This presentation, from ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ CEO, Chris Thompson, will explore the politics, practicalities, data capture, insights and legacy behaviour change that can be gained by using digital assistant technologies to tailor highly personalised low-carbon routing options and travel advice for visitors to destinations, venues and events.

Digital assistants, in their many forms, have become pervasive. They influence our behaviour in almost every aspect of modern life. At the same time (in 2019) an estimated 32.7 million people travelled over 55 billion miles for UK leisure purposes. 61% of them travelled by car. Dividing this by the average party of 2.2 people travelling together gives an estimated 33.7 billion leisure miles, a carbon emissions footprint of 6.6 million CO2 Tonnes, and, under international Climate Change Agreements, a potential levy to the UK government (or carbon credit dividend if offset) of £312,378,000. Post-Covid, despite efforts towards electrification, leisure travel by internal combustion engine vehicles in 2022 is forecast to have increased.

The presentation highlights travel demand management challenges in tackling the carbon footprint of major events, alongside visitor engagement strategies, and the positive environmental impact of the ‘You. Smart. Thing.’ travel assistant service, deployed across Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and its UK House B2B conference, Rugby League World Cup 2021, and by Coventry City Council during Coventry’s tenure as the 2021/22 UK City of Culture.