The city of Shenandoah is looking to upgrade its visitors center to attract more visitors.[/caption]
The city of Shenandoah will soon revamp its visitors center located on David Memorial Drive.
In an effort to increase the center’s visitor traffic, the city will upgrade the facility with updated technology, including interactive map features, city Finance Director Jennifer Calvert said.
“We researched other visitors centers out-of-state in bigger cities that have done this already,” Tourism and Marketing Specialist Jennifer Salazar said. “We’re wanting to stay ahead of the game.”
The modernized facility will include a coffee and water bar as well as technological advances.
An interactive map for visitors will be available and will include geo-fencing, a global positioning technology, which is designed to map out day trips throughout the city with drag-and-drop itinerary capabilities, Calvert said.
Televisions purchased by the city during the NCAA Division III Swim and Dive Championship, held in March, will be used for historical videos and commercials to highlight businesses in the area.
“We currently have two TVs, but we’re planning to add more TV screens and one of them will have the interactive map,” Salazar said. “So a few more [TVs] will be running—a historical one with slides and one that’s running a commercial that we created last year for the city of Shenandoah.”
Salazar said the modernized center will also include comfortable seating and cosmetic updates.
“Right now we don’t have any inviting seating [at the current facility] that would make you want to grab a brochure and relax in the lounge area,” she said. “We also want to make our walls more vibrant with more pictures.”
One of the current features of the visitors center is the David Vetter room that includes a five-minute video on his life.
David Vetter—also known as the Bubble Boy—had an autoimmune disease that forced him to spend his life in an isolated chamber. He died at age 12.
“We’ll keep all of the information on David Vetter,” Salazar said. “Right now no one walks in there, so we want to have [the video] already playing, to have headphones so people can go watch the video.”
No cost to upgrade the facility has been determined by the city. Salazar said the city is considering vendors for the project.
Calvert said the facility upgrades could begin in October.
“We hope it will be next budget year, which starts Oct. 1,” Salazar said. “We do want to have [the visitors center] available for any future events coming to the area because we will have the NCAA championship again in 2017. We should have it done by then.”
