The Highlands Chamber of Commerce’s redesigned Web site already is attracting new visitors and members.

From June 9 through June 30 the site registered 15,000 hits — most likely a combination of potential visitors and local merchants, who using the site’s new features, can update their own information including sales, special events, jobs and contact numbers. But regardless of what kind of traffic the site is attracting, the point is that it’s being used.

“The Web page we had was not a bad Web page for the Chamber of Commerce, but it was not oriented toward a visitors center,” said Bill Bassham, chamber president.

The Highlands Chamber page offers both merchant services and tourism development, as the chamber operates the local visitors center using dollars collected through Macon County’s 3 percent occupancy tax. Approximately $6,500 of the town’s more than $200,000 portion of room tax dollars were used to redesign the Web site in the hopes that it will in turn generate more revenue by attracting more visitors.

“We spent about a year looking at other Web sites,” Bassham said.

The result is an amalgamation of features from about 20 different sites, as board members cherry picked their favorites from each. The result is cleaner design, graphic appeal, and easy access to information.

And drawing from Bassham’s lessons from the Southeastern Marketing College, the page prominently displays ongoing packages and specials available at local accommodations. Packaging is all the rage in tourism development circles right now, as it allows visitors to get a sampling of activities that cater to their interests without having to do all the research to put it together on their own.

Each page visited on the Web site features a different package — be it the Wild Women Who Whine (Wine) ... and the men who want to join them, which offers a stay at the 4 1/2 Street Inn, gourmet dining, a private tour of the Museum of American Cut and Engraved Glass and a wine reception at Summit One Gallery; or the Tube and Tour, which offers a trip down the Tuckasegee with TJ’s Water Adventures and an ATV excursion. The package featured on the site’s main page changes each time it’s visited, even within a single session.

In addition to attracting visitors to Highlands, the new site has garnered some unusual interest. Last Friday (June 30) a Realtor from Seneca, S.C., contacted Bassham to ask if he could join the Highlands chamber. Bassham said sure, he could be an associate member, but asked why he even wanted to. The Realtor replied that Highlands’ Web site was so much better than anything available locally he’d get more traffic off of it than those where his business is based.

“So it has been very, very successful,” Bassham said.

To visit the new site go to www.highlandschamber.org.

— By Sarah Kucharski