Memoire Online - Destination Management System

Accessible via Internet, Product information database will covers a full range of accommodation from small «Riyadh» (traditional houses) to five

star hotels and self-catering such as apartments and villas. It should also covers Car Rental, Flights, Ferries, Rail. The product database has, naturally, to be tailored according to the needs of the Morocco Tourism Office. Its web

support should be professionally designed, reflecting Morocco cultural richness with friendly user interface, bring technologically reliable online booking system and secured End-to-End transactions. This database will store information for the use of potential and actual visitors, suppliers, and planners. It can contain information about both private and public sector services. This includes accommodation and restaurants, attractions, weather

conditions, events, public transport and timetables museums, art galleries, festivals and the like. Enquiries, by independent travelers, for specific information can also be stored in the Marketing Database thus building the client profile.

The real opportunity in databases is to build relationship with customers, suppliers and other businesses. Building virtual communities with «collaborative marketing» has a considerable economic potential as well. Consumer virtual communities are focus groups that last 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and offer enormous learning opportunities for tourism organizations (Gretzel et. al., 2000). This dynamic and valuable information will be commercialized to Tourism Businesses within and outside Morocco, thus creating a profit center to finance future DMS system maintenance and enhancement. This is how the MNTO can create the complete marketing value chain (Awareness-Information-Booking-CRM), and acquire a competitive advantage for the Morocco destination in general with an efficient DMS.

Efficient DMS Characteristics	Failing DMS Characteristics
Complete and detailed Data Base	Incomplete database
Information Quality and Reliability	Information obsolete and imprecise
Information targeted toward independent traveler	In competition with the travel trade
Operational and efficient booking /call center	Difficult online booking
Supported and promoted by MNTO	No support or promotion
Complementary to existents distribution channels	In competition with distribution channels
Managed by a Marketing oriented organization	Managed by a bureaucratic organization
Marketing Orientation supported by technology	Technology oriented
Products tailored to consumers' needs	List of products without packaging
Provide easy buying process
Enhance product quality

Web Design

The web offers a powerful tool set that combine interactivity between suppliers, consumers and intermediaries, seamless transactions, adressability, availability and mass customization (Gretzel, et. al., 2000). According to Parsons, Zeisser, and Waitman, the success factors for marketing on the web are: Attract, Engage, Retain, Learn, Relate. The following table explicit marketing interactivity success factors and different tactical ways to fulfill them.

Activity	What	How
Attract	Attract consumers to the application	Audience creation Mnemonic Branding Piggy-back advertising
Engage	General interest and participation	Intuitive interface or navigation Interface content User-generated content
Retain	Make sure customers come back	Dynamic content Transaction capabilities Online communities
Learn	Learn about customers' preferences	Information capture Continuous preference learning
Relate	Customize interaction and value delivery	Personalized/customized communications and products/ services Real time interactions Linkage to core business

The DMS's Web site should reflect the characteristics of a unifying platform, and a one-stop marketplace. It must be user friendly and enjoyable, must hold good content (information and education), be creative, interactive and support secure transactions. When looking at a Web site the users go successive steps: 1) exposure, 2) attention, 3) comprehension and perception, 4) acceptance, 5) retention (Gretzel et. al., 2000). Therefore the design, (images, page copy, structure) must take account of these stages to impact consumer behavior. The content is also extremely important for a DMO since it is the image and perception of the destination that are portrayed. Interactivity and vividness are important characteristics of the content too. Thus community building features are extremely important, since they provide a discussion forum that are likely to raise awareness, and give the destination a valuable focus group evaluation on a 24/24 hour basis. The Web is a pull medium, because consumers actively seek information, therefore simplicity must provide in content, in order to avoid mental fatigue and «site jumping». The Web design should reflect the characteristics of the medium, the consumers and the competitive environment (Gretzel et. al., 2000).

All these factors are very important and should guide Web design. Thus it is crucial that content is accurate, attractive and easily searchable. Well-designed Web site ultimately succeed in transforming «lookers» into «bookers».

Destination Management System

BUILDING THE WEB BASED DMS

Web Design