NATIONAL TOURISM PORTAL

Sasha GavrilovicCEO

What is ExploringMacedonia.com?

• National Tourism Portal that promotes Macedonia and a wider range of tourism services via strong Internet campaign and off-line promotions

• One-stop-shop for every aspect of tourism that individual visitors or tour- operators need

• DMC – Destination Management Company

What ExploringMacedonia.com IS NOT?

• It is not a travel agency

• It is not a tour operator

• It is not a transporting company

• Does not offer any type of own travel services

Internet browsers

BannersOnline

information

Tour Operators Business tourists

Direct tourism services

• Hotels Travel agencies Air travel Rent-a-car agencies Passenger services Tour guides Banks, exchange offices Restaurants, bars, night clubs, casinos Museums, galleries Recreational centers ...

Individual visitors

Indirect tourism services

• Phone services Financial services Medical services Insurance companies Real- estate companies Car services Laundry services Security agency Printing and copying services ...

Promotion, booking, sale, customer support...

ExploringMacedonia.com

Promotions Ads and

brochures

Basic portal services

• PROMOTION– Macedonia as a tourist destination– Tourism providers MEMBERS of the portal

• SALE– (accommodation, excursions, rent- a-

car, ...)

• Customer Support– For the tourism providers– For sale

The Solution

• Business plan• Organizational structure • Financial model• Sale model and customer support• IT program model• Proven content concept• Education and knowledge transfer • Promotional plan and promo- partners

Business plan

• Based on the concept PPP- Private-Public Partnership

• Selected for the best business plan for a tourist portal by EDC, New York and int‘l committee, 2005

• Sustainability in a period of 2 years• ROI in 5 years

Financial model

• Initial investment• Sources of current financing

– Annual membership – for all tourism providers presented on the portal.

– Agency commission fee – for every service sold via the portal (accommodation, excursions, rent-a-car, ...)

– Internet advertising – banner contracts

Sales model and customer support

• Membership sales – 3 packages depending on the size of the

presentation Prices: 100 – 250 Euro + VAT– Sale of additional services – Surround

video, PDF brochures, Home page listing, ...

• Sale of tourism offer• Customer support

– 24x7 e-mail response– 1 day for human response

Booking process athotels.exploringmacedonia.

com

AgencyAgency

Customer support

Implemented IT solutions

• Content Management System – Nextsense webBuilder

• MS Share Point Portal (Intranet collaboration portal)

• MS CRM – Customer Relationship Management

• Online Shopping system• Credit card payment system• Administrative tracking requests system• Search engine optimization tool • MS Exchange Server • Mobile Solution

Promotions

• On-line promotion– Yahoo Adventure!– Banner promotion– Google Ad Words– Newsletter

promotion

• Off-line promotion– Presentations– Fairs– Brochures – Leaflets – Postcards– Promotional tours

(London Season, Princess Katarina, Velo tut Terain, ...)

Promo partners

• Yahoo Adventure Team, Richard Bangs• London Season Royalty Association • Conde Nast Traveller • Mountain Biking Magazine: “Velo tut

Terain”• HTTPool, Internet Marketing company• Pop-stars: Kaliopi, Vlado Janevski• ...

WHY ExploringMacedonia.com

• National Tourism Portal• Efficient sale• Selling experience, not rooms & cars• Continuous Customer Support• Client feedback• Dynamic update of offers

(Last-minute offer!)• ...

Achievements of ExploringMacedonia.com

• 169 commercial members of the Portal• Content of 2000 pages and 2600 images• More then 200.000 page views monthly• Over 4100 sites link the portal• Average 15 mails daily in Customer

support• Listed on the first pages of Internet

browsers (“Macedonia”)– #4/#84 Google

• Best e-business portal nominated for World Summit Award

NATIONAL TOURISM PORTAL

Thank you!Sasha Gavrilovic

CEO