Digital that Delivers is an ambitious and groundbreaking initiative from Failte Ireland, designed to power digital transformation for the visitor experience sector in Ireland. It has been developed to elevate this sector’s digital maturity to a level that has not been achieved anywhere in Europe, setting our visitor experiences up for future sustained success, to compete for business against intense international competition. The vision for this programme is to develop a world-class digital tourism ecosystem for visitor attractions in Ireland, to enable visitors to discover and book Irish experiences through their channel of choice. Through this programme we hope to empower visitor experience businesses to create immersive bookable experiences across world class websites, utilising engaging content and fully connected distribution systems to sell their products to a global tourism audience.  

Why did we set up the programme?

Research conducted by Failte Ireland in 2020 highlighted several significant market failings:  

Only 13% of the 1,486 Irish visitor experiences used booking systems capable of connecting to online distribution systems (which enable integration with point-of-sale devices and connection to online travel agencies). This implied that 87% of Irish visitor experience businesses were using outdated systems or using separate systems for each distribution channel creating poor and disjointed experiences for their users.  

Only 33% of businesses had products that were bookable online, the majority of these businesses relied solely on walk-up trade.  

82% of the existing website from this sector were rated below average and not focused on the needs of their users 

In a sector where user experience, customer reviews and referrals are so vital, the Failte Ireland team set about creating a digital transformation programme for this sector, ‘Digital That Delivers’. This programme took a user centric approach to digital transformation, focused on transforming the sector by providing individual digital supports tailored to the bespoke needs of each business. 

In July 2021 the programme supported its first intake of 243 industry, providing supports across four key digital transformation workstreams. Businesses received grant-aid to invest in digital transformation workstreams and detailed digital capability training based on an assessment of their existing digital maturity and digital skills. The programme included: 

Development of connected online booking systems and activation of digital distribution channels enabling visitors to make bookings with these experiences through a range of third party OTAs not previously accessible  

Enhancing or redeveloping their websites to enable visitors to make direct online bookings and secure online payments not previously accessible.  

Content marketing support enabling these businesses to create compelling and immersive content to support visitors to make better more informed decision across many touch points including social channels.  

A programme of digital marketing supports to enable these businesses to learn how to target consumers based on their own intent on their path to purchase. 

A workstream dedicated to data, measurement and insights 

Businesses can expect the following from the programme:

• A bespoke digital transformation roadmap and action plan
• One-to-one expert support  
• Supercharged digital skills for you and your team  
• Investment grants to deliver benefits  
• A revamped website to drive more bookings  
• An improved booking engine to streamline your operations and save time
• Better data-led decisions for your business  
• Better distribution through third-party channels  
• Enhanced Digital Marketing strategies  
• Access to a Digital Learning Hub