British Columbia (Canada) has officially launched a new website for its provincial parks yesterday and will become the home of a new camping reservation system this year.
According to a report, the new website will be in a soft launch during its first week, which will allow visitors to familiarize themselves with it before the reservations open on March 21. As in previous years, campers can reserve the site at least two months ahead.
In the past seasons, the Discover Camping booking website caused problems for outdoor enthusiasts, as the site could crash on peak days. The previous website saw a record number of people who booked spots during the pandemic.
When the site was first launched for summer in May 2020, over 43,000 reservations were made within the first six and a half hours. This was more than twice that of the reservations in the initial three months that the system was in operation during the spring season earlier in the year.
The new website allows campers to search for campsites by date and location with maps of open sites.
As part of its commitment to a better digital experience in 2022, the province conducted research with park visitors to make decisions regarding the new site.
“B.C. Parks is on a mission to ensure your experience of parks – from trip planning to booking a campsite, to contributing to conservation – is just as enjoyable, seamless, and impactful no matter whether you’re in a park, on your laptop, or on the road in between,” an introduction to the new site says.
“To meet this goal, we’re setting out to significantly and continuously improve the services we provide to B.C.’s parks and the people who visit and value them.”
This story originally appeared on CTV News.