Opportunities and limits of on-line reservation systems for rural tourism providers

The presentation briefly outlines the development of the use of the Internet as a marketing tool from the first beginnings in 1996 up to now. Since 1998 the bulk of the members have their own website within the total web-presentation of the association. Today out of the 2.900 providers on the web some 500 may be booked online. This has the benefit of the providers being “close to the market”, the organisation can concentrate solely on the web-marketing and the results in terms of bookings and turnover may be monitored in detail. The disadvantage from the small providers point of view is the necessity of a high degree of discipline in order to avoid double-bookings. Experience shows that the customers like to search for available accommodation but ultimately prefer to book in the “traditional ways” based on personal contact.