The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce has launched a new website dedicated to tourism around Center Hill Lake.
Chamber Executive Director Suzanne Williams said the website will show off the Chamber’s new branding and professional photos of what DeKalb County has to offer. Williams said a strong online presence is important to growing tourism.
“Our Center Hill Lake gets 24,000 hits monthly,” Williams said. “And we wanted to really focus on, you know, making sure that that presence is there, and maybe to make those numbers get even better.”
Williams said Center Hill Lake is the website’s centerpiece, but local businesses are also highlighted. Williams said that it is sometimes difficult for people to find out about local attractions, but she hopes the website makes it easier for people to learn about them.
Williams said this is one of three Chamber websites. She said the primary Chamber website will highlight members and answer some basic questions. Williams said there is tourism information on this website, but it is much easier to get that information on the new website.
Williams said the visit DeKalb website includes tourism information, but there are other focus areas. She said it has more information about county businesses.
“With the new tourism website, we just wanted to focus on things where people who are travelling here,” Williams said. “This is, you know, the specific things that they would want to do, you know, maybe just coming here as a visitor.
Williams said the Chamber worked with a branding company to identify target tourists and attract them. She said that company helped them decide on focus areas when putting the page together.
Williams said there was lots of input given during the design phase from the Center Hill Lake Tourism Committee, among others.
“I sent messages out there to a lot of businesses to see what they think,” Williams said. “So input has been very, very important on this project. We’re just so grateful for our state, for our local, everybody who puts the time in to make sure we get this correct.”
Williams said the Chamber is still asking for feedback from website visitors.