Gardens and Gourmet - Visitor Pass and booking platform

One of the strongest assets of England’s rural regions is the fantastic tourism product available to visit. England has more than 3,600 historic parks and gardens, and delicious local produce.

Gardens and Gourmet is a Discover England year-one funded pilot project, led by Go To Places and incorporates five regional partners; Kent, Hertfordshire, Essex, Cheshire and Peak District & Derbyshire. The project runs until 31st March 2017 (end of year one funding) and may be rolled out to a wider geographical area and audience, in years two and three should funding become available.

The Gardens and Gourmet project will provide international visitors with a world-class, integrated, bookable product (the digital visitor pass) to explore England’s regional gardens and gourmet offer. Targeting visitors to London, audiences will engage with local tourism product and local people through the use of innovative technology. We are also developing digital local guides which will inspire international visitors to go out and explore these regions by arming them with information that only locals would know.

The digital visitors pass will cover all partner regions and will include multiple gardens and gourmet visitor attractions, with bookable product for e.g. a two or three-day duration. It will also offer discounts on local restaurants, cafes and gourmet food places. The visitor will have the option to review travel from London and within the local area, via partner websites making visiting the region easy.

The pass will be developed using the latest pass technology, allowing the visitor to book a pass pre arrival and use for the duration of their pass either on their device or as a printed e-ticket. Using the latest pass technology will encourage take up from the tour operators and third party sellers, as well as ensuring the product is scalable in years two and three, if required.

The pass will be made available to visitors to the London area, as a gateway to the rest of the UK and promoted as a way of escaping London and enjoying the English countryside. It will be marketed to travel trade and visitors in two near Europe territories, Germany and The Netherlands and one long-haul market (USA). The pass will be promoted by all the project partners with a full marketing campaign, including social media activity, press and eCRM.

Key Objectives

Additional information: Timings:

Tender deadline: 18th October 2016 – All tenders must be received by 12:00 noon

Pitch date: 1st November (shortlisted to no more than three suppliers - to be held at Go To Places/VisitKent offices in Canterbury).

Contract award and 1st stage planning meeting: 7th November 2016.

Visitor pass and all systems to be in place and on sale to the customer by January 2017.

Detailed delivery plan and timeline to be agreed with the winning supplier.