Born out of our former (and beloved) Borough President Marty Markowitz’s Shop Brooklyn initiative, the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, in conjunction with Brooklyn-based technology company BlankSlate, today unveiled Explore Brooklyn (ExploreBK.com), the borough’s first official tourism website. The announcement was made at BKLYN DESIGNS, an annual exhibition of Brooklyn designers in DUMBO, sponsored by the Chamber.
The North Flatbush Business Improvement District was an early fan of Shop Brooklyn–participating in its programming from the onset. “We couldn’t be happier with the development of initiatives like ExploreBk.com,” said North Flatbus BID’s interim Executive Director, James Dean Ellis, “it’s platforms like this that will allow Brooklyn’s unique neighborhoods to gain additional exposure for our communities’ businesses. We welcome “explorers” to the district and invite them to spend some time meandering North Flatbush or before and after Barclays Center events.”
Each year Brooklyn lures millions of visitors. ExploreBK.com will be their one-stop-shop website to find the best places to eat, stay, shop and play.
“Brooklyn has everything a global city can offer- theaters, beaches, amusement parks, bars, restaurants, hotels, parks, beautiful architecture, and a great community of 2.6 million of the most diverse neighbors you will find anywhere,” said Chamber President and CEO Carlo A. Scissura. “ExploreBK is going to take all those great things that make us the coolest city in the world, and put them into a simple easy to use guide for residents and tourists to move beyond the foot of the Brooklyn Bridge and really explore Brooklyn. Our partners at BlankSlate have done an incredible job taking this idea and helping to make it a reality.”
Based on a brand-new tourism solution developed by BlankSlate to premiere with the site, Explore Brooklyn is designed to help New Yorkers and visitors find the best of Brooklyn all in one place, while giving local businesses and attractions an easy-to-use tool to promote themselves in a seamless social environment. The site is optimized for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices, and includes Brooklyn-centered editorial content written by some of the best bloggers in Brooklyn, a robust events calendar, and visually striking neighborhood pages.
The central feature of the site, however, is a searchable directory of every business, restaurant, park, and point of interest in Brooklyn. This directory is populated by content from BlankSlate’s new local marketing solution, BlankSlate Pages. “Pages” dynamically gathers content about each business from Facebook, Google, Twitter, Foursquare, and many other sources around the web to create ready-made profiles that can then be customized by the business owner. Businesses and attractions on Explore Brooklyn can curate and showcase user reviews, maps, menus, photos, social network feeds, store hours, and more. Various marketing opportunities are also available to increase exposure.
“We see Pages as a way to unify the local experience for consumers, businesses, and destinations through mapping everything in their local world,” said Kael Goodman, CEO of BlankSlate. “Whereas traditional tourism content can be somewhat static, Pages gives businesses, restaurants, hotels, and local governments a way to keep their content up to date, and will give visitors to ExploreBK.com an informative, immersive Brooklyn experience like never before. We are excited to have ExploreBK as the inaugural site for BlankSlate Pages.”
Check out this great launch video: http://vimeo.com/94609167