Building the Visitor Welcome

 In 2007, the London Development Agency (LDA) launched a major project, Building the Visitor Welcome, to establish a framework for information provision in the capital.

The project, which is budgeted at around £3 million over three years, looks at every stage of the visitor journey, from arrival to departure.

It aims to reduce confusion for visitors by addressing every aspect of information provision including print, signage, telephone contact centres, face-to-face contact and electronic distribution, and embraces the needs of a variety of audiences – international, domestic and local.

The underlying principle is that free, impartial and reliable information goes a long way to creating a sense of comfort and confidence among visitors when they are in unfamiliar surroundings, and therefore enhances the sense of welcome.

In November 2007, Chris Foy joined the LDA on secondment from VisitBritain to lead this project, which is overseen by a Strategic Steering Group made up of Transport for London (TfL), Visit London, VisitBritain, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and LDA.

Highlights since November 2007 have included:

• Provision of a support package for Tourist Information Centres
• Commissioning of a new pan-London information service through the Britain and London Visitor Centre (BLVC)
• The completion of a feasibility study into London’s need for a contact centre
• The trial and development of mobile visitor information units
• Expansion of the London Ambassador programme (see below)
• Trialling of a new ‘Welcome to London’ leaflet with Eurostar and TfL
• Identifying new sites and partners to deliver high quality information
• Working with Visit London to enhance the promotion of London’s welcome offer through visitlondon.com

For further information please contact Chris Foy, chrisfoy@lda.gov.uk.

London Ambassadors

The welcome a visitor receives at a destination is key to the tourism experience. Visitors and participants also cite the visitor welcome as one of the main measures of success for Olympic and Paralympic Games.

With this in mind the LDA has invested in a scheme that provides new skills to existing customer-facing staff, helping them to move from local experts to London Ambassadors. The first recipients of the training have been the neighbourhood wardens who currently provide a uniformed presence on the streets of the capital, offering an additional level of information and security for visitors exploring London. In the first year over 200 wardens have been through the programme from warden schemes in the boroughs of Camden, Greenwich, Hammersmith & Fulham, Islington, Merton, Newham, Southwark, Waltham Forest, and Westminster City Council. The scheme  is now being rolled out to other staff at key visitor contact points such Heathrow Terminal 5 and TfL Travel Centres.

For further information please contact Emil Brannen, emilbrannen@lda.gov.uk.

Legible London

Finding your way around London on foot can be a confusing business. A recent study showed that there are 32 different types of signage for walkers in central London alone and that 44 per cent of pedestrians use the tube map to help them navigate. Many would-be walkers end up making journeys by car, bus or tube that would have been a quick, ten-minute stroll.

Transport for London (TfL) is working with the LDA tourism team on the Legible London project, to help encourage more journeys by foot and improve pedestrians’ quality of experience. Its long term aim is the design, development and roll-out of a consistent and simple pedestrian wayfinding system, initially in the congestion charge zone, and subsequently across the whole capital.

A prototype system was successfully installed in the Bond Street area in November 2007, the impact of which is currently being evaluated. Further larger-scale pilot projects are planned, the precise details and locations of which will be announced Summer 2008.

For more information on the Legible London project contact Alex Smith, alexsmith@lda.gov.uk.

Brown and white signage review

The LDA’s guidance on white-on-brown tourism signs in London was published in June 2007. The original project, based on stakeholder consultation and research, looked at how effective these road signs are in informing visitors and how they could be used more efficiently by visitor attractions, businesses and local authority transport and tourism officers.

The guidance is now with all local authority transport departments to help them in determining applications for the signs and a number have now incorporated the guidelines into their formal assessment process.

For further information please contact Alex Smith, alexsmith@lda.gov.uk.

The gold standard for customer service

Patchy customer service can make or break a visitor’s trip. With the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games in our sights, the London Development Agency is investing in the customer service skills of the workforce in London.

As a first stage the LDA and LSC have jointly funded six Sector Skills Councils (SSCs) to research customer service training provision across sectors, which impact on the visitor experience and to identify or develop 'gold standard' provision. There is a huge number of training courses available, provided in house and by public and private sector organisations, and no real benchmark as to how they compare or how effective they are.

The research aims to:

• Identify all existing customer service training provision
• Evaluate the effectiveness of different programmes
• Identify best practice (in terms of in-house provision and international programmes)
• Make recommendations regarding the content, method of delivery, time of delivery, and length of customer service provision.

The research will also make recommendations as to whether:

• The public sector should direct funding to existing programme/s
• Existing programme/s need updating/improving
• New programme/s need to be developed.

The first stage is due to be completed by mid June 2008.  For further information please contact Jane Nathan, JaneNathan@lda.gov.uk.

Britain and London Visitor Centre

We fund the Britain and London Visitor Centre (BLVC) to provide impartial, free of charge information and advice on the whole of London. Research shows that 99% of visitors would recommend the BLVC to others.