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How do our visitors move around Djurgården?

Measuring stations help to give an overall picture of visitors’ movements at Djurgården

Our vision is for a Djurgården where getting around by fossil-free means is easy. This could be by tram, a Skansen train, hop-on hop-off boat, bicycle and even more exciting ways going into the future. To achieve this vision, we need to know more about our visitors, how they move and when they are here. In 2019, we decided that we needed to start tracking visitor flows. From speaking with other visitor destinations around Sweden, we found that few places were doing this. But it was something that we really needed to do. Once we had this knowledge to hand, we would be able to take it to the City of Stockholm, Ports of Stockholm, Region Stockholm and SL.

Our existing data only provided information relating to the number of visitors at individual attractions. And we wanted to get a fuller picture. Therefore, after testing it out in summer 2019, the Royal Djurgården Administration and the Royal Djurgården Society then began measuring the number of visitors and visitor flows at Djurgården from autumn 2019. This was together with support from the Royal National City Park’s development fund. We did some research on the best company to work with for the project, and in the end we chose BumBee Labs, who have a proven and GDPR-approved system. More traditional measurement systems for tracking visitor behaviour only provide two-dimensional data i.e. the number of visitors and when they arrive. However, through this multi-dimensional system, we were able to track individual movements and the length of their visit while keeping their identity anonymous.

Project aims

Setting up 30 measuring stations during the autumn took some time, but by the start of 2020, most of the stations were up and in place.

The aims of the project were:

Measure the number of visitors at Djurgården – in total, daily and annually

See how long visitors stay for

See whether people visit lots of different places or just the one

Identify how people move around (both pedestrians and cyclists)

Locate the bottlenecks

Analyse the effect of Folke Bernadotte’s bridge

Understand whether it affects someone’s visit to Djurgården

We have been collecting data since the beginning of 2020. However, the data we have received has shown the frightening impact of the pandemic at a place like Djurgården. February ended up being our best month in 2020; more and more visitors are visiting our green areas than ever before; and we can see how important Folke Bernadotte’s bridge is for everyone who walks here.

We have implemented these measurement systems as part of our goal for balanced tourism (12.B)

The measurement system was possible to implement thanks to partnership between several organisations (17.17)