The Reliability and Value of Geolocation for DMOs

These days, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are increasingly recognizing the need for data insights to gain a deeper understanding of their visitors and for strategic decision making. But as companies like Apple and Google continue to make changes in their respective app store policies that impact data collection and sharing, there are steps that DMOs should be taking to ensure that they’re focusing on best case uses for their geolocation data, while still remaining aware of its limitations. 

The Value: 

• Understanding Visitor Behavior: Geolocation data gives DMOs insights into visitor behaviors like: Where are your tourists coming from? What areas are they visiting while in-market? And how long are they staying for? Having an understanding of these behaviors and patterns gives DMOs the opportunities to identify the demographics and markets that are most likely to convert - not to mention, it can clue you into important insights like which regions, hot spots and attractions are bringing in the most visitors. 
• Audience Analysis: Geolocation data also provides DMOs valuable insights into the origin of their visitors. By understanding where people are coming from and the percentage share from each origin market, DMOs can identify key audiences and trends - and then tailor their advertising strategies accordingly. Imagine geolocation data revealing the emergence of a strong new feeder market that had not previously been targeted with proactive marketing before. Datafy’s capabilities make it easy to quickly identify and then begin targeting this new market to capture a group with a high likelihood of conversion that had previously been flying under the radar, resulting in a much more efficient allocation of resources. 
  
  
• Optimizing Visitor Experiences: Geolocation data gives DMOs actionable insights into crowd density and movement within a destination, enabling organizations to anticipate peak times and manage visitor flow more effectively. So if a destination knows that its downtown area receives higher-than-normal footfall during weekends in summer, they can use this information to push their off-the-beaten-path attractions and work to draw the crowds away from their most heavily-trafficked areas at their busiest times. 
  
  
• Strategic Decision-Making: The ability to analyze visitor data over time enables DMOs to identify emerging trends and changing preferences, and then quickly adapt their marketing strategies and product offerings accordingly. For instance, geolocation data can reveal which origin markets produce more hotel visitors vs. day trippers - and DMOs can take this information to strategically craft messaging that will market to these different groups most effectively. 
  
  
• Personalization and Customization: Geolocation data allows DMOs to deliver hyper-personalized marketing campaigns with targeted messages, recommendations and offers based on a visitor’s location and past behavior. Looking to drive visitation during your destination's big wellness event or food festival? Target yoga aficionados or foodies that live 50+ miles away. Our research shows that tailoring marketing efforts to individual preferences creates a more engaging experience, fosters loyalty to the brand, and increases a consumer’s likelihood of visiting the destination.
  
  
• Tracking Marketing Campaign Effectiveness: Geolocation data can also help DMOs measure the success of their marketing campaigns and better report to their stakeholders with verifiable impacts of their marketing efforts. Was there a trackable increase in visitation after the launch of a marketing campaign? Analyzing this over time gives DMOs the ability to report back with provable results tied to their marketing campaigns. 
  
  
• Supporting Data Sources: As we like to say: the more data sources, the better. Diversifying your data sources means expanding your sample size, which always leads to more confidence in your results. Geolocation data can be supported by other data sources (such as vehicle, credit card, lodging and ticketing data) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of visitor patterns. 

Limitations of Geolocation Data:

• Sample Size and Representativeness: To put it simply: Geolocation data’s reliability depends on having a sufficient sample size. While there is no standard sample size, there is a general threshold that needs to be met for the data to be considered reliable and valid. Depending on the footprint of various points of interest, some sample sizes may not be large enough to be suitable for all types of analysis. 
  
  
• Estimates vs. Direct Data: Geolocation data provides valuable estimates, but it should not be considered as a full replacement for ticketing data or property-reported point of sale/demand reports. It is not a people counter; its primary value lies in providing insights into audience composition and behavior.
  
  
• Privacy Considerations: As with any data collection, ensuring privacy and compliance with relevant regulations is crucial with geolocation data. Geolocation data always needs to be handled carefully, with appropriate measures in place to protect individual privacy. All Datafy data is 100% opt-in certified and in full privacy compliance - a company-wide decision made in order to ensure that our analysis consists of the cleanest data and highest-standard of data policies. *It’s also important to note that we enforce limitations to the types of POIs that data can be pulled for, as Datafy will not geofence places that could potentially be used to identify or isolate people based on race, religion, medical status, or other highly-personal or potentially sensitive identifiers. 

Geolocation data remains a powerful tool for DMOs - but it’s important to stay mindful that there are limitations to its use. In spite of these limitations and challenges, the responsible utilization of geolocation data is an incredible asset for DMOs that can make significant contributions to informed decision making and ultimately successful marketing efforts.