Rakousko.cz offers everything travelers need to plan and book their travel to Austria. Unfortunately, the Marketing team tasked with maintaining and promoting the website was unable to manage any aspects of it besides the most basic text updates. With the cost of maintenance increasing and its flexibility decreasing, the Rakousko leadership team reached out to Disruptive Lab to modernize their technology stack and empower the Marketing team to manage every aspect of the online experience.
Every year, between 60 to 80 million people travel to Austria, making it one of the most heavily traveled countries in the world. Skiing and snowboarding in the Alps lure a huge number of visitors in the winter, while the country’s rich culture and art scene attract tourists year-round. With so many options available, many tourists need a reliable resource to help them navigate where to stay and which activities to experience. Rakousko.cz is an online destination that provides exactly that. With articles ranging from passport requirements to where to find a good meal and the ability to book everything from lodging to travel insurance, the website has become a one-stop shop for tourists.
Despite the constant flow of tourists looking for planning advice and booking options, the Rakousko website was struggling to maximize its potential. The Marketing team was restricted by the legacy architecture the site was built on, requiring developer involvement for anything beyond the most basic text updates. This led to lengthy delays when updates were needed, missed opportunities to convert visitors, and increasing costs due to their reliance on external developers.
Additionally, tourists have come to rely on their mobile devices to provide them with up-to-date information about lodging, meals, and travel delays when they’re on the go. These users expect to be able to manage any aspect of their trip from their phones. However, the Rakousko website hadn’t been optimized for these devices—creating another missed opportunity to convert customers.
The leadership team at Rakousko knew they needed to make a change if they wanted to stay relevant to these increasingly tech-savvy tourists. They reached out to Disruptive Lab with the request to build them a new website, using modern technologies to address the modern needs of their target audience.
The Disruptive Lab Team knew what was required to create a solution to address all these challenges, so they designed a microservices architecture that leverages Microsoft Azure for its infrastructure and data management requirements. For the content component of the website, they selected Kontent.ai to provide an authoring experience the Marketing team would love and the flexibility to deliver content seamlessly into the design to be displayed on any device.
To give the marketing team a new level of control over the website, Disruptive Lab built a series of custom components that can be dragged and dropped into place in order to construct new pages or make changes to existing ones. Content updates are even easier, as a custom Preview component was added to the authoring interface, allowing users to update a content item and then preview how it looks on the website before submitting it for review or publishing it. The modular nature of this content makes it easy to fit into any design, ensuring it looks great on every device.
To ensure visitors always receive the most accurate information about hotel availability, pricing, and other aspects of their trip, the team integrated external data feeds that deliver up-to-date information to help travelers narrow down their search options. This data is indexed by Elasticsearch, with results returned based on visitor search criteria. Additional hotels can be added through the Kontent interface, creating a hybrid data set to provide the most lodging options possible for each traveler.
The Rakousko website is now able to convert visitors across any device with online booking options for lodging, lift tickets, and travel insurance. The Marketing team has discovered a new level of independence, as they can now create and manage every page of the website, allowing them to respond to unforeseen circumstances or changes in demand immediately.
Structured content models provide the flexibility to build an engaging multi-channel experience that can be evolved each season without relying on any other departments. As the team looks to the future, this model will also enable them to translate all of their content into various languages to accommodate travelers coming from all over the world. Regardless of where tourists are visiting from, it’s clear that there’s now an online destination to address all of their needs on their trip to Austria.
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