Innovation Challenge: Predicting Visitor Demand for Local Destinations

This innovation challenge invites suppliers to develop solutions that help local authorities predict and manage visitor demand at key tourism destinations. Using Castlewellan Forest Park as a real-world pilot, the project addresses the operational challenges faced by rural tourism sites, including impacts on traffic, parking, waste management, biodiversity, and infrastructure. Current management practices rely on static data and reactive responses, such as annual visitor counts or seasonal restrictions. The challenge seeks innovative technologies or systems that provide real-time insights and predictive intelligence to enable proactive, evidence-based decision-making. Successful solutions will help transition local authorities from fragmented, reactive management to a connected, data-driven approach that anticipates visitor patterns and mitigates problems before they occur. Suppliers should propose solutions that can forecast visitor movement, identify driving factors behind demand fluctuations, and support integrated planning across multiple service areas.