Business & Tech

New Bethlehem Tourism Website Launched

With an events calendar and business listings, it is also meant to promote the city to its residents.

During his last week, Bethlehem Mayor John Callahan visited with the mayor of the original Bethlehem in Palestine and learned an interesting bit of news: Bethlehem, Pennsylvania is now more famous than the original.

Callahan scoffed at that idea. However, his Israeli counterpart, Victor Batarseh, insisted that it’s true, noting that when you Google “Bethlehem,” it is the Pennsylvania city that appears first.

Callahan relayed this story Tuesday as he helped to introduce a new visitors website for the city, one that community leaders will be a useful tool not only for tourists but also residents.

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As part of the website overhaul, the visitors’ website will be merged with the city government website, which will also undergo a redesign over the next several years. The visitors website is now being operated from the city’s own web server, as opposed to a web hosting business.

The mayor said a “strong web presence” is now crucial to the city’s success as a tourism destination.

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“Years ago, tourists may have planned a trip around a friend’s recommendations or by using a travel agent, but today they use the web,” Callahan said.

"Our new site is more colorful, more interactive, more informational, more useful and more fun."

Back when the original Website was launched in 2005, tourism accounted for $800 million of the Lehigh Valley economy and 17,000 jobs, said Lynn Logue, the vice president for Bethlehem initiatives for the Greater Lehigh Valley Chamber of Commerce.

Logue also pointed out that site selection managers use the web for 75 percent of their research for business relocations. Hearing that statistic at the annual Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. meeting three years ago prompted her to push for a visitors’ website overhaul, she said.

The new website is sponsored by the chamber, LVEDC and the city. LVEDC contributed $15,000; the chamber kicked in $10,000; and the city received a $5,000 state grant to help pay for the redesign with Bethlehem-based software producer, .

Among the new site’s features is a calendar of events and a directory of city shops, restaurants and businesses, searchable by location and type of activity. It also has special sections on the city's history, festival listings and other suggestions on things to do here.

While an impetus for this feature might be the hope that visitors to the may think about visiting other parts of the city, it is also meant to promote local businesses to local residents, many of whom may not be familiar with the breadth and choice of businesses we have here, said Kathy Vossough, Bethlehem’s deputy director of economic development.


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