Putting Scottish Canals on the (world) map!

A look at how Scottish Canals have adopted new technology to add value to the organisation and satisfy the demand from tourists. It also looks at how Scottish Canals engaged with one of the world’s biggest technology providers (in Google) and completed an exercise to capture the footage from its canal towpaths in order to showcase its assets to the world.

Transcript

1. Andrew McSherry Putting Scottish Canals on the (world) map! www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND
2. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Tourism & Scottish Canals • In 2015, 14.6m visitors contributed over £5bn to Scotland’s GDP (around c5%) • Tourism includes local, national & international visitors • Over 1m people live within 3km of the Lowland Canals alone • Scottish Canals is very much about creating exciting & memorable tourist destinations • This equates to HUGE potential!
3. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Tourism & Scottish Canals
4. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND What Scottish Canals has to offer… • Some pretty special assets indeed • That truly celebrate the nature, wildlife, 
 architecture & culture of Scotland • Not just the canals themselves – but 
 what’s going on around them • The worlds only rotating boat lift, The 
 Kelpies,137 miles of canal infrastructure, 1 state 
 an urban water sports facility, 
 14 cottages, 2 bothies… • A friendly welcome!
5. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Thought process of a typical tourist..
6. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND The challenge? • How to maximise exposure of these great assets cost effectively • How technology could help achieve that • Needs to be easy for customers to access
 • Why reinvent the wheel - Google Maps!
7. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND What is Google Maps? • It’s a web mapping service from Google. • Offers satellite imagery, street maps, 360° panoramic views of streets (Street View), real-time traffic conditions (Google Traffic), and route planning for traveling by foot, car, bicycle or public transportation • >1bn monthly users • 50% of global internet users use service • A truly global audience.
 

8. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Google Trekker – the journey • Had to convince Google of our need & our plans • Who was going to do the trekking? • Doesn’t work that well when its raining or really sunny! • Opportunity to showcase our assets – off & on the water!
9. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Google Trekker • Imagery capture requires use of Google Trekker • We used Scottish Canals Asset Inspectors to do the trekking • It’s a 20kg (expensive!) machine • Some varying responses from
 canalsiders • The team absolutely owned it!!
10. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Google Trekker – the results
11. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Google Trekker – the results • Some great footage here – lets delve in!
 
 https://www.google.com/maps/@56.0186834,-3.7565472,3a,75y,169.6h,74.69t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4! 1s6HLlGCK63fGGUR6UH58rPw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
 
 https://www.google.com/maps/@55.9297605,-4.4790602,3a,86.1y,282.55h,80.3t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4! 1sgW8wQPHLAHifFrBce5JKOA!2e0!7i13312!8i6656
 
 
 

12. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Next steps • Trekking footage gathering aiming to be completed in September 2016 • Upload to Google environment • Press Launch soon after • API integration to www.scottishcanals.co.uk integrating 
 with pages for tourism attractions, Living on Water,
 Canalside Cottages, canal transit “birds eye view” etc
13. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND The Benefits… • Gives me a (hopefully) interesting conference topic for discussion! • Visitors to attractions able to see what’s going on and plan their trip • Runners/bikers/joggers/sailors able to scope out their journey in detail • Prospective residents in cottages/houseboats able to inspect the locale • Visitors able to visualise any part of the estate • Staff able to pinpoint locations visually for operational issues • Zero cost! • Creates a historical record
14. www.wcc16.com #WCCSCOTLAND Q&A