Mercer County has a new look -- on the Internet.

The Mercer County Convention & Visitors Bureau unveiled its new Web page Thursday at its Sharon office. Enticing people to visit the area and the web site were the main goals of the Web design.

"We tried to make the site to have a lot of reasons to come back,'' said Carol Schultz, interactive account manager for Winner Advertising. The Sharon company created the site for the tourism bureau.

Located at mercercountypa.org the 75-page site is filled with places to visit, eat, shop and sleep throughout the county.

Features include a calendar of events, directions and even local weather forecasts. A special promotion section will offer coupons offered by local businesses that can be printed.

Other features include a photo gallery showing local sites such as parks and recreation areas, along with postcards that can be e-mailed showing the various sites of the county.

Winner Advertising's design won over those attending the event which included members of the tourist agency.

"I'm pretty impressed with the Web site,'' said Vince Cardamone, manager of Reyers Shoe Store, Sharon. "It's very detailed; it has depth.''

It cost about $15,000 to create the web site, with the county's 2 percent hotel tax being used to defray the costs. A new video was also produced which highlights tourist sites.

Mercer County Commissioner Cloyd "Gene'' Brenneman attended the event and noted since enacting the hotel room tax last November, more than $176,000 has been funneled to the tourist agency.

The county has collected the tax from 30 local hotels, motels and bed and breakfasts. However, one bed and breakfast has refused to fork over tax proceeds, and Brenneman said the county is in the process of taking legal action against the business.

Next month Mercer County Commissioners will likely approve boosting the local tax to the 3 percent level, Brenneman said.

He noted though that because of a tight budget, Mercer County will reduce its annual contribution next year to $20,000 from $40,000.