G0 Laurel Highlands Launches Passport App for Local Attractions, Craft Beverages and More

Local Explorers, the leading maker of mobile loyalty apps for the tourism and hospitality industry, has teamed with GO Laurel Highlands to launch a mobile passport app as part of the kickoff of GO Laurel Highlands’ latest iteration of its popular Pour Tour, a self-guided tour of 62 of the region’s craft breweries, wineries, cideries, meaderies, and distilleries. Participants in the Pour Tour can earn points towards prizes by taking pictures of their purchases at participating venues with the app, plan and map visits to venues of interest, and use the app’s leaderboard if they want to take part in a friendly competition to visit the most venues on the tour.

GO Laurel Highlands is the destination marketing organization for Laurel Highlands, a 3,000 square mile region southwest of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Besides its natural and outdoors attractions such as ski areas and miles of hiking trails, it’s known for its historical and cultural amenities, including Fallingwater, a Frank Lloyd Wright-designed home and UNESCO World Heritage Site, as well as top-ranked restaurants and resorts.

While the Pour Tour is one of GO Laurel Highlands most popular programs, the GO Laurel Highlands app is much more than a digital passport, according to Laura Argenbright, senior director of creative strategy and marketing for GO Laurel Highlands. “It can also serve as an app for anyone visiting Laurel Highlands,” she said. “Whether or not you’re participating in the tour, you can go on the app and see what restaurants, hotels, or other attractions are nearby.”

In addition, Argenbright said, the app can be expanded to include other themed trails. “We’re still developing these, but they could include an ice cream trail, a coffee trail, or things to do on a rainy day—they’ll be things that speak to people’s interests, and they can find them without having to go through the entire database.”

For GO Laurel Highlands, Local Explorers was a natural choice to develop the app. “We did a pretty extensive search of apps that were out there that really could perform and do what we needed them to do,” Argenbright said. The versatility and reliability of the Local Explorers platform caught their attention, as did the platform’s ability to integrate seamlessly with Go Laurel Highlands’ existing Simpleview CRM platform, which allows them to upload information about all the region’s partner businesses directly into the app. “Our database went straight from our website onto the app, and it was a pretty seamless process,” she said.

Argenbright also praised the “very good customer service” her team experienced from the Local Explorers team. “They were very responsive when creating the app. They were able to look at some solutions, even if it wasn’t something they had online, and build it for us.”

She added that the app has already made a notable economic impact since its launch in January. “We estimate that users of the app for the Pour Tour have brought about $94,680 into the region since the app launched.”

The Local Explorers team is proud to have been part of this success. “The Laurel Highlands region has so much to see and do, and we’re honored that GO Laurel Highlands entrusted us with their app,” said Susan Erickson, Co-Founder and Product Manager of Local Explorers, “We look forward to the app helping visitors explore this beautiful region, while helping the local community prosper.”

Local Explorers apps by software designers Daruma Tech are designed to help communities better connect with visitors and local consumers by making it easy for them to discover and patronize local businesses and attractions. Each app is custom braded for the community it serves, and the Local Explorers team offers ongoing, proactive support, from development to training to regular maintenance and updates.