After a disastrous 2001, tourists appear to be returning to the UK. But they are increasingly turning to the web to research and book holidays. Can small operators keep up?
The evidence is that they can, and they must, otherwise they risk losing out. "Most businesses in tourism should be thinking of having their own website," says Raymond McGovern, a tourism e-business adviser for government-run UK Online for Business.
"The internet is often used for researching a holiday, although many travellers will still make a phone call to the business."
McGovern works at an e-commerce advice centre in Glasgow. Scotland's tourism industry includes many businesses which, given their remote locations, need to work hard at marketing.
Frennich House, a guesthouse on the edge of the Trossachs hills, is a secluded place, half a mile down a single-track lane from the village of Brig o'Turk. The proprietors, Hugh and Anne Dobbins, are unlikely to get much business from passing traffic. A year ago, Hugh Dobbins commissioned a website from Ezee-IT, a Stirling-based computer business that also sold him a computer.
"I've been led by the hand by the company I dealt with," he says.
The site, Frennich House, has already paid for itself in gross earnings. Dobbins spent £950 on the computer, £350 on the website and £200 on listings and links from other sites. "We've recovered the capital cost in last year's bookings, plus advanced bookings for this season," he says.
Dobbins keeps detailed statistics. Last year, customers who said they used the web to find Frennich House booked 26 bed-nights. This year, 24 bed-nights - half the advance bookings - have come through email. "We're definitely getting more advance bookings, and the reason for that is the web."
There's a clear international bias towards his internet customers: 10 bed-nights were booked from Israel, eight from Greece, two from Belgium and just four from the UK. It isn't just Americans who use the web, and the fact that the site is only in English does not seem to have been a problem. This year's advance bookings show more Britons using the web: nine of the 26 bed-nights are for domestic customers.
At UK Online for Business, McGovern knows of accommodation where 70% of bookings come through a well-established website. He says that £500-£1,000 is a reasonable budget for a website with online booking; a basic one, with half a dozen pages about the business, can cost £300 or less.
The main aim for a small tourism business website is to be found by potential customers, then to pass on the information they need. The key to the former involves other websites, particularly search engines.
Businesses should think about words potential customers will use to find them. Keywords might include local place-names, descriptions of the business such as "B&B, bed and breakfast, guest house, self-catering", local attractions and activities.
McGovern says these should be included in the keyword "meta-tag" (a string of words that the designer inserts, that doesn't get displayed by a web-browser, but is seen by search engines) and in the text on the site's home page.
Common misspellings and mistaken place-names are worth including, as many foreigners confuse England with the United Kingdom. In other words, "England" could be in the keyword list, even for Scottish, Welsh or Northern Irish businesses.
Search engines, along with potential customers, prefer pages that download quickly. UK Online for Business suggests a size of 40k for the home page, and 5k for individual graphics, which means no huge photos, graphics or animations. Websites using frames will put off search engines, as will broken links and misspelling. A free tune-up facility at Website Garage tests all these factors.
After doing all this, it's time to tell search engines that you exist. Many of the important ones allow free submission of sites. Some charge for a premium service, but this is unlikely to be worth it for small businesses.
For Yahoo, find the appropriate category within yahoo.co.uk - there is one for B&Bs - then click on "Suggest a site" at the base of the page, and choose the free option. If you also submit the site to Google and Lycos Hotbot (scroll down to the free option), you are well on your way. You can test whether your site has been picked up at Echoecho.com, which finds your ranking on 10 major search engines, including the three mentioned here.
Other kinds of sites can link to yours, or at least hold your details. Some have found that two UK accommodation directories, Smooth Hound and Milford can produce results. Paying for a link from the online Yellow Pages is another option.
Andrea Gallagher, who works for consultancy Scient, says if you pay others for links or mentions, you should track their effectiveness by asking customers if they came through another site to find you. And take any free links offered by trade partners, the local tourist board, council or trade association. External links can also help boost a site's rank on some search engines: Link Popularity can help track this.
When customers find your site, Gallagher says that content beats design: "People spend a lot of time thinking about pictures, colour and layout, but the first thing you need to do is the content." A starting point is the data in a tourist board brochure: address, brief description, star rating if relevant, price and phone number.
Only include a photograph if it will help to sell the accommodation. But it is also important not to overdo the information, nor to generate false expectations through the website. Be honest in your description and prices.
Big hotel chains often include online booking on their site. But a small business probably doesn't need to bother - yet. Despite the success of his website as a brochure, Dobbins has found few takers for a web-form built into the site: just two users last year, and none so far this year. Instead, customers simply email or phone.
Last year, the Dobbins were given free trial use of a full transactional booking service, provided by the Scottish tourist board, VisitScotland: "I had my arm twisted," says Mr Dobbins. He had to tell the system when the accommodation was fully booked, and this took time.
Since the system produced just one booking, and this year cost £50 plus 10% of each booking, they have not renewed their subscription.
Barbara Clark, spokesperson for VisitScotland, says an improved version of the service will soon be available, subject to negotiations with outsourcing firm SchlumbergerSema. "We'd be the first to acknowledge it hasn't been as successful as we wanted it to be," she says. The upgraded version of the VisitScotland booking engine will simplify the maintenance required for accommodation owners, she says.
For those who want to provide online booking, likely to become more popular, other options include Edinburgh firm AllHotels.org or US rival WorldRes.com. Both take a percentage for taking your bookings.
Despite having little success with online booking, Dobbins recommends setting up a website. "I'd certainly advise anyone starting up in B&B, whether on a main road or up an alley like us, to get on the internet. I think there's going to be a shift to people wanting to book in advance on the internet." However, he still feels more comfortable talking to, or getting a letter from, people making advance bookings: "The only objection I have is that it's so impersonal, and I'm not sure that they will turn up."
