Published on the 01/08/2017 | Written by Newsdesk

Qeyboards suffer again as Qrious expands product offering…

The CEO (or should that be QEO) of big data slinger Qrious did promise some time back that it would be moving towards a productised future and now the company has unveiled ‘LoQal Destinations’, a consumable service which it said gives businesses and local councils access to more robust and timely location-based visitor insights.

In a statement, Qrious said ‘the software enables users to access rich visitor insights via a subscription service. Subscribers can use LoQal Destinations to optimise marketing spend, enhance operational efficiencies and anticipate visitor movements.’

The QEO is David Leach, and he said the tourism industry has long acknowledged gaps in information available to gain a better understanding of visitor flows and travel patterns.

“Tourism is New Zealand’s biggest export industry, yet to date there has been a lack of timely data and insights that support operators in managing both day-to-day tourism operations and future growth,” said Leach.

He noted that in its four year plan, Tourism New Zealand laid out very clear strategic goals, including sustaining and improving the experience of visitors and host communities. “Our LoQal Destinations software marks a significant step forward in supporting this goal and building the industry’s insights capability.”

LoQal Destinations, said Leach, delivers timely, location-based insights to support business planning, understand the impact of events in their region, optimise marketing, and track and measure visitor uplift.

The LoQal Destinations dashboard displays a regional heat map along with detailed information regarding domestic and international visitors over time and their place of origin. A time period selector allows users to navigate through yearly, monthly, weekly or daily views.

Data is published to the platform every Tuesday, providing end users with access to information from the preceding weekend.

Qrious said the data-driven approach provides a more complete picture than survey-based data, which is typically gathered through traditional accommodation providers. This excluded visitors using alternative accommodation, such as Airbnb and Bookabach, or those visiting friends and relatives.

Tourism isn’t a new vertical for Qrious; its Voyager platform (launched in May 2016) is used by some of the country’s top Regional Tourism Operators. The company said the LoQal Destinations software builds on these foundations.

Destination Kaikoura will be among the first in line to use LoQal Destinations. Qrious has donated it to the operator to support the region’s recovery efforts following last year’s devastating earthquake.

“The insights that organisations are able to generate from the existing Voyager platform have proven to be invaluable. Among other things, the platform captures the non-commercial accommodation performance of regions – information that is not readily available elsewhere,” said Glenn Ormsby Destination Kaikoura GM.

“LoQal Destinations will build on this, helping the District to measure visitation patterns for events within one week. Having data updated every Tuesday will allow us to more quickly assess the effectiveness of marketing and advertising activities. This is important as we undertake a range of advertising and promotional activities we’ve never done before – including digital, radio, print and TV advertising – therefore reporting back on visitation will be helpful for the community and government agencies.

“Following November’s devastating earthquake, our focus as a region is now very firmly on rebuilding the local tourist economy. To achieve that, we need access to the very best and most up-to-date data intelligence,” he added.