We have been appointed by the West Midlands Growth Company (WMGC) to deliver a major Digital Visitor Engagement project for the region, as part of the government funded Business and Tourism Programme (BATP).

The BATP is supporting the showcasing opportunity of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to drive trade, investment and visitors to the West Midlands region and the UK.

Its Digital Visitor Engagement strand will create a new Digital Visitor Information Network that connects the destinations and tourist attractions throughout the West Midlands via a centralised listings platform. The new platform will provide increased opportunities for visitors to discover and book culture, leisure and tourism products via multiple consumer channels.

Delivery of the project comes at a critical time for tourism in the region, with preparations well underway for next year’s Commonwealth Games and Cultural Festival, as well as Coventry recently kickstarting its delayed celebrations as the UK City of Culture 2021.

To support The Digital Visitor Information Network, we will lead a digital marketing collaboration bringing cultural partners together to work on region-wide marketing campaigns that can deliver measurable results through improved reporting and ongoing optimisation of digital engagement.

Dan Lukas, Digital Director, said: “This is a really exciting time for the West Midlands and it’s fantastic to be working with the West Midlands Growth Company to make sure that all destinations and attractions throughout the region will have the digital capabilities they need to maximise their own tourism products and offer.

“The Digital Visitor Engagement work will make it easier for visitors to discover the culture and tourism offer at a time when all eyes will be on Birmingham and the wider region in the build-up to, and beyond, next year’s Commonwealth Games.

“This is a chance to harness digital in a way that both drives direct visitor engagement with individual attractions while also taking a holistic approach to showcase the wider visitor offer by responding to how today’s visitors research and book online, using many different digital channels.“

Becky Hall, Head of Visitor Attraction, West Midlands Growth Company, said: “We look forward to working with CTConsults, whose expertise will prove valuable as we deliver the digital visitor engagement element of our Business and Tourism Programme. This new digital project will lead to transformational ways of interacting with cultural and tourism industry partners across our West Midlands destinations.

“By increasing our region’s tourism digital know-how and collaborating to promote the depth of our cultural offer, we will give visitors a seamless experience of finding information, and booking events, festivals and performances.

“Tourism brings so many benefits to the West Midlands, from improved quality of life to job opportunities, and this programme will contribute to the long-term resilience of the sector.”

We have been working with clients in Manchester and across the country over the last five years to find solutions to the issue of widening access to what’s on cultural listings. We developed an online integrated listings platform (Culture Hosts) for cultural events that powers our own consumer-facing website creativetourist.com that targets cultural visitors to the North and also feeds cultural listings to visitmanchester.com, targeting national and international visitors to the city.

Manchester City Council appointed us to work in partnership to develop a website for residents that promotes the depth and breadth of cultural events and activities happening across the city down to individual neighbourhood level. The Loads to Do website is powered by our online integrated listings platform Culture Hosts.

Dan Lukas, our Digital Director said: ‘We are delighted to be working with Manchester City Council on the Loads to Do website in our home city. It’s great to be able to apply our learning and build on our work developing solutions to the age-old problem of how to find out what’s on. This new website will help to widen access to cultural activities and events for local residents and at the same time, make it easy for cultural partners to upload and share their listings information locally.’

Councillor Luthfur Rahman OBE, Deputy Leader Manchester City Council said: “We all know Manchester is the best city in the universe to visit and hang out in, and whether you live here or are just passing through, ‘Loads to Do’ is the one-stop shop you’ve been waiting for. Opening up a world of possibilities and new experiences to people as they browse the ever-changing listings, the website is for anyone and everyone, young or old, who has time on their hands and is looking for something to do in our amazing and welcoming city.”