about the upcoming website.
(Photo © J. Maus)
Travel Oregon wants to make biking a larger part of Oregon’s $1 billion annual tourism market. At the front of that effort is a new website they hope will become an invaluable resource for Oregon biking information.
Back in December I shared their plans to invest in a major new website to promote their “Bike Oregon” campaign.
That effort is moving along quickly, with a beta launch of the site on schedule to happen at the Oregon Bike Summit on April 21st in Salem. I’ve been sitting in as an advisor on this project and I have to say I’m impressed with what I’ve seen so far.
The design and coding work is being done by Southeast Portland-based firm Substance. Substance, working in partnership with Travel Oregon and bike leaders and advocates, hopes the new site (domain name is yet to be finalized) becomes “a comprehensive website for cycling in Oregon”. The idea is to provide easily accessible information on the best routes, paths, trails, events and travel resources throughout the state.
To create that resource, Travel Oregon and Substance have put out a call for help. They’ve created an online survey to get leads on great content (deadline to fill out the survey is April 1st), so make sure you share your favorite bike-friendly towns, hotels, events, businesses, and routes.
In addition to resources, the new site will allow visitors and contributors to create profiles and send messages to each other to learn more about recommended routes, amenities, etc… There will also be some editorial content.
To help populate this new site with content, take the online survey. Stay tuned for more updates. I’ll be reporting from the Oregon Bike Summit and will do a follow-up story once the site is launched.