GoSeeAustralia and RMS Launch Industry's First Integrated Online Booking Channel and Website Solution

SYDNEY, Australia – 16 October 2018 – Two leading Australian travel technology companies, GoSeeAustralia and RMS, have partnered to deliver Australia’s first integrated online booking channel and customised industry-specific website solution for the Australian Caravan and Camping Industry.  

Developed in response to today’s increasingly competitive digital environment, the GoSeeAustralia and RMS integrated booking and management solution will slash up to 34 percent on big global company OTA booking fees. Also, by using GoSeeAustralia as a lead generation and booking channel, fees for Parks will be up to 30-40 percent cheaper than those charged by global OTA’s.

As a result of RMS’ existing partnership with the Commonwealth Bank, the solution will also offer all CommBank merchants reduced merchant fees of up to 16 percent, and up to a 52 percent reduction on all terminal transaction fees.

“The partnership was developed to help businesses within the Australian Caravan and Camping Industry be more profitable and compete more effectively online and in digital marketplaces,” said Nick Baker, CEO of GoSeeAustralia. “Many businesses today are finding margins and profitability strangled by the ever-increasing commissions and fees being charged by, and paid to, overseas OTAs.

“When you consider millions of dollars in commissions and fees are going offshore, it’s a negative outcome for Australian small business owners, the camping and caravanning industry, and the Australian economy.

“This partnership is step one in a strategic vision to build an ecosystem of Australian technology travel companies that will collaborate to deliver significant value to the Australian industry and its hard-working stakeholders,” said Mr. Baker. “Our goal is twofold: to help deliver better value in booking costs, and to help significantly grow the audience for camping and caravanning holidays”.

The offering has received strong endorsement from the country’s national industry body, the Caravan Industry Association of Australia. According to Stuart Lamont, CEO of the Caravan Industry Association, it is great to see the Australian caravanning and camping industry receive genuine alternatives to offshore OTA’s.

“It is important that industry support such initiatives as not only are we seeing industry-specific technology solutions committed to growing the market, they also save caravan holiday parks money relative to these large offshore OTA’s that put nothing back into the caravanning and camping sector.”

GoSeeAustralia is Australia’s only one-stop marketplace that allows adventure seekers, backpackers, road trippers, holiday makers and lovers of the great outdoors to plan, book and equip their travel and holiday experiences. RMS is the industry’s leading provider of innovative, quality and reliable park management software.

A key feature of the integrated GoSeeAustralia and RMS solution is a fully-customisable website and webstore, powered by Marketplacers technology, that is built specifically for Parks. Integrated into RMS, GoSeeAustralia and onto other OTAs, it enables park owners and operators to grow their own digital channels and compete directly online for a simple monthly fee.

The founder of RMS, Peter Buttigieg, said he is delighted with the stamp of approval from the Caravan Industry Association of Australia and to be a part of an ecosystem he knows will be of help and support to the industry.

“The partnership with GoSeeAustralia is something we are extremely proud of for a number of reasons,” said Mr Buttigieg . “All Australian-based companies partnering to give the Park Industry a world-class solution, while creating enormous cost benefits in a space that is becoming increasingly expensive. It’s Australian-developed, industry endorsed and will unquestionably reduce the ever-increasing cost of transactions made with OTAs.”

Adventure tourism is booming worldwide with the Global Adventure Tourism Market expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46 percent between 2016 – 2020^[1].

In Australia, caravanning and camping nights have reached record numbers. According to Tourism Research Australia data released October 2018, national overnight camping/caravan/RV trips reaching 12.3 million for the year ending June 2018, marking the first time overnight trips have exceeded 12 million in a 12 month period. Total nights spent caravanning and camping around the country also increased by 6.5 percent to reach a record 52.8 million nights for year end June 2018^[2].

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About GoSeeAustralia
GoSeeAustralia (in collaboration with Outdoria) is a one stop marketplace for adventure planning, booking and equipping. Customers can research, plan, book and buy camping experiences, caravan park holidays, RV rentals, unique accommodation and outdoor adventure equipment via the marketplace or directly with the store or park.

About RMS
RMS has created and supported business information systems for the commercial accommodation industry since 1985. Since then the company has gained over 6,000 clients in 25 countries. Always at the forefront of technology, RMS was one of the first hospitality software companies to embrace cloud-based computing and still one of the few to boast a full featured, web-based property management system. RMS Hospitality Cloud allows customers to choose the elements they need to run their property including property management, online bookings, channel management, business intelligence, yield management and more.