Designing and implementing digital visitor experiences in New York State: The case of the Finger Lakes Interactive Play (FLIP) project

This paper provides insight into the challenges of implementing digital experiences through a marketing development project intended to generate interest and awareness in historic visitor attractions located in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. I Love New York Empire State Development's initiative sponsored this marketing development project (FLIP) to promote historic visitor attractions in New York State. A case study is used to examine the interaction of stakeholders between destination marketing organizations and visitor attractions in implementing digital marketing strategies through the New York Path Through History initiative. The findings of this case provide understanding of the challenges related to organizational architecture and capacity in the development and implementation of an interactive visitor app to generate a digital experience for 12 historic visitor attractions located in the Finger Lakes Region of New York State. This case provides an opportunity to highlight the complexities of implementing digital marketing efforts of a regional destination through a diverse set of stakeholders. The findings of this case study are useful in understanding the organizational, human and technological requirements for implementing digital marketing strategies involving mobile technologies and augmented reality experiences. Stakeholders may consider investing equal effort in assessing both their organizational ability for effective participation in destination marketing projects and technological capacity for implementing digital experiences as they do in securing financial support for digital marketing endeavors.