The net no longer murder on the Orient Express

NEWS Luxury travel group Orient Express has created a web portal that allows its separate units to design their own microsites while keeping the parent company's branding. The travel group owns 27 hotels, six trains, one river cruiser and two restaurants across the world and the portal comes with a toolkit which allows each business to build update and develop their own online presence but still take advantage of the Orient Express brand. Each microsite will also be able to take advantage of cross selling of their services through the other pages in the portal. Previously, each unit had its own hard coded online strategies, which required a qualified technician to maintain each separate site. The portal's toolkit allows marketing executives with little technical expertise to maintain the sites using a browser based interface. Alun Cope Morgan, MD of software supplier Tridion UK, explained that this flexibility ensured that each page was personalised to the particular business. He said: "What's relevant for the Copacabana Palace in Brazil might not be appropriate for the Observatory Hotel in Sydney. So, while they are able to take advantage of their connections with the prestigious Orient Express brand, they can also create a local presence and be as relevant as possible."