The Highlands and Islands Online Ticketing Project is entitled thebooth, and the online ticketing portal can be found at www.thebooth.co.uk .
The ticketing project allows cultural organisations, regardless of size, to sell tickets through their own website and through a central ticketing portal. This gives customers across the globe access to ticket purchases 24 hours-a-day, 365 days-a-year.
The system also authorises payments by credit and debit cards, allowing organisations to secure more bookings in advance of events. The system records invaluable information on audiences to assist organisations in developing more cost-effective and targeted marketing campaigns, and helps organisations in the most rural and remote areas compete on a level playing field with their urban competitors.
Whilst the project will focus on cultural organisations in northern Scotland, HI~Arts are aware that many other regions of Scotland face similar issues in terms of small and voluntary organisations' inability to meet the costs of ticketing and marketing, and so it is hoped that the project can also serve organisations out with the region.
The project has developed an intuitive online system which can easily be adopted by event organisers and used by customers – a system that will be familiar to anyone who has used the web to make purchases or bookings.
The ticketing system went live on 14th January 2005. The pilot project will last for two years, after which time it is anticipated that the project will have proved its value in the long term.
This two-year pilot project has been funded by the Scottish Arts Council, Highlands and Islands Enterprise and the European Regional Development Fund (Measure 1, Priority 2).
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