Data, when properly harnessed, is a powerful tool that can transform the visitor experience, drive significant operational improvements and strengthen industry-wide collaboration. Through a cycle of monitoring, benchmarking, interpreting and predicting, data provides the insights needed to make informed decisions, eliminating silos and creating a solid foundation for innovation and enhanced competitiveness. The key lies in identifying the "right data" and turning it into actionable knowledge. When everyone is working with the same data, they can align around common goals, track progress effectively and make better decisions. When used strategically, big data further amplifies these benefits, leading to enhanced enablement, engagement and targeting.

To succeed with this ambition, a robust data strategy is essential for managing diverse and disparate data sources, facilitating the development of a singular platform that brings everything together. Intending to position Northern Ireland as a year-round world-class destination, Tourism Northern Ireland (TNI) commissioned us to develop a comprehensive data strategy that achieves the following:

1. Increases tourism's value to the economy by 50-75% compared to 2019
2. Streamlines growth and transformation
3. Clearly defines an approach to addressing drivers and barriers


Based on extensive stakeholder interviews that uncovered the challenges influencing the effectiveness of data sharing and the practical application of insights, as well as desk research on best practices in dashboard development, the data strategy laid out an ambitious vision for the future of information exchange in Northern Ireland. In particular, the strategy identified three specific areas where data can be strategically leveraged to achieve the desired outcomes:

1. Policy Priorities: Data-driven insights will inform policymaking, enabling TNI to monitor progress and allocate resources in alignment with tourism performance.
2. Industry Competitiveness: Businesses will be empowered to use data to improve their competitiveness. This includes increasing the value of their offer, optimising operations for efficiency and enhanced visitor experiences, managing risks and opportunities by identifying emerging trends and measuring performance through data-driven metrics.
3. Brand and Marketing: Data will play a crucial role in strengthening Northern Ireland's brand and amplifying its digital presence. This encompasses leveraging real-time data for agile marketing, measuring the effectiveness of marketing campaigns and optimising content creation and distribution strategies.

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Embracing a 360° Approach

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At a foundational level, the data strategy is built upon establishing high-quality data standards for supporting long-term strategic objectives and maintaining public trust by ensuring ethical considerations are prioritised. Strong leadership and organisation-wide data fluency skills and facilitating interoperability for seamless data application are also key considerations. Given the increasing use of AI in marketing and industry development, this foundation is essential for tapping into the growing opportunities that this emerging technology brings for maximising efficiency and creating new opportunities.

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This vision translates into a 360° Tourism Insights Platform that will provide a centralised hub for data analysis, insights generation and collaborative decision-making. Comprised of four interconnected hubs designed to cater to the specific needs of various stakeholders, this platform takes into consideration the divergent needs of different sub-sectors to ensure that insights are easily interpretable for their specific needs:

1. Marketing Insights Hub: This hub will centralise marketing data, enabling internal teams, agency partners and industry stakeholders to access real-time insights, track performance and align on strategies for enhanced marketing effectiveness.
2. Industry Insights Hub: Providing tailored insights for different industry sub-sectors, such as accommodation, activities, culture and heritage, hospitality and MICE. This hub will equip businesses with data-driven tools to make informed decisions, understand market trends and enhance their competitiveness.
3. Product Insights Hub: Focusing on key thematic tourism products, such as golf, adventure sports, gastronomy and history and heritage, this hub will provide insights to inform product development, marketing strategies and partnership opportunities.
4. Destination Insights Hub: Offering detailed data snapshots and analysis for specific destinations, this hub will support regional DMOs, local governments and tourism researchers in understanding destination performance, identifying opportunities and making strategic investments.

Envisioning a 360° tourism transformation, data will drive industry development, foster collaboration based on consent and data sharing, create innovative solutions powered by first-party data and develop richer industry insights through active participation and engagement. Developing benchmarks will be a cornerstone of measuring digital maturity, sustainability readiness and transformation progress, enabling international comparisons to determine areas requiring intervention and targeted support and development.

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Additionally, creating an open data resource will expand the level of customisation in the formats for filtering and exporting data, while providing API queries will enable developers to integrate it into other applications for a wide range of applications. It allows TNI to channel strategic efforts directly into innovation, creating a conducive environment and incentives for data to facilitate partnerships between Northern Ireland's tourism industry and tourism researchers, start-up clusters and technology partners. This will encourage the development of digital products and services that drive solutions to key challenges.

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Phased Implementation

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The data strategy was designed based on a five-phased approach to implementation. This phased implementation plan will ensure successful execution by extensively evaluating data needs, necessary skill levels and infrastructural requirements before developing a new Tourism Insights Platform. This ensures a user-centric approach to data analytics that considers the long-term implications of all decisions. These five stages are:

1. Data Audit and Technical Review: Based on our data audit template, this phase focuses on conducting a comprehensive internal data audit by reviewing existing data sources and identifying necessary and desired data. Assessing data quality and conducting a thorough technical review of TNI's existing Data Hub are key goals of this initial phase. The outcome will be a clear understanding of the current data landscape, identification of gaps and areas for improvement and a strategic document outlining data requirements and potential value.
2. Leadership and Governance: This second phase focuses on building a data-driven culture within TNI and establishing effective governance structures. Key activities include establishing a dedicated data coordinator role, forming industry data committees and developing a clear investment plan.
3. Marketing Technology Review: A comprehensive review of the current marketing technology landscape will be undertaken, identifying gaps and opportunities for improvement. This includes evaluating existing platforms, data sources and content management systems and developing a strategic plan for streamlining marketing operations and leveraging data effectively.
4. Platform Development: This penultimate phase marks the development and launch of the 360° Tourism Insights Platform. Extensive user journey mapping, assessing data analysis and visualisation needs and comprehensive testing will ensure the platform is user-friendly, insightful and meets the diverse needs of its users.
5. Data-Driven Innovation Strategy: The final phase focuses on establishing a long-term innovation strategy. This involves analysing industry and regional development initiatives, identifying challenges and opportunities for technological intervention, fostering partnerships with innovation hubs and start-ups and securing funding for strategic investments.

To kickstart this journey towards data-driven excellence, we guided TNI through an initial review of the existing Data Hub and shaped the establishment of the business case for continued investment in enhancing data analytics capabilities. Recognising that research and insights lead to more impactful and meaningful outcomes, TNI is now well-positioned to achieve Northern Ireland's full tourism potential, with data as the cornerstone of destination development and marketing.