Page 16 - Doing Data Together by The Scotsman

DOINGDATATOGETHER
David Lee asks whether technology- driven audience analysis can safeguard the vital success of Edinburgh’s festivals
Can VisitScotland predict the future? When the national tourism agency published its Trends 2020 document in February, it
set out the six trends that will have the biggest impact on the industry over the next decade.
Some were predictable – climate change, a changing tourism demo- graphic and the growing influence of China on the global economy.
But it was the fifth driver – an unpredictable event – that has chill- ingly come to pass, just a few months on from publication.
VisitScotland describes such an event as one with “potentially severe consequences”, and the coronavirus pandemic has certainly had a devas- tating impact on Scotland’s tourism and hospitality industries.
And there are few areas of activity that have felt the terrible economic impact more felt than Edinburgh’s festivals, which are worth upwards of £300 million a year to the city’s economy.
Instead of enjoying the shows, street theatre and the fireworks con- cert this week, marking the end of another wildly successful year, Edin- burgh’s festivals are contemplating an uncertain future.
If they are to survive Covid-19, they will have to re-think every aspect of their packed programmes, from visi- tor safety to performances.
As Julia Amour, director of umbrel- la body Festivals Edinburgh, told the Scottish Parliament’s culture com- mittee a few weeks ago: “Like others working to build back a better socie-
Gauging the reac
Even before the Covid-19 pandemic struck, many cities across Europe were already using data to redesign their tourism industries.
Last year, business development champion London First used anonymised and aggregated
data provided by Airbnb and Mastercard to track the impact
of international visitor spending across London.
This allowed the organisation to analyse trends in the behaviour
of different nationalities, which showed that Chinese tourists prefer the West End, with Germans and Italians happier to explore attractions beyond the city centre.
Writing in the New Statesman, 16
Matt Hill, London First’s programme director, said: “A three-pronged approach of data exchange, innovative analytics and digital transformation must be leveraged, to help cities better manage their growth challenges, improve efficiency and support economic development.”
Meanwhile, Amsterdam has recently used data science to reduce the impact of hordes of drunken tourists.
The city has put a “digital fence” around areas particularly badly affected by large groups. When
a visitor enters these zones they are automatically reminded on Facebook and Instagram to treat the city with respect.
And at the Venice Project Centre, set up 30 years ago to improve tourism numbers in the Italian
city, its business incubator is busy working on a number of data
projects, such as smart transport apps, a Smart Control Room for the city council, and a hybrid mortgage scheme which uses tourism income to help with repayments.
ty, we need to adapt and renew while holding onto our fundamental pur- pose and value.”
So could data science help to save the future of festivals in the Capital? Joshua Ryan-Saha, the head of tour- ism and festivals at Edinburgh’s Data Driven Innovation (DDI) initiative definitely thinks it has a significant role to play.
“Data can certainly help,” he says. “Collaboration in the tourism, hos- pitality and events sector is the key
to success, and this means sharing data too.
“Organisations need to be able to access shared insights into poten- tial customers, even pool resources to attract visitors back and to put in place the necessary infrastructure to control infection.”
And Ryan-Saha suggests new approaches such as the digital deliv- ery of events and using technology to manage crowds, which were already a growing problem in the Capital. He
says: “Before the crisis we were think- ing about secure, ethical and anony- mous ways to understand tourism overcrowding and busy-ness and to encourage visitor dispersal across the whole of Scotland.
“Now, understanding crowd and people movement is useful in identifying potential bottlenecks and different paths people can take to maintain social distancing.
“Predicting hotspots before they occur and using that to incentivise different places to visit or opening up new public spaces for events may help manage the city”
And he highlights five University of Edinburgh data projects, which are being funded by DDI, as examples of how data can be used to support the tourism and festivals sector.
These include a scheme with the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group to help the Capital’s tourism busi- nesses to recover from the adverse economic effects of Covid-19 by analysing data to support targeted marketing.
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is also confident that a clever use of data will help save the festival, which last year attracted visitors from 150 countries and sold more than 850,000 tickets. The Fringe Socie- ty was working with data scientists before the pandemic hit, causing events to be cancelled.
A spokesperson for the Fringe says: “The role of data in helping solve the
Keeping track of tourist hotspot trends
t