With the main school summer holidays now under way, 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 visitors can search venues and places to visit across the Lake District 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, said: “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 added: “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.

The conference at the Low Wood Bay Resort aims to give tourism-related businesses the tools and skills they need to break their own boundaries and embrace the technology of the future. There will also be a range of first-hand demonstrations of the new technology being developed.
Visit: www.visitlakedistrict.com/travel-planner or to find out more about the ‘Innovation and Future Trends Conference on November 21, visit: www.cumbriatourism.org/upcoming-events/