Data must be distributable.
In tourism it is common to create complex websites. It is a fact that these websites no longer reach the desired target group because users have been using platforms for a long time. Nowadays the content has to be brought to the user – not the other way round. In this article you will find out which steps have to be taken.
Current destination measures are ineffective.
Tourist websites have several weak points. Not only must they be created with a lot of effort, but also completely revised every three to four years. Moreover, many of these websites have not been built up in a target-oriented manner right from the start.
To compensate for the lack of reach, traffic is bought through campaigns. However, this approach only brings short-term success, because the problem lies actually much deeper. All content, which is displayed on touristic websites, is optimized merely for this website and not prepared to be distributed.
Data must be structured in a database.
In order to make data distributable, a universal database is necessary. With this database you are able to manage your data in an organized way and display it on different channels in a target-group-specific way. And this means data you can think of. The following figure shows the different data types in tourism.
Content must be semantically connected.
It is not enough to collect all data and prepare it in a database. Tourism destinations should strive for a holistic solution. Data only has to be prepared in one place. Thanks to modern platform technology, updates are immediately transferred to other places.
However, there are other challenges. In the future, a database will have to cope with increasingly complex requests from AI systems (e.g. Amazon Alexa). In order to achieve this, data must be linked together. So-called graph-based databases are able to link data of different types (images, videos, opening hours, etc.). For example, an image that is assigned to a POI can receive information from the POI through the link. Among other things, the geo reference, the title or the type of POI can be passed on to the image. A more detailed explanation of graph-based databases can be found here.
A legal protection is indispensable with data.
In order to be on the safe side regarding copyright, the following points should be observed. Data must be free of third-party rights so that it can be distributed without restriction. When purchasing content, care must be taken to obtain a CC0 or CC BY license. It should also be noted that the employment contracts contain appropriate provisions so that the data can be used without restriction.
Nevertheless, copyright infringements often occur and are associated with a high expenditure of time and money. Who is the author of a content and how it may be used must therefore be documented precisely. Outdooractive has an average of one case per week in which a customer or user has committed a violation. We have a proven process in place to help our customers get the matter out of the way without exploding costs.
In addition to maintaining the data, destinations have to keep their databases “clean”. You should not close your eyes, but look at the data critically and delete it in case of doubt. For many this means a new beginning one should not shy away from. A good database system helps the user to manage and display the licenses correctly.
10 To Do’s für eine erfolgreiche Transformation
- Leave your comfort zone – build digital leadership
- Merge the content within one database
- Digitize your part of the world
- Open up your content for it to be distributed
- Digitize your guests by encouraging them by incentives to share their data
- Manage data instead of advertising
- Measure experience and the customer journey
- Manage growth, define the DNA of the destination and attract the right customers
- Give the residents added value by making them ambassadors
- Improve the experience on-site