VisitHampshireCounty.com Launches May 29
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Hampshire County Regional Tourism Council’s VisitHampshireCounty.com Launches May 29
May 22, 2013 (Northampton and Amherst, Mass.) - The Hampshire County Regional Tourism Council (HCRTC) is proud to officially launch VisitHampshireCounty.com on Wednesday, May 29 with an industry After 5 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., at the Lord Jeffery Inn in Amherst. Admission is $10. For more information or to RSVP please contact Melissa Breor, HCRTC communications coordinator at melissa@visithampshirecounty.com.
“We’re so very excited to present our digital front door to the rest of the world,” says Alix Kennedy, executive director of The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art and the HCRTC’s advisory board chair. “We are proud to present a stunning and user-friendly website, which we hope will spur engagement and bring visitors from near and far to Hampshire County.”
VisitHampshireCounty.com is the centerpiece of the HCRTC’s robust digital marketing platform, which it hopes will drive increased visitation and overnight stays to Hampshire County. The website is the region’s first comprehensive website dedicated to tourism, and will take over the role once fulfilled by the area chambers of commerce sites.
“We use the term digital marketing platform because website is too narrow,” said Janet Warren, president of MarCom Capital and author of the HCRTC’s marketing plan. “This platform will draw visitors to the website and provide them with motivating information and imagery about Hampshire County. We want to get people talking about us, and to us, and make them want to come spend some time here.”
Visithampshirecounty.com, designed and developed by Northampton’s Transit Authority Figures in partnership with Pilotmade, features responsive design technology making the site sleek and beautiful on a full desktop or an iPhone. It is optimized for search engines, easy to maintain, and populated with original content and a comprehensive searchable database of over 600 Hampshire County businesses—and growing.
The short program on May 29 will feature remarks by Suzanne Beck and Tony Maroulis, co-directors of the HCRTC, and a presentation by Transit Authority Figures’ Chief Creative Guy, Rob Stewart. Stewart will showcase some of the website’s functionality, featured content and some surprises.
“This is one of those rare occasions when you won’t be asked to turn your phone off in public,” says Kennedy. “In fact, we’re encouraging attendees to bring a mobile device or tablet to test drive the website in real time.”
The Hampshire County Regional Tourism Council is a partnership of the Amherst Area, Greater Easthampton, and Greater Northampton Chambers of Commerce. Since its launch in August 2010, its work has focused on planning how to successfully promote the area, while building industry support for its efforts. One of 16 Regional Tourism Councils in Massachusetts, the HCRTC receives a portion of its funding from the Massachusetts Office of Travel and Tourism. Visit Hampshire County on Facebook at www.facebook.com/visithampshirecounty.
###