Destination Sierpe

ClientCamara de Turismo de Sierpe
DateJanuary 2016
Category

Summary

Managed a team of six fellow classmates to create a web presence for the Camara de Turismo de Sierpe–the tourism board of Sierpe de Osa, Costa Rica. Sierpe is a small town in the southern Pacific coast of the country. It is a tranquil, friendly town that allows for visitors to have an authentic Costa Rican experience. That was evident during our five-day visit, and what we sought to convey through the website.

The website is designed to show off the natural beauty of the area through photography and videos. It also seeks to promote a lot of the local businesses, things to do, and culture with specific video components and interviews with the people of Sierpe.

We also redesigned the logo that updates the look, while also staying true to the things that make Sierpe and the Osa Peninsula unique. The redesigned logo retains the mangrove tree and local exotic wildlife, even adding a couple more animals, in a bit tighter, cleaner design.

Original Logo

Old Logo
  Redesigned Logo

 

New Logo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Challenge

Promote tourism for a small town in Costa Rica where that industry is a central component of the economy. Its only online presence was a Facebook page. And, aside from a bit of pre-planning, the project needed to be delivered in around three weeks.

Approach

We built destinationsierpe.com to be a central online presence for the main businesses of Sierpe. It is designed to appeal to the tourist–mainly Americans, Canadians and Europeans–that wants an authentic Costa Rican experience. The town lacks lavish resorts and fine dining that exists in other parts of the country, but it has typical cuisine and charm in abundance. It is also just a boat ride away from a lot of the beaches and biodiversity that Costa Rica is known for. Those components are what we tried to emphasize through the website, social media channels, and the videos we produced. 

The webpage was built on WordPress to maximize the client’s ability to update and maintain the site once we handed it over to them. In fact, they have made some updates from the original design.

We also updated the look of their Facebook page and gave recommendations for how to utilize it moving forward. Additionally, we created a presence for the client on Instagram and Tumblr. Since the area is so visually stunning, those visual social mediums fit quite well.

Results

The website has had over 4,000 sessions since it was launched in late January 2016. The videos have been cumulatively viewed over 2000 times. But, perhaps more important than any metrics, the Sierpe tourism board now has a viable online presence to promote its businesses and the area. They are hopeful it can help them secure government funds to promote rural tourism, as well.

I presented more about our journey, and the results, to faculty, family and classmates at Elon [Watch].

The Team

Parker Brown (me): Project Manager

Jacob Grady: Information Architect

Olivia Gray: Photographer

Nicole McEwan: Designer

Michelle Murphy: Web Developer

Tyler Parrott: Video Producer

Artaeza Poole-Gwynn: Writer