Missoula Holds Open House to Showcase Wayfinding Project

Destination Missoula has announced the offering of an Open House for the Missoula Wayfinding project on Wednesday, June 12, from 4:00PM – 6:00PM in the meeting rooms of the Holiday Inn Downtown, 200 S. Pattee Street.

Wayfinding is a proven way to benefit tourism in an area by making it easier for visitors to find their way around, find landmarks and other destinations.

Designers from MERJE, the company working on the Missoula Wayfinding project, are returning for their second set of presentations in Missoula after a round of very productive meetings and tours of the valley in March.

MERJE has developed some ideas ready for review during a Public Open House on June 12 and the highlight of the event will be the unveiling of three very distinct design schemes that assemble different, visually striking conceptual overlays of Missoula.

“We’ve been working hard incorporating the information gathered from the public meetings in March to help the wayfinding experts fine tune design schemes very unique to Missoula,” said Greg Oliver, co-chair of the Missoula Wayfinding Committee.  “This is an exciting phase of the project and we hope to get as much feedback as possible from the community on what our comprehensive wayfinding system might look like.”

For nearly two years, representatives from a cross-section of Missoula’s non-profits, businesses, government agencies and attractions have been meeting to develop a plan for a wayfinding system for Missoula. After much collaboration, fundraising, and a RFP-driven selection process, MERJE Design was selected as lead consultants for the planning portion of the process.  

Cities all over the world are upgrading their wayfinding systems in order to increase the length of visitor stays and increase resident satisfaction.  Wayfinding utilizes a combination of tools and strategies to help navigate among destinations and promote the best a city has to offer.  These include pre-arrival technology (websites, online maps and GPS), in-town technology (mobile apps and bar coding), and cohesive, well-designed and integrated signage and kiosks. 

Please find more information on the website: www.destinationmissoula.org/wayfinding