Quirky, creative, and a place that happily defies convention, Bristol is hailed for its independent spirit, famed for its sustainable credentials, and renowned for its maritime heritage and creativity. This is a city whose character positively invites visitors to explore everything that makes Bristol, well, Bristol. A one-of-a-kind destination likewise deserves a one-of-a-kind digital presence and so it makes sense that Visit Bristol’s new website truly reflects the city’s spirit, all while welcoming those who come to experience this fantastic place.
A Site that Showcases Bristol for Visitors, Businesses, and Residents
Visit Bristol has been a Simpleview client for over 20 years, with the previous iteration of its site built back in 2015. After nine years, the team at Visit West — the Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) that covers both the Bath and Bristol regions — sought to create a new site for Bristol. The brief was not only to reflect Bristol in the digital space, but to emphasise the importance that this destination places on sustainability and accessibility.
With these points in mind, Visit Bristol’s new website has been thoughtfully designed to incorporate fonts of consistent weights, compressed imagery, and carefully-placed video content — all features that are intended to reduce the website’s carbon footprint. Additionally, the site features accessible fonts, high colour contrasts, and spacing to ensure maximum readability for all visitors. While the site was built with a mobile-first approach in mind, desktop users will also find that content is presented in a simple, straightforward, yet striking manner.
Into the Future with a Fresh Design
The build of Visit Bristol’s new site spotlights the LVEP’s social channels via prominent Crowdriff galleries, which are used to showcase striking images of Bristol, as captured by residents and visitors. Inspirational content also features heavily on this new site, along with clearly marked sponsorship opportunities for local businesses. In the coming months, the LVEP hopes to add more user-generated content as well as interactive maps, a dedicated page for first-time visitors to the city, dynamic content, and more microsites.
Commenting on the site’s debut, Laura Valentine, Digital Marketing Manager at Visit West, said, “We are thrilled to launch the new Visit Bristol site with a fresh new look, enhanced accessibility, sustainability, and user experience. The strong design, flexible and fresh functionality offered by Simpleview and inspiring content all come together to encapsulate Bristol for visitors, businesses, and locals alike.”
She added, “This is the 6th site launch with Simpleview since Visit West’s inception and we have been clients through Visit Bristol for 20 years so we are proud to continue to raise the bar in digital destination marketing and develop new ways of delivering visitor inspiration and information.”
