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Council awards $70,000 contract for tourtalbot.org redesign funded by state tourism grant
Summary
Talbot County awarded a $70,000 contract to Destination by Design to redesign tourtalbot.org using a grant; site will remain visitor-focused and could integrate additional county sites in future phases.
The council authorized awarding a $70,000 contract to Destination by Design to redesign the county tourism website tourtalbot.org, using a non-competitive grant distributed statewide for tourism development.
Cassandra Vanhoozer, director of economic development and tourism, told the council the redesign is funded by a $112,320 grant program administered through Maryland tourism development that was available to destination marketing organizations statewide. Vanhoozer said the county’s long-time web developer stepped down and the county selected Destination by Design after an interview process and evaluation of firms with government and tourism experience.
Vanhoozer described tourtalbot.org as the county’s primary visitor marketing “storefront,” noting that since 2017 the contractor-driven traffic numbered roughly 1.34 million visits over five years and an average user session length of about three minutes and 36 seconds. She said the site is visitor-focused and separate from Talbot County’s business-facing economic development site (TalbotWorks), though staff may consider integrating additional county sites in future phases if funds allow.
Council members asked whether the contract covered additional economic-development pages; Vanhoozer said the current RFP and grant were for tourism but there may be an opportunity later to link or expand the work. The council approved the contract award by roll call vote.
