Visitor Surveys
What about the visitors?
Understanding our visitors is key to developing and maintaining the Lake District and Cumbria as a world class tourism destination. Cumbria Tourism's visitor research includes studying the visitor profile, purpose of their visit, lengths of stay, transport, information sources, motivations, experiences, and activities undertaken or planned during the stay.
Face-to-face interviews and self complete surveys are used with the objective of identifying potential problems, as well as areas of good practice and service delivery, and to monitor these over time, to ensure continuous improvement.
Domestic Visitors
Visitor survey
Cumbria Tourism commissions an in-depth visitor survey every three years to reassess visitor opinions, attitudes, and behaviours in Cumbria. The last survey in 2009, surveyed 2684 visitors and will be used to inform local businesses, identify marketing opportunities, assist in regional tourism development and strategy. The next visitor survey is underway. To view the Cumbria Visitor Survey 2009 please go to the Research Request Form
Individual Town Surveys
The town surveys are part of a wider national destination benchmarking scheme. The survey covers more than 20 aspects of a visit, including accommodation, shops, eating and drinking venues, tourist information, parking, signage and public toilets.
The surveys enable the destinations to measure and compare visitor opinions, satisfaction levels, and the town's ability to deliver a positive visitor experience.
Participating Cumbrian Market Towns:
2005 - Alston, Ambleside, Bowness-on-Windermere, Keswick, Penrith, and Ulverston
2006 - Barrow-in-Furness, Cockermouth, Coniston, and Kirkby Stephen
2007 - Carlisle, Kendal, Whitehaven, and Windermere
2008 - Keswick, Penrith, and Ulverston
To view any of the town survey reports please go to the Research Request Form
Report Spotlight
Our latest individual town surveys for Keswick, Penrith, and Ulverston are now available. This is the first time the town surveys have been repeated in the benchmark scheme and the reports include findings of how things have changed since 2005, when the surveys were last run.
Contact a member of our research team with any queries or requests on 01539 822222.
International Surveys
To research the international visitor market more thoroughly Cumbria Tourism collaborates with a wide range of tourism businesses throughout the county, including accommodation providers, Tourism Information Centres and visitor attractions. During 2009 questionnaires were distributed through this network as well as by interviewers to gather details on individual markets.
To view the ‘International Visitor Survey 2009' report please go to the Research Request Form
The Office for National Statistics also collects information on overseas markets through its International Passenger Survey. Around 250,000 interviews are carried out each year as part of this sample survey, with travelers as they enter or leave the UK.
To view the ‘Overseas Tourism in Cumbria' summary report please go to the Research Request Form
More information about the International Passenger Survey
Where are visitors staying?
Cumbria Tourism runs ongoing occupancy surveys to monitor occupancy rates amongst serviced accommodation, self-catering, and caravans and camping providers..more
How's business?
Cumbria Tourism runs regular surveys amongst tourism businesses to monitor performance and asses the state of the tourism industry..more
Which attractions are being visited?
Each year Cumbria Tourism runs a visitor volume survey amongst visitor attractions across the county..more
Why are visitors coming to the Lake District, Cumbria?
To better understand visitors to Cumbria the Lake District a range of surveys and research projects are commissioned and run by Cumbria Tourism...more
What types of people visit and where do they go?
Cumbria Tourism undertakes research into the attitudes, perceptions, and behaviours of visitors, identifying the different visitor segments that come to Cumbria the Lake District.
