Trinity College Dublin is set to spend €150,000 on the development of a new app for self-guided tours by tourists of the historic city centre campus.
About one million people visited the campus each year before the Covid shutdown, to view the Book of Kells exhibition, generating €12.7 million in revenues. Of those, 87 per cent were overseas visitors.
During the pandemic those revenues slumped by €9.8 million to €2.9 million in the 12 months to the end of September last.
However, looking beyond Covid-19 and the return of overseas visitors, the college – as part of a campus-wide tourism strategy – is looking to increase the spend by visitors through an app that will have free and paid-for content.
Immersive tour
The tender for the app states that it will include a paid-for self-guided immersive tour through the Trinity campus “that will surprise and delight visitors with fascinating stories and interactive prompts”.
Trinity says the new tourism strategy for the campus “is rethinking the modes through which we commoditise visitor interactions, and to channel opportunities for additional promotions and additional spend in relevant ways”.
The university is seeking to develop the app against the background of the dramatic change in visitor behaviours over the past 12 months in the wake of Covid-19. Tourism has seen a trend towards digitised visitor interactions and increased digital interventions to support capacity management.
Old Library
The university says that ambitious redevelopment plans for the Old Library and the Book of Kells Exhibition that got the green light last year are also factors behind the decision to commission development of the app.
It expects the €150,000 cost of the project to fall due over a three-year period. The college says it may extend the contract for a further two years.
In the tender documents, Trinity says the app will include features such as booking accommodation; selling Trinity Gift Shop merchandise; and promoting on-site catering offerings and paid for and free live virtual tours and online exhibitions.
The deadline for tenders is May 12th.
