Last year was tough for Clay Gregory due to a 30 percent drop in tourism in California’s winery destination, Napa Valley.

“Buying expensive wines and visiting wine regions were not at the top of people’s lists last year,” said the president and CEO of the Napa Valley Destination Council.

However, an Orlando firm may renew tourist interest in the Napa Valley soon.

Ypartnership, a travel and tourism marketing firm, has partnered with Dizgo, a Boulder, Colorado-based technology company, to launch a mobile application that will allow visitors bureaus to market directly to smartphone users.

VisitMobile, the mobile application—or “mobile app”—links businesses, visitors bureaus, and tourists to an interactive database that provides real-time information on promotions, discounts, special events, directional assistance, and other features to enhance tourists’ vacations via their mobile devices.

Since launching the service in November, VisitMobile has inked deals with the Napa Valley Destination Council and Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. Those destinations will start using the service within the next 10 months. The firm would not disclose specifics on those deals nor any other destinations that have shown interest in the application.

Development of the application took 10 months and 15 workers from both companies, said Scott Myers, partner and CIO for Ypartnership. Myers declined to reveal the project’s development cost.

Designing and maintaining the VisitMobile application for a specific tourist destination costs about $6,000 a month. It gives participating visitors bureaus exclusive licensing rights and control of the advertisers, partner offers, and information they’d provide to users. Each visitors bureau also will have the option to charge participating businesses a $25-per-month service fee.

In addition, visitors bureaus will be able to evaluate how well the program works via market statistics tracked by Ypartnership, such as the number of page views, traffic to specific offers, and first-time visitors.

Here’s how VisitMobile works: The application will be available to iPhone users at Apple’s App Store. Non-iPhone users will be able to download the service through other networks.

The application will enable iPhone users to access a menu that includes a map of area restaurants, hotels, and attractions; a visitor’s guide of the most popular places visited; an itinerary planner; and even in-depth information on specific locations such as hotels offering special room rates.

Non-iPhone users will make inquiries and get information updates via text messages.

Applications like this and other types of mobile marketing are just beginning to emerge and will continue to grow, said Mark Unger, partner and director of interactives at Push Inc., an Orlando advertising and public relations firm.

However, marketing to consumers’ mobile devices is tricky, he said. It’s important that the message not be too wordy, for example. “Make it quick and simple.”

Gregory is optimistic VisitMobile will renew interest in Napa Valley because it will enable its local businesses “to get their messages out to consumers faster—and it gives the consumer information for every possible experience at their fingertips.”

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Richard Bilbao writes for the Orlando Business Journal.