Agilisys has been selected by the South West region to deliver a wide ranging e-Business Platform to bring the benefits of e-commerce to the region’s tourism business. Together with EVIIVO and New Mind, this investment will bring up to 7,000 businesses, such as guest houses, B&Bs, hotels and local attractions, online through a fully integrated regional solution.

Part of the solution will be to create a regional e-commerce hub using New Mind’s innovative technology, through which DMOs, Tourist Information Centres, and local businesses can interface to take advantage of joint marketing and commercial opportunities. The solution also fully integrates with the national tourism network, EnglandNet, managed by VisitBritain, allowing marketing, accommodation, tour, attraction, and event searching to take place across a fully integrated technology platform at a local, regional and national level.

Another unique aspect is the EVIIVO frontdesk(tm) solution, which has been developed to give tourism businesses a low cost ‘out of the box’ e-commerce enabled website that can connect not only to regional tourism hubs and destination management systems, but also to the UK national tourism channel VisitBritain.com and other major travel portals. Features include a fully e-commerce enabled web-site, with an installation time of less than two hours, and the ability to add a ‘book now’ button to an existing website. All of this is underpinned by one single product database. VISIT Services Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of EVIIVO,will provide additional services such as user training as part of the three-year contract.

By bringing additional tourism businesses onto an integrated platform, the South West region aims to revolutionise its approach to tourism development, management and delivery by improving visitor access to quality and comprehensive information about the region and its destinations. EVIIVO frontdesk(tm) is also a business management tool for owner managers, reducing their reliance on paper records by electronically recording all bookings. This is expected to increase the overall efficiency of tourism businesses in the region and improve customer service.

Robin Barker, Marketing Director of South West Tourism, says, “The web is now the preferred source of travel ideas and information for visitors to South West England, but to date there has been no comprehensive source of information and ideas for visitors to the region.  In addition too many businesses - especially the smaller ones - have found it hard to put in place the websites and systems they need to take full advantage of the internet revolution.  This development addresses both needs, with benefits to both visitors and business.  It is a significant day in the region’s tourism history!”

Charles Mindenhall, Agilisys CEO, comments, “We are delighted that the South West region has chosen to engage with Agilisys and partners in helping to deliver their ambitious vision of creating pan-regional access to relevant technologies and empowering small business such as B&Bs to take advantage of these opportunities. This follows another recent contract at ONE North East where we have begun to implement a similar solution to the one that is envisaged here. I believe our success reflects the considerable investment we have made in developing highly practical and commercially focused solutions for the UK tourism sector, and we look forward to achieving great things within the South West region.”

Ian Griffin, EVIIVO’s Chairman comments “Agilisys has assembled one of the finest teams of UK tourism technology companies to deliver this solution for the South West region. The combined offering of EVIIVO and New Mind along with the support and training services offered by VISIT Services Limited will firmly position South West Tourism and its DMO partners as leaders in the adoption of tourism technology, that not only delivers to the visitor, but also provides an opportunity for the region’s visitor economy to access and exploit a wide range of e-commerce services. This represents a significant milestone in South West region’s push towards e-commerce enabling small and medium businesses in this core industry sector.”
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