Software Development

The project aims to innovate a hyperlocal data platform to sustainably support our economy. The innovation uses local knowledge to assist the local economy. The vision is to create and support a sustainable tourist economy, through delivering key, real-time information promoting safe experiences in a given area.

Since 2010 tourism has been the fastest growing sector in the UK in employment terms. Britain is forecast to have a tourism industry worth over £257 billion by 2025. In 2018, Cornwall's economy was worth £9 billion a year, of which £1.8bn came from tourism. This equated to 4 million visitors that year alone. During the same year, 26 people died accidentally off the county's coastline. This statistic is based on 2018 figures, prior to Covid-19 and the dramatic increase in UK tourism due to travelling restrictions. May 2020 saw 6 coastal deaths in only 8 days. In August 2020, Cornwall was "largely full to current capacity", according to local police. On one weekend, Devon and Cornwall Police saw a 26% increase in 999 callouts compared with 2019. No platform currently integrates real-time data to inform and educate people on the dangers of our coastline.

To date the project has been through a discovery phase involving a workshop with key stakeholders to explore the requirements for the mobile applications. From this a wireframe clickable prototype was developed in Figma, which shows the interactions and general experience that we are looking for. The wireframe will therefore form a key input into the development of the application, but tenderers should not be limited by this initial design.

We are seeking a software developer to build a publicly available development app for testing over the summer on three Cornish beaches and the surrounding amenities.