The Houston Chamber of Commerce, along with the District of Houston, recently launched their brand new digital presence for tourist information.
The chamber unveiled the website Discover Houston BC, that houses all tourist information, last month.
“With Covid-19 and the lower in-person visits, we needed to find a new way to engage with people,” said Maureen Czirfusz, the executive director for the chamber, in an email to Houston Today.
The website features information on local site-seeing options, camping and hotel stays, lists local restaurants and shopping options and also has the PDF version of the 2016 tourist guide. There is also a separate section around the Covid-19 regulations and protocols both, general as well as specific to the tourist centre.
“It helps provide information to visitors and residents. Show what Houston has to offer,” said Czirfusz.
The website development was an in-house project for the chamber and hence an economic one as well according to Czirfusz.
“As we built the website ourselves, it was very budget-friendly. It cost us to register the domain name and purchase the theme for the website along with staff time but the project was completely funded by the Houston and District Chamber of Commerce,” said Czirfusz.
The chamber also hosted a contest with a draw for Houston Merchant Gift Certificates and Houston swag, the results of which were announced on August 31. Of the 88 entries, two winners and five bonus winners were selected under the Shop Local Gift Card program. Kim Roper and Tracy Reitsma won the $50 Houston Merchant Gift Certificates while the bonus winners Mia Mcgonigal, Deana Couldwell, Lisa Tymkow, Suzanne Doyle and Jennifer R Wilson-Derrick won $25 gift cards each for various local shops.
With the Covid restrictions still in place, despite the province moving into Phase 3 in the reopening plan, a need to focus on tourism and buying locally has increased. With that in mind, this move to going digital is timely and much needed for the community and for the visitors.
“We hope that you will enjoy what Houston has to offer,” said Czirfusz.