A major digital tourism campaign has been launched to put Gwynedd on the map.

Tourism Partnership North Wales are aiming to attract one million unique visitors to their new, all encompassing website.

The innovative portal will bring all the organisation’s digital marketing campaigns together so they can be accessed through a single website called Destination North Wales.

It’s been described as a “one stop virtual shop” for visitors wanting to find out anything and everything about North Wales – where to go, what to do and where to stay.

The current range of stand-alone websites attract nearly 500,000 unique visitors annually – the aim is to double that number with the Destination North Wales campaign.

There is also a section providing useful information and links for tourism operators in the region.

Tourism Partnership’s Regional Strategy Director, Dewi Davies, explained: “Destination North Wales is one of our priority projects for this year and is a key element from our Tourism Strategy North Wales for 2010-2015

“A key objective is to project our distinctive strengths by carrying more powerful messages to our potential customers of what great things there are to do in North Wales.

“We want to make it easier for visitors to find out information about every part of North Wales, from the Isle of Anglesey, to Snowdonia Mountains and Coast, right through to our costal resorts between Llandudno and Rhyl, and then to the North East corner of Wales where we’ve got great assets there as well.

“It’s absolutely vital to provide information about  where to stay and what to do – we have more than 190 top attractions and more than 500 events each year.

“On top of that, we have the great outdoors with a host of high adrenaline activities or more leisurely pursuits.

“You can just walk around our fantastic scenery and our great Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty whether that’s the  Clwydian Range and Dee Valley, the  Anglesey coast, or the Llŷn Peninsula.

“We have some excellent food produced locally and we really want our customers to enjoy the unique flavours of North Wales.

“Our culinary credentials have been underlined by a number of recent developments, including the creation of the Clwydian Range Food Trail and the opening of the new Bodnant Welsh Food centre at Furnace Farm on the Bodnant Estate in the Conwy Valley along with the new farm shop and café at the Rhug Estate, in Corwen.

“Destination North Wales is a one-stop virtual shop for people who want up-to-date, accurate information.

“The site is very crisp, very clear and excellently designed. From the minute you land on it, you’re going to be able to navigate very quickly and efficiently to the point of information you really want.

“We want to provide a brilliant virtual experience as a precursor to having a fantastic time for real when the visitors have arrived in North Wales.

“This is an important step on our journey to becoming a Top Five UK visitor destination.”

Carole Startin, Tourism Partnership’s Marketing and Events Executive, was equally enthused.

She said: It’s a really exciting project because at the moment finding tourism information in North Wales can be quite a complicated manoeuvre.

“This will make life much easier for people who want to come to North Wales.

“It is multi-platform so you’ll be able to view it on anything from a mobile phone to internet TV  – or of course your iPads or tablet.

“The important thing is that we  convert the unique visitors to Destination North Wales into people who actually come here and we are confident that will be the case.

“There is just so much to do in North Wales – and it’s all packaged in a compact geographical area. We may be small but we are beautifully formed.

“Our unique selling point in contrast to our competitors is that you don’t have to travel very far in north Wales to do whatever you want to do.

“You can swim in the sea and climb our highest mountain, Snowdon, all in one day.”

For more information visit www.destinationnorthwales.co.uk