Tourists' cell data used to analyse visits

Israeli tourists Noa David (left) and Elad Carmon take a photo with their cellphone in front of...
Israeli tourists Noa David (left) and Elad Carmon take a photo with their cellphone in front of Lake Wanaka yesterday. Cellphone data may be collected from visitors to Upper Clutha, to be used by Wanaka Tourism to analyse where they have come from, where they have been and how long they stay in the region. Photo by Tim Miller.
Thousands of visitors will stream in to Wanaka this summer and many of them will be helping local businesses without knowing it.

Data about where visitors have travelled from and how long they stay in the town will be collected from cellphones using the Spark network.

Qrious, a Spark subsidiary, collects the raw data from customers' cellphones, analyses it, then provides the information to Lake Wanaka Tourism, and about 20 other tourism groups in New Zealand, who in turn pass it on to their members.

Spark customers were able to opt out of their information being used.

Lake Wanaka Tourism general manager James Helmore said the data provided a much clearer idea of who was visiting the region.

The group had been using the service since June.

Previous methods such as the commercial accommodation monitor did not include some types of accommodation and did not collect any information about people staying with their friends or at casual rentals.

''It [Qrious data] gives us a really complete understanding of all the visitors to the region.''

So far this year 1.2million people had visited the Wanaka region, the data showed.

One of the advantages of the Qrious data collection was it provided information about day visitors, Mr Helmore said.

The data collected so far showed about half of all visitors to Wanaka did not spend the night.

''When you know half of the people visiting don't stay overnight you tailor your business or marketing to suit.''

Those who did not leave the same day, on average stayed two nights.

What the data collected during the next month showed would be very interesting, Mr Helmore said.

''We have data for each month and obviously what is happening throughout the whole year is important but it will be very interesting to see what comes out of the next month or so.''

Where a visitor was from, both within New Zealand and overseas, was also collected.

''If you have a business which you want to, say, target Chinese tourists, this gives you the data on where they come and how long they stay.''

Privacy concerns about the service have been highlighted in other regions using the service.

Mr Helmore said he had not heard about any privacy concerns and all the data collected was totally anonymous.

''The data collected isn't actually personal information. It just uses what is bounced between the celltowers and then scrambled. Even if someone wanted to, they couldn't get your personal details.''

tim.miller@odt.co.nz

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