AI for smart visitor management and Oxfordshire branch AGM

An artificial intelligence project, developed by experts at Oxford Brookes University, is helping one of Oxfordshire’s most prestigious tourist attractions enhance its customer service and visitor experience. The partnership between Oxford Brookes and Blenheim Palace started in 2020 with 32-month-long Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) funded by InnovateUK, and has been continued into a 2-year consultancy project.

The project is helping to transform the historic estate – famous as the birthplace of Winston Churchill – into a ‘smart’ visitor attraction by using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Experts from the AI and Data Analysis Network (AIDAN) at Oxford Brookes helped Blenheim Palace to develop a Smart Visitor Management System (VMS) that helps the operations team at Blenheim make decisions about running the palace. The system uses data from digital sensors located around the Blenheim Estate that monitor everything from footfall and ticket sales to retail and catering sales.

The Oxford Brookes team developed AI models that use the data to help predict visitor flows and monitor consumption in locations such as the estate’s catering outlets. They also developed an app called What’s Open When (WOW) that tells the operations team at Blenheim Palace in real-time which parts of the Palace and Estate are open, where it is busy and where it is quieter.