Small tourism operators in the Solomon Islands from Honiara and Central Islands are learning to market their products through the internet.
This training came about following a successful pilot project conducted in Tonga by the South Pacific Tourism Organization and the Tonga Visitors Bureau.
The project aims to get as many accommodation providers as possible in the Solomon Islands set up with a professional e-commerce enabled web site which is able to process bookings instantly.
This will be combined with channel management tools to enable third party distribution when they need it via sites such as Wotif, Booking.com and Expedia.
In a later phase it's planned to supply all participating accommodations with interconnected Facebook sites with a booking widget embedded, plus providing help to build their TripAdvisor presence.
The Solomon Islands Visitors Bureau's chairman, Henry Teho, told the Solomon Star that the trend of using brochures and talking was over now.
