScore Media Metrix qSearch search engine ratings, mid-2003.

We welcome any feedback or contributions for our next newsletter - just email our team web@tourism.net.nz

Regards,

The Team
Ph. 0800 14 65 47
https://www.tourism.net.nz
New Zealand Tourism Online Limited
Head Office: 208 Cashel Street, Christchurch

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