Building a flexible e-library for the World Tourism Organization
About the World Tourism Organization (WTO)
The World Tourism Organization is the leading international organization in the field of travel and tourism, serving as a global forum for tourism policy issues and a practical source of tourism know-how and statistics. With 139 member countries, seven territories and more than 300 Affiliate Members, their aim is to stimulate economic growth and job creation and provide incentives for protecting the environment.
Providing a single point-of-access for the World Tourism Organization’s digital content assets
The Business Requirements
The publishing division of the WTO is responsible for the publication of more than 300 key books, reports, statistics and over 1,500 working documents. Until recently these titles were available for purchase online via the organization’s online bookstore, InfoShop, but no facility was in place for electronic delivery.
Characterized by diverse, and often sensitive, content resources and a distributed and varied customer base, the World Tourism Organization required a system that would both recognize access and entitlement rights and, at the same time, would allow them to grow and mould the licensing models and products.
In a competitive and evolving market, Dr Dirk Glaesser, Chief Publications Section at the WTO, recognized that in order to satisfy the demands of members, and to compete with the growing number of tourism titles being published, the organization would better serve its mandate by providing web-based access to its content. The online presence would need to serve multiple purposes in order to:
• Provide different levels of access across diverse membership levels
• Maximize revenues from new and existing customer accounts
• Provide fresh services to maintain and grow the value added membership and affiliate relationships
Glaesser also recognized that rather than providing members with a point-of-access and waiting for them to visit the site, the onus was on the WTO to disseminate their content to members in ways that would meet member requirements and user-habits.
With a range of membership and subscriber types, each with different levels of service, plus additional target markets in the form of libraries and individuals, the WTO required an online license model that would give them the ability to set up a range of subscription levels to match the needs of their members:
Model One - providing WTO member states 50 licenses per country entitling them to free access to all titles
Model Two - providing a selection of customers with a premium service, giving access to advanced information and grey literature for an annual fee
Model Three - access to all publications for an annual subscription fee
Model Four - access to individual publications that could be purchased via pay-per-view
The WTO set about looking for a partner that would be able to provide them with an all-inclusive, flexible, and cost-effective solution.
The Business Solution
The challenge for Ingenta was how to provide different levels of access across diverse membership levels in order to provide a single point of access for all digital content assets, implement a single access and entitlement layer across a range of membership and subscriber types, and be able to set up multiple subscription levels with incremental content offerings.
Working closely with the WTO print sales infrastructure, Ingenta combined an information architecture process to help define requirements, with an Information Commerce Solution that would provide access and content platforms required for repackaging and delivering content.
Access and Entitlement
Ingenta provided a powerful access control system that allows for four different user types to be recognized by default and gives the WTO the ability to define, manage and control access rights for each group.
Flexible Content Bundling
Ingenta provided an information commerce solution that allows the WTO to offer an unlimited choice of content packages to members in accordance with their business models. This, in turn, gives them the ability to provide members with exactly the information they require, execute targeted mailing campaigns to prospective users, and increase sales and revenues.
Driving Traffic
Ingenta supplied the WTO with the tools to drive new traffic to the e-library by installing:
• A fully cross-searchable database providing a comprehensive range of search and browse options.
• TOC e-alerting service allowing members to be alerted when new documents are added to the site.
• Ability to tailor text on the homepage according to subscriber-type allowing the WTO to drive traffic from new and existing users in a highly targeted fashion.
Work on the WTO website continues with new developments being addressed to ensure that the e-library continues to be a fully comprehensive and innovative site for the future.
The WTO elibrary can be found at www.wtoelibrary.org.
Find out more about the World Tourism Organization at www.world-tourism.org.
To find out more about building a Customized Website and our Information Commerce Solutions, please contact Neil Appleton.