Visitmanchester.com

A new destination website for Manchester has launched today, supported by a unique digital concept that will revolutionise the city's online presence.

Visitmanchester.com is the first stage of a brand new approach to the digital promotion of the city, launched by Marketing Manchester in partnership with the Manchester digital design company, magneticNorth.

At the heart of this progressive strategy is the creation of a 'Manchester API' - an Application Programming Interface for the city, that in effect listens to the web and collects together relevant information from social media feeds and other sources about what to do and discover in Manchester. In tribute to the city's past, it has been named 'FABRIC'.

FABRIC weaves its way across the web and through the city itself, providing an ever growing source of information about Manchester, built with the potential to help inform all of Manchester's future digital presence.

The launch of visitmanchester.com will be the beginning of a digital process that will continue over the coming years; the next stage will be the unveiling of multi-touch interactive surface tables at Manchester's new visitor information centre which opens next month. Manchester will be the first tourist information centre in Europe to use this technology. Mobile platforms are also part of the strategy over the next 12 months.

Andrew Stokes, chief executive of Marketing Manchester, said: "When we started to make plans for the new Visit Manchester website, it became apparent that this was an opportunity to really challenge ourselves and cast aside all preconceptions of how a destination should appear in the digital world.

"I think it's safe to say that you won't find any other destination in the world that has yet broken away from traditional online conventions and we're incredibly excited that this is just the first manifestation of Manchester's digital future."

Brendan Dawes, creative director of magneticNorth, said: "The building of FABRIC and visitmanchester.com has been a wonderful collaboration between us and the team at Marketing Manchester.

"FABRIC is very modern in its approach in building an interactive system for the city, and we're really looking forward to seeing how FABRIC can create new, useful, playful ways to interact with the city."

Nigel Dove, director of marketing, Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) said: "Once again Visit Manchester is leading the way with innovative technology that will showcase the city-region's distinctive tourism product.

"Visitors to the site will be able to access practical, up to date information, while tapping into the original and modern personality of the city in an interactive and user friendly way. By harnessing new technologies the visitor offer remains fresh and individual, sustaining visitor numbers to the whole of England's Northwest."

To see the new website, please go to: www.visitmanchester.com