BRII Proof of Concept

Tourism Research Australia

Analysis of the tourism industry is typically based on the Tourism Research Australia surveys of tourists. The survey is national and the data is used to estimate visitor numbers and spend across some 70+ small areas across Australia. The survey has been running for years now and is the go-to information source for regional tourism planning. The problem is, it is not a particularly reliable measure of tourism activity below state level. There are just too few respondents to make robust assumptions about visitor numbers, expenditure, duration of stay and other variables. Unfortunately, until now, it has been all there is and, so, many public and private tourism industry investment decisions have been based on it.

This study was a proof of concept to identify new and better ways to quantify the scale and scope of tourism activity. It also outlined a way to build a data-based tool for assisting investors and governments to identify infrastructure gaps and commercial opportunities in tourism. We looked at mobile phone data, infrastructure assets, bank transaction data, accommodation data, social media data and 20 or 30 other data sets to devise a way to complement (and ultimately replace), the annual surveys. The challenge is, this data can be expensive and because there is so much of it, it requires considerable expertise to handle it. In an industry that is dominated by small business operators, it is not something that can used widely. We at Geografia have devised what we think will be an effective and affordable industry analytics tool for identifying small area tourism opportunities and constraints. We’re working on it now.