Gardens and Gourmet - Digital Local Guides

Gardens and Gourmet is a Discover England year-one funded pilot project, led by Go To Places (GTP) and incorporates five regional partners; Kent, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cheshire and Peak District & Derbyshire. Gardens and Gourmet will place the people and the place at the heart of the project. There is a longstanding negative perception for many overseas visitors about the quality of English food, the appeal of our natural attractions and the level of hospitality. The project will address these head on in an innovative way by enabling international visitors to discover a high-quality, memorable and sensory rural England.

The project will target visitors coming to London with a bookable Garden & Gourmet Pass, provided by an established third party pass supplier. The booking platform will link to the digital local guides to ensure visitors have all the information they need, to make their booking.

Taking inspiration from the AirBnB model of valuing guest/host interaction the digital local guides will encourage this kind of quality engagement, where desired by the visitor. The digital local guides will use innovative technology e.g. Virtual Reality and Google Cardboard to create more immersive engagement between audiences and the product. This will include interactive itineraries with authentic local recommendations, presented by local personalities and ambassadors, knitting together a new rural tourism strand aiming to offer the international visitor a truly English experience. These will emphasise the local aspect of what can be experienced in each county - local food, local stories, local wine, local knowledge, local produce and local personalities. The digital guides must take advantage of the latest technology. Key Objectives  To provide inspirational authentic local insight on gardens, gourmet and the wider tourism offering to international visitors using new, innovative technology.  To showcase all that rural England has to offer (focussing on the following regional hubs – Kent, Essex, Hertfordshire, Cheshire, Peak District & Derbyshire).  To deliver the digital guides in local languages to three key markets (USA, and two near European markets – Germany and The Netherlands).  To develop local guides that can be distributed to the target markets via the websites, at trade shows and events.  To use innovative immersive technology to create engagement between the user and the product.  To bring the regional Gardens and Gourmet experiences to life, providing detailed information at pre arrival stage, enticing visitors to feel confident to explore the regions.  To drive bookings of the ‘Gardens and Gourmet’ pass and competition pages for data capture (hosted on partners/third party websites).  To inspire visitors to share the information with family and friends, sign up to receive news and updates (data capture) - raising the profile and reaching even more visitors. Local guides launch no later than mid-January 2017.

Additional information: Tender deadline: 18th October 2016 – All tenders must be received by 12:00 noon Pitch date: 31st October (shortlisted to no more than five suppliers - to be held at Visit Kent’s offices in Canterbury). Contract award and 1st stage planning meeting: 7th November 2016. Local guides launch no later than mid-January 2017. Detailed delivery plan and timeline to be agreed with the winning supplier.