In Business Computing II you will continue to advance your knowledge and skills in FrontPage 2000. You will be expected to apply that learning in this project and this will be assessed by your computer teacher.
Your computer teach and I suggest the following when designing your web page.
1. Publishing your Web Page.
Last semester you gained some Web authoring experience when you studied Business Computing (BADM 110). Using FrontPage 2000 you published your Websites to the college Intranet. This semester you will be required to publish your Web site on the World Wide Web. Note: This will be important when you contact your peers studying of travel and tourism for their critique of your web page before the submission date.
You are advised to open account with a Web service provider to which you will publish you Web Page. Geocities and Tripod are two commonly used Web service providers that will provide you space on the world wide web fro you to publish your Web Page.
2. Don't overload you front page with large graphics files. Select a font color and size that is easy to read and clearly different from hyperlink colours.
On the first page of your Web site consider offering "view graphics" or "text only" options. While beautiful photographs can stimulate interest and help with the decision to visit, many modems download graphics so slowly that potential visitors may click off the site before the transmission of photographs is fully completed. The official tourism website for Detroit has a html and flash version of the home page. The flash version tends to take too long to load for browsing potential visitors. This is particularly frustrating at peaks times of the day. Crawford, Indiana USA has a simple but nice design with a variety of color and font. This destination would appear to have a small budget. By comparison the big-spending Beverly Hills uses text that is much too small to be read on most monitors. The contrast of colours is also a bad choice.
3. Avoid the use of frames.
Too much framing is distractive to viewers and tends to cramp the screen. My advice is to avoid frames. Some viewers monitors are too small to handle pages broken up into partitions. The main viewing area then becomes too small and requires the viewer to do excessive amounts of scrolling. Rockport Fulton and Cheyenne both use small frames successfully. Frames are used at the top and bottom of the website for promoting the destination of Bakersfield in California. Bakersfield is a good example of what not to do with frames. As I said, avoid their use.
4. Who are you targeting? Don't forget market segmentation when using the Web.
The homepage of your website should be used to immediately direct visitors to the most appropriate areas of information. Potential visitors will need to be interested in your site and consider it valuable.
You will need to consider the market segments of visitors to your destination when designing the web site. In Business Fundamental (BADM 120) last semester you learnt about market segmentation. The alternatives for market segmentation are numerous. Consider the following broad categories when you design this web site:
geography (language spoken by potential visitors eg the large German market)
demographics (age, income, family size e.g. parents visiting expatriate children and grandchildren))
purpose of trip (business, incentive, conference, pleasure, special interest, visiting friends and relatives e.g. attending the richest horserace in the world, The Dubai World Cup)
behaviour (benefits sought & features sought e.g. Britons enjoying Dubai's winter weather)
Many destinations of the world do great work in promoting themselves via the internet. Others could do better. Learn from these destinations by visiting their site. A good way to see them is via these two links: convention bureaus and official travel information.
5. Consider the following hints when designing your web site:
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Week-end getaways and short-break "Great Escapes" like Visit Victoria in Australia. |
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Conventions, meetings, incentive planners: media kits (multiple languages, photos, printable brochures, convention centre links, destination management companies). The Lake Geneva Region in Switzerland is a good example. The organiser of a convention or incentive is targeted here to assist with planning their event. |
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With changing lifestyles and increased ease of travel for families consider children's needs. Children often are a major consideration in destination choice. View Orlando, Florida's site for ideas. |
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Special events that visitors are looking for. Frankfurt fro instance promotes this on their official web site. |
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Many large corporations will reward their best performing and loyal employees with international travel usually at great expense to the organisation. Incentives are great revenue earners for destinations and have potential commercial value to to both the destination country and the organisation that is travelling. Bermuda targets North America for this purpose. |
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The predominant activity that a visitor is looking forward to enjoying at a destination may be promoted. A menu on Fiji's web site provides a link to yachting around Fiji. Barbados promotes golf holidays. |
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Natural attractions and the culture of the original inhabitants may be a primary motive for some groups. View Kenya's web site as well as Australia's outback territory. |
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Special interest groups may be targeted. For example those interested in the Royal Family and the history of London. |
5. Add value and interactivity to your Web site with hyperlinks, contests, giveaways. Be creative and make your Web site one that visitors will return to often for more information.
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Help visitors to plan their trip to your destination. Look at Arlington Virginia's "Plan Your Visit" for ideas about travelling around the area, shopping centres and frequently asked questions (FAQ). |
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Adding hyperlinks to other sites is cheap and easy. A theme park in Dubai could be linked to other parks around the worl. Sporting events could be linked to the national organisation for the activity, transportation could be linked to the national airline carrier, pages for convention and meeting planners can include hyperlinks to the convention centre, trade centre and exhibition halls. See Hong Kong Tourist Association's interactive tour guide. |
I remind you that the purpose of this project is for you to gain an understanding of the roles, operations and relationships of sectors and specific travel and tourism organisations. The opportunity to demonstrate a basic understanding of how a destination should be promoted using the world wide web is provided. There are many more technical issues to consider when you develop a web site for promoting a destination which go beyond the extent of this project. Your Business Computing (BADM 160) will have more details on the technical side of web publishing.
