Exploring beyond London - compiling secondary data

BVA BDRC is a market research agency well known for its primary consumer and employee research, rather than as an information aggregator or desk research provider. But when our clients require information in this way, we are happy to be of service. The following case study demonstrates how we can efficiently collect and organise data from secondary sources to help organisations make informed business decisions.

One of VisitBritain’s objectives is to encourage overseas visitors to the UK to explore beyond London. To facilitate this, VisitBritain is championing partnerships between travel organisations and attractions for their mutual benefit. Highlighting attractions in the local area also benefits train operators wishing to encourage travel, while promotion by the train lines can boost attraction admissions. We were therefore asked to identify attractions which fall within a 5 mile radius of 35 stations across 3 mainline train routes in the UK, as well as any major attractions in the area that fell outside of the 5 mile catchment.

We sourced lists of major attractions along each of the train lines through published attractions lists and desk research. Geographical mapping software helped us identify the distance of attractions to the relevant stations and selected the top attractions for profiling. Finally, we used desk research to provide full details of each attraction to be used by VisitBritain in their promotion of each area.

The prioritised attractions were delivered to VisitBritain as a data file. The data information collected allowed them to select the most appropriate attraction mix to promote each destination, a real step up in promoting the delights of a wider Britain to overseas visitors.

The effectiveness of this strategy won’t be understood for at least another year, and we hope to publish more outcomes in the future.