Park City restaurants are falling behind the curve on the new Park City Chamber and Visitor Bureau mobile and tablet apps. Though many restaurants in the area are members, there’s a void in their online activity through the chamber.
Vicki Gaebe, the interactive media manager for the chamber, presented the features of the applications in a webinar Wednesday, following the official launches.
With new features and plans to push the apps during film festival week, Gaebe gushed on the mobile site updates.
“These apps can give you recommendations based on where you are,” she said. “It has the three resorts and Olympic Park, and you can get directions or call from your phone with one button.”
Despite new features that can locate customers using a GPS feature and tell them about deals, Gaebe said restaurants on the whole have not taken advantage of all the site offers, even the main website that has been there for years.
“Lodging is taking advantage of it,” she said, “but restaurants could equally take advantage.”
Any chamber member can choose the features that appear on the mobile and tablet sites by logging in and uploading the information, from offered amenities to photos to Facebook. And Gaebe said the site is intentionally designed to be user-friendly so that businesses can take advantage of everything the site offers.
Good Thymes Bistro owner Ilese Jaffa said the mobile apps were helpful.
“It can only increase business,” Jaffa said about chamber efforts. “They’re getting out and doing things in different cities, trying to get Park City noticed.”
But when Jaffa was asked whether or not she was taking full advantage of the website or the mobile apps, she said probably not.
“I figure people will probably would go to your website,” she said “It has all the same things.”
Even restaurants with public relations teams on their side, restaurants such as Talisker on Main, had no photos on the main website or the mobile site. Yamato listed a disconnected phone number.
While the restaurant scene is slow to add simple features like photos, hotels in the area are optimizing keywords for search engines like Google, using the seasonal options like winter amenities and summer amenities, and uploading videos and entire photo galleries.
“The companies that do take advantage are benefited,” Gaebe said.
Bill Ekblad, the director of sales for Hotel Park City, said chamber advertising opportunities were vital.
The hot deals feature is a popular link on the chamber’s regular website, and that’s a feature they plan on encourage bus riders to take advantage of during the Sundance Film Festival. The app allows users to search for events in the area too, by type and by month.
“Whatever you want to find,” Gaebe said, “(the mobile site) can recognize your phone and give you things near you. There’s a lot of functionality.”