The initiative seeks innovative solutions to help local authorities predict and manage visitor demand at key destinations, using Castlewellan Forest Park as a test environment to shift from reactive to proactive management strategies.
The tender opportunity will be published on Simply Do platform under the challenge titled: Predicting Demand. Managing Tomorrows Visitors, Today “How can local authorities anticipate and manage visitor demand and movement across key destinations, while understanding the factors driving these changes, so they can proactively mitigate potential impacts before they become a problem.” This challenge is focused on transforming how local authorities manage visitor destinations. Using Castlewellan Forest Park as a real-world test environment, the initiative addresses the growing pressures that large rural tourism destinations face from fluctuating visitor demand, which impacts local roads, parking, waste services, biodiversity, and infrastructure. Historically, council management has relied on static measures and reactive interventions, such as annual visitor numbers or seasonal passes, which fail to provide real-time insights or predictive intelligence. The proposed project aims to transition local authority management from a fragmented, reactive approach to a connected, evidence-led, and predictive decision-making model.