On Tuesday January 19, 2009 the Minister for Small Business, Dr Craig Emerson announced $250,000 of the Australian Government funded Small Business Online Program will go towards educating Queensland’s tourism operators on how they can leverage their business through online marketing.

The Chief Executive from the Australian Tourism Data Warehouse (ATDW), Ms Liz Ward said more than 90 per cent of the key players in Queensland’s tourism industry are small and medium enterprises that would benefit greatly from professional support in developing their online marketing strategy.

“With 95% of people using the Internet to plan and research their holidays in Australia it is crucial our tourism operators have the skills and capabilities to capture this online traffic and subsequent sales.

“Travellers have embraced the Internet at an accelerated speed in comparison to other industries and as a result if we’re to maintain and build on Queensland’s tourism 4.5% contribution to our gross state product (GSP) our tourism operators need to be maximising their online marketing potential,” Ms Ward said.

The Australian Government has provided online marketing specialists and co-contributors to the ATDW's Tourism E-Kit, UntangleMyWeb.com (Webbed Feet Pty Ltd) with the funding to develop and implement the Tourism Industry Online Marketing Education Project throughout Queensland, which will commence on February 1, 2010.

The project consists of 26 face-to-face training workshops throughout 13 of Queensland’s key tourism destinations followed by a structured online learning program so the training can be applied and extended to a greater number of operators.

The program will be completed by June 30, 2011.

UntangleMyWeb.com was appointed to develop and lead this project for their experience in having trained over 3,200 tourism operators Australia-wide via one-on-one training, workshops and video and knowledge based tutorials.

The Chief Executive Optimiser and head trainer from UntangleMyWeb.com, Ms Fabienne Rabbiosi said her vision for the Tourism Industry Online Marketing Education Project is to provide the tools and knowledge that will empower tourism businesses to effectively market their products and experiences online.

“To grow the economic impact of tourism in Australia I believe it is important to take a long-term approach of educating operators on how to reach more domestic and international travellers through implementing an effective web strategy,” Ms Rabbiosi said.

For further details on UntangleMyWeb.com and online marketing workshops coming up in your region visit http://www.untanglemyweb.com.

For further information, please contact:
UntangleMyWeb.com Public Relations
Alexandra Robertson: (07) 31036566 alexandra@untanglemyweb.com