As tourism becomes recognized as an economic driver throughout communities in Central Counties, municipalities are looking at developing tourism websites to promote the activities and services available to out of town visitors.

An opportunity exists for Municipalities to leverage their investment against Central Counties’ partnership fund to develop a municipal tourism website if the municipality is ready to make a long-term investment in the project and understands that content is its responsibility.

Is your Municipality Ready?

Central Counties considers municipalities that have completed a Community Tourism Plan as ready to move to the next step of website development.

It is very important to note that a web developer is ONLY going to design and develop the vehicle from which to showcase content created by the municipality. All content has to be ready to go before a web designer is contracted. Content development requires staff time each and every week. Central Counties does not create content for municipalities.

Through a partnership with Central Counties, some stakeholder generated content will be available to both Central Counties and the municipality – namely business profiles and events. It is imperative that the municipality lay out the plans for the site which should include:

• Events Calendar
• Events Features
• Routes and itineraries
• Seasonal stories and blogs
• Photography/Videos
• Themed pages
• Links to partners
• Links to social media
• tourism logo, colour, font and typography, voice and message

The municipality should plan on changing content at minimum with the seasons. Stories and blogs can be boosted digitally and posted on social media, all driving back to the website.
Prior to going out to tender for a web developer, it is recommended that the municipality plan out a minimum of one year of web content and assign at least one person to ensure that it is kept current on the website.

Going to Tender

It is the responsibility of the municipality to source a web designer to develop the tourism website for their community. Key deliverables in the RFP/RFQ should include:

Integration of stakeholder profiles and events calendar from Central Counties Tourism Directory

• Website Design
• WordPress Setup
• Plugins Install and Upgrade
• Website Development (uploading your content into the approved design)
• Blog/Press
• SEO
• Google Analytics / Reporting Set-Up
• Email Newsletter Template
• WordPress Training and manual development
• Social Media Integration / Community Engagement
• AODA Web Compliance

Partnership Industry Partner Program.

Learn More About the Industry Partner Program

Note: A vendor fee will be applied to the Partnership Application Expense Budget for website integration of Central Counties Tourism business directory and events calendar.