Cambridge tourism board turns to students to help raise its profile

The organisation tasked with promoting one of the world’s best-known tourist hotspots has turned to students from the University of Northampton for advice.
Visit Cambridge is looking for ways to attract more visitors to its tourist information centre, which is housed in the city’s historic Guildhall.

While more than 300,000 people visit the centre each year, Visit Cambridge feels more could be tempted, particularly during the off-peak season.

It challenged a group of International Tourism Management undergraduates from Northampton to find out ways of boosting visitor numbers.

The students spent time in the city investigating, and came up with a series of recommendations, which they presented to 26 people, including members of the Visit Cambridge board and representatives from Visit England.

“We found there were several factors affecting the centre, including the need for better signage to make it easier to find, and its location,” said final-year undergraduate, Brianna Lewis.

“Our main recommendation was to relocate the centre to a ‘honey pot’ area where large numbers of visitors cluster, making it easier to find. But if the budget will not stretch to that, an alternative would be to set up a tourist information desk at the railway station.”

Brianna added: “The chance to work on a professional consultancy project like this has been a fantastic opportunity to carry out practical work in the real world.

“It helped us to learn how to work as a team, given us experience and increased our confidence as we now feel we are able to present to professionals working in the tourism industry.”

Senior Lecturer, Angela Anthonisz, added: “Working with a dedicated client on a real-life business challenge gives students the opportunity to build their knowledge of the everyday problems and constraints confronting managers in the service sector, and helps develop the skills they will need for future employability.”

Brianna is pictured with her course mates, Chantiece Bates, Daniella Knight, Lauren Lacey, Lee Oatham and Aleksandra Sienicka, outside the information centre.