Vacation with the mouse in cheese paradise
Switzerland Tourism aims to offer «the best country website in the world» with MySwitzerland.com
Switzerland Tourism wants to offer "the best country site in the world" with MySwitzerland.comBy Andreas Panzeri "Holiday Switzerland on the Internet. One mouse click ahead." There are no empty words behind this slogan, as the graphically restyled and technologically enhanced MySwitzerland.com site shows. With 10,000 virtual tourists a day for an average of twelve minutes, the Internet address is already attracting twice as much interest as it did a year ago.
According to Jürg Schmid, Director of Switzerland Tourism, the fundamentally revised MySwitzerland.com website, which was presented to the media last week, is characterized by "not just a bit of color, but a new structure, new technologies and new navigation". Switzerland's largest and most comprehensive vacation and travel portal was launched just over a year ago. The website is already attracting over 10,000 visitors a day, and the trend is encouragingly upwards. And now, thanks to the use of the latest technology, Switzerland fans all over the world will be able to access their information even faster and much more easily, as Thomas Winkler, Director Web Division at Switzerland Tourism, convincingly demonstrated.
Search for keywords,
Regions, promotions, prices
Just type in "Botta" on the homepage and MySwitzerland.com presents the two top tips, the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel and the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Ticino. If you click on the church, you will find a short text about the place of worship, which was built by architect Mario Botta between 1992 and 1994, as well as directions from Rivera (SBB) by cable car to Alpe Foppa (1530 m above sea level). The link to the website www.montemaro.ch explains the local details.
If you already know that you don't want to take the cable car back (phone 091 946 23 03) but want to walk, you can also zoom in on a section of the map in the adjacent Swiss Mapping System until you find the most winding path. If the hotel in Tamaro, which can be called up directly on the site under "Accommodation", happens to be fully booked on the planned day of travel, even a South American unfamiliar with the area can discover on the zoomable map that Locarno must be a beautifully situated town very close by.
Guided in Spanish, English, French, Italian, German or Dutch, he can then surf on to the Locarno hotel offer. Photos of the room or the hotel bar make it easier to make a decision in the online reservation system, which is updated daily. The booking is confirmed with just one click of the mouse - virtual vacations in Switzerland will soon become reality.
The task of Switzerland Tourism and thus also of the new website is to promote demand for Switzerland as a travel, vacation and conference destination. So far, this has been achieved by distributing 280 tons of brochures annually and answering 2,000 telephone calls every day.
Cooperation with Internet partners around the world
These channels will continue to be available in the same quantity in the future. However, Switzerland Tourism expects significant growth on the Internet. "The internet already plays a key role in the travel and vacation sector," says Jürg Schmid. Among the e-commerce sectors that are used most intensively by the public, the travel sector is the world leader. Thanks to the partnerships already agreed with a total of 30 cooperation partners - including Bluewin, TravelScout24, SBB, Orangeworld, Planet Holiday in Switzerland and, worldwide, Yahoo! Weather, RTL World, Away.com and OnTheSnow - MySwitzerland.com will be able to display its data to two million visitors per day in future. Preparations for a Japanese version are also in full swing.
In contrast to conventional advertising media, where a brochure costs five francs and a processed telephone inquiry around eight francs, marketing via the Internet will hardly become more expensive for technical reasons, even with ever wider distribution. "Growth at zero cost," says Jürg Schmid happily.
This tourism ideas exchange on MySwitzerland.com is provided with content by five full-time editorial staff at Switzerland Tourism. In addition, 250 local tourist offices provide their daily information on the weather or 60000 events from sport to culture. 1800 of the total of around 5400 hotels in Switzerland already provide online booking options.
Together with further background information on politics, culture, the economy and transportation, an attractive selection of 220 sights from the Swiss tourism offer serves as an introduction to the vacation world. Five top tips per region, such as the five most beautiful hikes in Graubünden or the five most traditional grottos in Ticino, are designed to whet the appetite of potential guests for Switzerland. Trendy last-minute offers are also available via an integrated calendar. This not only shows specially discounted offers, but also informs tourists who are booking at ever shorter notice about available hotel beds, for example on the coming weekend in freshly snow-covered Davos. A daily updated weather report for all relevant vacation resorts shows how much it has actually snowed there.
A collection of 360° panoramic images from the most beautiful vantage points in Switzerland enrich the visual presentation. In a picture gallery, 2000 subjects await homesick Swiss people. According to Director Schmid, the mobile webcam has already found an organized fan club in Belgium in the form of the SBB locomotive christened "MySwitzerland.com".
The destinations and sights are visualized on a dynamic map of Switzerland. Thanks to this geographical information system, finding tourist attractions is child's play.
Switzerland.com now also finally belongs to Switzerland
In Switzerland, "Internett" would still have been spelled with two t's at the end, joked Schmid about the fact that a visionary American had already reserved the domain address Switzerland.com in 1994. Since then, 1.5 million visitors a year want to find out about Switzerland there. An interest group from the Swiss business community has now bought the domain. It was agreed not to disclose the price, as the seller "owns" other attractive country names.
However, MySwitzerland.com will remain a popular brand alongside Switzerland.com.
According to Jürg Schmid, Director of Switzerland Tourism, the fundamentally revised MySwitzerland.com website, which was presented to the media last week, is characterized by "not just a bit of color, but a new structure, new technologies and new navigation". Switzerland's largest and most comprehensive vacation and travel portal was launched just over a year ago. The website is already attracting over 10,000 visitors a day, and the trend is encouragingly upwards. And now, thanks to the use of the latest technology, Switzerland fans all over the world will be able to access their information even faster and much more easily, as Thomas Winkler, Director Web Division at Switzerland Tourism, convincingly demonstrated.
Search for keywords,
Regions, promotions, prices
Just type in "Botta" on the homepage and MySwitzerland.com presents the two top tips, the Jean Tinguely Museum in Basel and the Church of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Ticino. If you click on the church, you will find a short text about the place of worship, which was built by architect Mario Botta between 1992 and 1994, as well as directions from Rivera (SBB) by cable car to Alpe Foppa (1530 m above sea level). The link to the website www.montemaro.ch explains the local details.
If you already know that you don't want to take the cable car back (phone 091 946 23 03) but want to walk, you can also zoom in on a section of the map in the adjacent Swiss Mapping System until you find the most winding path. If the hotel in Tamaro, which can be called up directly on the site under "Accommodation", happens to be fully booked on the planned day of travel, even a South American unfamiliar with the area can discover on the zoomable map that Locarno must be a beautifully situated town very close by.
Guided in Spanish, English, French, Italian, German or Dutch, he can then surf on to the Locarno hotel offer. Photos of the room or the hotel bar make it easier to make a decision in the online reservation system, which is updated daily. The booking is confirmed with just one click of the mouse - virtual vacations in Switzerland will soon become reality.
The task of Switzerland Tourism and thus also of the new website is to promote demand for Switzerland as a travel, vacation and conference destination. So far, this has been achieved by distributing 280 tons of brochures annually and answering 2,000 telephone calls every day.
Cooperation with Internet partners around the world
These channels will continue to be available in the same quantity in the future. However, Switzerland Tourism expects significant growth on the Internet. "The internet already plays a key role in the travel and vacation sector," says Jürg Schmid. Among the e-commerce sectors that are used most intensively by the public, the travel sector is the world leader. Thanks to the partnerships already agreed with a total of 30 cooperation partners - including Bluewin, TravelScout24, SBB, Orangeworld, Planet Holiday in Switzerland and, worldwide, Yahoo! Weather, RTL World, Away.com and OnTheSnow - MySwitzerland.com will be able to display its data to two million visitors per day in future. Preparations for a Japanese version are also in full swing.
In contrast to conventional advertising media, where a brochure costs five francs and a processed telephone inquiry around eight francs, marketing via the Internet will hardly become more expensive for technical reasons, even with ever wider distribution. "Growth at zero cost," says Jürg Schmid happily.
This tourism ideas exchange on MySwitzerland.com is provided with content by five full-time editorial staff at Switzerland Tourism. In addition, 250 local tourist offices provide their daily information on the weather or 60000 events from sport to culture. 1800 of the total of around 5400 hotels in Switzerland already provide online booking options.
Together with further background information on politics, culture, the economy and transportation, an attractive selection of 220 sights from the Swiss tourism offer serves as an introduction to the vacation world. Five top tips per region, such as the five most beautiful hikes in Graubünden or the five most traditional grottos in Ticino, are designed to whet the appetite of potential guests for Switzerland. Trendy last-minute offers are also available via an integrated calendar. This not only shows specially discounted offers, but also informs tourists who are booking at ever shorter notice about available hotel beds, for example on the coming weekend in freshly snow-covered Davos. A daily updated weather report for all relevant vacation resorts shows how much it has actually snowed there.
A collection of 360° panoramic images from the most beautiful vantage points in Switzerland enrich the visual presentation. In a picture gallery, 2000 subjects await homesick Swiss people. According to Director Schmid, the mobile webcam has already found an organized fan club in Belgium in the form of the SBB locomotive christened "MySwitzerland.com".
The destinations and sights are visualized on a dynamic map of Switzerland. Thanks to this geographical information system, finding tourist attractions is child's play.
Switzerland.com now also finally belongs to Switzerland
In Switzerland, "Internett" would still have been spelled with two t's at the end, joked Schmid about the fact that a visionary American had already reserved the domain address Switzerland.com in 1994. Since then, 1.5 million visitors a year want to find out about Switzerland there. An interest group from the Swiss business community has now bought the domain. It was agreed not to disclose the price, as the seller "owns" other attractive country names.
However, MySwitzerland.com will remain a popular brand alongside Switzerland.com.
