In a media release yesterday, the Ministry of Tourism Research have confirmed that New Zealand travellers are increasingly using the internet to book more than just accommodation. The report comes as a result of the latest Regional Visitor Monitor (RVM) survey.

“We’re seeing a real trend to domestic travel being booked online across a range of travel purchases,” said Bruce Bassett, Ministry of Tourism Research Manager.

Mr Bassett said that these findings show that tourism operators in all areas of the industry needed to get their inventory web-ready and keep their web content fresh and relevant.

“This data sends a clear message to operators that domestic travellers, who account for 56% of tourism spend in New Zealand, are expecting to be able to plan and book as much as they can online. It’s important for operators to make sure their website meets this expectation.”

If it is not done well, online bookings can be a complicated, costly & unproductive exercise. The really good news for NZ tourism operators, is that BookIt makes online bookings easy and accessible for everyone. Since 1999 we have been building online booking systems for the travel and tourism industry and for over 5 years we have packaged this knowledge into our BookIt online booking engine.

With clients that range from NZ's largest tourism organisations and RTO's, through to family run B&B's, BookIt can plug into your website for FREE to capture this growth in online booking activity.

Contact us, or register for free today!

BookIt suppliers will soon find themselves squarely on the map with the announcement by Yellow™ that it has chosen BookIt to deliver live rates and booking functionality for the recently re-launched Yellow™ Maps site.

"We are delighted to have been selected", explains Ryan Baker, Director of BookIt Ltd. "The team at Yellow evaluated the different options available to them, and we were always confident that BookIt was the right solution."

Working with Auckland based Marker Studio, BookIt will provide live feeds of product rates and bookings availability within a new dedicated accommodation search feature on Yellow™ Maps. Visitors to the new website will be able to search, locate, compare and book from a range of available options.

Campbell Brown, Senior Product Manager for Yellow’s Digital Media team, will head up the project.

“The partnership with BookIt is a great fit for us”, explains Campbell. “Yellow Maps is a key component of our digital strategy and providing accommodation search is a natural progression for this site.  Along with the fundamentals like maps, driving directions, and business listings we needed the best possible solution for accommodation search.  With the BookIt solution we are able to directly access the data that we need and present this on a map specific to the user’s requirements. 

“BookIt’s software also gives us a full, out of the box, online booking engine that we can plug directly into the Yellow Maps website.“

If you are a tourism operator and have not yet signed up for a free BookIt account, we have a simple piece of advice for you, do it now! Any operator, large or small, whether accommodation, transport or activity, can register with BookIt and have their products advertised on a range of leading travel websites, soon to include Yellow™ Maps.

The new look Yellow™ Maps site launched on April 10th 2009 with another release that will include the BookIt function set for mid June 2009.

For immediate release 7 August, 2007

New Zealand Tourism Online - www.tourism.net.nz - the award-winning tourism website with over 12,000 New Zealand accommodation, travel, attractions and transport listings, has launched a booking service which allows tourists to book and pay for their holidays online.

Blair Glubb, Marketing Director of New Zealand Tourism Online owner Yellow Pages Group, said the online booking service uses software developed by New Zealand company BookIt. The new service was implemented to further strengthen the website’s offering as a true one-stop shop for people planning their New Zealand holidays.

"Recent research from the Ministry of Tourism found that 51 percent of domestic travellers planned their trips online. This is confirmation that the internet plays a crucial part in our tourism industry, with travellers using the net in growing numbers.

"People are now much more comfortable booking direct and, as a leading tourism resource, there is an expectation that we offer a booking service to complement our successful directory-based website,” he said.

Garry Bond, General Manager of New Zealand Tourism Online added that the online booking market had matured enough now and the time was right to add this option.

"We also can’t accurately predict what a traveller wants to do when they visit our site,” he said, "so this gives them the flexibility to view a tourism businesses website, make a general enquiry or book immediately.”

"The BookIt system was also chosen as we are able to add accommodation, attraction, tour and transport operators to the mix, where traditionally online bookings have mainly been geared towards accommodation providers,” Garry concluded.

International travellers researching and planning their holidays to New Zealand account for about 55 percent of New Zealand Tourism Online’s web traffic, and it is expected that this group will be big users of the ‘book and buy’ service.

Mr Glubb said New Zealand Tourism Online had already signed up several hundred of its clients for the new online booking service and predicted that this number would grow as more and more tourism operators got the message that travellers wanted to have the ability to organise their holidays online.

"The advantage of online booking is that you are in control of planning and paying for your holiday – it’s the convenience factor. And it’s the same thing for the tourism operators – they combine their New Zealand Tourism Online listing with the online booking service to provide a seamless sales process, from browsing through to buying,” said Mr Glubb.

Anne Cowan, manager of Queenstown’s Comfort Inn Melbourne Lodge, was one of the first operators to sign up to the new service.

"’Most of our bookings used to be done via email with customers, and involved a lot of time exchanging emails. Now customers can book, pay and receive confirmation in an instant, which is a lot easier for them - and a big plus for us is that we receive payment within 24 hours of the customer completing their travel.”

"It’s especially useful for people booking from overseas. With the time difference it can sometimes take days to finalise a booking – now it’s done overnight.

"The online booking system has already resulted in more business for us, that’s for sure. People these days are short of time and the internet and online services allow them to organise and pay for their holidays quickly and easily,” she said.

Interested suppliers can sign up online.

BookIt was established to address the technology needs of the tourism industry. Their impressive goal of creating a fully automated end-to-end booking and distribution solution to meet a wide range of business needs from the ground up has been realised. BookIt’s client success in just 12 months has positioned them for future growth and ongoing product development.

Read what else Microsoft had to say in their case study.

The BookIt technology is to be featured on the TV3 series Business Class during a feature on leading edge technology innovations in the Tourism Industry on Sunday the 21st of November at 12:30 p.m. Business Class is a television series focusing on the business of tourism. It aims to provide people who work in or have an interest in the tourism sector with news, views, information and advice that will help them to better understand best-practice business principles and the business of tourism.

"BookIt provides technology and services to handle the processing of bookings. The system allows any kind of tourism operation to focus on their core business function without getting bogged down by technology hassles. Ian Taylor and his team are working on a number of exciting new features for the BookIt system."

"As we move forward it will start to bring all that mapping technology, how do you find some space, what's the most convenient way and now you can start questioning in any way shape or form. Instead of just asking for an airfare, you can ask it "I want to stay in a hotel that's $150 or less and it needs to be within 15 minutes of the airport. BooKIt can answer that question because it knows where everything is."

"The most obvious benefits of web technology to tourism is the evolution of web-based booking systems. Ultimate Hikes of Milford has installed an on-line booking system created by one of the country's best known technology innovators. Animation Research Limited's 'Book-It' is a fully automated end-to-end booking system which offers travelers immediate bookings with - not only the tourism operator - but also a number of complimentary tourism products. All live, with immediate response."