UlsterCountyAlive.com: Revitalizing Ulster County's Tourism Economy

About the Program

Category: Community and Economic Development (Best in Category)

Year: 2012

In an effort to increase tourism to Ulster County, the County Executive saw an opportunity to help the industry by developing a new, state-of-the-art tourism website. UlsterCountyAlive.com is the Ulster County Department of Tourism's website. Launched in 2009, it includes comprehensive listings of all of the county's tourism assets, downloadable, flip-book style Travel and Dinning Guides, a blog, videos and interesting highlight stories. The homepage includes links to the county's social media outlets including its Facebook and Twitter accounts. This website has three unique aspects that make it innovative and successful, not just as a lure for visitors, but as a communications and marketing tool thereby increasing profitability for all sectors of Ulster County's tourist economy. First, the site is uniquely able to directly communicate with its partners through its lodging referral system which sends inquiries from interested visitors directly to the county's lodging properties for an immediate sales response. Secondly, the homepage calendar, with its self-entry system, permits residents to promote a vastly wider array of events and activities than found on traditional tourism website calendars. Thirdly, UlsterCountyAlive.com, is simultaneously a URL, brand, a logo, an adverting slogan and a portal for residents and visitors to discover all there is to see and do in Ulster County allowing for the streamlining of marketing efforts and increasing awareness of the site.