Tourism website adds pizzazz

BROOKSVILLE — Before the arrival of the Internet, a well-written brochure with photos was pretty much all that was needed for a community to draw visitors.

Now, though, people expect more information on an area's parks, motels, restaurants and other attractions — and they want it faster.

The re-launching this week of Hernando County's tourism site, naturallyhernando.org, promises to satisfy these demands with a few mouse clicks, said Tourism Development Coordinator Tammy Heon.

"We felt it was time to freshen things up a bit," Heon said. "People interested in visiting our county will now have more detailed information and will have an easier time finding it."

Replacing a site originally launched in 2008, the new design offers improved graphics and navigational features, as well as more prominent links to information on activities such as fishing, scalloping, birding, hiking and paddling.

Heon said project, budgeted at $10,000, was extensive. Designers worked with the county's tourism-related businesses to feature information these businesses wanted on the web. Text for the site was written to make the Hernando site show up prominently in Internet searches.

"We wanted to leave no stone unturned when it comes to people accessing the information that they are looking for," Heon said. "We hope that the site is interesting to (people with) a broad range of interests."

Logan Neill can be reached at lneill@tampabay.com or (352) 848-1435.