San Antonio launches new visitsanantonio.com

Latest Technology Innovations Allow Intuitive Trip-Planning Experience

SAN ANTONIO, Texas, 2013-05-07 — /travelprnews.com/ — The San Antonio Convention & Visitors Bureau (SACVB) is debuting the new visitsanantonio.com. This website launch makes the SACVB the first among convention and visitors bureaus to integrate content changes based on user-customization technologies along with social data. This creates a customized travel experience as early as the planning phase.

“Our site is often a potential visitor’s first impression of San Antonio and we want to make it a memorable one,” noted SACVB Executive Director, Casandra Matej. “San Antonio is a destination that has something for everyone, from an amazing culinary scene, to family attractions, to a remarkable history and culture. We want to take this opportunity to maximize our city’s diversity, personalizing the website to each user’s interests. This way, potential visitors know immediately that San Antonio is a destination that appeals to them.”

The SACVB enhanced its website based on five years of analytics from the previous visitsanantonio.com. Also considered, was the emergence of social media in decision making and new trends in internet technologies. Innovative features of the new visitsanantonio.com include:

• Homepage Personalization: Visitsanantonio.com adapts its homepage based on many variables including users’ search terms, geographic location and timing of site visitation. More importantly, the site integrates users’ social interests and preferences when logged in through Facebook. This latter is an important advancement for San Antonio’s tourism industry and as of now, San Antonio is the first CVB to leverage a social personalization capability that affects key website content.
  • Interest-Based Personalization: If a visitor’s profile reflects family interests, their visitsanantonio.com homepage message might showcase San Antonio’s theme parks or top family offerings. The same is true for culinary, golf, historic attractions and other areas of interest.
  • Location-Based Personalization: If the user is from a city that has direct flights to San Antonio, they might receive a message noting the number of direct flights to San Antonio daily

• Social Integration: Consumer trends show that travelers look to social communities for advice on where to go and what to do. With this in mind, the SACVB collaborated with the two leading social media partners: TripAdvisor and Facebook.
  • TripAdvisor: Previous metrics showed that users jumped back and forth between VisitSanAntonio.com and TripAdvisor. The new VisitSanAntonio.com pulls TripAdvisor reviews directly into VisitSanAntonio.com, simplifying the steps visitors need to plan a trip, ultimately making VisitSanAntonio.com a one-stop resource for trip planning
  • Facebook: Based on research that states travel decisions are influenced greatly by one’s social network, the SACVB revamped VisitSanAntonio.com to allow visitors to login through Facebook, providing a view of their friends’ and family’s “likes” as they relate to San Antonio and other partners within the city such as attractions, hotels, restaurants, etc.

• ItineraryBuilding: Logging into VisitSanantonio.com through Facebook provides additional benefits. VisitSanAntonio.com serves hotel, attraction, restaurant and event suggestions based on the user’s Facebook interests and likes and users can drag and drop these suggestions into the appropriate day of their visit. Itineraries can then be saved on the site and shared via e-mail or social media. It’s a convenient way to plan a trip and have those plans easily accessible – even on the go

Overall, the website experience is very visual, offering content snacks verses long essays. Information is brought to the top level as opposed to deep links. If a user needs inspiration to get started, there is a trip ideas section that brings various attractions and events to the surface based on options the user selects such as Historic San Antonio, the River Walk, Live like a Local, a Foodie Tour, Golfing Getaways, etc. For those looking for more detailed information, the “Explore San Antonio” option is an information-packed section on subjects like Authentic Culture, Local Arts Scene, Day Trips, Family Fun, LGBT, Military, Outdoor Lifestyle and more.

“In an ever-evolving travel market where the way users choose destinations and plan trips is constantly changing, it is crucial to remain at the forefront of technological advances and info sharing trends,” added Casandra Matej. “The SACVB’s new visitsanantonio.com is a leading example of destination marketing organizations staying ahead of traditional marketing movements.”

Beginning May 7, 2013, explore your personalized VisitSanAntonio.com.

Media Contact:

Sara Gruber saragruber@visitsanantonio.com 800-447-3372

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