Social distancing, travel restrictions and the closure of many business and countryside sites and attractions has been an essential part of the management of Coronavirus. However, these restrictions have severely disrupted people's normal pattern of countryside visits and recreational activities and this in turn is having a detrimental impact on the incomes of businesses, tourism enterprises and local economies. It is vitally important for the tourism economy and for health and well-being, that access to countryside recreation is sustainably reinstated as soon as possible.
Tourism businesses are having to find new ways to define and promote their offering in the new context of living with Coronavirus. They need new ways to ensure that visitors have the right information to give them the confidence to make bookings and visits. In particular, because the outdoors is low transmission risk environment, there is real opportunity for those business to boost their trade by through association with their local outdoor recreation opportunities.
This project will create an online solution to reinvigorate the rural tourism economy and encourage visitors to return to outdoor recreational pursuits. The project is called 'SABRe' - Safe Access Booking for Recreation. SABRe is a map-based, website that uniquely, brings together information on outdoor recreation opportunities with surrounding tourism assets and businesses. As well as helping visitors find the places that best meet their recreational needs, it will also help them find and book tourism services and provide the information necessary for them to be confident their visit will be practical and safe.
The site will bring together and make accessible the wealth of existing but currently disparate national and regional scale information on countryside recreation, for instance parking provision, public paths, greenspace, heritage sites, nature reserves, open gardens, etc. Land managers and tourism bodies will be able to add local sites and tourism operators will be add their services. Visitors can use the site to plan and book their visits. Businesses will be able to add information on how they are making their operation safe and specifically to include the new ‘Coronavirus safe kite marks’. Booking will be delivered through links to existing booking systems and through on site email messaging. The system will also be available as a bespoke application for regional use.
With the COVID 19 crisis having constantly changing effects in different regions an additional local data enrichment function will be provided. This will allow businesses and regional partners to easily and quickly create their own online map features, then add specific attraction details including photographs and up to date COVID related information. This function will help their target audience understand current opportunities or restrictions relevant to this feature/attraction. This function will help tourism providers, accurately and simply, give the required mix of attraction and COVID information to prospective visitors to the region.