Manchester's visitor economy contributes £5.4 billion annually and supports over 75,000 jobs. In 2010, the Manchester Visitor Information Centre relocated to a new downtown location to better serve the city's growing visitor numbers. The new centre utilizes advanced technology like digital displays, Surface tables, and social media feeds to provide an enhanced visitor experience and increase economic impact. Visitor surveys found that the new centre increased visitor satisfaction and better showcased local attractions and events.

1. Manchester United FC
Deploying advanced technology to deliver an
enhanced visitor experience:
Manchester Visitor Information Centre
Andrew Daines

2. Manchester: the ‘Original Modern’ City

3. Eurocultured ‐ outdoor music festival
Manchester Pride Festival
Exchange Square
International Sport Host City ‐ Velodrome

4. Manchester’s Visitor Economy
• UK’s third most popular visitor destination for
international visitors – 811,000 in 2010
Source: International Passenger Survey (Office for National Statistics / VisitBritain)
• Tourism contributes £5.4 billion to the
economy of Greater Manchester and supports
over 75,000 full‐time equivalent jobs
Source: Visit Manchester
• Well connected; Manchester Airport is UK’s
third busiest, high‐speed trains connect
London in 2 hours, Metrolink within city and
Greater Manchester

5. Manchester Visitor Information Centre
2010: Redevelopment in the city centre offered
opportunity for VIC to re‐locate to a new
position within increased visitor flows,
allowing also for increased visitor information
delivery in multiple formats’
Original buildings ‐
Piccadilly Gardens,
adjacent to new
Former VIC New VIC VIC location
location location

6. Key objectives
• To truly reflect the original modern essence of
Manchester
• Increased opportunity to showcase the tourism
product of Greater Manchester
• Increase the products and location spread that can
be accessed by visitors to the Manchester VIC ‐ to
increase economic impact
• Increase relevance of information to that day
creating interest and atmosphere in what’s going
on that day/evening
• Increase the ways that visitors can gain information

7. New VIC, new technology
• New services:
– Mediawall
– Microsoft
Surface Tables
– Twitter and
DMS Feeds
– PCs for
customers’ use

8. New services: Mediawall
• Showcase products best suited to the moment
in time
• Increase member engagement and revenue
generation

9. New services: Microsoft Surface Tables
• Allows visitors to search and find content in a
fun, sociable, innovative and intuitive way
• Search for different product types simultaneously
• Content fed from DMS
• First deployment by a European destination

10. New services: Twitter & DMS feeds
• Screens around the centre display live twitter
feeds from visitmanchester.com from a range
of sources, including tourism businesses,
residents and visitors and events data from
the DMS
• Creates an interest and buzz about what’s
going on right now – for visitors to pick up on
and consider in
their visit plans

11. New services: PCs
• Visitors can book
accommodation,
transport and events,
and search for further
information and more
detail on places or
events they’ve heard
about or picked up on
through
visitmanchester.com
and individual
tourism business
websites

12. Visitor profile of VIC users
• 42% are first‐time visitors to Greater
Manchester
• 67% from the UK: large proportion of these
from nearby areas of northern England (19%
from North West England, 18% from
Yorkshire)
• 33% overseas visitors: key markets are
Germany, France, United States, Ireland, Spain
• Proportion of leisure staying visitors increased
by 10%
Source: Qa Research

13. Visitor response: 2009 / 2011
Average Average % difference
2009 2011 2009 / 2011
Overall appearance of the VIC n/a 4.74 n/a
Layout of the VIC inside 4.28 4.74 10.7%
Access to information 4.37 4.74 8.5%
Friendliness of staff n/a 4.74 n/a
Speed of service n/a 4.73 n/a
The information service received here in 4.46 4.7 5.4%
the VIC
Interactive displays n/a 4.61 n/a
Manchester VIC in comparison with 4.26 4.48 5.2%
other VICs visited
Range of gifts and souvenirs on sale 4.13 4.24 2.7%
Rating scale 1=very poor, 5= very good. n/a – not asked in 2009 survey
Source: Qa Research

14. Impact of technology
• Less queues
• 52% of visitors used either the surface tables or the
PC to gain visitor information
– Younger respondents particularly were more likely to use the
surface tables and computer without assistance by a member
of staff ‐ 43% of those aged 16 to 25 used surface tables
independently compared to 20% of those aged 36 to 45
• 58% of visitors discovered new places to visit
through using the technology
• 66% of visitors cited the information technology
provision as a reason why they’d use the VIC again
Source: Qa Research

15. Information and inspiration
Visit Manchester
visitmanchester.com
facebook.com/visitmanchester
twitter.com/visit_mcr
youtube.com/visitmanchester
Qa Research
qaresearch.co.uk
twitter.com/QaResearch
Images courtesy of Visit Manchester

16. About Qa Research
• Tourism Research Specialist
• Strong focus on:
– Perception studies of international destinations with UK
audience
– International perception studies in key overseas markets
– Visitor research
– Non‐visitor research
– Evaluation of programmes/ events
• Clients include:
– Visit England
– Visit Wales
– Visit Manchester
– Marketing Birmingham

17. MediaCityUK
Thank you
Andrew Daines
andrew@andrewdaines.com