DiscoverAmerica.com has unveiled a brand new website following an extensive renewal to improve user experience that includes a fresh, new look, enhanced functionality, and the addition of new content and rich media. The Official Travel and Tourism Website of the United States serves as the nation’s virtual welcome centre and offers holiday planners the best first stop online for official trip planning information.

Several interactive tools on the websites have been upgraded, such as the interactive map and trip-ideas finder. Plus, a new interactive blog feature (“Sam in the City” and “Adventures with Matt”) has been added, allowing site visitors to pose questions to travel experts that specialise in city breaks and outdoor adventures.

“U.S. Travel has invested significantly into upgrades on DiscoverAmerica.com in order to ready the site for the Corporation for Travel Promotion, a partnership between the travel industry and the federal government recently created by Congress to market and promote the U.S. abroad,” said Roger Dow, president and CEO of the U.S. Travel Association. “We are excited about the opportunity to work with CTP to expand the reach of DiscoverAmerica.com in order to welcome even more international visitors to the U.S.”

Since its launch, the site has doubled the number of destinations it features and now offers content from more than 125 destinations, plus all U.S. states and territories, and overviews on close to 5,000 attractions. Content continues to be provided by the most authoritative sources of U.S. travel information, including state tourism offices, convention and visitors bureaus, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (official U.S. entry information), American Express and Fodor’s.

DiscoverAmerica.com was developed under a cooperative agreement between the U.S. Department of Commerce and the U.S. Travel Association and was introduced in 2008.

Site traffic from international visits continues to grow, up more than 20 percent in 2011 compared to the same period in 2010.  Visits to the site have been made from more than 200 countries, with 50 percent of the traffic originating from the five markets (the top five inbound markets to the U.S.) for which it was designed.