EXPLORE ALBERTA WEBSITE TO LAUNCH
By Adnews Staff
Tourists contemplating Alberta as a vacation spot will be able to pre-tour the province by way of the Internet as of tomorrow, courtesy of the ExploreAlberta.com website created by the Alberta Hotel Association and Edmonton-based Parallel. The site, located at <http://www.explorealberta.com>, will offer a travel magazine, a tourism search engine and a vacation planner. Visitors will be able to cruise any of 14 pre-planned jaunts, including treks across the northern part of the province and the badlands of the south. Visitors can also plan out their own itinerary from thousands of provincial locations, activities, events and accommodations. "ExploreAlberta.com employs a database strategy to ensure that there is always a depth of current information about Alberta," says Parallel president Rich Thompson. The site, which is partly sponsored by Alberta Economic Development, will also carry banner advertisements. Plans to promote the site are in the works and will likely include both traditional advertising and cross-promotion with partners. Promotion will be handled jointly by the AHA and Parallel, which is a fully-integrated marketing services company. The site itself was designed by Parallel's sister company, Axia NetMedia Solutions.