THE CHEAPEST, FASTEST WAY TO SEE THE CAYMAN ISLANDS

One of the biggest issues facing tourism companies is how to promote the splendours of a region as cost effectively and quickly as possible. The perfect solution - a CD with high quality stock images of locations for use by tour operators and travel publications.

The Jumeirah Beach Hotel, Burj Al Arab and the Canadian Tourism Commission are amongst the members of the travel trade who have fotoCD's in production at the moment. SuperClubs launched their fotoCD at ITB, the Berlin travel trade fair last month. In addition the Cayman Island Department of Tourism ("CIDT"), already a user of fotoCD's, have just received a further 1000 copies, bringing the total amount they have in circulation to 2600.

"The advantage of using fotoCD's is that it's much easier for us to give travel press and tour operators pictures that are easily accessible and inexpensive to use." explained Jayne Maloney of CIDT in the UK. "After looking at various CD systems both in the UK and the United States for our offices world wide, we found fotoCD the most user friendly. Picture editors, travel press and tour operators have been delighted with the CDs, as the whole process of selecting and dispatching transparencies has been cut out along with delivery costs."

The ease and low cost of fotoCD system has led to a wider range of publications using the pictures. Editors of internet travel-related sites have found the CD particularly useful, as in a competitive sector, fresh new pictures are vital to the popularity of their sites.

fotoCD system's success lies within its flexibility. Running directly from the CD, imperative for production departments, the system uses a version of FotoStation software which is fast becoming an industry standard and is already used by many travel trade publication such as Travel Trade Gazette and nearly all national UK newspapers. As it can be used on both Macintosh and PC computers, there is little likelihood of designers receiving a version they cannot use. Viewing the images is fast - users of FotoStation and QuarkXpress can drag and drop the pictures onto the page, with the caption opening beneath the picture. There are also facilities to search for text if a particular picture needs to be located by name.

Alastair McDavid was responsible for configuring the system for the travel industry. He commented: "We talked to designers, editors and production houses within the industry and found that speed and ease of use of pictures was paramount. It has taken 18 months of looking at software from developers around the world to perfect our CD and I am delighted that we have come up with a product that is instrumental in saving time and money not just for our clients but for both trade press and tour operators in the travel industry. What surprised us all was how well it was received by the consumer press, you don't order a further 1000 fotoCD's if it isn't working."