BookNorway ready to be launched at VisitNorway at the end of April
One of the biggest development projects ever carried out in the Norwegian travel industry is now going through its final test phase before facing millions of visitors on the VisitNorway web site. Soon this national travel portal will not only serve as an inspiration for holidays in Norway, it will also be a site where individual tourists at home and abroad can book their trip. VisitNorway will not take on responsibility for the travel logistic and the legal side of the bookings; this will be done by BookNorway Ltd, a company owned by the travel industry.
CEO of the Travel division of Innovation Norway, Per-Arne Tuftin, is pleased and even a little surprised that such a comprehensive project is delayed by only a few weeks. The original release date was March 31, but this has been deferred in order to include the three shipping lines Fjord Line, Color Line and Stena Line. The integration of these has taken longer than anticipated as BookNorway and the national switch will enable simultaneous search for price and availability for all three lines. Such functionality has never been offered before; unlike for instance flights and car hire which have long been combined into one solution through systems like Amadeus.
Another reason for postponing the launch until the end of April is the need for more extensive testing and elimination of minor bugs, and for quality checking the information flow between VisitNorway and BookNorway.
Transportation will be duly incorporated in the new solution, where shipping lines as well as airlines and car hire companies will take part. The airlines Norwegian, SAS and Widerøe are of course included, in addition to the other 430 airlines in Amadeus. The user may also search and compare offers from the five car rental companies Alamo, Avis, Europcar, Hertz and Sixt.
The hotel chains are well covered in BookNorway through Best Western Hotels Norway, De Historiske, Thon Hotels, Nordic Choice Hotels, Scandic Hotels, Rezidor and Rica Hotels.
In addition to these chains, CEO Tuftin is pleased to have a broad range of accommodation included through the booking systems of the Destination Marketing Organisations (DMOs). So far, more than 400 hotels, boarding houses, apartments, cabins, etc. have been registered into BookNorway in addition to the 300+ chain hotels. These numbers are expected to increase as more DMOs offer their member companies bookability, either through their own systems or in cooperation with other DMOs. – “We have witnessed a positive trend in collaboration between destinations”, Tuftin confirms.
DMOs throughout Norway have been busy adding content (text and pictures) describing the accommodation available at their destinations. Since January this year, a nation-wide registration effort has resulted in over 700 bookable accommodation suppliers registered in BookNorway at the time of launch.
However, it has not been all smooth sailing, Per-Arne Tuftin admits. Unfortunately, there are few activities and experiences available for individual travelers that are both bookable and come with a guarantee of completion, as required by both BookNorway and the Norwegian Package Tour Act. – “We will have to rethink this, and find new collaborators with bookable products. These may be smaller operators and organizers of trips for individual travelers”. Tuftin hopes to offer a good selection of activities on VisitNorway in time for the 2012 season.
Even though the aim is for most of the booking to be made online, BookNorway has, after an invitation to tender, chosen the company Røros Flyservice to run a Reservation Support Center. This center will help customers who still wish to order manually, or who need help with amendments or cancellations.
The national booking project has been managed by BIT Reiseliv (a Tourism oriented IT-program), and is owned by NHO Reiseliv (the Norwegian Hospitality Association) in collaboration with HSH, the Federation of Norwegian Commercial and Service Enterprises. It was initiated by BIT Reiseliv and Forum for Reiseliv (the Travel Industry Forum), and was one of the measures proposed in the Norwegian government’s strategy for the travel industry, communicated in 2007.
BIT Reiseliv has been the most comprehensive project ever completed in Innovation Norway’s BIT Programme (IT programs for various industries) and in NHO Reiseliv. When it wraps up, project manager Elisabeth Heyerdahl-Jensen may look back on the most extensive collective effort ever undertaken by the Norwegian travel industry. Several hundred companies and Destination Marketing Organisations from all over Norway have participated in the development phase – as pilot companies, taking part in work groups or participating in the wide range of training events. Heyerdahl-Jensen is also happy about the amount of resources supplied by the collaborating IT companies when designing new technological platforms and standardizing formats to allow for integration of their connectors into the national switch.
The BIT Reiseliv development project will be completed in spring and then begin its operational phase managed by BookNorway. New owners, board and employees will be all set for this new phase. A vital resource who will probably stay on during this transition is Kjell Galstad. He has been responsible for the entire development of the national booking switch, including the extensive work on the connectors, the content and the integration with VisitNorway. The principal suppliers of this project have been Visit Technology Group (responsible for the entire switch), and Making Waves (integration, testing and design of VisitNorway).
For more information, contact:
Per-Arne Tuftin, CEO Travel Industry, Innovation Norway Phone: +47 22 00 25 00, e-mail: Per-Arne.Tuftin@innovasjonnorge.no
