Steve Nicely, GPCVB President & CEO stated, "Our region is continuing to attract visitors from all areas of the nation, and it is imperative that we meet the needs of people inquiring about vacationing here. The new look of the official tourism web site is aesthetically pleasing, as well as easy to navigate. It also includes significantly more content and information about the Greater Parkersburg area.”
“Research by the Travel Industry Association of America indicates that travelers are becoming increasingly computer savvy and using the Internet more and more to plan and book vacations and business trips. As the official Internet source of tourism information on the Greater Parkersburg area, it is important that our web site be interactive, innovative and highly functional, but also be fun and exciting to reflect the characteristics of the destination,” Nicely said.
The primary intent of the web site redesign was to make GreaterParkersburg.com more user-friendly and easy to navigate. To achieve this, key items such as the Visitor Information Request, upcoming events and major developments, were moved to a more prominent location on the site’s opening page. In addition a Site Map, regional and downtown maps, and brochures were included and every page on the site is now printer friendly.
The media will also find GreaterParkersburg.com to be more useful than ever before with the addition of a What’s New section for the latest CVB and destination news and printable PDF versions of the bureau’s media kit, background information and news releases.
“Our research shows that the number of visitors per month to GreaterParkersburg.com has steadily increased over the past few years,” Nicely said. “We hope that with the vibrant new look and user-friendliness of the new site, visitation will continue to grow. The number of on-line visitor inquiries we’ve received in the first few days of the new site has increased greatly, which means the redesign is being well-received by users.”
In redesigning GreaterParkersburg.com, the Greater Parkersburg CVB worked with one of the top technology companies in the industry. Cool Blue Interactive is an award-winning Web design firm that provides comprehensive e-solutions to help businesses attract, convert, and retain customers.
Founded in 1997 by Bo Simmons, Cool Blue has built an impressive reputation for producing dynamic, database-driven web sites that help more than 100 companies in a range of industries, including consumer services, education, healthcare, real estate, travel & leisure and technology.
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“A web site is never completely finished,” Nicely continued. “So, in that sense we plan to continue with a Phase II of our new site in early 2008. This will include a search engine and photo gallery among several other new features.”
To learn more about what there is to see and do in the Greater Parkersburg area, visit www.GreaterParkersburg.comor call the Greater Parkersburg CVB office at 304-428-1130.
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Posted on: July 12, 2007
