Analytics can be applied to help tourism businesses – airlines, hotels, car rental agencies, and other businesses – identify networks of friends who are most likely to visit each other. An analysis of social network data from MySpace, Facebook, and other social networking site users may identify ‘Geo-Groups’ of friends who reside in certain geographic areas. It might reveal a Boston Facebook user who spends much time interacting with friends in Calgary: an excellent target for online ads offering flight deals or long distance rates to that city.

In an article about the application of Euclidean distance clustering to social network data, explanations are given about how groups of social network site friends may be segmented. An analysis of social network data may be a powerful source of intelligence for tourism operators who wish to target online users with targeted ads for flights, hotels, car rentals, and other services. Knowing which Facebook friends should belong to a specific Geo-Group requires that a web analyst have criteria for determining who each user’s most important friends are. This can be achieved by assigning each type of social network activity (eg. photo exchange, comment, friend invite, “Like” button click) a weight to reflect its importance to an online relationship.

Any website that facilitates online bookings may leverage analytics to more effectively understand, target and serve customers. Car rental booking data collected via online forms may provide insight regarding where customers reside, to what locations they travel and how frequently. GPS navigation systems in newer automobiles can capture a renter’s specific destinations (eg. particular gas stations, wineries, golf courses, hotels) and be merged with customers’ online car reservation information. The results of a Link analysis of this combined dataset might inform a change in customer service strategy or in tailored direct marketing campaigns directed at more profitable customers. For instance, one segment of car renters may frequent Best Westerns in Western Canada and visit certain Okanagan, BC wineries on their trips. Such a segment might respond well to a marketing partnership with BC wineries under which the car rental agency offers discounts on wine tours.

Individual hotel websites and online booking search engines such as Travelocity and Expedia have a powerful source of intelligence if the correct analytics is applied. Time series analysis may be applied to forecast revenue and booking volumes for specific destinations and times of year. The analytics from this exercise may guide operational decisions (eg. staff requirements), destination packages that are advertised and marketing channels (online and offline) that are utilized.

Analytics professionals at tourism marketing organizations may apply these and other creative analytics solutions for leveraging online booking and social network data.

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