Tourism Firms Urged To Go On-Line Computer Database Enables Reaching Larger Audience

Tourism-dependent businesses looking to reach millions of potential customers need look no further than their personal computers.

Kevin Arcel of on-line database company TravelFile touted the benefits of taking tourism marketing campaigns on-line Thursday.

“You’re not late in getting on the superhighway,” Arcel said to about 40 delegates to the Idaho Governor’s Conference on Recreation and Tourism. “But you need to make informed and smart choices about how you’ll get on.”

TravelFile, a division of Applied Information Services Inc. based in Whitefish, Mont., offers an extensive database for hoteliers, tour operators and all types of tourism businesses to distribute their information.

The millions of people worldwide with a computer and a modem who “surf” the internet through on-line services can easily access the information for any part of the country through TravelFile.

Getting into the database costs as little as $2,000 through his company, Arcel said. For the money, you can put all the information about your attraction or hotel or area at the fingertips of cybersurfing tourists, who typically have money to spend.

Soon people will be able to rent cars, reserve hotel rooms and book airplane flights through their computers, and tourism businesses will want to be there to take advantage of the convenient system.

Putting information on-line allows more travel agents to familiarize themselves with an area or attraction, and that can bring more business, Arcel said.

Reaching a wider audience is especially important for Idaho tourism, he said.

“The big places like Las Vegas or L.A. don’t need to advertise like this, but when you’re in Idaho, no one knows you’re here,” he said. Having information in a database that people can sort through 24 hours a day from around the globe is far more cost efficient than printing up brochures and mailing them, he said.

An essential part of North Idaho’s economy, tourism has become a more information-based enterprise, said Carl Wilgus, administrator for Idaho’s Commerce Department.

“We really aren’t so much in the business of selling recreation and tourism anymore,” he said. “We’re in the business of selling information.”

The annual conference gives tourism operators a chance to find better ways to get the word out about their particular operation, Wilgus said.

The conference concludes today with the delegates prioritizing their concerns for the White House Conference on Travel and Tourism later this year and a banquet with Gov. Phil Batt.