Tourism Holdings Limited (thl) Tourism Holdings Limited (thl) is a publicly listed New Zealand before, and 55 million intemational travelers visited Australa, a I4 corporation that owns multiple brands and businesses in the tour declino of 2 percent. ism industry. Principal holdings of thl include: According to Webster. "While we believe the long-term pros pects of tourism in our traditional markets of New Zealand, Australia, and Fiji will remain strong, thl's substantial growth opportunities will be achieved by expanding to other countries, o New Zealand tourist attractions such as Waitomo Black Water Rafting and Waitomo Glowworm Caves Kiwi Experience and Feejee Experience hop-on, hop-ofpossibly the United States, or Europe." tourist bus services Investment in Information Systems Six brands of holiday rental vehicles - Ci Munro, a van customization nanufacturing facility Thl considers information systems and technology as a core compo- nent of its business value and has invested in a variety of innovative information systems and Web 2.0 technologies. Webster, the CEO, speaks knowledgeably about information technologies, including In 2009. thl earned $S million in profit before interest and taxes on S170 million in revenue. It operates in New Zealand, Australin, and Fiji and has sales offices in Gemany and the United Kingdom as well. SharePoint, OLAP, and data mining (discussed in Chapter 11) Thl originated as The Helicopter Line, a corporation that pro vided scenic helicopter flights over New Zealand. Over the years, thl sold the helicopter business and has since owned and operated numerous different tourism organizations and brands. Thl contin ues to frequently buy and sell tourism businesses. For the current list of businesses, visit www.thlonlinecomMTHLBusinesse Because of its acquisition of multiple brands and companies, thl accumulated a disparate set of information systems based f different techaologies. These disparate lechnolo- gies created excessive software maintenance activity and costs. To reduce costs and simplify IS management, thl coaverted its customer-facing Web sites to use Microsoft SharePoint. Having a single development platform reduced our maintenance expenses and enabled us to focus management attention, development, and personnel training on a single set of technologies. according to on a variety o According to Grant Webster, h's CEO, "h is a house of brands and not a branded house." Thus, in the holiday rental busi ness, thl owns und operates six different van reatal brands, which are differentiated on price y reotal bu Steve Pickering, Manager of Interactive Information Systems Thl uses Shtre Point not for collaboration but rather as a devel- opment and hoating platform for sophisticated, highly interactive Web sites. You can find an example of such sophisticated capabii Tourism Market
