The hotel association of Tenerife, La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro (Ashotel) has confirmed that the use of the Internet in the tourism sector is having an increasing impact, especially when it comes to hotel reservations. This is thanks partly to online guides like Paginas Amarillas (Yellow Pages) in Spain, and other tourist sites. Web sites containing information about four star hotels in Tenerife are currently the most searched pages among Internet users looking for information about the island.
The web site paginasamarillas.es had over 8,000 enquiries for hotels in Tenerife during the first four months of this year, an increase of 30 % over the same period in 2009.
The word “hotels” is one of the ten most searched terms in the network of websites referring to Tenerife, which received 938,000 queries in the first quarter of the year. Four star hotels have attracted the most interest, followed by 3 star establishments. There has also been an increase in enquiries in relation to luxury accommodation since the beginning of this year. Paginasamarillas.es recorded 27,400 queries for Tenerife hotels from clients in Spain.
According to the president of Ashotel, José Fernando Cabrera “the use of the Internet in the tourism sector is becoming increasingly important, both through online hotel guides and through other internationally recognised sites like Tripadvisor. The information that potential customers get in the various social networks has a great influence in the final choice of their holiday destination”.
The major hotel chains operating in the Canary Islands obviously have all their marketing information available on the Internet but there are still some hotels and apartments that have little or no presence on the Internet as yet.
Cabrera stated that every accommodation establishment in Tenerife and the other islands should provide online information services and reservation systems as every distribution channel will improve reservation numbers. Initiatives such as the multiple-booking platform launched by Tenerife’s local council which contains information on many tourism related businesses on the island like car rental, travel agencies, restaurants and hotels should help attract even more tourists to Tenerife.