We have added 2 new 360 deg virtual tours to the gallery, the new tours allow you to pan and tilt with your mouse or finger to view the virtual tours.

Hartland Moor overlooking Poole Harbour

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/gallery/pan/default.aspx?t=hartlandmoorharbourview

Norden Park and Ride Railway Bridge

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/gallery/pan/default.aspx?t=nordenparkandride

We would like to welcome Swaney Holiday Let who have advertised their accommodation business with Virtual Swanage.

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=1327

We would like to welcome LimeFrog Bathrooms who are a Swanage based family run company who sell a range of bathrooms and accessories.

Unit 4, Kings Court Business Centre, Kings Road West Swanage BH19 1HS

Telephone: 01929 424004

http://www.limefrogbathrooms.com/

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/directory/info.aspx?id=905

We have added 24 new events to the Diary from The Greyhound Inn at Corfe Castle who are also now advertising their business in the local directory section.

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/directory/info.aspx?id=898

Events Diary

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/default.aspx

We like to welcome the Bull and Boat, Beach Bar and Bistro who are now listed in the Restaurants and Cafes section.

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/directory/info.aspx?id=897

Following a busy couple of weeks working on the admin system, back end code and front end pages for the website we are pleased to announce that the new updated Accommodation system is now live.

The updated accommodation pages now include over 70 different facilities which the business owners can select to give potential customers the best information possible about their accommodation.

We have also made the pricing system simpler so accommodation owners can show their prices by date range as well as minimum prices on their listings.

We have updated the availability system to make it much easier to use for both website visitors and business owners in the new and improved accommodation administration section.

The Advertise your accommodation business page at http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/advertisewithus/addnew.aspx now includes full size screen captures of a demo property which has all available options enabled including availability, reviews and all of the new facilities which are now grouped into type such as Camping and Caravans, Accessibility, Internet, Rating Scheme, Entertainment etc.

The new accommodation admin system has a simplified navigation system with each section being grouped on the menu. The admin home page also shows the advertisers latest enquiries from their accommodation listing. This allows them to view any enquiries which may have been missed in their emails or to review previous enquiries. 

The new look accommodation admin intro page.

We would like to welcome three new accommodation advertisers who have joined us in the last few weeks:

The Priory Wareham, Church Green, Wareham

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=1324

Railway Cottage, Victoria Avenue, Swanage

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=323

Minterne, Park Road, Swanage

http://www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/accommodation/details.aspx?id=322

We are planning to increase the areas covered by our Accommodation listings, Business listings, local directory and events coverage to include other towns and villages in and around the Isle of Purbeck in 2013.

We will be including local information and attractions for Lulworth and Durdle Door.

We often receive feedback on our website and our advertising options and we appreciate all feedback both good and bad regarding the advertising options we offer.

Unlike many other local advertising websites we do publish our website visitor stats for everyone to see on our blog. The only other tourism website we have found which mention visitor stats is the Dorset County Council site Visit Dorset which they say has 50,000 visitors per month who charge £150 for accommodation listings compared to the £40 that we have charged with no increases for many years.

For 2012 our average monthly visitor count was 31,000 visitors who looked at 115,000 pages, with the accommodation section seeing the highest percentage followed by the gallery and events and local directory.

We don’t have the visitor stats for January 2013 available due to a hosting change but the visitors for February and March so far are higher than 2012 for the same period.

Our mobile apps which are regularly updated are proving very popular and give users easy access to Businesses, clubs, accommodation, events and local attractions with a “Nearby” facility showing nearby entries based on their current location.

We have updated the webcam page to now include a webcam located at the Swanage RNLI Lifeboat Station

www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/gallery/webcam.aspx

We have been working on some updates to the website for the New Year.

The events section www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/default.aspx has been given a complete facelift with the event organisers now being able to add much more information including the events address, contact phone, email, web link and if booking is required.

You can now view the events by month, location or type and the By Location and By Type lists have paging so you don’t have one very long page to scroll down.

To add your events for free simply submit your details on the submission form www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/addnew.aspx

We have added a new Festivals section www.virtual-swanage.co.uk/events/festivals.aspx which now has many of the popular festivals listed. It is free to add your Isle of Purbeck festival so please contact us if you would like your festival added to the list.

The site search page has been updated to now include events and festivals in the search results so you can now search the following: Accommodation, Directory, Pages, Events and Festivals and the results are sorted alphabetically making it easier to find the information you require.