Online Widget for tourism entrepreneurs

By project TAAS

Published on 07 October 2024

Netherlands

Limburg (NL)

About this good practice

Visit Zuid-Limburg is a Destination Management Organisation in the most southern part of the Netherlands. We also feel responsible for the further development of South Limburg, which is reflected in the policies and products we draw up together with our partners. One of these digital products is the Online Widget.

When parties visit an accommodation website, information about what you can do in the area from the hotel is very important. Think walking and cycling routes, activities, events, attractions and more. It costs entrepreneurs a lot of time and money to implement this content on their website. Once implemented, the information soon becomes outdated or web links no longer work. This can frustrate potential guests, tempting them more quickly to visit another accommodation website. To help accommodation owners, Visit Zuid-Limburg has developed the 'Online Widget'. A digital tool that is always up-to-date with data directly from Visit Zuid-Limburg's data server.

Accommodation owners can place this tool on their own website in three easy steps. Using filters, they then decide for themselves which tourist info the widget does and does not show. This way, their own website is continuously provided with the right information for their guests/website visitors, without them having to invest time, money and space themselves. Moreover, the visitor stays on their own website which ensures that web traffic is maintained and there is a greater chance of a reservation by the guest.

Resources needed

• Creating the Online Widget was an investment of € 9.000,-. The further development costs are also relatively low.
• A team of 4 created the tool and now 1 person keeps the tool updated which only takes 3 hours a month.

Evidence of success

• Currently, the tool is used by 36 entrepreneurs in South Limburg. In total there where 2536 people using the tool users from September 2023 till September 2024.
• The entrepreneurs that are using the tool are very positive and don’t understand why others are not already using it. Especially after embedding it needs no more attention or time investment of the entrepreneurs.

Potential for learning or transfer

• Time and cost savings for entrepreneurs because they do not have to enter and maintain tourist content themselves.
• The website user always has the correct and up to date information.
• The central message of Destination management/marketing organisations is unambiguously displayed. As a result, the entire region benefits.
• Although entrepreneurs are all enthusiastic about this product after a brief explanation, it remains difficult to ensure that entrepreneurs actually integrate the tool on their own websites. It is easy to embed the tool, however, this often needs to be done by an entrepreneur's external web builders. It therefore requires action by the entrepreneur to inform their website builder about the tool. To ensure this happens, it is important to remind entrepreneurs several times to take action.