22 Well Done State Tourism Websites
In a continuation to Branding the United States, this article explores the state government run websites used to target tourists. While many of these tourist department sites are much more aesthetically pleasing than their .gov counterparts, not all of them make the cut. Here’s the finest of the bunch.
1. Ohio
2. Utah
3. Rhode Island
4. Pennsylvania
5. New Hampshire
6. Idaho
7. Tennessee
8. Wisconsin
9. Washington
10. Maine
11. Oregon
12. North Dakota
13. South Dakota
14. Illinois
15. Missouri
16. Texas
17. Virginia
18. Georgia
19. Massachusetts
20. New York
21. Kentucky
22. Hawaii
Overall Trends
Throughout the search for these sites, there are a few elements that seem to be popular amongst the well done sites.
- JQuery or Flash animated headers
- Large image backgrounds
- Image intensive layouts
- Good white space, not too cramped
- Distinct accent colors
Which states do you think market themselves well? Which ones are a little off? Notice any other trends? Express your thoughts below.
*Note: In retrospect I overlooked Colorado, it’s worth checking out.
Discussion
January 7th, 2009 at 5:47 PM
Nice collection im liking the hand made style of Tennessee
January 8th, 2009 at 1:05 PM
Great post Sam. You certainly picked out some of our / my favorites.
As far as trends, I think we are seeing a return to the simple homepage. 7 or 8 years ago, the homepage was ‘simple’ due to limitations with HTML, browsers, search, broadband access, etc. Then, we entered a period, at least with respect to state tourism websites, where we flooded the homepage with every widget, video and photo possible.
Now, we have come back to basics, so to speak, and are beginning to use and look at the homepage as a true portal to the valuable content and information within the site, rather than a catch all for everything deemed important.
Good stuff.
- Troy
January 9th, 2009 at 11:57 AM
I think that you overlooked an important one Sam. http://www.arkansas.com has been one of the top 5 State tourism websites in the U.S. for the past year and was the #1 State tourism website in the nation in the month of November. The is based on market share in the travel category as measured by HitWise, a firm that aggregates this information from 22 million Internet users worldwide.
January 9th, 2009 at 12:07 PM
What about Arkansas.com? Fantastic design, loads of useful information and it’s one of the most visited state tourism websites out of all 50, usually ranking in the top 5. How could you possibly leave them out??!!
January 9th, 2009 at 12:51 PM
@Arkansas
My intent for this article was not done based on overall traffic, otherwise Michigan (#1 ranked), would have found its way to the list as well. While clearly the top 5 sites (Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, Colorado, and Arkansas) are doing something right to gain that type of traffic, I did my list based on a design and usability perspective. Although it might be a difference of opinion, I found the sites above to do excellent jobs reducing clutter, while still integrating useful information and sleek design.
Thanks for the comments!
January 9th, 2009 at 5:17 PM
I realize that Saskatchewan is a province in Canada, rather than a state of the United States. However, I am interested to know if you think this site would have cracked the top 22: http://www.sasktourism.com ?
January 9th, 2009 at 5:22 PM
@Les Holmlund
You have made me want to visit Canada. That site would be a strong contender, thanks for sharing it.
January 11th, 2009 at 5:59 PM
Sam,
What was the criteria for selecting these “Well Done” tourism websites?
Sean
January 11th, 2009 at 7:37 PM
@Sean
I selected some of the more attention grabbing websites, the ones that had the wow factor. Although I will say again that some might disagree and it is my opinion here were some criteria:
1. I didn’t feel like an overwhelming amount of information was being thrown at me, the page was laid out with plenty of white space to help digest and separate information.
2. Well done graphics, for instance W. Virgina – http://www.wvtourism.com/, is a little dated looking.
3. If the site intrigued me to actually make a visit.
Those were some key ones, among others. I offer other people to share their opinions as well.
January 16th, 2009 at 9:43 PM
Sam, interestingly enough, I did a similar post almost exactly a year ago – http://www.smileycat.com/miaow/archives/000325.php . It’s interesting to see how some of these sites have improved over the last 12 months.
February 21st, 2009 at 5:30 PM
While the designs of some of your top-ranked web sites are attractive, they are terrible from a standpoint of usability, i.e., trying to actually plan a trip. I tried several of them, and dropped off after less than 2 minutes because it was too difficult to find what I was looking for. Pretty wallpaper is worthless if the structure of the house isn’t sound.
June 11th, 2009 at 2:21 PM
I agree with Lori that many of these sites score low on usability. Has anyone ranked these sites based on that criteria?
July 20th, 2009 at 1:35 PM
I agree with Lori also. Pretty to look, but mostly unusable. They’ve also got SEO problems. Do a google search for “ohio family travel” (minus the quotes). Your #1 site is ranked 6th, making it essentially invisible.
August 7th, 2009 at 10:57 AM
I’m not sure if it’s my browser, but the NY one needs more styling. It looks unfinished. Also, the source HTML is really sloppy.
August 6th, 2010 at 9:58 AM
Interesting post and comments. Just to add an international dimension I’d be interested to see how you think http://www.golakes.co.uk (which we built for Cumbria The Lake District – which of course is in England) compares with some great sites you’ve identified. OK, its a smaller area geographically but a fantastic part of the world with tons to do (not that I’m biased!) And pretty rich functionality online as well (definitely not biased!!)
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