A new website to help visitors research and plan their visits to Monmouthshire has been launched by Monmouthshire County Council’s Tourism section.
The new version of visitwyevalley.com (also available at visitmonmouthshire.com) replaces a previous visitor website and has been developed over several months to provide visitors with a modern, easily navigable website containing concise, up-to-date information on local tourism businesses and the many attractions in the area.
The website launch is particularly timely, coinciding with the publication of the 2011 Wye Valley & Vale of Usk visitor guide, at a time of year when many consumers are making decisions about where to visit the following year.
MCC’s Tourism Marketing Officer, Mark Jones, said: “The new version of visitwyevalley.com is a huge leap forward in the way we present Monmouthshire to our online audience. Throughout 2010, we’ve developed followings on social networks including Twitter and Facebook, as well as a growing list of subscribers to our quarterly e-newsletter. It’s fantastic that we’re now able to provide our followers with a modern, rebranded website that links all these elements together.”
The involvement of tourism businesses in populating the website’s sections on accommodation, attractions and events, has been a crucial element in developing the website, as Mark Jones explained:
“Many tourism operators across Wales are using the Web4-U database to promote their businesses, including several tourist associations, such as Brecon Beacons Tourism. The Web4-U system allows business operators to advertise their business on multiple websites while maintaining only one profile.
“It was logical to use a system which businesses were already acquainted with and which they could adopt at no cost. And take-up of the opportunity for a free business profile on the new website has been phenomenal; at the time of launch, over 240 tourism businesses across the area are displayed on the website. The Special Offers page, in particular, is a fantastic way of gaining extra coverage as well as providing website visitors with value for money and an irresistible reason to visit.”
All business information featured on the new website will also be fed directly to the website of Southern Wales Tourism (southernwales.com), a consortium which provides Monmouthshire with access to overseas markets and the travel trade.
The website is part of a coordinated campaign through which Monmouthshire County Council promotes the county as a tourism destination in target markets in the UK and overseas. Additional elements include the annual visitor guide (available at tourist information centres from January 2011), regular e-newsletters, an online visitor survey to help develop and improve the visitor experience and the social networking profiles mentioned above, which were developed as part of the council’s social media pilot scheme.
Any tourism business operator who hasn’t yet taken up the opportunity to advertise on visitwyevalley.com should contact the Tourism team on 01633 644842 or [email protected].
