From Deseret News archives:
Utah travel touted on TV and Web
The Board of Travel Development on Friday discussed its approaches to both TV and interactive media as a way to get more tourists to visit Utah.
Board member Shelleice Stokes said a TV commercial that will appear on local broadcast and cable television should be ready to air starting in July. Filming occurred during the Memorial Day weekend in Bryce Canyon, Moab and other parts of southern Utah and last week at Salt Lake City International Airport.
On the Web side, Stokes said Salt Lake-based agency W Communications has been working on banner and "skyscraper" advertisements for the state's 15 to 20 "interactive" opportunities.
In addition to advertising on other Web sites, the board's marketing committee and W Communications are honing the Utah tourism Web site, including jazzing up the "splash page" that will greet people coming to utah.travel.
"Overall, (it's) a very sharp, very clean, easy to navigate, very intuitive site," said Mike Deaver, deputy director of the Utah Office of Tourism.
Among the features is an area that will switch from image to image to show destination options for potential tourists.
"There are some very good ones out there. There are some very poor ones out there," Deaver said. "But that is a concept that is fairly hot right now, that has a good, clean feel and look to it and gives people other options about these destinations."
Other major elements are a pop-up video on one corner, seasonal buttons that allow a visitor to focus on options during a particular time of year, "scroll-over" buttons — with an enlarged image and text when the pointer passes over — highlighting tourist activities, and links to sign up for newsletters or request a travel guide.
Another key part will be a site map "that helps us elevate the site within the Web" by bringing it to the top of search lists, Deaver said. While it may take a few months before utah.travel moves up in Google searches because of the newness of both the site and the ".travel" domain, having links to utah.com or Ski Utah Web content will accelerate the move and allow utah.travel to "come to the forefront as a Utah search result," he said.
The new splash page should be ready by June 16.
"I really like the simplicity of this site," said Ski Utah President Nathan Rafferty. "It's not bogged down by too much stuff, and it's perfect branding."
Board vice chairman Colin Fryer commended W Communications on the Web page design, and board member Hans Fuegi suggested that the splash page contain language noting that it is the official state Web site instead of a commercial site.
E-mail: bwallace@desnews.com
