SIDNEY — Web visits saw an increase in November and December 2015, reported Director Jeff Raiblel during the January Sidney Visitors Bureau meeting.

Website traffic for November 2015 had 1,440 web sessions. There were 1,179 web sessions in 2014. There were 1,186 unique users, compared to 1,011 unique users in 2014.

There were 2,273 page views, up by almost 300 views from the 1,958 page views in 2014. There were 1,578 Facebook views, compared to just 576 views in 2014.

The time on site average for the month was 1:05, up slightly from the 0:57 average in 2014,

For the month of December 2015, there were 859 web sessions compared to 853 web sessions in 2014. There were 732 unique users, down one user from the 733 unique users in 2014. There were 1,670 page views while there were 1,642 page views in 2014.

There were 233 Facebook views, down from the 644 views in 2014. The time on site averaged 2 minutes, up from the 1:25 average in 2014.

In other busienss, the board learned:

• Sidney Visitors Bureau information was sent to 40 individuals in November interested in learning more about this area. There were 65 reader response requests were fulfilled for the same period in 2014. For the month of December, information was sent to 79 individuals. Five reader response requests were fulfilled for the same period in 2014.

• Collaboration continued with Visitors Bureaus in Miami, Darke, Auglaize, Mercer, and VanWert Counties to cosponsor a booth at the 2016 AAA Great Vacations Expo in Columbus in January 2016. In 2015 this consumer travel show was visited by more than 10,000 patrons. At the 2015 show, the Sidney Visitors Bureau and its partnering Visitors Bureaus handed out more than 1,000 goodie bags of information about travel in west central Ohio.

• A guest card promoting the Sidney Visitors Bureau mobile web site has been reprinted. These cards are distributed to local hotel desk clerks who are encouraged to offer the card to guests seeking information about area restaurants, attractions, and leisure activities.

• A contract has been approved with TourismOhio, the State’s Travel and Tourism Bureau, to cooperatively advertise using the following strategies: print advertising in Family Fun (circulation 395,000) and Midwest Living (circulation 408,200) magazines, a Midwest regional newspaper insert campaign (circulation 1,000,000), two broadcast email campaigns, and a five month In-State Search Engine Marketing Campaign with Google. By contracting with TourismOhio, the Sidney Visitors Bureau received nearly $9,400 in advertising match funding.

• A contract has been approved with Ad Rack and Tourist Information Services to place Sidney Visitors Guides in hotel lobbies and other well-traveled public places in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee.

• A contract has been approved with Behr Design to develop a responsive website for the Sidney Visitors Bureau eliminating the need for the Bureau to maintain both a full site and mobile friendly site. In addition the responsive site will include content management software enabling Bureau staff to update it as needed as opposed to having these edits contracted out.

• A contract has been approved with Madden Media to produce an iBrochure for the Sidney Visitors Bureau. This animated and interactive brochure is mobile friendly and will be used to provide electronic replies to requests for information and well as be used in a variety of social media applications.

• A contract has been approved with OhioTraveler.com to place four advertorials over a 12-month period in their monthly eNewsletter (circulation 150,000), distribute same advertorials to more than 1,000 media outlets to include newspaper, magazine, radio, and television, a 12 month display ad with electronic link to www.VisitSidneyShelby.com on the cover of the OhioTraveler.com eNewsletter, a 12-month banner ad on the OhioTraveler.com web site, and a 50 week social media campaign producing and placing images, video, and text on three social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram) throughout 2016.

• Staff members attended the Ohio Travel Association annual conference in Columbus.

For a complete calendar listing of upcoming events in Sidney and Shelby County, visit www.VisitSidneyShelby.com and be sure to Like Us on Facebook at Sidney Visitors Bureau.