Case Study: Southern Delaware Tourism

Southern Delaware Tourism is the heart and soul of Sussex County, Delaware, showing that beaches are just the beginning of what the area has to offer. Restaurants, events, golf courses, beach resorts, trails, historical landmarks, and parks—Southern Delaware is a place for locals and visitors alike to enjoy the coastal culture.

Southern Delaware Tourism is the heart and soul of Sussex County, Delaware, showing that beaches are just the beginning of what the area has to offer. Restaurants, events, golf courses, beach resorts, trails, historical landmarks, and parks—Southern Delaware is a place for locals and visitors alike to enjoy the coastal culture.

Tourism is centered around highlighting the entertainment and attractions in an area, and Southern Delaware Tourism needed the most reliable resources possible to become a hub for all things Sussex County, DE. D3 jumped at the chance to collaborate with the tourism team and help make Southern Delaware shine.

First things first, a website. However, not just any website—we created a Progressive Web App (PWA) that combines all tourism information for visitors, vacationers, and locals to access with the tap of their finger on mobile devices. PWAs provide users with a smooth mobile experience and broader functionality with a website that opens in a browser but functions as a native app on a phone home screen.

“I have been fortunate enough to work with D3 on multiple projects and each time experienced not only fantastic results and beautifully designed sites but friendly and attentive client service that goes above and beyond. Each person from D3 that I have worked with has been absolutely awesome.”
- Southern Delaware Tourism

D3 and Southern Delaware Tourism work to provide high-quality content with interactive maps, original imagery, detailed events, and business information. An extensive listing filter system is built into the site for hotel and business partners to promote themselves and run marketing campaigns offering special deals for free. Users have the opportunity to create customizable accounts to save their favorite spots in over 20 towns, get exclusive discounts, and find everything they need for their stay.

Partner programs have proven successful with examples from the popular Bike and Stay campaign, perfect for those looking to take advantage of biking trails during their Southern Delaware getaway. Users book with partnering hotels, receive exclusive rewards, then find a variety of biking routes with distances, descriptions, and interactive maps to follow. One of the hotels involved shared stats featuring an excess of a quarter million dollars in revenue from room bookings using Bike and Stay.

While the regular Southern Delaware Tourism site acts as a PWA itself, D3 and Southern Delaware went above and beyond, creating SouthDel Sidekick for in-market users to keep on their mobile devices. The official mobile app of Southern Delaware Tourism has all of the same great features as the website, with increased user functionality for mobile and your daily guide to the beaches in the palm of your hand. The app also encourages local businesses to promote themselves at no cost by keeping their information up to date and adding exclusive deals for SouthDel Sidekick users.

With so many towns and things to do in Southern Delaware, the tourism team is committed to keeping its users (whether locals or vacationers) up-to-date on everything they need to know. D3 helps Southern Delaware Tourism run monthly email newsletters with upcoming events to their entire database of visitors. Weekly emails are also sent out to local hotels with lists of these events that staff can share and promote with their guests.