COLUMBIA — The S.C. Department of Parks, Recreation & Tourism has launched a mobile version of the State Parks website to better serve people on the go. The site at m.SouthCarolinaParks.com provides much of the same information as the regular website, except in an easier-to-read and -navigate format for mobile platforms.
The new version was developed in response to increasing visits to the website at www.SouthCarolinaParks.com from smartphones and other mobile devices. Traffic to the website from mobile devices has been increasing every month for more than a year, and from April 2011 to April 2012, visitation grew 176 percent. Those visits accounted for about 21 percent of the total traffic on the website.
“We recognized growing consumer preference for browsing the internet from smartphones, Droids and all things mobile, and we decided to give them what they want,” said Duane Parrish, Director of SCPRT. “Our mobile platform presents Park information in a more simplified way, much more suitable for the smaller screens found on these devices.”
On the mobile site, browsers can:
• Find individual parks, through a “park finder” command, allowing browsers to search by park name or by park attributes like campsites, cabins and historic sites,
• Find contact information for the parks, including phone numbers and email addresses,
• Find driving directions to a park from the browser’s location by using a Google map inset,
• Make reservations for camping and cabin rentals by linking directly to the Park Service’s reservations page,
• Find deals in state parks for cabins, camping, golf and other activities,
• See blogs, videos and stories on what’s going on in parks by accessing the SC Insider page, and
• Find programs and events at state parks via an easily searchable database.
The site is programmed to open if a person tries to go to www.SouthCarolinaParks.com from a mobile device, but does allow a person to revert to the regular site if the mobile version does not suit them.
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