Afbeelding
Due to the technological and statistical developments of the past decade, we produce more data and insights than ever before. While data-driven decision-making has become the norm, the pace of adaptation differs across sectors due to imbalances in financial, technological, and human capacities. Some sectors take longer to adapt than others. What that means for "conscious destination" explains new theme manager "Smartness" Bernadett Papp in this blog.
Good quality and reliable data forms the cornerstone of ‘’conscious destinations’’. Data collection and management practices in the domains of leisure, tourism, and hospitality have gained considerable attention in the past years. This is because, on the one hand, the importance of data is undeniable, on the other hand, the use of data raises significant challenges. If our sector wants to understand its multifaceted impacts on society (both negative and positive), develop efficient responses to complex challenges, and take a proactive approach to understand the future implications of our actions today, data collection, management, and sharing practices within our sector, and across sectors, need to be further improved.
Under the research theme ‘’Smartness’’ we aim to support destination stakeholders at the local, national, and/or supra-national scale with the transition to a more data-driven approach where strategic decisions are based on insights and evidence that are reliable and complete. We recognize the need for a better understanding of:
- Availability of data at the local, national, and supra-national scale both on the demand and supply side in leisure tourism and hospitality
- Methodologies regarding data collection and analysis
- (Emerging) technologies to support data collection and analysis
- Data collection practices that enable continuity
- Comparability across data sets and cross-sectoral learning
- Skills development to improve the processing of large amounts of data
- Practises of ethical data collection, storage, analysis, and dissemination
As a recently appointed Manager of the theme ‘’Smartness’’, I am excited to explore further the needs of our sector and work together to address some of the most pressing issues when it comes to data management. In my view, bridging academia, research, and industry is an excellent way to pull our resources together to build a more transparent, structured, meaningful, and efficient data ecosystem in travel, tourism, and hospitality.
Does your destination/organization/business have a question, knowledge gap, strategic issue, or challenge that needs to be researched and one that could be of relevance to a broader audience? If so, we would love to hear from you to explore the possibilities for collaboration, cooperation, and the co-funding of research projects.
Bernadett Papp
Thememanager Smartness for CELTH & Researcher ETFI
