As Cumbria Tourism supports hundreds of tourism businesses in their preparations to re-open this summer, the organisation has launched a new, national survey, inviting people to tell the organisation how the COVID-19 pandemic is influencing their next destination choices.
The survey will form a vital part of Cumbria Tourism’s research into consumers’ future travel habits with a wide variety of questions ranging from the kind of measures visitors would like to see in-place during their visit, to the kind of areas they would feel most at ease.
Cumbria Tourism’s Managing Director, Gill Haigh, says, “Crucially, this survey will disclose valuable information about trends and changes in what our visitors both expect and need from their next holiday following the Coronavirus pandemic which is expected to have slashed the value of the tourism economy by 50% before the end of May.
“Therefore, the next phase of our ongoing work to help businesses recover needs to be with our visitors themselves. We need to know about their visit intentions, perceptions, expectations, and how we can make them feel safe while they are here. The results will help us to inform local businesses of the best-practices they can adopt to meet the evolving needs of their visitors, as well being very useful to help businesses inform their own marketing campaigns.”
The research will be carried-out primarily via Cumbria Tourism’s visitor database and social media channels, with a combined reach of hundreds of thousands of people.
The research will also be shared with Cumbria Tourism’s 2,500 member businesses, who can make use of the results to help shape their products, services, and marketing going forward during their recovery phase.
The survey is sponsored by The Cumberland Building Society, which will also provide the findings to its hospitality lending customers.
The Cumberland’s Senior Business Lending Manager Grant Seaton says: “Cumbria Tourism is at the forefront of research with both businesses and visitors. Having access to this data will provide our region’s businesses with a useful base from which to plan their recovery. Being local ourselves, we believe it is paramount to provide support wherever we possibly can, to help our economy return to health as quickly as possible. We are therefore delighted to be partnering with the team for this essential project to identify valuable insight to assist with the recovery from COVID-19’s effects on the industry.”
Everybody who enters will also automatically be entered into a prize draw to win a ‘Pure Night’ indulgence box of skin care products from Pure Lakes Skincare, worth £50.
Past-visitors and those who are planning their first visit, can take part in the survey, here.
