82
82

Click2Portugal Will Bring Together Every Portuguese Hotel on One Site

28 January 2018

AHP is creating the first common platform for the hospitality industry. The website will go live by March, sending bookings directly to each hotel’s website.

The internet changed the game that hotel operators had once played. Now, online reservations are becoming increasingly important, winning the war to reach customers first – be it in Portugal or abroad. The Portuguese Hotel Association (AHP) took it upon themselves to try to level the field and will launch an online the platform called Click2Portugal by March of this year. It is the first website that brings together every Portuguese hotel on one site. “This is a tool that aggregates the hotel supply in Portugal,” Cristina Siza Vieira, chief executive of AHP, stated.

The new website – www.click2portugal.com – cannot be directly compared to other booking sites, as it will not take reservations. The site will showcase the country’s hotels and one important advantage: the hotels presented on the site will include a link to the hotel’s own reservation page. “Hotels often do not have the reach on their own,” Ms Vieira noted.

It is the last stage of a process that has been going on for more than a year. In recent months, AHP noted that a large percentage of Portuguese hotels did not have a website or had sites that were not functional. Some had static pages that did not include photographs or detailed information while others had no reservation system or were written in just Portuguese. The sorts of limitation were the most extensive in the Central region of the country.

“Our platform is linked to hotel websites. It’s aggregator, it’s not aimed at sales, that’s why the hotels’ digital capability is so fundamental. A website that is not functional will not be included,” Cristina Siza Vieira reasoned, detailing that part of the strategy that is culminating included introducing the hotels to price comparison systems and digital marketing tools. The organisation was thus able to prod a number of hotels to update their digital presence.

As the new site nears finalisation, AHP declined to estimate the number of hotels that are expected to join but rather stated that “the site will be ready by the end of the first quarter” and will be open to anyone who wants to join. In a second phase, the hotel association wants to add capabilities to the system but, for now, awaits a green light by Turismo de Portugal.

What is the new site? The official website Visit Portugal – which presents the country to tourists – has already been visited by 14 million people. At the moment, it is purely informational, something that AHP would like to see changed. “I believe that the platform Visit Portugal, which at the moment is purely informational, should become transactional. Anyone who visits a website but doesn’t make a purchase there does not return. That is our day-to-day experience. But if you want to buy, platforms have to be transactional,” Ms Siza Vieira warned. Recently, the Secretary of State for Tourism, Ana Mendes Godinho, expressed a similar opinion. ” I think we can gain scale in digital marketing by creating a direct link between our capacity in terms of digital marketing and the commercialisation of Portugal’s private [hotel operators].”

“The challenge is to enable Visit Portugal to directly sell the products listed on the site, so that is more than just an informational platform, but rather one that allows us to use our digital marketing campaigns to help directly sell what we are advertising,” the official stated, adding that “it is in this area that we have to take very significant steps.”

In a response to Dinheiro Vivo, Turismo de Portugal revealed that “it is analysing this possibility from a legal point of view, hoping to be able to make a decision very soon.” Ms Siza Vieira noted that “the platform is progressing independently from Visit Portugal”, and an interconnection can be made later.

The number of potential customers for Portuguese hotels is steadily increasing after another record year. Last year, Portugal received 22 million tourists, a number that the national statistics office is expected to confirm next month.

Overnight stays up 8% in 2017

Data released this week by Eurostat show that Portugal had the fourth biggest rise in overnight stays in the European Union. The overnight stays in the country increased by 8% compared to 2016, to a total of 71.3 million, above the average European growth of 5.1%. Of the 71.3 million overnight stays, 68% were foreign visitors, the main reason for growth. The highest increases were for Latvia, which rose 12%, Slovenia, with an increase of 11.3% and for Croatia, a growth of 10.6%. The country with the most overnights stay continued to be Spain, with 471.4 million overnight stays, followed by France, with 431.3 million, and Italy, with 424.7 million. The total number of overnight stays in the EU reached 3.254 billion.

Original Story: Dinheiro Vivo – Ana Margarida Pinheiro

Photo: D.R.

Translation: Richard Turner