By Ricardo Cavazos

The Mercedes Enterprise

A marketing and promotional tool used throughout the United States to spur interest in cities, museums, and national parks is coming to Mercedes.

GeoTours use GPS technology in featuring a sophisticated game of treasure hunts that are designed to promote tourism in communities and regions with historical places and destinations.

Explore Mercedes Texas will be one such GeoTour and is set to launch on April 4th, a Saturday, to promote the city and bring new visitors to the community. The concept of Explore Mercedes will be similar to those used around the country – and world – in attracting GeoTour participants.

The Geocaching app will be used as a guide to the treasure boxes that 

will be hidden throughout the city. Geocachers, – as the treasure hunters are known in GeoTour terminology – will come to Mercedes throughout 2020 in search of the hidden boxes. It’s not what is in the boxes that attracts the geocachers. The challenge of finding the boxes and earning points that leads to the awarding of a specially designed commemorative geocoin is what interests the geocachers.

In Mercedes, up to 40 locations are planned as sites for the treasure boxes. Included in that mix will be up to 15 business locations that can utilize the GeoTour of Mercedes as a means of promotion and to connect with new customers. At each stop where a treasure box is found, a geocacher logs their Explore Mercedes Texas passport to signify that another step in the tour has been successfully completed in the trek to find all the locations.

The Development Corporation of Mercedes will reward the geocachers with the special geocoins and also plans to give one lucky participant a grand prize for successfully completing the tour and spending time in the city. The Development Corporation is organizing Explore Mercedes Texas and sees the GeoTour of the city as a fun way to promote and market the community. 

GeoTours are something of a worldwide phenomenon. An estimated 5 million people worldwide have participated in GeoTours. 

“GeoTours are special collections of caches designed to take geocachers on a journey through interesting places such as a town or city, a park, or historical sites,’’ said an explanation post on the official blog of Geocaching.com.

In Texas, Harlingen, Baytown, Conroe and Brenham are among the Texas cities that have GeoTours like the one in Mercedes.

Call the Development Corporation of Mercedes at 565-2230 for more information about Explore Mercedes.