Eco tourism, cultural and natural heritage tourism, health and medical tourism and adventure tourism are some of the tourism niches that are increasingly marketed by destinations and tourism enterprises in developing countries.

The main beneficiaries of a DMS are potential travelers, the providers of tourism products and services, national travel agents and outbound travel agents, national tourism institutions, IT providers and investors.

These figures relate only to international travel in most countries the volume of domestic tourism is significantly greater than international arrivals.

Interesting examples at the regional and national levels are the DMSs developed by the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) and by the Tourism Authority of Thailand.

According to the World Tourism Organization, the majority of tourist venues in the affected countries are able to welcome visitors again.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, the decentralization of tourism marketing activities to the provincial tourism offices proved a failure and responsibility for tourist related promotional activities was restored to the national tourist office at the start of 2005.

Tourism niches such as ecotourism one of the fastest growing segments of the tourism industry are increasingly promoted by DMOs in many developing countries, allowing them to diversify their tourism offer.

Part C discusses key elements of national and regional e tourism strategies and policies put in place by developed and developing countries (including online marketing and new tourism products), as well as cooperation processes in the tourism industry.

The Declaration also drew attention to the crucial role of tourism in small island developing States and other tourism dependent developing economies.

Hotel and catering trade

The ETP will allow developing, least developed and small island countries to organize, market and sell their own tourism services online.

Developing countries' target tourism markets are likely to be organizing their travel arrangements online.

(b) Strengthening the capacity for expanding the tourism sector in developing countries, with particular focus on tour operators, travel agencies and other suppliers

Proportionately, tourism will grow faster in less developed countries than in developed economies over the next ten years, and there is a growing market interest in rural and activity tourism compared with staying in traditional resorts.

Mr. de Villiers (Observer for the World Tourism Organization) said that tourism must not only maintain environmental health, but also provide opportunities for both developing and developed countries to benefit from the industry.

Consideration of the full arc of the consumer travel lifecycle should also be a central part of any tourism e tourism strategy, comprising in country travel and post travel follow up.

A review of the status of e tourism initiatives undertaken by national DMOs in LDCs, based on an informal survey of national tourism websites, highlighted the main challenges encountered in the development of an effective DMS. Resilient barriers still hamper DMOs' efforts to fully exploit the potential of the Internet and compete on an equal footing.

The online promotion of tourism niches by developing countries complements the product offer of online travel distributors from developed countries, which often promote static packages (versus dynamic packages that allow consumers to customize their travel) and international hotel chains in developing countries.

However, the experience of several DMSs in both developing and developed countries shows that a free subscription for tourism enterprises guarantees their larger participation in the DMS.

Tourism Authority of Thailand

Part A considers the role of ICTs for tourism development in developing countries and the strategic challenges for local tourism enterprises to successfully participate in international tourism markets.

M. André Abitbol, Technical Advisor, national du tourisme, Paris, France

The distribution of tourism products on the Internet complements traditional distribution channels (travel agents, national tourism offices, tourism producers, call centers, etc.) because a large number of DMOs do not yet have the capacity to develop an effective e tourism website and cannot rely only on uncertain online revenues.

The promotion of tourism niches by developing countries for which many of them enjoy a competitive advantage and the development of DMSs that offer tourism enterprises and consumers respectively an innovative way to promote and obtain tourism information (e.g. search engine, trip planner, interactive maps and virtual tours) are contributing factors to the creation of value.

Contributing factors for the successful integration of local tourism enterprises into international tourism markets are adequate e tourism strategies that focus on tourism innovation in terms of tourism products and adoption of e business tools such as destination management systems.

In terms of reservation services, the majority of DMOs in developing countries support the promotion of tourism in their country mainly by advertising the contact details of tourism providers.

World Tourism Organization (WTO)

WTO World Tourism Organization.

WTO (Tourism) World Tourism Organization

WTO (Tourism), Madridd

In many countries, domestic tourism outweighs international arrivals in terms of volume and income generated.

Illustrating the economic role of tourism in developing and least developed countries, he said that developing countries had 19.3 per cent of total international tourism receipts.

The majority of developing countries are mainly concerned with setting up informative e tourism websites to market their destinations.

In developing countries, the tourism industry tends to be fragmented and heterogeneous, encompassing a wealth of tourism SMEs that could be better organized and promoted.

The Internet gives tourism providers in developing countries an opportunity to access international tourism markets directly and promote a diversified tourism offer based on their cultural and natural resources.

We train corporate travel agents for the travel industry.

Destination management and promotion are key strategies to respond to consumers' expectations, ensure sustainable development and improve the relative position of destinations in developing countries on the global tourism market.

Experts came from tourism and ICT ministries and other ministries and agencies involved in ICT and tourism issues, as well as from the tourism industry, from regional and international organizations and from civil society.

At the same time, many travel agencies in Xinjiang signed tourism cooperation agreements with several Baoji tourist attractions, such as Dashuichuan, Famen Temple Buddhist Cultural Scenic Spot, Mount Taibai Tourist Scenic Spot and Guanshan Grassland Scenic Spot.

It does not therefore necessarily reflect the interests, the tourism wealth, or policies of the destination countries.

In order to promote e tourism development, UNCTAD has developed a DMS as part of the E Tourism Initiative, a technical assistance package aimed at promoting the application of ICTs in tourism so as to enable developing countries to exploit their tourism resources.

Mr. Tuan Anh Le, Director of Tourism Information Technology Center, National Administration of Tourism, Viet Nam

The experts discussed existing international best practices in the area of e tourism and shared experiences on strategies and policies through which developing countries can use ICT in the tourism industry in order to maximize its contribution to their sustainable development.

All stations operate under the solus trading system whereby the branded fuels of only one oil company are sold.

The E Tourism Platform developed as part of the UNCTAD E Tourism Initiative for developing countries integrates this functionality.