 2.5 Generating Repeat Web Visits
People return to well designed web sites. Strive for impressive images and well designed layout that fits your brand. Then include interactive elements on your web site that that help you achieve your objectives:
- have web visitors stay on your web site longer
- encourage repeat visits
- entice sharing information with a friend, telling others
- get permission to keep in touch.
A Baker's Dozen Repeat Visit Generators
Contests and Giveaways: Consider offering contest entries that require potential guests to sign up for your newsletter. Change your offer often and get permission from your mailing list to inform them when you have something new! 
- Sydney Lake Lodge Photo Contest
Tips for Contests and Giveaways:
- Design your contest so you get relevent data: Ask people to let you know what they like about your site. What is important to them in using your service. A well designed contest will pre qualify participants as your target market.
- Make the contest one where they need to visit areas of your site for information - ie: crossword puzzle (link to online software). What does our weekend getaway include? Who is our lead guide?
- Allow contest entries every day - keep them coming to the site.
- Have specials and links to other things on the site on the contest page.
- Partner with others to create a package or theme contest.
- "Subscribe to our email and receive a complimentary entry in our contest..."
- Let everyone know about the winner, but have a time sensitive exclusive offer for the losers: provide a link to the special by email only.
- Look for applet for "send to a friend" under free resources or send s an email to this address.
- Make your online offers time sensitive.
- Make sure your online offers or "Web Only" specials do not conflict with other channels for selling your tourism experience.
- "click here to receive . . .", "Join our e-club . . .", "Subscribe to ....". Make it easy.
- Offer a coupon that is automatically sent by email in an autoresponder to anyone who signs up for your newsletter.
Specials: Let people know you change your contest, prize or specials regularly and ask permission to let them know when you have a new contest or prize. If you send notification of specials by email, make them available back on your site so they click through to your site.
Guest Pictures and Stories: Make it easy for guests to share pictures and/or stories. By encouraging visitors to share their pictures with others who they shared their experience with, you will also generate new web site visits from your guest's family and friends.
- Canadian Wilderness Trips - Share your Stories
Message Boards: Provide opportunities for your guests to leave messages for one another. By hosting the online reunion space, guests will come back to your site to continue and enrich new relationships they established when they visited you.
Web Gallery: Post high quality images (desktop pictures, printable images) on your web site and encourage guests to come back regularly and download new photos. Not only do they come back to your site, but each time they use their computer they connect with you in your images.
Web Cam: If you have an inspiring location, consider having a web cam trained on some particularly scenic aspect of your viewscape. Software which automatically uploads the images are regular intervals gives guests something new (and in real time!) that they can see each time they visit your web site.
What's Happening: Provide a what's happening page or online newsletter page, or use your web log to give current news. If you continually refresh your content your guests will have a good reason to stop in and say Hello.
Instant Communication: If you have some key influencers on your guest list, consider adding them to your Instant Messenger list or provide an opportunity for your guests to join you for a scheduled online chat, just to check in and learn what's new.
Tell a Friend: Provide a simple hyperlink that asks your web visitor to send an email to a friend.
Meet the Staff: Provide an opportunity for your potential guests to learn a bit more about your service team. Provide informal content that is written by each staff member. Canoe Frontier: Meet the Team. Consider building healthy relationships with your staff by providing info about past staff.
Multi-media: Provide an opportunity for those with high speed interet connection to get enriched content about your site. Multi-media site tours, video, and more needs to address the limitations of browser technology. Consider converting media to streaming format that is most appropriate to your audience.
Deep Tourism Resources: Consider providing an entire page dedicated to detailed background information on your most important regional tourism brands: parks, trails, attractions. This content can provide a great reason for people to visit your site often and recommend it to others as a great resource. The enhanced position these pages are often afforded by search engines is a bonus. Algonquin Outfitters.
Keep it Fresh: Take the time to change your web content regularly. Add new digital images, seasonally relevant graphics.
 Take a few moments and describe some things you are willing to share with your potential guests.
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