Dublinked Tourism Event 8th May 2013 At this event we explored the potential of data sharing for the tourism sector and discussed how we can encourage data driven innovation in the Dublin Region. The format of this event enabled participants to network with industry experts and practitioners. On the day we asked the attendees to share their challenges and help identify possible tourism resources for businesses, developers, researchers and entrepreneurs to mine and utilise in order to help generate new revenue streams and address regional challenges. This event aims to encourage collaboration between public tourism bodies, the tourism industry and academia to gain an understanding of the challenges and opportunities that exist in identifying the Dublin visitor footprint.
Speakers on the day included: Cianán Clancy – Dublin Tourism & Open Data Opportunities Director, VisitSkerries.com & LearningHunt In 2012, Cianan led the DiscoverFingal team which won both the tourism award and the Overall award at Apps4Fingal, Fingal County Councils Open Data challenge. He was also winner of the EU's Inventorium Award for LearningHunt a gaming and mobile learning platform powered by open data. In Ireland, he sits on the board of Ireland's new €6 million euro industry led Technology Centre in Data Analytics and is also an active member of Ireland's new national industry clusters - The Irish Data and Cloud Cluster.
Kevin Griffin – Dublin Tourism Data; What I see and What I’d like Lecturer, Dublin Institute of Technology - BEd, Ma, PhD Having studied teaching then tourism organisation and historic settlement, Kevin worked in a number of Geography departments in the Dublin / Kildare region. Since 2001, Kevin has worked at DIT where he is actively involved in teaching and researching a broad range of tourism topics with particular specialism in both heritage and sustainable tourism. He is currently co-ordinating a 2 year EPA funded project on Sustainable Tourism Indicators and also developing Urban Tourism research projects based on competitive / sustainable cities.
Discussion Feedback from Breakout Sessions: Key ideas from presentations that we think we can work on: When collecting data consider formats and make it usable Facilitate the gathering of the information- standardisation of information being gathered Centralised tourism database fully accessible to all Interlinked data needed from all Dublin areas Quantify the information needed ‘how can we link to provide sector overview ’ No idea amount or description of data available Market what information is readily available Get back on the list (see Kevin’s presentation) – see where visitors go and why do they decide not go to places Public access to data and push notifications for tourists Education on what is possible Community sourcing / crowd sourcing Discovering lost data/ opportunities to personalise visitor experience. Awareness of technology/ apps/ facilities is lacking Summary of websites and hubs of tourism data i.e. Fáilte Ireland Capturing tourist feedback data centrally and on national basis
Challenges in tourism that can be addressed through data sharing and collaboration Capturing visitor footprint, identify visitor trends enabling development product personalisation and marketing efforts. In sharing data and knowledge, possible idea formation within industry to attract visitors to experience product and extend stay Marketing efforts and tourism product development Utilise technology to track consumers / visitors experience Surveys concentrated in the city, need to expand to capture tourism feedback on all island scale How to collect and differentiate information from domestic and international visitors Differentiating data as intelligence and data as product Conjoined thinking providing new insight may lead to better packages/ tourist experience the data itself is a challenge – one point of information National initiative / awareness campaign of Dublinked throughout Ireland
What can we do if we reuse tourism data? Develop personalised marketing objectives o i.e. Travel apps – easier to get around, nicer experience Pilot information and see what is accessed by developers Deriving understanding from data – i.e. Tourism benchmarks Conjoined thinking/ packages/ tourist experience the data itself is a challenge – one point of information Providing a better visitor experience Knowledge is power/ endless possibilities Challenge to keep it updated
Tweets from Tourism Event:
About Dublinked: Callan Institute National University of Maynooth Maynooth County Kildare Ireland www.dublinked.ie dublinked@nuim.ie Twitter: @dublinked
Dublinked, a new regional data sharing initiative sees previously unreleased public operational data being made available online for others to research or reuse. With the initial data coming from Dublin City Council and Dun Laoghaire Rathdown, South Dublin and Fingal County Councils, it is expected that the other public and private organisations in Dublin will link up with Dublinked to share their data and invite research collaborations. The information is curated by NUI Maynooth to ensure ideas can be commercialised as easily as possible and to minimise legal or technical barriers that can be impediments for small and mediums businesses (SMEs) seeking to develop and prove business ideas. If you would like to hear about future Dublinked events, send an email to dublinked@nuim.ie to join our mailing list.