Aug. 31—A new mobile application "See You in Terre Haute" launched Tuesday allowing visitors and residents to explore restaurants, lodging, events, parks, shopping, museums and attractions.

"The goal is that this app will be a one-stop shop for those who want to eat, play and stay in Terre Haute," said Josh Alsip, director of community engagement for the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce, which partnered with the Terre Haute Convention & Visitors Bureau to create the mobile app.

Tourism, one of six goals in the Chamber's The See You In Terre Haute 2025 Community Plan, is targeted as a way to grow the city's population and promote the area.

"As we look to grow population and increase per capita income, we understand that getting people from outside of our region to see and experience what we have to offer is vital," Alsip said.

"The Indiana Destination Development Corporation shows that when someone visits a city, they are exponentially more likely to consider moving there," Alsip said. "Terre Haute and Vigo County have an estimated 300,000 visitors a year, with that projected to grow," he said.

Alsip said The Mill, an outdoor music venue, attracts 50,000; the LaVern Gibson Championship Cross Country Course 50,000; and the Verve, which hosts the annual Blues at the Crossroads music event, attracts 10,000 visitors.

Tourism is a $30 million industry in the city, when one includes restaurants, hotel and fuel sales. The county could exceed $3 million this year in revenue generated from a county innkeepers tax, Alsip said.

The mobile app was created to "make visiting Terre Haute fun and efficient. We are one of the only communities of our size with this type of platform for community members and visitors alike. They will see the best we have to offer and thus have a better overall experience, making it more likely to consider moving to our community in the future when they have that opportunity," Alsip said.

Mayor Duke Bennett said once the Queen of Terre Haute Resort Casino comes on line and the Terre Haute Convention Center is fully completed with more hotel rooms, the city projects to attract 1.3 million to 1.5 million visitors annually. The casino is slated to be completed at the end of 2023.

"We are all about tourism and have really pushed this hard from our community plan prospective," Bennett said. "To do an app like this allows us to promote the community even more. You have got to be in the game and this allows us to do the kind of things we need to do to communicate to those who visit our community."

The mobile app in the future may feature deals from local business, such a free appetizer, Alsip said.

"We also invite our local business owners to engage with the app and tell us how we can do better," he said. "We know that it is completely comprehensive at this time. It is possible a business could be missing from the app, but don't stress, feel free to send your information to us."

Alsip noted that much of the work for the new app was done by college interns Greta Pfaff, a student at Indiana State University and daughter of state Rep. Tonya Pfaff, and Samuel Ford, a student at Purdue University and son of state Sen. Jon Ford.

"They are two young bright minds that we have in our community. Samuel did a lot of software development within the app ... and Greta with the Chamber did a lot of the research, photo taking and data input," Alsip said. "The young people in our community have an opportunity to really move us forward and I think this is an example of how they can use their skills and talents to make Terre Haute a better place to be," Alsip said.

Ford said the development of the app "was a long process," taking about 18 months. "I did this after my freshman year as my internship. It was my first chance to sit down with a client, the Terre Haute Chamber of Commerce and Terre Haute Convention & Visitors Bureau, and see what they wanted in the app.

"I took that and developed the app," said Ford, who is studying computer science.

Alsip noted the "goal is that this app will be a one-stop shop for those who want to eat, play and stay in Terre Haute."

Reporter Howard Greninger can be reached 812-231-4204 or howard.greninger@tribstar.com. Follow on Twitter@TribStarHoward.