Lying at the northwestern corner of England, ancient Cumbria and its crown gem of Lake District National Park offer a timeless landscape of shimmering lakes and glorious mountains. It’s a land fit for working artists and wild adventurers alike, steeped in a deep heritage of culture expressed in traditional games and performances. Not to mention, visitors have the chance to visit UNESCO World Heritage site Hadrian’s Wall, the largest Roman archaeological feature in Britain. With so much to offer, Cumbria Tourism was confident that they could elevate the region to become, as the hashtag for their effort suggested, #theplacetobe. To transform Cumbria into Europe’s number one rural tourism destination, they partnered with Simpleview to build a website that could deliver a combination of best practice design and innovative functionality.

Prior to the redesign of the Lake District website, Cumbria Tourism ran separate mobile and desktop sites, so the team set out to create one definitive mobile-optimized website, outfitted with a contemporary style and enhanced commercial opportunities for Cumbria and the Lake District's tourism providers. The team also worked together on an initial page audit, enabling a solid foundation for construction of the site map and navigation as well as taking measures to mitigate any potential search engine visibility issues.

The resulting site utilizes stunning, expansive hero images within a full-width carousel allowing the beauty of the area to be represented, whether viewed on desktop or on mobile devices. The design is clean, vibrant and inviting with complementary messaging inspiring visitors to unwind, immerse themselves in culture or take part in an adventure. The full width 'mega menu' allows visitors to seamlessly navigate around the site's abundant content. Although a wealth of information is displayed on the site's pages, users can swiftly access the information that they want using the anchor links displayed at the top of each page. New layouts for the product pages also help to simplify the browsing experience and improve visibility for the key elements of information. 

Rachel Tyson, Head of Marketing and Partnerships at Cumbria Tourism was “delighted” with the result. “We believe that the finished product represents the collective expertise of both companies, featuring great design, cutting-edge functionality and all of the tools that visitors to the Lake District and Cumbria will possibly need,” she shared. “We look forward to seeing the site evolve and we're confident that we have a partner that can help us to meet all of the demands of the visitor, both now and in the future.”