An internet portal to a small region

What do you think, what percentage of travellers collects information from the Internet before making their journey?

The correct answer is: 38% (!)

In the light of the above data and the fact that tourism is a determining factor in the life of the Keszthely-Hévíz small region, it is beyond question that the region needs an Internet portal that provides information about her values, offers and recent news.

The task

While planning the portal of the small region we took it into consideration that the solution to be implemented must meet the following requirements and expectations:

• Image representation, that is, the portal should be a proper frontage of the region
• Presenting different topics spectacularly and in a well-defined structure
• On-line booking, that is, the portal should provide an opportunity to access and market all the places of accommodation within the region, as far as possible
• Encouraging trade, that is, the portal should make it possible for the companies of the region, that are not, or only indirectly connected to tourism, to appear on the portal, as well as to display and market their products and services
• Public relations - information useful for guests should be accessible through the portal, and always up-to-date

The solution

During the inspiring, and, according to the feedback we have received so far, successful planning stage we were working together with the representatives of the small region office. We have combined their conceptions with our best solutions, added a few more ideas, and finally, as a result of an almost two-month work, the portal of the Keszthely-Hévíz small region was opened on March 30th, 2006, under the address www.keszthely-heviz.hu.

Would you like to know to what extent we met the preliminary requirements? In our opinion fully, but we would like You to decide.

Image representation
Here we concentrated on an attractive design, and a clear, easy-to-use portal structure.
The photographs appearing and counterchanging in the aesthetical header have been selected carefully. We tried to choose pictures that correspond to the strategic values of the region. Naturally, not all of the most important themes could be addressed; the photos in the little windows that appear above the thematic parts are meant to represent those.

Thematic presentation
The contents of the portal are divided intop four major parts at present, but it can be augmented by additional modules in the future:

• Nature, architectural and cultural heritage
• Small Region Association, administration, regional development
• Tourism, wellness, therapeutics
• Local news, programmes, events

Naturally, behing these topics there are more detailed pieces of information. These main topics are continuously visible and accessible on each and every page of the portal.

On-line booking
Various entities of the settlements belonging to the small region, including places of accommodation, can appear on the portal independently, thanks to the technology. The on-line booking form can be accessed from the pages of all housing establishments that have a web-space on the portal. These forms provide an opportunity for instant booking.

Encouraging trade
Not only housing establishments, but other entities, that are not, or only indirectly connected to tourism, for example enterprises, civil organisations, or institutions can also have a web-space on the portal. Thus they too can profit from the continuously growing popularity of the portal, that is a result of the marketing activity of the small region.

Public relations
Owing to the characteristics of the technology, the contents of the portal can be edited, modified, or supplemented through the Internet, without programming skills. There are some pieces of information which only one person, the portal administrator (an employee of the Small Region Office) is entitled to edit. Other contents may be edited by several people, even groups consisting of any number of persons.

And what is it that we added to the small region portal, beside the aforementioned (the spices):

On-line small region magazine and events calendar
This part of the portal offers continuously updated information, partly because this part can be edited by a group of any number of people. Accordingly, several persons and organisations, as well as all the settlements belonging to the small region may publish news and events to this section through the Internet. (Find out more about the on-line magazine ...

List of settlements
Although the web address of the portal is www.keszthely-heviz.hu, in accordance with the name of the small region, this portal is about all the settlements of the small region. Accordingly, the list of the 27 settlements is accessible from all the pages; and from the list it is possible to jump to the web-spaces of the settlements. These web-spaces provide an opportunity for the settlements to introduce themselves, publish news, events, documents, and other information in several languages, furthermore, they may put up a hyperlink to their own homepage, if there's one.

Mobile Office for the small region
The web-based teamwork and mailing system (therefore, it is available anywhere, at any time) is accessible from certain pages of the portal, as well as at its independent web-address; the mobile office offers several functions to the users (for example the employees of the Small Region Office, employees of the settlements belonging to the small region, etc.) through an interface protected by a username and a password.

Calendar of competitions
It manages and displays invitations to tender on the basis of their validity and topicality.

Registration available for anyone
The opportunity to register into the database of the small region with their name, address and sphere of activity is open to even those who do not have a web-space on the portal.

On-line portal statistics
The attendance statistics of the portal monitors and registers the traffic of the portals from several points of view. This is combined with another kind of statistics that shows the amount of information uploaded to the portal by the individual editors, and how many hits a particular piece of information (for example a given article) had.

Experience

On the basis of our experience and the feedback we've received so far we might say that we managed to solve this grand task successfully , and we have created an attractive and useful service for internet users. We hope this portal will contribute to the prosperous activity of the small region.

"It is not easy to address everyone. Together with T-soft we have managed to create a portal for the small region that serves the needs of tourists visiting the region, as well as that of the population exceedingly. It is a thrilling, interesting and extremely diversified task to create a homepage for a region that strives to serve the interests of civil organisations, local enterprises, institutions, museums and all the local authorities with the help of a number of solutions.

We saw the goal and T-soft gave not only a tool, but helped elaborate all the minor details as well. I am glad for our co-operation."

Levente Huszti
Managing Clerk
Office of the Keszthely-Hévíz Small Region Multipurpose Association