If you think your client is a little too bureaucratic and slow, try designing a web site for Italy. The Wall Street Journal has more:
Through the official Web site, Italy plans to showcase its cultural, natural and gastronomical treasures, while also helping tourists with hotel and travel bookings. The portal is scheduled to go live next spring.
The plan has critics, however. Five years have already been spent — and more than €45 million ($66 million) set aside — on creating the portal, and there’s nothing yet to show for it.
Several government ministries — in two administrations — and each of Italy’s 20 regions were involved in creating the portal. Associations of travel agencies and hotel owners had their say as well, while the design and creation of the site was assigned to a consortium of three different companies.
Yikes. I wouldn’t want to be part of those conference calls.
Who the hell is building it—Enfatico? Sorry, couldn’t resist.
Unfortunately, it seems that a lot of travel and tourism projects become bogged down in internal politics. This seems to go on for small communities as much as it does for big countries. Everyone who’s politically connected to the bureaucracy gets to have their say. And their opinions are often more influenced by the axes they feel they need to grind rather than a positive intention to promote their destination.