case: Manta Ray Bay Resort

Posted by Dustin Macdonald on March 5, 2021
The Manta Ray Bay Resort is a beautiful 4-star boutique dive resort on the remote island of Yap in Micronesia. It has some of the best diving in the world. They aren’t paying me to say that.

I’ve been there a few times and experienced it myself.

Manta Ray Bay Resort became a client in 2008. They came to us in need of a significant upgrade to their website.  They knew that we had done a few websites for dive resorts and vessels throughout Southeast Asia.

They wanted to show people what is is like coming to Yap, how to get there and what you’ll enjoy when you visit. >So, that was our main goal.

We had a couple of meetings at DEMA, the main industry trade show, and many emails and phone calls to put together a plan. The result was a very comprehensive design upgrade bringing them into the modern era. The site featured stunning photography, captivating video, and fascinating cultural information and sported a custom built, online booking solution. We custom-built a booking system that ran parallel to their in-house reservation software, offering up-to-date availability. Something that was not available at the time. This was tricky as their island’s internet connection was unreliable and very slow. But, we worked out a solution.

They became a retainer client and we worked for many years constantly maintaining and upgrading the website.

Their website is actually visited by a lot of Yapese expatriates as it is a place where off-island people can get information and see photos and videos of the goings-on in Yap, family members and friends.

We have produced many other projects and solutions for them over the years. At one point they decided to bring their website in-house for a time as they had a person on-island to work with. So, we helpfully provided everything to the new person to ensure that our wonderful client had everything they needed that we produced for them. That person has since moved on in 2018 to pursue another venture.

They hired us again towards the end of 2019 to start the process of redoing their current website which is coming soon. Stay Tuned. 🙂

We have had and continue enjoy a wonderful relationship and friendship with Bill Acker, his family and staff. They are truly special people. Oh, and the diving in Yap is absolutely amazing!

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