The client
SI Local Fans is a tourism resource for Southern Illinois, built to help visitors discover what the region has to offer beyond the usual tourist guides.
The challenge
A good visitor guide needs to cover a lot of ground: where to stay, where to eat, what to see, and the smaller, local spots that don't always make it into bigger travel sites. Fitting all of that into one site meant finding a structure that stayed easy to browse as the number of listings grew.
The solution
We custom coded the entire site from the ground up rather than building it on a template or site builder, giving us full control over the structure and how each type of listing is organized. The directory is split into clear categories:
- Places to stay: hotels, cabins and other lodging options across the region
- Restaurants: local spots to eat, from casual to sit-down
- Destinations: parks, attractions and things to do
- Local favorites: smaller, well-loved spots recommended by people who know the area
The result
SI Local Fans now has a custom-built directory that organizes everything a visitor needs to plan a trip to Southern Illinois in one place, making it easy to browse lodging, dining, destinations and local favorites side by side.