Discover Siloam Springs website launch June 15
A new tourism brand identity and website — Discover Siloam Springs — will be officially launched in Friday, June 15.
The brand identity includes a logo, tag lines and website, discoversiloamsprings.com. It is the product of a collaboration between the city, chamber of commerce and Main Street Siloam Springs, according to Kelsey Howard, director of Main Street, and Holland Hayden, city communications manager. Blogs for Brands, a local company, also helped with the creation of the identity and website.
During a city board meeting in April, Hayden explained the three entities have been working separately toward tourism, but wanted to unify their efforts to be more efficient and give residents and tourists one place to find out what to do, where to go and where to eat in Siloam Springs.
The new logo is a modified version of the city logo with a more rounded shape and the tag line is “Small Town Charm, Great Outdoor Adventure.” The website has five main pages for events, attractions, restaurants, shopping and lodging, along with an about page and a page that allows local organizations to register their events.
The real mission of the site is two-fold, according to Hayden and Howard. The first mission is to reach out to potential tourists, including people from out of town, but also people who live in the Siloam Springs trade area, which consists of Western Benton County and northeast Oklahoma. The second mission is to provide residents of Siloam Springs with one place to find out what is going on in town to encourage them to shop, dine and seek entertainment locally.
“We need a strategic, central hub of information for residents and tourists alike, that’s what the
community is asking for, and I think the community should be proud and excited to see our three entities working together because I think that’s a sign of a healthy community moving forward,” Howard said.
The chamber is excited to have the opportunity to promote tourism in Siloam Springs, along with Main Street and the city, according to Nathan Reed, director of economic development for the organization.
“We think the collaboration makes it more community driven since the main reason we did it was for the betterment of our community,” Reed said. “People don’t always realize what Siloam has to offer and we hope that this allows everyone in Siloam Springs to see the opportunities that are right in their backyard.
“We also hope that it will help us bring in people from the surrounding area to shop at our businesses, eat at our restaurants, stay at our hotels, and really see what Siloam has to offer. Siloam is quietly becoming its own destination and we want everyone to know.”
Representatives from the city, chamber and Main Street are working together with the chamber’s tourism committee to curate events, businesses and organizations to be included on the website, Hayden said. All restaurants are currently listed, along with unique, locally owned businesses. The committee has come up with a criteria to determine which businesses and events will be listed, Howard explained.
The site has already been up for several months and is a work in progress, Hayden said. For the launch, the three organizations are asking Siloam Springs’ supporters to share the link to the site on social media.
For more information and to view the site, visit discoversiloam.com or discoversiloamsprings.com.