Amman - Members of the Jordan Inbound Tour Operators Association (JITOA) have examined best practices in online marketing in an effort to develop their corporate websites to attract more international and regional tourists.
Attending a two-day workshop titled "Website Development and Marketing," 15 local tour operators discussed practical ways to enhance their websites to generate online business leads through sound marketing and customer service strategies.
Rasheed Roussan of WriteLabs called on tour operators to take immediate action for marketing their services and products online.
"Marketers today define our age as the age of the attention economy, today business success is determined by trying to attract or employ people's attention," said Roussan, who facilitated the workshop.
"Tour operators' websites have to be an extension of their business vision, and they have to grab the tourists' attention," he continued.
"I believe the training workshop has been very instructive, underlying the fact that the use of this form of technology is essential for inbound tour operators whose client-base is international," JITOA's Executive Director Ahmed El-Bashiti said.
"It is time our members eye the Internet as a profitable business asset by transforming their sites from e-brochures to e-services," Bashiti pointed out.
"The workshop is part of JITOA's continuous efforts to develop the business and professional skills of tour operators and get them to make more use of their websites through marketing tourism in Jordan on a global level, creating new market niches and sustaining existing ones," pointed out Bashiti.
Issues discussed during the first day included branding and its impact on online marketing, website development dynamics, web-mastering and project management.
"Sustaining current clients and attracting new ones via online marketing is nothing less than a full-time job. Most businesses are not familiar with the sales value their websites can offer, if developed and marketed properly," explained Roussan.
The second day included presentations and discussions about the practical aspects and uses of interdisciplinary market research, pretesting and online marketing.
"The Internet is evolving into the most vital and interactive marketing and advertising medium, providing breakthrough tools for leveraging sales, developing powerful customer relationship management models, and tapping new markets," Roussan told participants.
Tour operators discussed key requirements for email marketing campaigns, newsletters, search engine optimisation, links management and interactive media.
"It has to start with your marketing plan, tour operators should think about how the website supports the marketing plan. They have to build the right business approach to website development and marketing, concentrating on branding the Jordanian tourism product via innovative media," stressed Bashiti.
Participants called on JITOA to provide a solution for the lack of skilled online content writers both in English and Arabic.
"From the discussions we had, this seems to be a recurring need. JITOA will seek to address that need by providing a writing service in both English and Arabic to make sure that marketing content in member web pages is well-developed, proofread and conveys the right message," stated Bashiti.
The event concluded with a special presentation by Media Plus' Tamer Qarrain, who explained to participants the "dos" and "don'ts" of website development from a technical point of view.
The workshop was supported by the United States Agency for International Development through the USAID-funded AMIR Program.
Established in 2003, the JITOA was founded on the belief that tourism is one of the most important growth sectors in terms of its potential impact on economic development and societal advancement in Jordan. The association further accepts that the sustainable growth of the tourism economy can best be achieved through professional partnerships driven by the private sector, and supported and facilitated by government and the Jordan Tourism Board. These partnerships are founded on the opportunity for all sectors to create and develop profitable business in a context of mutual working and professional respect.
© Jordan Times 2005
