Travel Technology Company Sets New Standards for Colorado Tourism

Each year Colorado tourism reaches record-breaking heights. The state welcomes millions of tourists from all corners of the world who crave the adventure, natural beauty, urban escapes and unique culture that the state offers.

According to the Colorado Tourism Office, since 2009, the number of people visiting the Centennial State has increased roughly 37 percent each year. This surge is more than double the 17 percent growth in travel nationally.

With those metrics, there is no doubt Colorado businesses have been feeling the flood of tourism during the past few years. However, the question arises: How can Colorado businesses, like hotels and park attractions, entice visitors to experience their products and services during their stay in Colorado?

The answers lie in the data.

Businesses need to proactively understand visitation patterns and data. With this intelligence, consumer behavior can be tracked and analyzed, giving businesses deep insights into patterns to proactively understand their past and potential visitors. The greater understanding of these metrics can lead business owners to uncover new strategies to drive more foot traffic and target marketing efforts to the most valuable customers.

COLORADO'S ARRIVALIST OF MOST VISITED PLACES

Historically, businesses hoping to understand visitation patterns relied on biased, inaccurate sources, such as self-reporting or travel guides driven by marketing dollars. Travel-focused technology companies like Arrivalist are setting new standards for visitation analysis. As an example, collecting data from 120 million location-enabled devices, Arrivalist can track where visitors come from, how long they stay and other places they visit.

At the Colorado Governor’s Conference Oct. 30, Arrivalist unveiled Colorado’s ArrivaLIST of Most Visited Places in the state. This is the first time in the industry’s history that a tourism board has access to a travel-guide based on actual data.

This exposed at least one overlooked place in Colorado: The Million Dollar Highway. This long-standing attraction never had a way to measure how many people visited until now. With Arrivalist, the famous stretch of scenic roadway was exposed as a hidden gem in the visitation data; impressively enough, it was named the Most Visited Attraction in the state. With this information, Ouray, the local convention and visitors’ bureau serving the area, was able to understand just how valuable their area is to Colorado’s tourism industry.

DATA-DRIVEN INSIGHTS WILL CHANGE THE WAY COLORADO BUSINESSES OPERATE

Now that Colorado businesses have access to “must see” lists rooted in science, they can use that data to better serve visitors, make sustainable choices and informed decisions.

Within the past few years, the Colorado Tourism Office has worked to foster sustainable tourism as the state continues to grow in popularity by promoting lesser-known destinations. The use of location data can illuminate some of the state’s popular hidden gems. Moreover, this technology has the potential to create the best, responsive consumer experience. When businesses understand travelers more, they can target marketing efforts and create onsite opportunities for visitors to drive brand recognition and, ultimately, visitation.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO THE TOURISM INDUSTRY?  

Arrivalist data is undoubtedly shaking up tourism. Gone are the days of travel advice based on advertising dollars, self-reporting or inaccurate information. We live in a digital data-driven world, and finally, businesses can lean on ArrivaLISTS to inspire data-driven decisions regarding tourism.

Now that businesses can track and observe visitation patterns, they can adapt their experiences to provide top-quality visits for customers. This data can highlight unserved areas like the Million Dollar Highway to make sure tourism marketers are providing the best possible experiences for their attractions and bringing back the most valuable visitors.

Cree Lawson is CEO and founder of Arrivalist, a location data company in the travel sector, and Travel Ad Network Inc., which made INC Magazine’s list of 500 Fastest-Growing Companies. After a two-decade career in journalism and travel advice, Lawson wondered why he was building databases of subjective opinions about where to travel instead of collecting objective, evidence-based behavioral insights into where people actually travel. His desire for objective, evidence-based travel insights lead to the creation of Arrivalist.