Developing a Destination Management System to Act as an Enabler in Sustaining a Competitive Advantage in the (net) Marketplace.

EnglandNet Ltd, owned by England's 10 Regional Tourist Boards (RTBs) and VisitBritain, is developing a national distribution system for England's tourism product. The concept is to utilise the ability existing at the local level, to market and sell tourism product using subregional Destination Management Systems (DMSs). Integrating information collected locally through interoperability of local, regional and national DMSs, will enable England's tourism product to be channelled to resellers and distributors, providing information and bookabilty to holidaymakers worldwide. This paper aims to document the Destination Management Organisation (DM0), Marketing Manchester's transition from one business model to another, by examining differences between local and national systems, identifying competitive advantages and evaluating critical success factors, problems and issues arising from interoperability and data harmonization. From the study it will be possible to outline the initial and potential outcome of this field experiment and analyse how these findings/experiences can be extended to other projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]