TRANSFORMING THE ONLINE PRESENCE FOR AN HISTORIC CITY.
City, coast and countryside – newcastlegateshead.com has it all.
The Problem
The NewcastleGateshead Initiative (NGI) is the UK’s first DDP via Destination North East England and is responsible for promoting tourism across the North East.
- NGI came to DestinationCore frustrated with its existing website solution - finding the CMS difficult to use, limiting and generally providing poor value for money.
- Our brief was to design and build a consumer-facing website that was reflective of the personality, warmth and friendliness of the city, as well as showcasing the variety of offer in NewcastleGateshead as a place to enjoy city, coast and countryside, encouraging longer stays.
- NGI wanted to encourage users to experience more of the destination during their visit, and provide a valuable engagement tool.
The Solution
DESTINATIONCORE ENTERPRISE
- Our enterprise package provides multi-site capabilities, meaning the client can control multiple websites from a centralised Destination Content Management System (DCMS).
IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE
- We incorporated intuitive search and filtering options onto key pages of the website to allow users to personalise their online experience.
- User focused features such as our experience finder provides users with additional opportunities to tailor the filter content to match personal preferences.
- Our Global Categories feature, groups content from across the site into thematic 'user interests', so users can filter content based on a specific theme.
AUTOMATED EVENTS SECTION
- An integration with Data Thistle's events data means the client never has to manually add an event to the CMS, and also ensures the site is a true source of information on local events for visitors and local residents alike.
MOBILE FIRST DESIGN
- We've improved the 'on location' experience for visitors by simply taking a mobile first design approach, giving careful consideration to how the website can be used by visitors while they are in the city.
Modules installed include
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Public Submissions
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Experiences Section
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Itinerary Section
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Accessibility Toggle
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Location Categories
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Accommodation Availability Search
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B2B Website
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Tiered Membership Structure
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Integration - Data Thistle Events Feed
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Multi-site DCMS
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Global Categories
The Results
- Over 70% of website visitors view key content pages (directory, events, blogs) each month. This helps drive visitor conversion.
- Approx. 85% of users view content on a mobile device.
- 18+% of users view blog content. That's x3 the industry average.
- 17+% of user view event listing content. That's x2 the industry average.
- Average session duration in excess of 2 mins. 25% more then the industry average.
OVERALL IMPACT: Vastly iimproved user experience, offering greater value and many more options for its members.
"We were really impressed by the simplicity of the CMS - it's so easy to make changes. We were blown away by the Marketplace Module which makes sure our website is future proof."
Lisa Kelly, Digital Marketing Manager, NewcastleGateshead
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