OCEAN CITY – The Tourism Commission accepted a proposal for new interactive projects this year that will create a trip planner on the town’s website, a microsite for the new Performing Arts Center (PAC) and install a new webcam on the Boardwalk.
At the conclusion of Monday afternoon’s Tourism Commission meeting, Tourism Director Donna Abbott outlined advertising firm MGH’s recommendation for this fiscal year’s interactive projects to enhance the Town of Ocean City’s website, www.OCocean.com, and advance online marketing.
The first recommendation was to create an online trip planner where visitors can create an itinerary of things to do or places to go while vacationing in Ocean City whether it is a family vacation or girl’s getaway.
The second recommendation is to create a microsite for the new PAC at the Roland E. Powell Convention Center that is scheduled to be open by early December.
“It really became apparent with the new PAC coming on board we are going to need a microsite just for that because of all the events that are going to be happening there,” Abbott said. “We want to be able to have a place where it can be showcased, and the agency [MGH] can build us that microsite just as they did for the convention center a few years ago.”
The final recommendation was to install a new high definition web camera at a new location on the Boardwalk that will provide a live feed.
According to Abbott, there is a Boardwalk business interested in sponsoring the new webcam.
“Part of this interactive project would be to develop a landing page for the webcam where the sponsoring business could say ‘webcam brought to you by.’ It is a really good Boardwalk location for a high definition cam that we can get. We can move it so we can see when the Dew Tour is happening or when the fireworks and laser shows are happening. The technology is there now. It is a beautiful picture,” Abbott said.
All interactive projects combined will cost about $60,000, which is included in the Online Interactive Budget for this fiscal year.
“The webcam is important. I can tell you when we had the old webcams that were more for the police department that pictured for example the Route 50 Bridge entrance, whenever the webcams went down I can’t tell you how many emails I would get. It is amazing how many people would know right away. That visual is what people are looking for, and I think if we have hi-def webcams just for tourism it will get a lot of attention,” Mayor Rick Meehan said.
The commission was in consensus to move forward with the recommended interactive proposals. No motion was needed as the funds as already included in the budget.