Zoo summit to tackle 'misleading' weather apps

Chester Zoo is hosting a summit to try and tackle misleading weather apps costing it up to £137,000 per day in lost visitor income.

It launched a campaign to tackle the problem in March, when chief operating officer Dom Strange said the sight of a single rain icon - which could mean a brief shower was forecast - was deterring some visitors.

"Since then, we've had constructive conversations with the Met Office and this summit is the next step," he said.

The zoo, which is holding the summit with the Met Office, government officials and 16 major UK attractions, wants a move to a Norwegian-style, four-slot forecast, splitting the day into six-hour windows rather than one summary icon.

"Getting government and 16 of the country's biggest attractions round the same table is a real opportunity," Strange said.

"We want to leave this room with recommendations we can actually put into practice."

Other attractions taking part include Bletchley Park, Go Ape and the Zoological Society of London.

Strange said a survey of UK attractions carried out by the zoo and tourism consultancy Navigate found more than 60% reported visitor numbers dropped by more than 40% after a "poorly displayed forecast, with some losing more than half their visitors on a single bad icon".

He said the proposed four-slot forecast - including a "dry hours" indicator - was backed by more than 80% of the attractions surveyed.

The zoo's call for changes to apps was backed at the time by more than 80 attractions including the Eden Project, RHS Gardens, Blackpool Pleasure Beach and Blenheim Palace.

The group said the problem was not forecast accuracy, but how it was displayed, with a brief overnight shower sometimes shown as an all-day washout.

A zoo spokesperson said since the campaign launch, the Met Office had engaged constructively with the tourism sector, as a direct result of those ongoing discussions.

The summit, chaired by Visit Britain board member Nigel Wilkinson, will bring together around 30 delegates including the head of domestic tourism at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, senior Met Office figures and the head of the Public Weather Service.

Olly Reed, from Navigate, said that, in March, their data showed a 30% drop in visitors from a misleading icon, while some attractions were now reporting losses of more than 50%.