Eksplor creates engaging games for Arkansas travel destinations
Eksplor Gaming recently released its first series of games to promote travel to regions and destinations as part of a program designed with Arkansas’s Department of Tourism. To view the games, visit: www.arkansas.com/eksplor-games.
Eksplor is a startup venture that creates digital games to help travel destinations engage their visitors in both educational and productive ways. Eksplor was Ark Tank Business Pitch Winner at the Arkansas Governor’s Conference on Tourism last year, which began the relationship that’s turned into these initial games becoming a reality.
Digital games are the chosen product offering for clients because they educate, are relevant to all ages, create competitive engagement and hold people’s attention. They also can provide incremental revenue generation and visitor data capture toolsets for destinations too.
Each destination in the world has the opportunity to create a unique experience and Eksplor highlights this motto by working directly with clients to tailor games to their specific needs and vision. A destination brings the expertise of their location to the table and Eksplor does the rest, providing the tools to both develop and launch creative and fun games from start to finish. Eksplor provides gaming advice, templates, examples and the flexibility to make a game as simple or complex as needed. The games created, which visitors can access via their phones or computers, can range from trivia games to scavenger hunts to escape rooms to walking tours and more. After games are created, they are launched via the Eksplor App and each destination can use their game as they wish moving forward.
Eksplor’s app platform makes game development easy and their location-based games are both easy to use and fun to play. Eksplor’s digital platform is a progressive web app that is not downloaded on your phone like a native app would be. The benefits of this app style are that there are no downloads, allowing visitors to start to play the games immediately without losing hardly any of the phone’s digital capabilities found in a native app.
Byron Bailey and Phil Shellhammer are the co-founders of Eksplor. Both founders have extensive experience in the retail industry, which comes in handy as locations work with Eksplor to drive increased sales and visitor data through the game play.
More details about Eksplor can be found at: eksplor.co.
Cathy Drew is a lifelong resident of the region that she loves to promote. She was born in downtown Batesville in the late ’60s, located in one of the eight counties she now enjoys encouraging people to visit.
Drew became associated with the Ozark Gateway Region in 1990 while working at the ad agency (The Media Market Inc.). The agency handled marketing for the regional association, where she and her co-workers produced an annual tabloid publication. She began working as the Ozark Gateway Region director in June 2000.
After Drew became director, she took the region to the next level by helping the tourism organization create a new website and moved it from the old newspaper paper tabloid publication to a color magazine format. She helped open a visitor center for the Ozark Gateway, allowing visitors to pick up information from the entire state 24/7. Over the years, Drew has helped the organization meet new marketing goals, such as in- and out-of-state marketing, assuring that all 100,000 copies of their magazines are distributed each year.
In 2016, she assisted in creating the first Ozark Gateway Region Golf Classic. The tournament continues to grow each year, allowing the organization to expand its co-op program and helping each county have dedicated promotion. Drew stays busy at Ozark Gateway as the ad sales manager, magazine editor, day-to-day office operations, trade show representative, and magazine distribution representative, all while ensuring that the region is represented all over Arkansas and southern Missouri.
Drew was featured in several local and statewide publications over the years, as well as the 1997 cover of the Ozark Gateway Region tabloid, along with her then 4-year-old son, Jon. She has received several awards, such as the Batesville Rotarian of the Year in 2010 and a three-time Paul Harris Fellow.
She also has served as an Independence County election commissioner for several years. She now serves as their co-election coordinator, helping with behind-the-scenes management of voting equipment, day-to-day election deadlines, and poll worker training.
Drew is Batesville Rotary Club Past President, and is the Rotary Clubs’ current membership chair.
In March of 2018, Drew was honored with induction into the Arkansas Tourism Hall of Fame for her many years of dedicated service to the tourism industry.