A customer’s experience of a tour or activity often begins online. Through vibrant images, videos and descriptive text, websites for tours and attractions should reflect the excitement and experience of the tour or attraction itself. But just as important as rousing imagery and descriptions is user friendliness; websites should offer uncluttered visual design, simple and intuitive site navigation, clear copy and an optimal user experience on all devices, from desktop computers to smartphones.
We recently blogged about tourism and hospitality website design trends that help to tell a business’ story and provide a “preview” of the real experience.
The following tour and activity websites are great examples of effective design, boasting smooth, intuitive user experiences on all screens via responsive design, well-organized content that is easy to navigate (from various tour options to location information), and eye-catching visuals and clear descriptions that convey the experience.
Let’s take a look!
Calaway Park
What a fun site! The Calaway Park website design makes us feel as if we are already there, with bold colors and big photos in a header slider that spans the width of the page and depicts action shots of park guests enjoying the rides. Text overlaid on slider images in bright, fun font promotes important information with clear calls to action.
Guest photos are featured on a photo gallery page, and the video gallery features a clip of the Vortex rollercoaster that gives viewers a rider’s perspective (and this writer a few goosebumps!) – there’s lots of imagery drawing us in to imagine ourselves enjoying the fun.
This website has a lot of information to cover and organizes it well in a familiar horizontal navigation bar across the top of the page, helping site visitors find the info they need easily, including a convenient FAQ page.
The seamless experience is complete with online season pass sales and campground reservations.
Galapagos Reservations
Galapagos Reservations, by Inti Travel and Tours, makes Galapagos wildlife the focus of their website, just as it is the focus of their sightseeing cruises. This gorgeous website immediately takes your breath away with stunning, full-screen images of the natural wonders you can expect to see on their cruises.
The simple site design features a calming colour scheme and lots of white space to draw focus to the images and evocative descriptions. And credibility boosters (or trust badges) – ASTA and BBB accreditation – are prominently displayed on the home page, alongside the introductory text, to earn the viewer’s trust.
Maligne Rafting Adventures
Can you feel the adrenaline rush just looking at the Maligne Rafting Adventures website? This site design immediately takes viewers along for a thrilling ride with exciting action shots placed front and center in header image slider spanning the width of the screen.
Site navigation is a breeze with a well-organized horizontal navigation bar across the top of the page, as well as a brief outline of each rafting trip option (with a link to the rafting trip page for more details) on the home page.
They’ve also included a short video right on the home page, giving viewers a quick overview of the rafting experience, complete with customer testimonial voiceovers. On the Rafting Trips page, more videos depict each trip option, engaging the viewer’s senses and immersing them in the experience as much as it is possible to online.
Complete with user testimonials, a FAQ page, and a clear “Finding Us” page with a Google map embed, the Maligne Rafting Adventures website both entices and reassures website visitors to click the “Book Now” button for user-friendly and mobile-optimized online bookings.
Calgary Attractions
This slick site provides visitors with a convenient, easy-to-use guide to Calgary’s major attractions, and includes coupons for discounts, an interactive calendar of events, and an interactive Google map embed that pinpoints all attractions.
The Calgary Attractions website is a great example of simple yet eye-catching design. The full-screen header image slider and subtle animation effects – from the dynamic text overlays on the slider images to content that fades in as you scroll – contribute to a smooth, visually appealing user experience.
Banff Trail Riders
The Banff Trail Riders’ website entices people to experience the majestic Rocky Mountains from horseback with high-quality header slider images and a beautifully shot video displayed prominently on the home page.
Another clean, simple design, this website serves up a great deal of information in a well-organized manner via the horizontal navigation bar as well as prominent calls to action (“learn more” buttons) that lead website visitors to popular pages – such as winter excursions and their most popular rides – right from the home page.
A selection of positive customer testimonials are featured on the home page too, and online bookings are always at the ready via a “book now” button beneath the header slider on the home page, in the main menu, and alongside every trip description.
To see more hotel website designs by World Web Technologies Inc., check out our portfolio.