Centro de Design da Madeira (CDM) using its registered trademark 'Strawberry World' in partnership with the Federation of Hotels and Tourism of Las Palmas (FEHT) and Tourism Online (TOL) presented the conclusion of its project MAC ONLINE on the 13th July 2005. The meeting was held in The Pestana Grand Hotel in the presence of Dr. Patrícia Abreu ( Interreg Madeira) and Dr. Marisa Pimenta - (Secretary of the Interreg) as well as Fernando Fraile González (President of the FEHT) and Nicolás Suarez (TOL)
The event was coordinated by Strawberry World, and presentations were made by Mr Mike |Heavey CIO of Centro de Design da Madeira (CDM) and Nicolás Suares - Systems Director of 'Tourism Online'.
The project is co-financed by the European Community Initiative Interegg IIIB and constitutes the first phase of the project that includes the conception and publication of holiday destination guides to Madeira, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and the Azores. Additionally, Strawberry World is catering to the demand in the tourism market for online reservation systems. Using destination hotel portals, eg. Madeira and Gran Canaria, it is possible to make online hotel reservations utilising a database booking engine that is connected through GDS systems to over 650.000 travel agents (Gallileo, Amadeus, Sabre & Wporldspan) and through links to 1500 travel sites with Pegassus (eg. Expedia) and 2000 travel websites through WORLDRES (eg. Opodo & Lastminute.com). The booking engine is also accessible through over 200 German city portals such as www.berlin.de & www.muenchen.de
Part of this phase of the project was the opening of a UK Call centre to support holidays and hotel sales to Madeira. It is now 12 months since Madeira Portugal Ltd was founded and the company offers the possibility to make 'real time' availability checks and online bookings for all UK and Ireland flights coming to Madeira as well as holiday insurance, car hire, airport parking and associated services. A new company 'Canary Island UK Ltd' has now been founded to offer the same support to the Canary islands.
As part of the FEHT and TOL's involvement in the project, an 'intranet' has been created that allows all Hotel Federation members to access the latest tourism related news, purchase hotel products online through a cooperative at very special rates and exchange information with each other. Also an interface has been created to allow hotels to send the Police and Customs authorities the information collected on a daily basis from tourists staying on the islands. This digital information is now stored in an online database and replaces the paperwork and laborious collection and storage systems that were previously used. The system was initially introduced to a Police Station in Mogan and has now been widely adopted across the Canary Islands and in Madrid.
