WVStateParks.com wins award from American Advertising Federation
Redesigned website offers online reservations for all lodges and cabins
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (February 28, 2018) — The West Virginia State Parks and Forests website has won a 2017 Gold ADDY Award, the West Virginia Tourism Office announced Monday. The award was presented by the American Advertising Federation’s West Virginia chapter on Feb. 22 at Mardi Gras Casino and Resort.
The West Virginia Tourism Office and West Virginia State Parks and Forests worked collaboratively with Tourism’s advertising agency, Digital Relativity, on the redesign.
“We’re thrilled to receive this recognition. Our teams worked really hard on this to make the site more modern and streamlined,” Tourism Commissioner Chelsea Ruby said. “The redesigned site makes it much easier for guests to reserve lodge rooms and cabins, which was a critical need for the parks marketing efforts.”
Before the redesign, the park system had separate but connected websites for each park that dated back to the early 2000s. The new site brings all the information into a central website that is optimized for mobile browsers and offers a simplified, more robust online reservation system.
“The new website has given us an excellent opportunity to market and combine all our lodge and cabin online reservations into one easy-to-find location for our guests,” said Samuel A. England, chief of the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Parks and Recreation Section.
“We’re looking forward to adding camping and other reservable park amenities to the site this year. This change will have a positive impact on our parks and forests.”
The website was launched last year as part of the West Virginia Tourism Office’s effort to coordinate their message with other state agencies, Ruby said. Tourism and State Parks’ websites were designed by Digital Relativity of Fayetteville.
Since the website’s launch Aug. 17, 2017 to Feb. 25, 2018, West Virginia State Parks and Forests has generated $1,327,526.32 in revenue from online bookings. The website has recorded 847,298 user sessions and more than 2 million page views from 563,516 unique users.
For more information about West Virginia State Parks and Forests visit www.wvstateparks.com or the West Virginia Tourism Office at www.wvtourism.com.
This post was last updated on March 5, 2018