Big Data to avoid saturation of tourism

The Bilbao company 'in2destination' provides all types of tourist company with key data to optimize the business

Tourism in our country accounted for 60,000 million euros in revenues in 2017, according to data from the Bank of Spain. Can you improve the competitiveness of companies in this sector while achieving more sustainable tourism? Yes, applying Big Data methodologies. So at least it is proposed by in2destination, a Bilbao company that works with SMEs, large companies and official organizations.

From 2016, the company collects data of various kinds and from various public sources. There are clients who decide to analyze other data "that they themselves have acquired from sources such as telephony, banking or via sensors", explains Nagore Espinosa, CEO of in2destination.

These data should be, as in any Big Data project, filtered so that only those that really add value are taken into account. According to Espinosa, who defends decision-making based on data, the first thing to do is talk to the client. "We study your case and detect the main questions that are key to each of them." Some of these questions are known to the client, but others are not.

 "That's where a lot of our work lies. This is essential to then identify the work methodologies and the necessary sources to obtain the answers �.

The official points out that it is important to be clear that technology is a means, not the end. "Depending on the questions to be answered, the methodology to be used will be traditional, technological or a combination of both," he explains. "The object of our work is not to measure by measuring, but to measure to act accordingly.

   Our work does not end with the report we give to the client with the data we have collected, analyzed and interpreted: the important thing is that it serves to implement strategic planning within the teams that manage destinations, resources or tourism companies. Therefore, we provide training and develop strategies to achieve the objectives set. "

Large and small

Spain is a country of SMEs but Big Data technology is not always accessible to them. On the other hand, Nagore Espinosa defends that yes. Ensures that, depending on the size of the project, the proposals vary so that they adapt to the size of the company. But, in addition, says that "the tourism sector welcomes some of the most innovative and largest companies in the world, but also others whose focus is the development of local territory." In fact, in in2destination work both for the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) or the national tourism authority of Ireland, and for regions such as Almaty, in Kazakhstan or micro-SMEs.



The investment is justified in the business because "it is essential to know what they say about you, what are the profiles of your customers, what communication channels are the most effective, etc., to implement effective promotion actions".

sustainable tourism

The duration of a Big Data project depends on whether it is private or public clients and the size of the plan. "There are projects that last several years and others that respond to a specific need," he says.

      One of the objectives, beyond improving the competitiveness of companies, is to achieve more sustainable tourism and to avoid saturation. "We are not referring to mere data on the volume of tourists that have nothing to do with sustainable development, but a scorecard that helps to know the most detailed economic return of the sector, social variables related to our residents, environmental, absorption of innovation and competitiveness in the sector, rural and urban development, etc. �.

But how can this goal be achieved? "If a destination implements sensors that report air quality, levels of use / saturation of parking, traffic jams, flows of people at various points, water quality, etc., all are large volumes of unstructured data that are generated at high speed, therefore, Big Data. These data must be analyzed to make decisions in real time with the aim of improving the quality of life of the resident and the visitor. In this way, we will be working for sustainable tourism at an environmental level �.

Another example would be to detect, through semantic analysis of social networks, the feelings of the residents about events, noise conditions, cleaning streets, squares or beaches.

Natural language

That is the social aspect of sustainability that is also analyzed through Big Data. In these cases, natural language processing must be applied in multiple languages. "It is true that irony and sarcasm are complex to value," recognizes Espinosa.


�As a research team, we work to be up-to-date on the advances in this area, both nationally and internationally. In fact, we have in our team a doctor in Computer Science specializing in the investigation of Natural Language Processing, "he adds.

In addition, by applying Big Data methodologies, inclusion and accessibility issues can be specifically studied to detect non-accessible black spots on which to act both at the level of constructive improvements and training of service providers.