"No Room At The Inn” – Yorkshire’s online booking boom

“No room at the inn” is the message coming from Yorkshire tourism businesses who have taken advantage of online booking through Yorkshire’s Destination Management System (DMS).

Good news for Yorkshire’s accommodation providers and their guests, after a particularly tough year so far with a summer of floods and power cuts coupled with foot and mouth and Avian Flu, all of which impacted on Yorkshire’s visitor economy.

The introduction of the Yorkshire DMS six months ago, by Yorkshire Tourist Board (YTB), backed by Yorkshire Forward (YF) and supported by the six Area Tourism Partnerships (ATPs), brought a ray of light to the gloom of some tourism businesses with over £2.4million worth of revenue for the participating tourism operators, representing approximately 75,000 bookings - this is merely the tip of the iceberg, as more operators are discovering the business and market potential of the internet.

With some hotels and guest houses in Yorkshire finding it hard to sustain the season because of the freak weather conditions and crises which threatened the domestic travel market, there were over 17,000 bookings taken collectively through Yorkshire.com and the respective ATP websites. However this success is only the start for the system, with YTB calling on all businesses in the region to get on board with the Yorkshire DMS and help the region move forward.

Joanna Royle, YTB’s Marketing Director said: “The Yorkshire DMS is a fantastic opportunity for all businesses in the Yorkshire region. It is not just for big businesses, we have seen impressive results for even the smallest of guest houses.

“It is vital for the development of tourism in Yorkshire that businesses start to embrace the technology available to them. Last year over £1billion was spent on tourism online, and we want to see more of that money coming to the Yorkshire region.”

YTB’s aim is to increase tourism revenue in Yorkshire by 5% by the year 2010, and it is believed that if businesses use the DMS, this aim is very possible.

Some hotels and guest houses are worried to use the technology thinking that it will be complicated and difficult to use, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. YTB along with the six ATPs, has a dedicated team operating the system, providing training and support, whilst making sure it all runs smoothly, and this is reflected in the successful online transactions of 75,000 bookings circa.

“The results so far are excellent, but there is so much more we want to do with the system, and for that we need the help of Yorkshire’s businesses,” Said David Andrews, Chief Executive of YTB. “To see such positive results in such a short period of time is excellent for us, but we are no where near satisfied. The DMS is capable of helping every single tourism business in Yorkshire, and we will not be happy until the whole region is benefiting from it.”