Northeast Kingdom Travel and Tourism Association
Mission and Goals
The Northeast Kingdom Travel & Tourism Association (NEKTTA) has administered the regional marketing program for the Northeast Kingdom, since the organizations inception in 1991. The organization provides marketing education, service, support and representation for 9 area Chambers of Commerce and over 180 area businesses.
NEKTTA strives to showcase Vermont's Northeast Kingdom as a destination of choice for travelers. In doing so it is our mission to employ tourism to the benefit of our region by assisting in the development, marketing, and execution of experiential tourism products which will both honor and sustain that which we, as residents of the NEK, value most about our home. To aid us in our mission we employ the values and principles of agritourism, ecotourism and geotourism.
Website Update
NEKTTA manages the regional website www.TraveltheKingdom.com. A complete redesign of the site has begun. The newly designed website is on schedule to launch in June of 2010. The new site will include the following new features:
- Central Reservations Travel Technology
NEKTTA has partnered with Inntopia to provide central reservations capability on the NEKTTA website TraveltheKingdom.com. The addition of this capability allows travelers to commit to a Northeast Kingdom Travel experience both online and by phone and provide the ability to dynamically package area lodging, activities, attractions, recreation, events, dining, and miscellaneous rentals.
- Online Booking Capability for Area Businesses
The technology solicited will serve as a Central Reservations System on the NEKTTA website but shall also provide a piggy-back option allowing area businesses who do not have booking capability on their website the ability to add direct booking capability to their business web page so that they may offer their product for sale directly. When the booking system is activated on a business website the business will not only be able to capture bookings for their goods, product or services but they can also capture sales for any other CRS participant. This will create a dynamic booking network throughout the Northeast Kingdom and allow the booking process to be easy and efficient for travelers.
- Addition of Distribution Outlet for Non-Experiential Products
To provide a secondary point of distribution for non-experiential products NEKTTA will add a “Country Store” to our web site TraveltheKingdom.com. The Online Country Store will launch in June of 2010. NEKTTA will allow merchants to offer for sale on the site any non-experiential good or product created within the Northeast Kingdom. Products could include Maple Syrup, hand made soaps, books and journals, artwork, etc.
- Enhanced Online Listing Provision for Area Businesses
To ensure maximum capture of bookings and product sales for area businesses NEKTTA will enhance the listings of all businesses on the regional web site TraveltheKingdom.com. The enhanced listing will provide the businesses and potential traveler with more information about each business as well as higher quality photo images and video capabilities. Enhancements to area event listings will also be made to allow the same capabilities.
- Web Site Aesthetic Enhancement and Key Word Optimization
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines. NEKTTA will identify and employ an industry specialist to assess and improve the NEKTTA web site TraveltheKingdom.com to enhance the visibility of the site to be comparable to an established competitive set of regional destinations. The web site optimization will result in increased site traffic and will subsequently generate an increase of reservations captured via the CRS and sales captured via the country store both online and by phone. To ensure maximum capture of bookings once a traveler is lured to the web site NEKTTA will enhance the overall esthetic and functionality of the site to ensure easy navigation and a dynamic enhanced showcasing of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom. The overall enhancement of the web site will allow us to more effectively compete with other destinations within our competitive set.
DO YOU HAVE ENOUGH BROCHURES?
As a Marketing Partner you are entitled to a complimentary supply of brochures and guides to provide to interested parties. The Cycling, Hiking, Waterways, N.E.K. Regional Map, and the Travel Planner (with attached Geotourism MapGuide) are all available at the NEKTTA office. Please contact us for additional information or to request a supply!
