Web success for tourism agency

Visitorkney.com - the official tourism site for Orkney - has notched up its highest volume of web traffic ever this year. Site visitors have increased every month, consistently beating the user numbers recorded for the same period in 2006.

The month with the highest number of hits was July, with some 48,149 visits to the site, an increase of 54% on the same figures for last year. However, the biggest increase in site visitors came in January, when 35,618 hits were logged compared to only 22,509 a year earlier – an increase of 58%.

VisitOrkney’s Marketing Executive, Carly Simpson, said: “Our website continues to go from strength to strength. These figures reflect the importance of e-based marketing in today’s tourism industry, and are a testament to the quality and user-friendly nature of the site.

“We’ve added several new features to the site in the last few months, including a webcam in Stromness, a weather forecasting page, and a nature forum, where people can upload notes on recent wildlife sightings and images. We also run a monthly competition on the site, featuring some great prizes – this month a necklace from Sheila Fleet - which has proved very popular.”

The website is set to be re-launched next month, which will see the addition of even more eye-catching images. “Developing the website is an ongoing project,” continues Carly. “User stats like these are very encouraging and reinforce our commitment to maintaining the site and also improving it in any way we can. If the past few years are anything to go by, these stats look set to grow well into 2008 and beyond.”