Walla Walla Valley Wine Visitors Going Mobile in a Big Way

After releasing its Mobile Wine Tour Application in July, 2011 the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance has seen significant growth in its use over the past ten months. According to Shontina Gianotti-Coers, Director of Marketing and Communication for the Wine Alliance, “Mobile Wine Tour was utilized by an average of ____ people per day soon after being released. These numbers have risen to an average of ____ users per day during the spring season of 2012.

In particular, during the Spring Release (May 4-6) and Balloon Stampede (May 11-13) Weekends, two of the Walla Walla Valley’s biggest tourist weekends, the number of people accessing Mobile Wine Tour zoomed to over 800 and 500, respectively. “These numbers exceeded our expectations,” says Shontina. “And, perhaps more importantly, we observed visitors of all ages accessing Mobile Wine Tour. Smart Phones are rapidly becoming the visitor’s guide for many people.”

The Walla Walla Valley Mobile Wine Tour Application was developed for the Wine Alliance as a beta test by SiteCrafting of Tacoma, Washington. The Application is accessible using any smart phone, including Droids, Blackberries and I-Phones, at wallawalla.mobilewinetour.com or by a QR (quick response) code which is available in most of the Walla Walla Valley winery tasting rooms.

According to Brian Forth, President of SiteCrafting, “we are very pleased with the role out of our product in Walla Walla Valley wine country. We knew the app would be a success, but the rapid adoption by visitors that we have seen has exceeded our expectations. We have used the template developed in Walla Walla in a number of other wine regions around the west and have just released a nationwide application for iOS and Android devices, which is available at mobilewinetour.com .”

Mobile Wine Tour is a gps-based mobile application and allows users to identify winery tasting rooms nearby their current location. The app also enables users to identify wineries that produce certain varieties of wine and sort wineries by tasting room hours so that they can identify wineries that are currently open. In addition, visitors can identify restaurants, lodging options, and other attractions through the app.

The Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance is a non-profit wine industry membership organization whose primary mission is the marketing of the Walla Walla Valley’s American Viticultural Area (AVA). The Wine Alliance functions as the leading informational resource for consumers, media and trade interested in learning more about the Valley’s wine industry. More information about the Walla Walla Valley Wine Alliance can be found at www.wallawallawine.com.

SiteCrafting is a website design and web application development company specializing in custom web-based solutions for mid- to large-size businesses, counties, and municipalities. The company’s goal is to ensure its clients get the tools and technology they need to work most efficiently. The company has been headquartered in Tacoma since 1995 and has satellite offices in Seattle and Spokane. For more information, samples of website work, or to get a free website development quote, visit www.sitecrafting.com.