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ENGLAND’S HISTORIC CITIES<br />
Augmented Reality App<br />
We have been working as project<br />
managers for the England’s<br />
Historic Cities Discover England<br />
Fund project. We received<br />
£250,000 to develop a mobile app<br />
which used augmented reality<br />
to bring the stories of England’s<br />
Historic Cities to life.<br />
England’s Historic Cities are<br />
13 cities covering the length<br />
and breadth of England. We are<br />
well-connected via rail and road<br />
and possess an offer which is<br />
inherently similar, thereby acting<br />
as a common thread joining our<br />
cities together. But at the same<br />
time the offer is unique in terms<br />
of the specific experiences and<br />
stories that can be brought to life<br />
in our destinations.<br />
England’s Historic Cities work<br />
together on lobbying and<br />
benchmarking, but we have<br />
started to collaborate more<br />
particularly on international<br />
initiatives. The Discover<br />
England Fund provided<br />
us with the opportunity<br />
to come together once<br />
again and address a key<br />
issue; that whilst heritage<br />
is one of the main products<br />
on which England is sold<br />
to international audiences, in<br />
heritage settings beyond London<br />
it is difficult to attract the attention<br />
and interest of international<br />
visitors beyond the core market<br />
of couples over 45. There is also a<br />
lack of relevant tools for the trade<br />
and consumer to use to both sell<br />
and experience the product.<br />
For this project we collaborated to<br />
develop an innovative augmented<br />
reality (AR) product that is set to<br />
bring heritage to life. It consists of<br />
an app and videos that transport<br />
the user back in time to unveil the<br />
hidden lives of some of history’s<br />
most fascinating characters at<br />
historic cities across the country.<br />
The premise of the app is to<br />
capture significant historic<br />
moments in time whilst providing<br />
tourists the opportunity to explore<br />
England’s most historic cities. It<br />
uses cutting-edge technology to<br />
give the historical moments a fresh<br />
perspective and make history’s<br />
fascinating characters come to<br />
life. In a rapidly changing and<br />
competitive tourist environment,<br />
the use of AR technology will<br />
offer a point of difference that will<br />
attract visitors and showcase the<br />
best of the city.<br />
In Chester, the AR experience<br />
takes the user back to the<br />
grizzliest reconstructions of its<br />
bloody and brutal past. Visitors<br />
will be able to look through the<br />
beautiful ornamental planting that<br />
surrounds the amphitheatre today<br />
and instead be transported to the<br />
amphitheatre as it was in Roman<br />
times. They will see for themselves<br />
and learn through the app why<br />
such brutality was a fundamental<br />
part of Roman culture, all while<br />
standing in the very spot where<br />
the history happened.<br />
The app ‘England’s Historic Cities’<br />
is available to download for free<br />
on the app store or at<br />
historic-cities.com.<br />
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