TravelTex.com, Texas Tourism’s official Web site, is a comprehensive source for Texas travel planning, featuring over 400 cities and thousands of activities. Featuring cities, attractions and events, offering discount packages and a hotel booking engine, the redesigned site even further enhances the user experience. 

“Since TravelTex.com is an important marketing tool, we strive to provide the most relevant information and cutting-edge technology to our visitors,” said Julie Chase, Chief Marketing Officer, Texas Office of the Governor, Economic Development and Tourism Division.  “Thanks to this redesign, planning a vacation in the Lone Star State is more enjoyable than ever.”

Trip Planner, an interactive planning tool, now features special events, allowing users to explore activities near a chosen location.  Users can e-mail or print an itinerary, along with Google maps and directions.  Trips are viewable by city or day, and planners can add day trips, driving tours, podcast walking tours – even locations featured in print and TV ads.

TravelTex.com offers exclusive podcast walking tours (TravelTex.com/podcasts) for Dallas, Fort Worth, San Antonio, Houston and Corpus Christi.  Travelers can download six podcasts from TravelTex.com – free of charge – and follow the audio guide on foot through cultural and historical attractions.  The most recent is an Austin tour, and soon all podcasts will be available for free on iTunes.

In the Cities & Regions section, the site now features webisodes (“Texas Videos”), in which local Texans guide the viewer through different cities, showcasing hidden gems.  The first three feature the Texas Hill Country, including Austin; Fredericksburg, Burnet and Luckenbach; Wimberley and Bandera.  Future webisodes will feature the South Texas Plains and Texas Gulf Coast, with the remaining regions forthcoming.  A Google weather tool allows users to view weather forecasts for the following three days. 

The Texas Radio and Featured Musician pages now offer a custom radio station, which automatically plays songs from TravelTex.com featured artists and Texas Tourism television commercials.  There is no longer a download required, and users can access an Amazon.com link to purchase the song or album for their own collection.

In keeping with the ever-increasing trend of social media, the site now has share functionality, allowing users to share TravelTex.com content via approximately 230 external sites, including Digg, MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, de.li.ci.ous, StumbleUpon and Google Live.  Users can also subscribe to an RSS feed, receiving notifications when a particular Web page is updated.