Goal

Expedia selected an 8-employee team to aid the Lake Quinault community in establishing a more successful long-term tourism industry. The goal of the Expedia World Heritage sustainable toursim consultancy was to help the community take their tourism industry to the next level.

Role

As the Web Specialist, my area of focus was the web strategy of the region. However, all of us did what we could for the overall sucess of the project; gathering information, spotting opportunities, and supporting each other.

Results

See the annotated website mockup [doc]; part of my deliverable.

I was invited back for independent consulting work.

As of 3/10/2010 the visitor's bureau had met regularly each month. They selected a logo, tagline, and were printing new tourist map brochures with their new brand. They were beginning to turn their attention to the website.

Process

Many community stakeholders

We found that Lake Quinault has several important stakeholder groups, including:

• Quinault Indian Nation
• Olympic National Forest & Olympic National Park
• Jefferson & Grays Harbor counties
• Industry and environment interest groups.

Community engagement

Since the community's buy-in was key to the project's success, we involved them from day one. We had several open community meetings where we presented the project's goals, had group discussions, and collected feedback. We all interviewed community stakeholders, and made sure to highlight what we had heard from the community during our final presentation.

Clear, attainable vision

One of the biggest challenge & opportunities identified through our research was coherency of branding and collaboration between the stakeholders. Given that, our work focused on delivering a clear, attainable brand vision for the community, while prioritizing community ownership. As a team we recommended creating a visitor's bureau to focus on this work as a community.

My contribution

In order to empower non-technical community members to successfully manage imporved websites for their small businesses, I delivered a website ownership workshop. The workshop covered such things as creating compelling web content, working with technical contractors, and understanding concepts like Search Engine Optimization.

To help the community make and manage a better branding website, I mocked up an annotated vision for a branding website. The mockup showed how to incorporate my teammembers' proposed branding, and what to look for in a branding website. I also drafted a job description for a website owner; someone local to manage web content and work with the implementer(s).

I also Wrote a survey, facilitated study groups with potential visitors, and conducted community interviews in order to inform our recommendations. I worked to keep up the team's motivation and create a positive work environment.