Tenerife has a new official internet site, report traveldaily.co.uk, who comment:

The Tenerife Tourism Corporation has announced the launch of its new website.

Attracting more than two million visits per year, the newly revamped website (webtenerife.com) has been redesigned to provide better accessibility to information on the island as well as tools to help plan and book holidays to Tenerife.

The content, which is available in English as well as Spanish, German, French and Italian, is divided into five different categories:

Activities, Places of interest, Accommodation, About Tenerife and Useful Information.

Additional content includes a calendar of events, a Tenerife weather forecast, maps, downloadable brochures and further subcategories.

Jose Manuel Bermudez, Vice-president of the Tenerife Island Government and Councillor for Tourism said during the official launch of the website “This new design will allow easy access to tourist information on the island and aims to encourage people to explore the great diversity of Tenerife’s natural landscapes, to embrace its culture and to discover all the options available year round”.

Mr. Bermudez also highlighted the importance of online presence: “Seven out of 10 of our visitors use the internet to search information and plan their holiday. In addition, 12% of people who have stayed in Tenerife visited our website”.

The new website also features Spain’s only multi-product online booking system. The new tool which was developed by Segittur (Spain’s Innovation and Tourist Technologies National Management Society) can be accessed through webtenerife.com and allows visitors to purchase excursions, hotels, flights, car hire, tee times at golf courses and tickets to theme parks.

For more travel news visit www.traveldaily.co.uk and for holidays in Tenerife

Comments from people currently on holiday in tenerife can be accessed via twitter

Advertised costs for a holiday in Tenerife, like many other popular destinations, has come down in real terms in recent years.

A great deal of this is down to lower airfares, with low cost carriers flying to Tenerife and the other Canary Islands from the UK, Ireland and other parts of Europe, at a significantly lower cost than their competitors.

But are cheap flights to Tenerife because of some airlines ability to be more efficient than others - or is it because holiday destinations know that more airlines equals more flights, which in turn means more tourists arriving, and they are prepared to give preferential treatment over exisiting carriers, allowing flights to come down in price for some, but not all airlines?

For Tenerife it’s possible that it’s come to the stage where some tour operators feel that the playing field is so uneven it’s difficult for them to win in a fair fight - and could stop offering holidays at all.

The island would be the loser as the major tour operators don’t just offer flights - hotels, car hire and excursions are often offered, and any gain in more people currently taking low cost flights to Tenerife will be more than offset by the number of holidaymakers lost who take package holidays.

In recent years tour operators have found it harder to compete anyway as more people have been acting as their own travel agent via the internet, booking their hotels, car hire and flights seperately.

But if tour operators did pull out it could really hurt Tenerife as there is a swing back towards what tour operators do best at the moment - package holidays.

As the Euro - used by Spain as her currency - has increased in value against the British currency - Sterling - British holidaymakers have been discovering holiday destinations cheaper than Tenerife, notably Egypt and Turkey.

Package holidays offered by tour operators have been one way to fight against currency fluctuations, with many tourists taking all inclusive options and taking their meals at their Tenerife hotels - take away some of the tour operators and potentially tens of thousands of tourists will look elsewhere if the island isn’t given as an option.

But it’s not just because the tour operators are able to all inclusive holidays in Tenerife for those who want it - a recent event highlighted to many the benefit of booking with a company like Thomson or Thomas Cook Holidays:

The volcanic ash cloud that grounded flights for a week in Europe left tens of thousands of tourists stranded, and those who had booked their flights and accommodation independently were often left to organise their own way home.

But for those who had book with major tour operators like Thomas Cook and Thomson Holidays, they were in luck as the companies went the extra mile to provide accommodation and meals, along with organising their clients to be on flights home as soon as they could. Some even travelled back to Britain on a brand new cruise ship…quite a contrast to the independent travellers who made their way home at considerable expense overland.

Now is not the time for Tenerife to consider trading off the tour operators against the attraction of budget airlines.

More details about Tenerife are at http://www.yourtenerife.net and included is a map, news and information and a forecast for the next five days for the Tenerife weather

Booking holidays in Tenerife online is becoming more popular as time goes by, and one internet site says:

“High Street Travel Agents such as First Choice who have now joined forces with Thomson Holidays has cut down on the number of Hotels they are offering and instead concentrating more on a select number of hotels which would be easier to fill. Instead of bringing down the prices of holidays for 2010 they have instead increased the prices even though in my opinion they will struggle to sell holidays next at these high rise prices due to the credit crunch and also with the world cup being on.”

The cheapest offerings for Holidays at the present moment are Tenerife if booked separate. With airline prices being low to Tenerife and hotels in Tenerife offering great reductions more and more people are now understanding that they can save hundreds of pounds by booking cheap flights and booking hotels without the need to go to their travel agents.

To read the full article click here

For more information about Tenerife visit http://www.yourtenerife.net

Google has introduced its Street View service for Tenerife, Gran Canaria and Majorca.

Brandrepublic report:

LONDON - Dodgy package holiday operators may find it harder to sell their ‘luxurious swimming pools’ and ’state-of-the-art’ jacuzzis, as Google adds popular destinations for British tourists to its Street View service.

Time moves on…

In the eighties video killed the radio star, and as technology has advanced it’s not just industrial businesses that have been affected, but retail too, with shops having to adapt to the new world with on-line offerings as well as trying to maintain High Street positions.

And there can’t be many retail specialists with a physical presence on the UK High Streets that have been more affected by the advent of the internet and new technology more than the travel sector.

A High Street travel agency will typically stock brochures for a multitude of destinations, display late offers in its window, and run a foreign exchange bureau, as well as booking holidays and travel insurance for clients.

But more than this travel agents can give personal advice on most holiday destinations as they recount their own holiday experiences, and in bigger shops most popular destinations would have at least one if not two people working there who have visited where a client is thinking of, and pass on personal knowledge as well as advice on which resorts and hotels might be best.

But now this information, and far more than one or two people can give, is available to anyone thinking of booking a holiday via the internet.

Good or bad, reviews of hotels are available on specialist internet sites where ordinary holidaymakers are free to give unbiased advice on a hotel, the staff, surroundings, and what to expect.

The travel sites with reviews can be really up to date as well, often from people who have just stayed in a hotel, and people thinking of booking a hotel don’t have to rely on advice which however well intentioned could be years out of date, and with several reviews to go on a good overall picture can be built up of how well a hotel is performing, and if looks like it could be suitable before booking a holiday.

Tenerife is a good example of where the internet can win over traditional High Street travel agents. Need a Tenerife map for example to see where attractions and your hotel is on the island. It’s easily found on search engines or on sites like Thomson Holidays and Thomas Cook Holidays.

Want to know what the Tenerife weather is like right now, with a 5, 7 or 10 day forecast? A multitude of internet sites will let you know in an instant.

Everything you want to know about your location is available in seconds, and gives a complete picture of what to expect and what can be planned for your Tenerife holidays.

Is the High Street travel agent needed anymore? As more people get computer literate the less a tradtional travel agent is going to be needed in the future. Today’s children will turn to the internet as a matter of course when they are old enough to book their own holidays - replacing the older generation which has a smaller proportion booking holidays online.

Perhaps the answer is for traditional estate agents to do what Thomas Cook Holidays and Thomson Holidays are doing - keeping a presence on the High Street while also having a good internet site that does everything holidaymakers who use the internet site expect a holidays site to provide.

For more details about Tenerife visit http://www.yourtenerife.net which includes holiday deals, news and travel articles