A WEBSITE TO CHAMPION A DYNAMIC NORTHERN CITY.
See how we helped Visit York convert online visits into footfall.
The Problem
The Make it York DMO approached us to help redevelop the Visit York website. The clients’ objectives included:
- Make the Visit York website the go-to tool for people planning a visit to York no matter what type of trip, including residents.
- Encourage users to discover more about York through the implementation of on-site user discover tools and more visible blog content.
- Encourage users to take more direct action – such as booking, outbound clicks, itinerary planning.
- Use the website as a tool to drive up the number of overnight stays, through the promotion of the accommodation offering in York.
- Collect, track and report on ROI metrics which help to demonstrate the value of membership - such as booking, outbound clicks, pages views, listing visibility, ad views/impression for each individual member.
- Provide a platform from which Visit York can grow advertising revenue and at the same time provided added value to members through increased visibility and exposure.
The Solution
DESTINATIONCORE ENTERPRISE
- Visit York receives in excess of 125,000 visitors per month to their online platform and needed a robust and flexible system that could handle this volume of traffic and offer a personalised experience for each and every visitor.
- The new website gives business and leisure guests a visually impactful and intuitive experience from any device, anywhere in the world.
CUSTOM DESIGN & IMPROVED USER FEATURES
- A complete design overhaul improved the look and feel.
- The site offers improved functionality such as Global Categories which group together content into user themes (such as Family Friendly) and date availability search for accommodation.
- Visit York’s popular hub pages have received an uplift too, with more dynamic and interactive content to be displayed, starting with the launch of the #LoveYork summer staycations campaign hub.
MOBILE FIRST
- With over 75% of users accessing the visityork.org website on mobile devices, the new design brings a dynamic and user-friendly interface of the site’s mobile version, contributing to higher engagement and improved user journey.
Modules installed include
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Advertising
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Global Categories
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Accommodation Availability Search
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Tiered Membership Structure
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Business Login
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Location Categories
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Itinerary Section
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Multi-site DCMS
The Results
- Since March ’21 launch 6% year-on-year growth on traffic – three years running.
- The site is regularly achieving more than 400,000 pages views per month.
- November ’21 saw the site achieve the highest volume of visitors in a single month ever - 15% up on the equivalent month in 2019.
- The site consistently ranks No. 1 for ‘Things to do in York’ in Google - where the previous site did not.
- Significant increase in engagement with pages per session increasing from 1.85 to 2.82 and average session duration increasing from 1.6 to 2.12.
- The impact of the key achievements listed above has directly correlated with an increase in footfall. York BID produced a Tourist Advisory Board report in October 2021 which charts footfall for 2019, 2020 and 2021.
- 2021 footfall was broadly in line with 2019 footfall, with 2021 footfall exceeding 2019 in both May/June ’21 (directly after the site launched) and again in September ’21 (where website traffic was over 10% up on the equivalent month in 2019). This footfall growth was achieved despite visitor uncertainty relating to the Covid-19 pandemic.
- Membership retention rate was 94% in 2023. A Make it York record.
- Pages per session increased from 1.85 to 2.82 and average session duration increased from 1.6 to 2.12.
OVERALL IMPACT: 141 new members in 2022, and 60+ in 2023. Over 25% were via Visit York website membership enquiry form.
"I’d be happy to recommend DestinationCore to any DMO looking for a new website and wanting to work with a dedicated, knowledgeable, and highly professional team of destination experts. The DCMS is easy to use, the customer service has been outstanding, and overall, we’re very pleased with the website performance."
Ben Beard, Marketing Manager at Make It York
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