New satellite technology helps visitors ‘travel smarter’ in the Lake District, Cumbria
With the school summer holidays well underway, Cumbria Tourism has launched a new online travel planner, funded by the European Space Agency, to help visitors plan their trip in the most efficient way possible.
The county’s Local Visitor Economy Partnership (LVEP) is at the forefront of this new pilot project using the latest satellite technology powered by ‘You. Smart. Thing.’
It means that visitors can search venues and places to visit across the Lake District, Cumbria and are given personalised journey routes to help them experience new places. It also allows businesses to send out personalised travel plans to customers before they visit and to notify them of travel updates.
The travel planner is free for tourism businesses to use and easy to embed on their own websites. They can even add their own EV charge points to the map and help increase the network.
Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism, Gill Haigh, says:
“This exciting new technology enables visitors to create their own personalised travel plans for both getting here and getting around. It’s a really positive way of promoting sustainable and active travel too, as they can choose the best low-carbon options by mixing travel by train, bus, car, cycle, walking and so on.
Helping to managing visitors as they journey to and within Cumbria is an important strand of the county’s recently-launched Destination Management Plan and this easy-to-use online tool will not only enhance visitors experiences out and about, but will help will minimise pressure on our world-class landscape.
We’re proud to be one of the first parts of the country using this innovative new technology and are looking forward to gathering important data about user travel trends for future destination planning too”.
CEO of ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ Chris Thompson adds:
“We are delighted to be supporting Cumbria Tourism and Visitlakedistrict.com in balancing visitor experience and economic growth with environmental sustainability. Using space-based technologies in this way will help to continually enhance our routing algorithm and offer travel options that are optimised to help achieve regional objectives. It represents a step-change in the purpose and utility of travel planning services.”
‘You. Smart. Thing.’ will also be one of the headline speakers at Cumbria Tourism’s ‘Innovation and Future Trends Conference’ this November, which will be focusing on the new innovations and opportunities for the tourism industry in 2025 and beyond.
In the meantime, see www.visitlakedistrict.com/travel-planner (also featured below) to check out Cumbria Tourism’s new travel planner in action.
Editors Notes
Hashtags: #LifeIsaTripOut #Tourism, #Sustainability, #ThePerfectPlaceToBe
About ‘You. Smart. Thing.’
The ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ (YST) travel assistant interface plugs into websites or smartphone apps, to offer pre-configured transport modes and routes that help manage people- flow and minimise overcrowding. For larger venues it can also integrate with ticketing and CRM systems and booking flows, streamlining box office management and customer engagement.
Curating their trip minimises visitors’ carbon footprint whilst enhancing their overall experience. Visitors receive email or SMS updates in the event of delays or disruption, and operational teams get granular GDPR-compliant information about who is coming, where from and how, creating a communication tool and valuable dataset for better informed decisions.
‘You. Smart. Thing.’ was developed in association with the Department for Transport and is currently being rolled out across the UK, helping to rebuild audiences and a thriving cultural economy by actively promoting sustainable travel to venues and events.
https://yousmartthing.com/ | hello@yousmartthing.com
About Cumbria Tourism
For more information, please contact Cumbria Tourism Press Office on: 01539 822222 or email pressoffice@cumbriatourism.org
Cumbria Tourism is one of VisitEngland’s official ‘Local Visitor Economy Partnerships’ (LVEPs) and in 2024, marks 50 years supporting the county’s £4.1billion tourism industry. It is also the largest membership organisation in Cumbria, representing 4,500 member businesses.
