Case Study – visitwales

Project

The Wales Tourist Board, supported by the National Assembly for Wales recognised that in order for the tourism industry of Wales to benefit from the developments in communication channels and the way in which people book and search for holidays, there was a need to establish easy mechanisms that allow the customers’ requirements to be matched with the holiday product available in Wales. To achieve this most effectively it is recognised that new media must be utilised in as many ways as possible and that in order to do this a comprehensive database (including routes to book the products of Wales) had to be developed. This sort of system is known as a Destination Management System (DMS).

The National Assemble for Wales approved the DMS business model (v1/5) in August 2000 and allocated funding for the DMS programme for three years.

In April 2001 a supplier for the software was appointed. It was recognised that training was an important element in the successful implementation of a DMS project and as such the training was placed out to contract as a separate element to the supply of software.

• The main focus of the training was to include:
• The tourism businesses of Wales
• The visitwales contact centre – a 7 day call centre for both visitors and tourism businesses
• The Tourism Information Centres

In June 2001 WTB placed an advertisement for the supply of training services to the DMS project, the selection process took place in July, on July 30^th Sian Jones was advised that she was the successful supplier. Official title: Master Trainer.

Requirements

• Participation in the WTB Pilot
• Lead the industry pilot
• Report on outcomes of the industry pilot
• Design the Industry training course
• Provide course materials for the industry training course
• Design the Tourism Information Centre training Programme
• Provide course materials for the Tourism Information Centre training Programme
• Design the Contact Centre training Programme
• Provide course materials for the Contact Centre training Programme
• Develop an evaluation process for all training
• Train a team of trainers to deliver both industry and Tourism Information Centre Training
• Delivery of training to industry groups

Scope

A main aim of the industry training course is to give tourism businesses the skill they required to manage their data on the system. Another aim of the course is to build an understanding of the importance of ICT to the tourism industry of Wales and encourage the use ICT for business purposes.

When designing the course, provision needed to be made for ‘real world’ restrictions. The Industry training course has to be suitable for tourism businesses in Wales of any description and size. 4000 tourism businesses existed on the WTB database, which would need to be migrated to the new database. A restriction of one day was placed on the course in order for the attendance by the tourism businesses.

The Contact Centre- based in North Wales, open seven days a week and offering support to tourism businesses was given training for it’s 2 roles

Industry support- a helpling for tourism businesses, assisting them to manage their data in the system

Customer Assistance – Providing information about Wales – what to do, places to stay – and taking telephone reservations.

Governance

The master trainer reports directly to the training executive.

Documentation

Course manuals were developed to provide a reference guide on completion of a course. A ‘how to guide’ on each operation outlined in the module they cover.

Manuals have a standard style, in line with other visitwales documentation. The structure of the manuals includes.

• Clearly defined objectives at the start of each module
• Clear headings
• Step by step points in plain English with many illustrations in the form of screen shots, graphics of icons, mouse pointers etc

Manuals were created for the various interfaces

• Both Accommodation and attractions sector manuals have been created for industry. A manual for the Tourism Information Centres and, a manual for the contact centre interface.
• A trainers’ version of the manuals with a suggested lesson plan. This contains approximate timings, suggested exercises and teaching methods.

The Welsh Language

As an Assembly funded project visitwales and the visitwales training programme fully complied with the Welsh Language scheme requirements.

All Documentation has been translated into Welsh. Delivery of training in Welsh was available on request.

Industry Training

The tourism business in Wales has unique characteristics. High percentages are small businesses. Personnel tend to have few if any information technology skills. It is not immediately apparent to them how important the use of ICT in business is to them.

The training courses have to accommodate delegates with low, intermediate and advanced IT skills. Although a skill level is recommended before attending the course, frequently this is not met. The design of the course is a step by step approach, that ensures even novices can meet the objectives,. The course has been staged, so that those with less IT skills can use the system at a basic level, until they are confident enough to explore the more advanced features. Occasionally delegates have negative attitudes to technology, the Wales Tourist Board, or both. Included in the one day programme is a session on ICT and the benefits of the system to the tourism business, main objections are overcome by demonstrating the specific benefits for individual tourism businesses.

Contact Centre Training

The visitwales contact centre has been subcontracted to Loop (part of the Kelder Group).

It is anticipated that the contact centre will handle over 500,000 calls per annum.

The main aim of the contact centre training was to provide the initial systems training for the contact centre staff, based at Parc Meni, Bangor. This also included the ability to sell to tourism businesses the benefits of the system.

Continuing Participation

Industry training is still in progress, and should be available for the next 2-3yrs. A second phase of tourism information centre training began March 03.

Sian Jones is currently a visitwales accredited advisor, providing assistance for those tourism businesses who would like to make use of the more advanced e-commerce options of the system.

Delivery

Over 200 days work on the visitwales project. This is only master trainer days and does not include any training delivered by the visitwales trainers.

All training project targets where met to schedule.

Completion

The project was completed within the agreed timescales. Training is still delivered on behalf of the WTB and occasional development of new course materials and updating of existing manuals is ongoing.

Key success points and Lessons Learnt

The key success points can be listed as:

· 1102 tourism businesses have been trained to date, with many more booked on for future courses.

· They are currently 2,445 products publishing with 12,909 products in database

· The contact centre have had a Total Calls of 43,163 and of those 5,047 were Industry Calls

Learning points

· There are always occasions where the internet or connection will be a problem. So contingency plans have to be made.

· SME’s are not anti-technology when they see the benefits to their business.

· With a changing system it is better to update than wait until the system is complete – at least this gives you a starting point.

Reference: Kim Colebrook

Head of Information and New Media Systems

Wales Tourist Board

Brunel House