Situation
The Central Iowa Tourism Region promotes the numerous and varied entertainment, educational and family-oriented tourism opportunities throughout the state’s central corridor. The organization's Web site is an important component of its mission to enhance tourism in Central Iowa through information, education and promotion in cooperation with government and businesses. Upon review of the former CITR site, Trilix agreed that it needed to be freshened up to create a unique user experience and excite online visitors to help increase travel to central Iowa.
Solution
Trilix identified four primary objectives for the redesign of CITR’s Web site: (1) increase site interaction by streamlining the process to obtain information; (2) increase the number of photos to help improve the site’s design; (3) create a custom content administration section allowing for easier updates; and (4) provide a unique visitor experience through interactive engagement, intuitive design and an easy search function.
In conjunction with the redesign, Trilix created a Member Only login, allowing members to upload their own promotions, listings and photos; created online cross promotion opportunities by tying member-specific information to special offers; engineered an online trip planner so users could tag information and create a checklist of items they found of interest; and added electronic postcards that visitors could send to friends and family.
Results
In the first six months that the Web site was launched, there was an increase of over 32% in user participation compared to the same time in the previous year. In addition, the length of time visitors spend on the site increased nearly 50%. The Trip Builder accounted for over 18% of the exit pages showing that this feature is one that online visitors are using to help them plan their next trip to the area. CITR’s executive director also cites the new Web site as a main reason for a 25% increase in membership.
An unanticipated result was the cost savings and reduced employee time that the site garnered. The association was able to eliminate 11 mailings by posting their minutes and other information online.