Tourism and big data

According to a study by Enhanced Integrated Framework, World Tourism Organization and the International Trade Center, tourism represents 10% of global GDP and is set to increase. Travel is, therefore, a huge industry, which can generate even greater profits thanks to the use of big data.
The tourist industry is data-rich: flight reservations, hotel rooms and other information form a complex of numbers and indicators allowing us to understand and predict trends in the sector. However, it is no longer sufficient to monitor the statistics on arrivals and presences, but we need to consider other more marginal data concerning the digital life of travellers: reviews, evaluations, personal blogs and social networks are a precious source to draw from in order to forecast and understand tourist flows.
Furthermore, these data offer important information not only on collective behavior but also on the relationship between places, things and people. Indeed, people’s daily behaviours are always characterized by some form of digital intermediation that, de facto, feeds huge data streams: Big Data. These data, when analyzed with more complex algorithms, help tourism companies’ decision-making processes, allowing them to improve their offer by responding adequately to the complexity of the demand.
Social networks are not only a powerful tool by which to promote and commercialize tourist offers, but, due to their diffusion, they are also a great source of information on tourists’ preferences, on their activities or on the value they give to what’s on offer.
Thanks to this information, it’s possible to get a much more detailed evaluation of the actual consistency of tourist flows, analyzing their activity on the social media.
With an automated system based on reliable and accurate big data, hotels could implement dynamic pricing strategies in advance of months or even years rather than days or weeks. Furthermore, by carefully analyzing all these data, hotels can understand who their customers are, how much they are willing to spend and how to get them back in the future. Likewise, knowing in real time what customers are complaining of, allows finding immediate solutions, improving hotels reputation and visibility.
Lastly, big data is an excellent tool to analyze competitors as well, supporting a fuller pricing strategy, discovering their weaknesses and their strategies: this was made possible by analyzing information on OTAs and online reviews.
Visit our website: www.lybra.tech
