Mesa Verde Country goes interactive with CD-ROM

Mesa Verde Country goes interactive with CD-ROM

Oct. 24, 2000

BY MATT GLECKMAN
Journal Staff Writer

By early November, travel information regarding Mesa Verde Country will be just a mouse click away, thanks to a new CD-ROM being developed by the Montezuma County Lodgers Group.

P.G. West, chairman of the Montezuma County Umbrella Tourism Council, said the CD will be used to promote the Mesa Verde area in both national and foreign markets.

"It will be an interactive CD that will be used in the promotion of what we call Mesa Verde Country — including Mancos, Dolores, Cortez and Towaoc," West said. "The CD will have a video on it that will cover horseback-riding, snowmobiling, fishing, hunting, skiing, golfing, rafting. . . everything that there is to do here."

West said the CD will also contain an information page with maps of the region, areas of special interest and lists of hotels, motels, stores, campgrounds and restaurants.

Lynn Dyer, director of the Umbrella Tourism Council, said the CD will be available initially in both English and German. The finished product will be used extensively at international trade shows, Dyer said.

West said work on the CD began last year following a World Trade Mart convention.

"The WTM is a convention where people come from all over the world to promote their product or tourism. Bus-tour people, travel writers, fan groups and travel agents all go there from all over the world to get information about different travel destinations," West said.

"Last year I went to the WTM convention with only the Mesa Verde Country magazine and it wasn’t enough — this year I will have the CD too," West said.

The chairman leaves for the convention, which will be held this year in London, on Nov. 5. The CD-ROM will be completed by that time, he said.

Financing for the promotional tool was provided by the Montezuma County Lodgers Group as well as a matching grant from the Colorado International Marketing Organization, Dyer said. The director said each group provided $12,500 for the project.

CIMO has a marketing partnership with Denver Inter-national Airport so DIA must be included in all of the promotional materials which are developed with CIMO funds, Dyer said.

Development of the CD is being done by a local company, Scene Productions, and is in its final stages, according to West. "The last time that I talked to the company they were all done except for the sound," he said.

Dyer said approximately 2,000 CDs will be produced originally. "Hopefully we will be able to get rid of all of those and we will have to produce more," she said.

Upon completion, the disks will be distributed to local chambers of commerce as well as businesses in the lodgers group, West said.