Tourism ecossystems still lack the understandment of how data can benefit their operations and offerings
YouGoTo.com is a marketplace for tourism activities that measures customer behavior through a mobile app. The solution involves different stakeholders in a digital ecosystem for booking activities, restaurants, places to visit and transportation, according entirely to the traveller: profile, preferences, behaviours, location. This means acknowledging who the customer is in order to tailor the destination and services offering.
First basic goal was digitalising the existing Madeiran tourism products, including the creation of a distribution platform and understanding the level of digital readiness of both customers and local operators. Afterwards, understanding which were the most visited areas of the region, collecting important demographics and gaining insights on the tourist's journeys.
Resources needed
This was an R&D project that translated into a 600K investment partially funded by EU through a regional grant scheme "Prociência2020" (Madeira)
Evidence of success
The platform and analytic engined has been developed and deployed at www.yougoto.com
There's now a digitized catalogue of 113 Madeira tourism products that are accessible to both customers and also to other players who wish to use the content created.
Data collected through the mobile apps is constantly monitored, showing for example that tourism pressure is more evident in Funchal city.
Difficulties encountered
Credibility: Lack of confidence from local players to share data;
Novelty: The local ecosystem lacks the understanding of how data can benefit their operations and offerings;
Sample pool: Poor brand recognition and a less digitally-enabled target led to poor usage and less data collected.
Potential for learning or transfer
This project can be easily transferred to another country/city as the platform is a standalone deployment. Would just need some minor adjustments to the local reality.
Tags: Technology, Tourism
