How is POI data reshaping the travel and tourism industry?

The activity of tourism has been the center of attraction in many walks of life. In fact, the tourism industry contributed to 10% of the world’s GDP. But the Covid-19 pandemic made a significant impact on the tourism industry. The global tourism industry suffered a massive loss of $4.5 trillion. It was observed that domestic tourism spending decreased by 45% and international tourism decreased by 69.4%. Post pandemic, POI data, and location information played a vital role in address validation and geomarketing.

While travelers still desire to explore the world, the risk of the contiguous disease, travel restrictions, and safety in specific locations matter to them the most. As much as tourist agents and travel businesses are intensely working towards bridging the gap and improving the sales of travel plans, the result has been very minimal. In many tourism-dependent regions such as Maldives, France, Singapore, etc. the industry came to standstill due to the pandemic. In the Caribbean Islands, the government authorities witnessed the traffic declining to 90% when compared to the previous year (2021), despite reopening the places after government orders (post-lockdown) and ensuring a safe environment for tourists. This has impacted the government revenue source, with the fall of the tourism industry. 

Let’s explore how location data can help the almost-dying industry to shine again. 

POI data points for the tourism industry

To provide a world-class tourism experience to the customer, one has to be aware of global location information to create better solutions for the tourists. Travel and tourism datasets include cafes, museums, restaurants, beaches, outdoor sporting activity centers, and places of interest known for their culture and heritage. 

The travel business owners must have the location information of these common public places of interest to create a map or travel-related products. However, a point to remember is that most of these places may have changed their location or timings, etc., post covid, therefore businesses must validate if the place (beach, museum, cafe, etc.) does exist now to create the travel plan and itinerary further.

LocationsXYZ, a POI data product by Xtract.io provides accurate and verified location data that help the travel industry to gain insights into the location and the current trends. The location information of these places includes essential attributes such as name, address, contact number opening-closing hours, amenities, and many more. Using this data, travel agents and businesses can create accurate travel plans and enhance the customer journey. 

Create customized tour itineraries

Using POI data, validate the address of the places of interest. Once done, create customized travel itineraries for customers based on their preferences. POI data help you to answer major pressing questions such as – 

• If the location exists or not? 
• What are the nearby points of interest for tourists? 
• Are there any travel restrictions? 
• What are the opening-closing hours of the location?
• How far is one location from the surrounding points of interest?

With this information, travel agents can plan the tour and predict any futuristic events that may likely to occur such as weather fluctuations, price inflation, etc. POI data helps in providing accurate services to the customers at the right time and in the exact location.

Boost app engagement with POI data and inbuilt location maps

Travelers are constantly on the lookout for new places to visit and new adventures to experience. Therefore, having updated location information and leveraging it to create maps in the application or website can increase customer satisfaction and engagement. Imagine John is visiting Monterey Bay Aquarium and based on his previous search history of seafood spots, you are sending him a notification that there’s a 30% discount at Old Fishermen’s Wharf. This would make John curious to know more about it, he will explore the application and thus trust your app for all his travel queries. 

Using travel datasets, businesses can help travelers to know more about a particular place they are at. Instead of the user searching a query in a new search browser, the information can be directly available in the application based on the location and previous search history. For example, adding the history and a brief description of a location that they are visiting will make the traveler’s experience worthwhile. 

Develop smart tourism systems with route planning

With advanced technologies booming in many industries, the tourism industry is not lagging behind. In addition to building informative websites and applications, travel and tourism datasets also assist with route planning systems to arrive at the destination properly. With the help of POI data, businesses locate places of interest and then integrate with GPS systems to provide accurate routes to the destination. The tourism industry partners with various map providers to offer their customers accurate and faster routes. 

Such tourism, also known as Smart tourism is growing big in the travel and tourism industry. Along with routes, customer feedback and rating are also obtained by the travel businesses to enhance future operations, maximize competitiveness and improve travelers’ experience.  

Conclusion

Embracing location data helps the tourism industry helps in improving the quality of travel experiences, thus increasing the travelers’ consumer base, expanding market share, and scaling the tourism business to the next level. 

At Xtract.io, location data are manually crafted by GIS experts which makes them 95% accurate. The database is updated regularly to attain 96% coverage of location information. With around 5M+ POI datasets across various industries such as retail, automotive, restaurants, and public centers, and in a single repository, accessing data and leveraging it to gain business insights becomes much easier. Connect with us for a free demo to reap the benefits of POI data in your industry.