Joint Tourism Group Approves Web Developer, Visit Widget
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By MARK EVANS
STE. GENEVIEVE HERALD
During the May 16 joint tourism meeting, comprised of Tourism Tax Commission and Tourism Advisory Council members, the group agreed to contract with JRudny LLC to rehabilitate the visitstegen.com website.
Tourism Director Tanalyn Dollar believes both the revamped website and tying in with Visit Widget are keys to the city and county’s tourism success.
She summarized things by saying the idea is “selecting highly successful professional people to work with,” which is “where we need to go and where we need to be.”
VISIT WIDGET PRESENTATION
A Zoom tour was given of Visit Widget, an advanced, cross-device application that creates an engaging and intuitive way for visitors to research, plan, and experience their visit to a location.
Erich Dahlke, co-founder and product manager of Visit Widget, made the zoom presentation.
“We wanted to really give people the ability to start planning their perfect itinerary their ideal plan from any device, but also to be able to take it with them on the go,” Dahlke said.
He showed how Jacksonville, Fla., makes use of it. It includes map overlays and allows users to build itineraries or tours, putting together a list of places to go and things to do while in the area.
Jacksonville makes good use of audio/video files with Visit Widget.
“It’s very powerful, because when you think about it, people don’t want to use maps … if you can get their trust when they come into Ste. Gen., and say, ‘Hey, you’ve got a lot of exciting things planned. We’ll help you move around, get from here to there.” And when you’re done, just delete it.”
Dollar also said that if we use the app properly, the city can track which venues people go to, and which ones they don’t visit.
This is a nice place.’”
She encouraged the members to down load and “play around with” Visit Widget.
DOLLAR DISCUSSES WEBSITE REVAMP
She then transitioned to the visitstegen website, saying they needed to have a “serious conversation” about it.
“We have an opportunity to work with a highly qualified team,” she said, noting that she had called all their references.
She also noted that the service/training hours provided (80-193 hours) could roll over from one year to the next. She said she spoke to one client who said the firm was outstanding at teaching her to do new tasks on the website on her own.
“They’re enabling,” Dollar said. “They’re not just interested in wracking up hours.”
She stressed the importance of getting the website up to speed this spring.
“It’s imperative that we move forward with fixing our website,” she said. “We are getting ready to move into June, July, August. These are really, really active months and our site is just not functioning correctly.”
She was asked how much Visit Widget would cost. Dollar replied that there is a one-time $3,000 fee, then a $399 a month fee for basic service She had previously said that after a few months, the city could move to the $599 a month version with all the bells and whistles.
Dollar pointed out that in the past $483 a month was spent in having an advertising agency do search engine marketing, “which has provided zero, zero for us.”
She clarified her approach.
“I’m here now as a professional to explore what we’re doing, why we’re doing it, make recommendations share it transparently with you so everybody knows this is where we’re going and why.”