1

Big Data and the Visitor Economy

John Davies, Nesta5th December 2013

@johnardavies

The amount of data is increasing rapidly, in terms of:

• Volume: The quantity of data being generated

• Variety: Text, Images, Geographic data

• Frequency: Information being continuously generated in real-time

2

• Websites: Online transactions, browser cookies, blogs, web-surveys, website text itself

• Social media: e.g. Twitter, Facebook, Flickr and LinkedIn

• The checkout: Loyalty\membership schemes

• Rise of the smart phone

• Sensors becoming cheaper and smaller

3

What’s driving the growth in data?

What does more data enable?

• Better understanding of customers’ interestsMore targeted marketing, personalisation of services, cross-selling, merchandising

• Greater feedback from the public

• Operations and supply chain optimisation More data on this has the potential to lead to efficiency savings

4

5

Hendon Air Museum

Olympic Park

Greenwich

KewGardens

Wembley

LondonWetlandCentre

Example of social media data: over 1.8 million geo-tagged photos on Flickr in London (as seen from Cyberspace)

ChiswickHouse

CityAirport

TheDome

6

St Paul’s Cathedral

Imperial War Museum

Tower of London

Lloyds Building and Gherkin

Shoreditch,Spitalfields& Brick Lane

Tate Modern

The Monument

Barbican

WaterlooStation

Temple Church

Photography hot spots in central London

7

Piccadilly Circus

Buckingham Palace Westminster, River

Bridges, London Eye

St Paul’s Cathedral

Tate ModernBorough Market

Tower of London and Tower Bridge

British Museum

Covent Garden

Shoreditch

Trafalgar Square

South Bank

Spitalfields and Brick Lane

Tracking changes in photographic activity over time

Cutty Sark reopens April 2012

8

Photographs are those falling within 100m of the centre of the sites

Social media analysis provides a potential way of seeing:

• Which bits of sites are popular with people

• How people respond to changes in sites

• What customers are interested in outside the site

• Showing public value, from interest in the site among non-visitors

• But, limitations, a self-selecting sample and behaviour may not be representative

9

Conclusions

• Big Data’s growth will give the Visitor Economy more information about its customers, and hence a greater ability to target its offer

• However, obtaining and interpreting the data may require specialist skills, and important to respect privacy

• New data sources likely to supplement, and lead to evolution in, existing data sources such as surveys

10

Thanks for listening

11

Visualisation of participation levels in cultural and sporting activities in England, based on the national Taking Part survey

john.davies@nesta.org.uk

@johnardavies