Featured Highlight
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Coming
Soon
Global Distribution
- GDS
Social Media Strategy
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Specials Marketing Right for the times! |
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Every Travel Supplier it seems is cutting prices
and offering special deals. Sites offering Specials
are doing better. Priceline sales are slightly
up (1%) over last year, while Expedia
reported a loss of $2.76 billion on a 7%
decline in sales in the current quarter.
The cruise market is up, great deals are being
offered so profits are down, but people are
spending and employees keep their jobs.
Travelers are looking for and expecting deals
(see
businessweek).
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St.
Lucia Tourism Focus: Specials |
St.
Lucia Tourism has rightly made specials the
full focus of the US$3.1 million Emergency
marketing campaign. This entire budget is
being used to buy clicks on the Internet and
to promote the Saint Lucia specials portal.
Its target market is women, and the slogan
is: "Experience Romantic Saint Lucia. We're
offering significant reductions but the memories
are priceless".
But in our view, it doesn't go far enough.
For example, visitors
don't have the option to get
immediate quotes, or to book, or to save
their requests to a comparison list or to
keep it for a later date. The call to action
is not strong. In many cases there is no booking
engine and no landing page with a message
specific to the special. The campaign is not
using technology that is readily available
and that travelers want (see distribution
at a crossroads).
Many properties are not listed on the Saint
Lucia specials portal.
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Specials for all: Easy as arcRes |
Many St. Lucia operators are already using
AXSES arcRes e-commerce engine and marketing
suites in some form or the other.
arcRes users can build a special in minutes.
The special can be a simple advertisement
or it can be booked on line. With arcRes e-specials
users can get instant quotes.
Once created, arcRes specials are displayed
on hundreds of international websites including
AXSES own http://CaribRez.com
network of over 30 Caribbean Sites. And, as
always, the business goes direct to St. Lucia
operators (no commissions and no transaction
fees) resulting in more money in the operator’s
pockets.
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Your
Specials displayed globally |
Here are some of the places arcRes specials
are now displayed:
1. Syndicated internationally and can
be added to anyone's RSS reader of choice.
These specials are automatically displayed
on any site that subscribes to our feeds.
There are hundreds of RSS networks and thousands
of site that might subscribe. The specials
are also displayed on travelers myGoogle pages
and are e-mailed directly to subscribing travelers.
It's a massive network that works for everyone
who creates an arcRes special.
2. Facebook 157 million users - see
BookingsStLucia.com
page
see also
St. Lucia group - St.
Lucia Gallery - Much more is in the works!
3. Google Base, Google's shopping search
engine. Its a Google Search engine for shoppers,
allowing users to find products and compare
prices. More
>>
4. Google Calendar - Being set up as
in Barbados Specials Calendar http://barbadosvacationspecials.com/specials-calendar.cfm
5. www.BookingsStlucia.com Specials
website. see BookingsStlucia.com
6. Specials widget throughout
BookingsStLucia.com. See the widget used for
Barbados
http://barbados.org/barbados_hotels.php
7. AXSES Caribbean network of over
30 sites: We are gradually adding specials
to many pages on these sites - see http://CaribRez.com
8. On your website: use arcres bookings-expert.com
as your own website booking engine. It is
far more that a booking engine; it is a marketing
suite to help you reach new markets, manage
your brand and manage distribution. With arcRes
easy to use admin tools, you can monitor your
business and mange rates across many channels
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