New Looks for Go Lakes

New Vision Group has launched the new, revenue generating model of Cumbria Tourism's website www.golakes.co.uk. The new site uses the latest booking scheme to allow even more of Cumbria's trade businesses to be viewed and bookable online.

The top performing Webby Award nominated website raises the bar yet again in terms of visitor appeal and rich functionality, with new ways to get visitors to interact with the destination before they have actually visited. The new site will continue to raise visitor numbers, transactions and CRM activity, and it boasts an added dimension with the NVG Affiliates scheme to offer even more bookable accommodation to their visitors.

Rachel Stott, E-tourism Manager at Cumbria Tourism, said: "We gave a lot of consideration to moving towards the new affiliate model since so many of our businesses rely on golakes.co.uk for exposure. We are delighted the scheme is visibly working at a commercial level for both us and our members at such an early stage."

The Affiliates Scheme offers valuable advantages to destinations and providers. Simplified access to membership and advertising opportunities encourages greater take up by providers. Cumbria Tourism can more fully exploit all its revenue channels through efficient performance and reduced technical costs. Furthermore, New Vision Group takes full care of business support, payment handling and ongoing technical development as part of the programme, saving the tourist board time and money on operational functions and administration.

Jill Killen Webmaster at Cumbria Tourism said: "We are excited about the fact that for the first time we will be charging commission on bookings made through the site. Up to now, bookable businesses were only those that bought into our Silver and Gold advertising packages, which has limited the number of accommodation providers that visitors could actually book with online. Now, by dramatically reducing advertising costs and changing the model for advertising packages, the early indications are that many more businesses will share in the success of golakes.co.uk in the future".

In light of current funding reductions, an increasing number of destinations are keenly adopting the affiliate booking scheme to boost revenue generation and improve sustainability.