Tourism NI Links With Tourism Exchange To Drive Online Sales

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Tourism NI Links With Tourism Exchange To Drive Online Sales

Coastal Canters’, Sheans Horse Farm, Ballymoney, Co. Antrim. Courtesy of Tourism Northern Ireland.

Tourism NI has partnered with Tourism Exchange GB (TXGB) to offer tourism businesses here much improved access to all-important online sales channels and will utilise the technology to make their own website and campaigns bookable.

TXGB is a UK business-tobusiness digital platform that provides tourism businesses across every sector with an opportunity to generate online bookings, expand their channels, reach new customers and increase sales. Here in Northern Ireland, it’s being aimed at accommodation providers, visitor attractions and visitor experiences working with local council tourism authorities.

James Berzins, Managing Director of TXGB, takes up the story.

“We’re about growing the tourism economy and solving the problem of bookability,” he says. “Research carried out by VisitBritain showed that a lot of tourism product in the regions wasn’t bookable online. The further you got away from London, the less connected it became.

“So that’s where the idea for a B2B tourism platform came from. We launched TXGB and brought it to market in late 2019, just before Covid. So it was probably the best time you could think of to launch a digital platform for tourism....!”

Tourism’s growth challenges prepandemic, says James, are much the same as its recovery challenges post-pandemic. “But a disrupted sector is a less connected sector. One of our central roles is to drive trade between different parties in tourism. On one side of the market, there are a lot of suppliers and tourism businesses....a real tapestry of businesses. How do they get their product in front of the domestic consumer and the global consumer?

“On the other side, you have the distribution organisations, big players like AirBnB and Booking.com included as well as smaller local distribution channels. Our platform helps them reach previously unreachable suppliers”

TXGB’s role is to connect the thousands of SMEs that need digital enabling with the key distribution channels serving the

Naomi Waite, Tourism NI James Berzins, TXGB

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Enniskillen Castle. Courtesy of Tourism Ireland.

end customers. “The bit in the middle needs to be as solid and as efficient as possible,” adds James.

But there’s also a data side to the TXGB platform. It enables organisations like Tourism NI to takea birds eye view of their market and develop agile and data-centric marketing strategies focused on the end customer. Big Data can also help drive the industry’s sustainability goals.

Connecting to TXGB, he says, is a painless process. “It’s as simple as we can make it, but we also support customers through that journey. We don’t leave anyone to fly solo. Customers connect their product via a range of booking systems that have partnered with TXGB, or load their content onto the platform if needed and they’re bookable almost immediately.

“We’re not a booking engine or a destination management system, we’re a dedicated platform that connects to the booking ecosystem that already exists,” he explains. “So our message to organisations here is to get on the ladder, become digitalised, transform their business and reach new markets.”

Tourism NI’s Director of Marketing, Naomi Waite, reckons that the partnership with TXGB will be crucial in aiding the post-Covid recovery of businesses and connecting them to both domestic and international customers.

“Online bookability is essential nowadays and we want the visitor experience to be as easy as possible. Customers need to be able to look and then book and this partnership makes Northern Ireland more connected and more bookable and it will enable us to drive bookings directly from our campaigns

“It will help us reach new customers and it will also help tourism businesses to refine and build their product offerings. As we encourage customers to Discover Northern Ireland, it will be a lot more effective with live availability and bookable products. We can work towards extending stays and maximising opportunities.” says Naomi.

“But, as James has mentioned, it also gives us access to much more accurate and up to date data, giving us an overview of what’s happening in our local market. There is potential for this to be a real game changer for our industry.”

Tourism NI launched TXGB to the local industry at a recent webinar where both Naomi and James Berzins were on hand to answer questions.

“We’ve had a great reaction so far,” says Naomi. “We had a lot of interest in the webinar. People are really engaging and thinking about this very carefully. We’ve also had a number of sign ups on the back of the webinar event. Based on the initial reaction, tourism here will seize this opportunity with both hands.”

James Berzins has been answering plenty of very specific questions around TXGB from operators here. “You learn by doing and that’s how most operators will approach this. But we’re really pleased that the reaction from industry in Northern Ireland has been overwhelmingly positive.”

“Coming out of the Covid pandemic, businesses here need all the help they can get,” adds Naomi Waite. “This can act as a really important building block as the industry recover and builds up for what could be a really positive 2022 season.

“The pandemic has made everyone reassess how they do things and what they’re looking for so this is a great opportunity to innovate and build for the future.”

Tourism authorities, says James, are focused on growing the visitor economy, making it healthier and more resilient. “As things stand, what’s important is making a disrupted industry resilient and thriving. That’s the challenge.”

For more information visit tourismni.com and search Tourism Exchange.

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Lidl Northern Ireland puts stock in renewed charity partnership with NSPCC

Pictured celebrating the announcement is Conor Boyle, Regional Director Lidl Northern Ireland and Joanne McMaster, NSPCC Northern Ireland Supporter Fundraising Manager. For more information visit www.abettertomorrow-lidl-ni.co.uk

Lidl Northern Ireland has announced the extension of its charity partnership with NSPCC Northern Ireland for a third consecutive time, committing to a new fundraising target of over £1.1 million by 2024.

Established in 2017, the strategic partnership has delivered funding of more than £700,000 for NSPCC Northern Ireland through a range of activities and initiatives driven by Lidl Northern Ireland staff members across its 41 stores and supported locally by Lidl’s valued customers.

In the last year alone, Lidl Northern Ireland staff and customers across the region raised over £100,000 for the charity and donated almost 130,000 meals to FoodCloud charities. The extended new partnership aims to surpass previous fundraising targets and deliver further help in supporting NSPCC Northern Ireland’s aim to empower children to stay safe and speak out against abuse and neglect.

Over five years, funds raised through the partnership have contributed to the recruitment, training and support of 125 Childline volunteers across the charity’s two Childline bases in Belfast and Foyle. It has also supported the training of practitioners at the NSPCC’s two Service Centres in Northern Ireland to provide crucial support to children and families recovering from abuse.

Lidl Northern Ireland has also supported NSPCC Northern Ireland’s flagship Speak Out Stay Safe Schools programme – one of the most highly demanded initiatives aimed at raising awareness amongst children of their right to be safe from abuse and neglect. Since April 2021, the programme has reached more than 45,000 children across Northern Ireland.

Conor Boyle, Lidl Northern Ireland Regional Director said:

“As a family retailer, I am immensely proud of our longstanding partnership with NSPCC Northern Ireland and all that it has delivered over the last five years. We are deeply committed to supporting our communities and our partnership with NSPCC plays a central role in that commitment, in line with our wider corporate social responsibility objectives. It’s been hugely successful for both partners and this is due in large part to the consistent fundraising efforts by our dedicated team members and caring customers.

Each of our stores has a Lidl Northern Ireland NSPCC champion responsible for promoting the work that NSPCC does with our customers and colleagues. They are also responsible for fundraising activity which aims to engage local communities and families. Across 41 stores we have hosted everything from spinathons to superhero dress up days and of course our annual Trolley Dash campaign which has grown to become our flagship fundraising event.

It has been very fulfilling to see this partnership develop over the years and the significant impact that our fundraising has directly made on the charity in supporting it to deliver vital services across Northern Ireland. It’s also been very rewarding for our employees and customers who have fully embraced the charity and give so much of their time and energy to supporting our activity.

We are honoured to continue this partnership for a further two years and help fund even more initiatives to safeguard and protect children across the region who rely on the services of NSPCC Northern Ireland.”

Joanne McMaster, Supporter Fundraising Manager at NSPCC commented:

“Our mission at NSPCC Northern Ireland is to fight for every childhood and, with Lidl Northern Ireland by our side, we have been able to build on the delivery of essential services and expand our scope to reach even more children in need.

The partnership we have forged with Lidl Northern Ireland over the last five years has been transformative for our charity and I am thrilled that we will continue this to 2024 with a new pledge that will see the partnership break the £1 million fundraising mark.

I’m proud that we are now Lidl’s established charity partner and I’m continually impressed by the generosity of employees and customers. I’m looking forward to the next two years working with Lidl Northern Ireland to deliver some significant new projects and campaigns focusing on our Childline service and enabling more children and young people, across Northern Ireland, to speak out.

I’d like to thank Lidl Northern Ireland staff and customers for their amazing support and I look forward to seeing what exciting new fundraising initiatives are planned for everyone to enjoy.”