In February, we highlighted a key shift: travel demand wasn&rsquo;t declining, it was fragmenting.
As we move into April, that fragmentation is starting to show up more clearly in behavior. Demand is holding, but converting it is getting harder. Travelers are still planning. Still spending. Just with more intention. Here&rsquo;s how that&rsquo;s playing out across the latest data.

<h4>Lodging Performance Is Splitting Across Markets</h4>
Lodging demand is holding, but it is not evenly distributed. AirDNA reveals short-term rental bookings are up 15%&ndash;17% nationally, with spikes of 50%+ in event-driven and major urban markets. At the same time, STR reports that hotel ADR continues to grow at roughly 2% year over year, while occupancy is flattening and expected to soften slightly in 2026. Pricing power is holding, but conversion is getting harder. In more saturated leisure and secondary markets, both hotels and short-term rentals are seeing weaker occupancy as supply growth increases competition.
Our Datafy take and what this means for you: Travelers are not pulling back, they are choosing more intentionally. Demand is concentrating around destinations with clear reasons to visit now, while markets without a strong draw are losing share. This is a share environment.&nbsp;
Datafy recommendation: Destinations with these strong demand drivers should focus on converting demand and maximizing yield. More competitive markets need to create urgency, sharpen differentiation, and make the trip easier to justify through clear value and packaging.

<h4>Airline Demand Is Strong, but Access Is Tightening</h4>
Airline demand remains strong heading into summer, but access is becoming more constrained. Reuters reports that fares are up 15%&ndash;20% and revenue per seat is increasing around 14%, while rising fuel costs are forcing airlines to pull back capacity in some markets and prioritize pricing over volume. The result is not weaker demand, but a tighter, more expensive, and less flexible air travel environment.
Our Datafy take and what this means for you: This shifts the challenge from generating interest to converting demand. Travelers are still willing to fly, but cost, timing, and convenience are playing a larger role in destination choice.&nbsp;
Datafy recommendation: Align your marketing with real route availability, reinforce value relative to airfare, and make trips easier to plan. Destinations that reduce friction and work within these constraints will win.

<h4>Summer Travel Is Committed, but More Selective</h4>
According to Future Partners, summer 2026 travel is already booked and budgeted. Nearly eight in ten travelers have trips planned, with average budgets reaching $6,630, reinforcing that travel remains a priority spend. However, sentiment is weakening, with recession expectations rising to 52%, creating a more cautious and deliberate traveler.
Our Datafy take and what this means for you: Demand is not softening; it is becoming more selective. Travelers are planning earlier, prioritizing value, and making more calculated decisions, with events like the World Cup and Route 66 Centennial driving incremental demand.&nbsp;
Datafy recommendation: Travelers are booking in advance &ndash; if you haven&rsquo;t already, start planning your late summer and fall campaigns now.&nbsp; Get to market with the seasonality your future visitors are looking to book now.&nbsp; Focus less on generating demand and more on converting it through clear value messaging, ease of planning, and alignment with high-intent, event-driven travel.

<h4>Canadian Travel to the U.S. Continues to Decline</h4>
Canadian visitation to the U.S. continues to contract, with StatsCan reporting February travel down 12.5% year over year, marking the 14th consecutive month of decline. At the same time, Canadians are increasingly choosing overseas destinations, and early March data shows continued declines across both air and auto travel. This is not a short-term dip, but a sustained shift.
Geopolitical tensions are accelerating the decline, with xBorder reporting Canadian travel intent to the U.S. dropping to 11.9%, the lowest level since 2022.&nbsp;
Our Datafy take and what this means for you: The result is a smaller, more selective Canadian traveler base, concentrated in summer and among younger segments.&nbsp;
Datafy recommendation: If your destination has resonance or the summer events that appeal to Canadians, move away from broad targeting and focus on high-intent segments, while directly addressing cost, access, and sentiment barriers to improve conversion. If not, focus your advertising dollars on domestic drive markets.&nbsp;

<h4>Consumers Are Cautious, but Still Traveling</h4>
Consumer confidence is weakening. The University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 49.8, down from 53.3 in March and 52.2 a year ago, while the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index sits at 91.8, slightly up month over month but still below year-ago levels. While the labor market remains stable, the broader environment reflects a cooling economy with slowing momentum and increasing uncertainty.
Our Datafy take and what this means for you: This is not reducing demand, but it is tightening decision-making. Higher-income travelers still have the ability to spend but are becoming more selective, while lower- and middle-income travelers remain highly price sensitive.&nbsp;
Datafy recommendation: This reinforces a conversion-driven environment where success with low- and middle-income travelers depends on clear value messaging, reduced friction, and a focus on shorter trips, drive markets, and experiences that justify the spend.

<h3>Our Final Take: The Next 90 Days Will Define Fall</h3>
This is not about driving new demand. It is about capturing the demand that is already forming for late summer and fall. Travelers have largely committed to peak summer, and the next wave of bookings is happening now, with more scrutiny on cost, access, and value.
Over the next 90 days, destinations that outperform will:
<ul>
<li>Be in market now with late summer and early fall travel, aligned to when travelers are actively booking</li>
<li>Prioritize high-intent, multi-trip households who are already in planning mode</li>
<li>Make the decision easier, through clear value, simple planning, and reduced friction</li>
<li>Monitor pacing across air access, Canadian visitation, and key feeder markets</li>
<li>Protect share in drive and short-haul markets where conversion is more achievable</li>
<li>Compete intentionally for higher-income travelers weighing domestic versus international options</li>
</ul>
Demand exists. But it is selective.&nbsp;
The destinations that capture it will be the ones aligned to how travelers are planning right now.

<h3>Make sure you are getting the monthly trend updates by subscribing to <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/build-relation/newsletter-follow?entityUrn=7416599677606739968" rel="follow">The Datafy Download</a>.</h3>

Travelers are more selective in 2026, prioritizing value, cost, and ease. See what’s shaping booking behavior and destination strategy.

Demand Is Holding, But Conversion Is Getting Harder

Travel demand is holding in 2026, but converting travelers is getting harder. Explore the latest travel trends, booking behavior, and what destinations must do to win.

What’s News? April Edition: Demand Is Holding. Conversion Is Harder

Ever crossed your fingers and hoped your ads were reaching the right people? You&rsquo;re not alone.
For years, audience targeting meant guessing based on clicks, search history, or whatever someone did online at 2am. Fortunately, today there&rsquo;s a far better way to find the people who are most likely to visit your destination: build audiences based on real-life behavior.&nbsp;

<h3>Start with what people actually do&nbsp;</h3>
Instead of assuming what someone might be interested in, start with what they&rsquo;ve actually done and where they&rsquo;ve actually been.
Think:
<ul>
<li>stadiums</li>
<li>hotels</li>
<li>major festivals</li>
<li>competitor destinations</li>
<li>global events like the World Cup or the Olympics</li>
</ul>
When you build audiences around real-world actions, you&rsquo;re reaching people who have already demonstrated true interest. The result? Higher engagement, stronger visitation, and better ROAS.&nbsp;
Put simply: Imagine you&rsquo;re a World Cup host city, working to draw soccer fans, would you rather:
Reach someone who almost bought a jersey for their nephew online?
or
Someone who&rsquo;s been previously seen at international soccer matches?&nbsp;

<h3>This matters even more in a K-shaped economy&nbsp;</h3>
The <a href="https://www.datafy.com/blog/whats-news-with-datafy-october-tourism-edition">K-shaped economy</a> is widening the gap in how different groups travel and spend. Some households are thriving, while others are feeling real pressure - and these groups behave very differently online and in the real world.&nbsp;&nbsp;
That means:
<ul data-start="1606" data-end="1729">
<li data-section-id="11es24w" data-start="1606" data-end="1667">Value-driven travelers want affordability and flexibility</li>
<li data-section-id="9jj2d4" data-start="1668" data-end="1729">Affluent travelers want premium, experience-led messaging</li>
</ul>
Tailoring your message to each audience isn&rsquo;t just being strategic - it&rsquo;s an essential requirement for a successful campaign.&nbsp;
The Bottom line: If you want to grow visitation and improve your ROI, strategic audience building isn&rsquo;t just another tactic - it&rsquo;s the foundation of a modern ad-tech strategy. When you understand real-world behavior, you can reach the people most likely to convert into visitors.&nbsp;

<h4>What this looks like in action? Check out <a href="https://www.datafy.com/blog/three-ad-campaigns-that-crushed-it-and-how-they-did-it" rel="follow" style="color: #843fa1;">these three&nbsp;campaigns </a>that absolutely crushed audience building in 2025 - and what you can learn from them.&nbsp;</h4>

Guessing your audience costs you. Don’t let it. Use behavior-based targeting with Datafy to reach proven buyers and drive measurable ROAS.

Audience Building 101: Reaching the Right Customers

Audience Building 101: Why behavior-based targeting is replacing guesswork... and driving better marketing results.

Why Audience Building is The New Playbook for Reaching High-Value Visitors

Picture this: It&rsquo;s April. The spring break crowds have come and gone, travel has slowed, and your attraction is feeling quieter than you&rsquo;d like. You know that peak season will return, but you don&rsquo;t want to just wait it out.&nbsp;
With Datafy, you don&rsquo;t have to. Instead, you dig into your data and spot a pattern: locals haven&rsquo;t been back (some in months). That&rsquo;s an opportunity.&nbsp;
You build a campaign targeting people in your community who&rsquo;ve visited before, but haven&rsquo;t returned in the past six months.&nbsp;
You serve them specialized ads with a personalized invitation and a special &ldquo;locals-only&rdquo; admissions rate. A few weeks later, you&rsquo;re not just guessing if it worked, because you can actually track how many of these ad-aware locals bought tickets and came through your doors.&nbsp;
The result: A shoulder-season or a quiet break becomes an opportunity to reconnect with your community, boost direct ticket sales, and prove that your marketing dollars are making a measurable difference.&nbsp;

This is what we do at Datafy. Provide attractions with a clear view of their audiences, and the ability to turn data into action, so you can better:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Understand your visitors: Who they are, where they come from, and what else they do during their trip&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Reach the right people: Use real-world behavior data to find the audiences most likely to buy, show up, and spend - and then serve them ads that will reach them.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Measure what&rsquo;s working: Prove your impact by linking your campaigns directly to ticket sales and visitation.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>

Datafy takes the guesswork out of marketing - making sure that every dollar works harder and each campaign is measurable.&nbsp;

<h3>Why This Matters:&nbsp;</h3>
This kind of data can be a game-changer for attractions dealing with unpredictable visitation trends and high expectations from stakeholders. Instead of guessing how impactful your campaigns were, or how many people actually visited as a result of your ads, you can know - and prove - the results.&nbsp;
And the benefits don&rsquo;t stop here. It can look like building campaigns to drive visitors during the slow season, preparing for maximizing the holiday rush, or even easing overcrowding issues when demand is too high.&nbsp;
These same insights can inform pricing strategies, staffing decisions, and even new programming. By spotting trends in visitation and spending, attractions can take the guesswork out of strategy development and plan for growth with confidence.&nbsp;

We know that each ticket sold is more than just a visit:
It&rsquo;s a memory, a job supported, and a boost to the local economy.
That&rsquo;s why we work to give attractions the tools to thrive in every season: Because we know that the ones who embrace this approach won&rsquo;t just get by - they&rsquo;ll grow, lead, and continue creating unforgettable experiences that bring people together.&nbsp;
<h4></h4>
<h4>Want your attraction to thrive year-round?&nbsp; <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">Let&rsquo;s talk</a>.</h4>

Learn how your attraction should be using advertising and attribution to drive ticket sales, engage locals, & prove ROI (a win-win-win).

How to Make Sure Your Attraction Thrives All Year Long

Slow season doesn’t have to mean slow results. Learn how Datafy helps attractions turn visitor data into campaigns that drive ticket sales.

Attractions’ Biggest Opportunity - Using Data to Thrive in Every Season

We spend a lot of time discussing the back-and-forth of travel demand being up or down. But is that really the question anymore? I think each destination already has a pretty good sense of that. What feels more important right now is what travelers are actually doing once they arrive.
People are still taking trips. They are still spending. What is changing is how they are spending once they get there.
And that shift is starting to show up in very real ways across destinations. Here is what our team is seeing in the latest data.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2>Q4 2025 Traveler Spending Insights</h2>
Traveler spending patterns in Q4 2025 reveal a clear dynamic across the travel economy. Travel demand remains strong, but spending decisions within the trip are becoming more selective. Travelers are still taking trips and spending more overall, yet they are increasingly managing everyday costs while protecting the experiences that make travel meaningful.&nbsp;
Overall traveler spend grew 6.74 percent year over year, well above overall inflation of roughly 2.7 percent. Because travel prices themselves increased by less than 1 percent year over year, much of that growth reflects real increases in travel activity rather than rising costs alone. In real terms, travelers are spending meaningfully more on travel, even as they make more deliberate decisions about how that money is spent during the trip.
Shifts in spending share across categories show how those decisions are playing out:
<img alt="undefined" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/snV2vijLSt6IQi7N3Mgz">
When the overall 6.74 percent growth in travel spending is applied to these shifts, most categories still show absolute growth in spending, even where share declined. The takeaway is not reduced travel activity, but evolving spending priorities within trips.
Source, Datafy Traveler Credit Card Analysis, Affinity
<h3>What this means for destinations</h3>
Travelers are managing everyday trip costs without giving up the trip itself. Dining and nightlife lost share while grocery and department store spending gained share, suggesting some travelers are substituting restaurant meals with convenience purchases or groceries during their stay. These adjustments appear to be cost management decisions, not signs of weaker travel demand.
At the same time, experiences remain protected. Leisure, recreation, and entertainment increased their share of traveler spending for the second consecutive quarter, reinforcing that activities and experiences within the destination remain central to why travelers take trips.
The data also points to diverging spending patterns across traveler segments. Specialty retail recorded the largest share gain for the second consecutive quarter, suggesting affluent travelers continue making discretionary purchases tied to the destination while more price sensitive travelers adjust everyday trip spending.
Taken together, these patterns reflect a K shaped spending dynamic, where higher income travelers continue discretionary destination spending while other travelers manage everyday costs within the trip.
<h3>How destinations should respond</h3>
Lead marketing with experiences, not logistics.Growth in Leisure, Recreation and Entertainment and Specialty Retail reinforces that in destination activities are driving travel spending growth. Destinations should emphasize experiences, events, and attractions in trip planning and marketing.

Emphasize value and flexibility for price-sensitive travelers. With dining losing share and grocery purchases gaining share, many travelers appear to be managing everyday trip costs. Destinations should highlight casual dining, local markets, bundled attraction passes, and flexible itineraries that allow visitors to manage spending while still enjoying the destination.
Capture high-value travelers through premium experiences and retail.Continued growth in Specialty Retail suggests strong discretionary spending among affluent travelers. Promoting high-end shopping, curated experiences, and premium events can help destinations capture this higher value segment.
<h3></h3>
<h3><img alt="undefined" width="343" height="193" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/eNuwjC6SsWAgBj5k5W2w"></h3>
<h3></h3>
<h3>Analytics trends to watch in your Datafy dashboard</h3>
<ul>
<li>Spending shifts across retail, dining, and experience categories</li>
<li>Changes in destination spending tied to attractions and entertainment</li>
<li>Differences in spending behavior across higher and lower value traveler segments</li>
</ul>

As we think about where things are heading, what stands out is not a change in whether people are traveling, it is how they are thinking about their trip.
People are still going. They are still spending. They are just making more deliberate choices about where that money goes.&nbsp;You can see it in the way experiences continue to matter, while everyday decisions become more flexible. You can also see it in how differently travelers are approaching the same trip.
To me, this is not about reacting to demand; it is about staying connected with the traveler and recognizing that not all travelers are experiencing this economy the same way. In a K-shaped environment, some travelers are doing more of the same while others are making more careful trade-offs, which makes thoughtful segmentation essential. The destinations that understand those differences and ensure the right travelers are receiving the right message, and prioritizing making the experiences offered feel worth it are going to be the ones that come out ahead.
The signals are already there. The people are there. Now it is about paying attention to them.

<h4>Interested in hearing more about our spending insights? <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow" style="color: #843fa1;">Let's chat!&nbsp;</a></h4>

Methodology -&nbsp;This analysis draws on Affinity credit and debit card spending data from more than 90 million Mastercard, Visa, Discover, and American Express cards, filtered to include individuals traveling 50 plus miles from home. Spending reflects domestic purchases by American consumers. Margin of error, 0.02 percent to 0.04 percent.

This edition of Inside the Travler Wallet explores Datafy’s Q4 2025 National Traveler Spend insights, with takeaways for how destinations ca

Special March 2026 Edition, Q4 2025 Spend

This edition of Inside the Traveler Wallet explores Datafy’s Q4 2025 National Traveler Spend insights, with takeaways for how destinations can respond & the analytics trends to watch. Happy reading!

Special March 2026 Edition: Q4 2025 Spend

As February unfolds, one pattern is becoming clearer: travel demand is not declining; it&rsquo;s segmenting.
Leisure intent remains strong, yet consumer confidence is sharply divided by income. Meanwhile, Canadian travel continues to decline, inbound recovery remains incomplete, and affluent Americans are traveling abroad at elevated rates.
But this blog isn&rsquo;t about the whole year. It&rsquo;s about the booking window in front of us, as spring decisions begin shaping summer outcomes.
Below are the signals shaping spring travel right now and how destinations can convert concentrated demand into summer momentum.

<hr>

<h2 style="text-align: left;">Strong Intent, Uneven Confidence</h2>
According to Future Partners&rsquo; February 2026 State of the American Traveler, 58.5% of Americans say leisure travel is a high priority in the next three months. Travelers expect to take roughly four trips over the next year.
However, confidence is concentrated among higher-income households. Lower- and middle-income consumers report significantly weaker financial outlooks, reinforcing a K-shaped demand environment. Source: <a href="https://futurepartners.com/blog/the-state-of-the-american-traveler-in-february-2026/" rel="follow">Future Partners</a>

Our Datafy take and what this means for you
Demand is holding, but it is disproportionately driven by affluent, multi-trip travelers. However, most destinations need visitors across income levels to fill rooms and STR units.&nbsp;
Shift targeting toward higher-income, high-frequency segments while clearly articulating value and flexibility for middle-market travelers. Lean into experiential differentiation that resonates with younger, experience-driven audiences.

Analytics trends to watch in your Datafy dashboard
<ul>
<li>
Tracking household income level changes among visitors over time
</li>
<li>
Trip frequency trends among repeat visitors
</li>
<li>
Conversion rates across audience segments for campaigns
</li>
</ul>


<h2 style="text-align: left;">Government Shutdown Creates Perception Risk</h2>
The partial government shutdown has TSA agents working unpaid, briefly triggered PreCheck suspension concerns, and left Global Entry enrollment systems offline. Flights are currently operating normally, but operational strain risk grows as funding uncertainty continues into a critical spring booking window. Sources: <a href="https://www.wmur.com/article/partial-government-shutdown-impacts-tsa-employees/70363019" rel="follow">WMUR</a>; <a href="https://thepointsguy.com/news/partial-government-shutdown-airport-impact/">The Points Guy</a>; <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2026/02/21/tsa-precheck-global-entry-shutdown/" rel="follow">The Washington Post</a>

Our Datafy take and what this means for you
Booking psychology can shift quickly when operational headlines create uncertainty, particularly among high-frequency air travelers.
Drive markets should lean into proximity and ease-of-access positioning while volatility persists.&nbsp;Equip partners with consistent messaging to reduce traveler friction.&nbsp;

Analytics trends to watch
<ul>
<li>
Track changes in market share by fly markets
</li>
<li>
Monitor drive-market share shifts&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
To fuel immediate visitation, lean into high-performing drive traveler marketing
</li>
</ul>


<h2 style="text-align: left;">Prices Are Stable. Personal Finances &amp; Confidence Is the Real Barrier.</h2>
The U.S. Travel Association&rsquo;s January Travel Price Index shows travel prices up just 0.3% YOY, which is below overall inflation. Hotel rates remain soft YOY, and gasoline prices have declined.&nbsp;Travel is comparatively affordable. This means that consumer hesitation is based on personal finances or psychologically based, not price-driven.&nbsp; Source: <a href="https://www.ustravel.org/research/travel-price-index" rel="follow">U.S. Travel Association</a>

Our Datafy take and what this means for you
It&rsquo;s important to lead with value for the money messaging at all price points - even affluent travelers want to know they&rsquo;re getting the most out of their experiential investment.&nbsp;&nbsp;
Highlight&nbsp;regional and drive-market convenience, promote shoulder-season value, and bundle experiences rather than cutting rates. Messaging should make travel feel smart and justified.

Analytics trends to watch
<ul>
<li>
Growth in regional and in-state visitation
</li>
<li>
Booking window compression&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Conversion rates for value-driven creative&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
<h2 style="text-align: center;"></h2>
<h2 style="text-align: left;">Inbound Recovery Stalls as U.S. Outbound Surges</h2>
Non-U.S. citizen air arrivals declined 4.8% YOY in January and remain below 2019 levels. At the same time, outbound U.S. travel is over 25% above pre-pandemic benchmarks. Affluent Americans are traveling abroad at elevated levels. Source: <a href="https://www.altexsoft.com/travel-industry-news/inbound-travel-drops-as-americans-travel-abroad-more-in-2026">Altexsoft</a>

Our Datafy take and what this means for you
Inbound recovery cannot be assumed, and domestic high-income travelers face increasing global competition.
Prioritize international markets showing measurable growth. Strengthen airline partnerships in performing corridors. Compete for affluent domestic travelers with differentiated, premium positioning.

Analytics trends to watch
<ul>
<li>
High-income domestic audience engagement
</li>
<li>
Length-of-stay trends among international cohorts
</li>
</ul>


<h2 style="text-align: left;">Canadian Travel Declines Continue</h2>
Canadian return trips from the U.S. declined approximately 24% YOY in January, with both auto and air travel down significantly. Sources: <a href="https://skift.com/2026/02/11/u-s-travel-from-canada-falls-again-to-start-2026" rel="follow">Skift</a>; <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/daily-quotidien/260211/dq260211c-eng.htm" rel="follow">Statistics Canada</a>

Our Datafy take and what this means for you
Canada remains critical by volume, but softness requires strategic recalibration rather than passive reliance.
Evaluate performance at the metro level. Concentrate spend in resilient Canadian pockets while reinforcing high-performing regional domestic markets.

Analytics trends to watch
<ul>
<li>
Metro-level Canadian visitation market share
</li>
<li>
Track attribution of cross-border campaigns
</li>
<li>
Measure domestic drive market performance if and when budget has been reallocated from Canada.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>

<h2 style="text-align: left;">Modest Growth, Segment Divergence for Hotels</h2>
STR and Tourism Economics forecast 2026 RevPAR growth at just 0.6%, with Q1 slightly negative. Higher-tier properties are expected to outperform, while economy segments remain under pressure. Source: <a href="https://www.costar.com/products/benchmark/resources/data-insights-blog/us-hotel-forecast-assumptions-february-2026" rel="follow">CoStar</a>&nbsp;

Our Datafy take and what it means for you
Growth will be limited and uneven. Market share gains matter more than broad expansion.
Align campaigns with compression periods and support mid-scale partners through experience bundling rather than rate discounting. Plan early for shoulder-season demand gaps.

Analytics trends to watch
<ul>
<li>
Length of stay by hotel segment
</li>
<li>
ADR trends by hotel segment&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Shoulder-season performance trends
</li>
</ul>
<h1></h1>
<h3>Our Final Take: The Next 90 Days Define Summer</h3>
This isn&rsquo;t a demand crisis. It&rsquo;s a spring and early-summer execution moment. Travelers are booking now. They&rsquo;re planning now. And budgets are already being allocated for travelers' trips for the year.
Over the next 90 days, destinations that outperform will:
<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;">Prioritize high-propensity, multi-trip households who are actively planning</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Reinforce value and clarity where confidence is fragile with lower- and middle-income travelers</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Monitor pacing in air, Canadian, and key feeder markets</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Work to protect share in top-performing drive and short-haul markets through smart segmentation and campaigns</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Compete intentionally for affluent travelers weighing international options </li>
</ol>
Spring campaigns aren&rsquo;t about broad inspiration; they&rsquo;re about conversion.
The right audiences. The right message. The right timing.
Demand exists. But it&rsquo;s selective. Destinations that move decisively now will carry that momentum into summer.

<h4>Need some ideas for spring/summer campaign success? Check out these <a href="https://www.datafy.com/blog/three-ad-campaigns-that-crushed-it-and-how-they-did-it" rel="follow">three destination campaigns that crushed it </a>and be the next success story.&nbsp;</h4>

Spring 2026 travel demand is segmenting by income, market, & type. See the latest trends & how destinations can convert demand into growth.

Spring 2026 Travel Trends: Segmenting Demand & DMO Strategy

This February edition of What’s News? is designed to be skimmed. Each section includes clear takeaways for destinations and the analytics signals worth watching as demand fragments across income, geography, and travel type.

What’s News? February - The K-Shaped Economy Continues to Define Travel

What happens when you stop trying to reach everyone and start focusing on the right travelers? Real results. That's right, proof.
These three 2025 campaigns show how smart, behavior-based audience building translates into visitation, room nights, and serious ROI.

<h3>$3.9 Million in Impact: Audience Building in Beverly Hills</h3>
First up &mdash; we looove Beverly Hills. And with this campaign, so did their visitors.
The Beverly Hills Convention and Visitors Bureau (BHCVB) Spring 2025 campaign worked because it didn&rsquo;t try to reach everyone - it focused on the right travelers through smart, behavior-based audience building.
BHCVB started by creating a highly-qualified luxury audience grounded in real-world actions, including past Beverly Hills visitors and high-income travelers with demonstrated interest in luxury experiences. One of the most strategic moves was compiling a list of the top 50 luxury hotels in America and targeting individuals who had been observed at those properties within the past year - a textbook example of geo-conquesting and real-life behavioral targeting.
By reaching people already proven to seek out premium hotels and high-end travel, Beverly Hills turned its global brand into measurable results, driving a 38% year-over-year increase in lodging visitation, more than 10,000 attributable trips to the destination, over 1,500 room nights observed, and nearly $4 million in economic impact with an exceptional 31.5:1 ROAS.&nbsp;

<h3>A Summer Comeback&nbsp; in Haywood, NC&nbsp;</h3>
Six months after Hurricane Helene, Visit Haywood, NC entered Summer 2025 with a clear mission:
<ol>
<li>reassure travelers the destination was open</li>
<li>drive immediate drive-market trips</li>
<li>boost overnight stays</li>
</ol>
To do that, the team leaned heavily on strong audience building to ensure they were reaching the right people: past overnight summer visitors from the destination&rsquo;s top eight DMAs within a 50&ndash;500 mile radius (Charlotte, Knoxville, Greenville, Atlanta, Nashville, Raleigh, Greensboro, and Columbia), all matching key demographics (age 35+, $75K+ household income, household size 1&ndash;4). They also created a look-alike audience of this group to expand reach without sacrificing quality.
By focusing on travelers with real behavioral signals of interest and the means to return, the campaign did its job, delivering: an estimated 1,799 attributable trips, more than $325,000 in estimated visitor spending, and an exceptional 32.5:1 ROAS.
When you know who&rsquo;s most likely to come back, you don&rsquo;t have to shout. You just have to show up.

<h3>Finding the Right Travelers for Bend</h3>
Visit Bend&rsquo;s annual drive campaign set its sights on high-value travelers who prioritize sustainability and are likely to book overnight stays in hotels or short-term rentals.
To reach the visitors most likely to convert, the team built an exceptionally niche audience strategy grounded in real-world behavior. They targeted past visitors in three high-intent groups:
<ul>
<li>Gen X travelers (ages 45 - 64 with real-life interest in the outdoors, skiing/snowboarding, or dining)</li>
<li>Adventure-minded millennials (ages 25 - 44 with demonstrated outdoor or dining behaviors)</li>
<li>Millennial families (ages 35 - 44 with households of 3+)</li>
</ul>
These audiences were drawn from key DMAs 100+ miles from Bend&nbsp; (Portland, Seattle-Tacoma, Spokane, Boise, Eugene, and Medford) and expanded with look-alike modeling.
Each segment received a strategic mix of blended video, native, prospecting display, retargeting display, and audio ads designed to drive both awareness and conversion. The campaign is still underway, but early performance indicators are already strong - we'll keep you posted!&nbsp;
<h4> Want to see what behavior-based audience building can do for your destination? <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow" style="color: #843fa1;">Reach out</a> to Datafy today, and we&rsquo;ll show you how to reach the right travelers. (And prove your impact!)&nbsp;</h4>

Discover how 3 audience-driven ad campaigns increased visitation, boosted revenue, & delivered measurable ROI through behavior-based targeting.

3 Ad Campaigns That Prove Audience Strategy Drives ROI

See what happens when we stop assuming and let audience strategy lead the way? You get real visitation, real revenue, and real ROI, and these three campaigns proved it.

Three Ad Campaigns That Crushed It (And How They Did It)

Data and advertising go hand in hand. When they&rsquo;re working together - really together - you have a clear picture of what&rsquo;s working, who you&rsquo;re reaching, and how your efforts are impacting real-world visitation. Let&rsquo;s dig into the five biggest reasons organizations benefit when their data and advertising programs are linked.&nbsp;

Save Time and Simplify Everything&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s start with the obvious: Efficiency. Managing multiple vendors and platforms is a time suck. When your data and advertising live under one roof, it&rsquo;s not just simpler, it&rsquo;s faster. Campaign set up, reporting, and optimization all become seamless, freeing up your team to focus on strategy instead of spreadsheets.&nbsp;

Stronger Data Fuels Stronger Advertising&nbsp;
The best campaigns start with the right audience - and nothing powers that better than real-world data. With Datafy&rsquo;s full suite of ad-tech solutions, you can build custom audiences based on real-life behavior:
<ul>
<li style="font-style: italic;">Where they&rsquo;ve been?</li>
<li style="font-style: italic;">What they enjoy?</li>
<li style="font-style: italic;">What kind of experiences they&rsquo;re likely to seek out next?</li>
</ul>
Want to reach food lovers? National park explorers? Live music fans? We&rsquo;ll identify those audiences with the highest likelihood of converting, and connect them directly to your campaign.&nbsp;

Measure What Actually Happened&nbsp;
Clicks and impressions can only tell you so much. However, when your data and advertising are linked, you can measure what people actually did.
Did your campaign drive overnight visitation?&nbsp;
What percentage of your ad exposed audience show up in-market?&nbsp;
With a closed loop between data and advertising, you can deliver campaign recaps that go beyond surface metrics - showing, for example, the estimated number of hotel rooms booked or total day visitors who came from devices exposed to your ads.&nbsp;

Understand Your Impact with Incremental Lift&nbsp;
Knowing who visited is one thing. Knowing why they visited is even better. Incremental lift helps you understand how many trips were influenced by your campaign, versus those that would have happened anyway.&nbsp;
With Datafy&rsquo;s large datasets, we can create a statistically valid control group - people who match your audience but didn&rsquo;t see your ads. By comparing their visitation rates to those who did see them, we get a clear view of your marketing&rsquo;s true impact. (Think insights like: &ldquo;Ad-exposed audiences were 3.2x more likely to show up than non ad-exposed audiences.&rdquo;)

Everybody&rsquo;s Doing It&nbsp;
Well&hellip; not everybody. But while bundling data and advertising might sound new in the tourism industry, big players in other industries already consider it standard practice. Now, with Datafy&rsquo;s full suite of solutions, you can tap into the same efficiency and effectiveness of data-driven programmatic advertising that the rest of the ad-tech work has been using for years.&nbsp;

The Bottom Line&nbsp;
When your data and advertising are connected, everything just works better. You get a clearer picture of who&rsquo;s coming, what&rsquo;s working, and how to plan for what&rsquo;s next.&nbsp;
And that&rsquo;s exactly what Datafy was built from - to help connect the dots between data, advertising, and real-world results.&nbsp;
<h4>Ready to see what happens when your data and advertising actually work together? <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">Let&rsquo;s talk.</a>&nbsp;</h4>

Discover five key benefits of connecting data & advertising to drive measurable visitation, improve efficiency, & maximize campaign impact.

5 Reasons Your Data and Advertising Should Align

Still juggling separate systems for your data and advertising? You’re not alone - but you’re missing out. Here are five big reasons it’s time to bring them together.

5 Reasons You Need Your Data and Advertising Programs Linked

You did a lot in 2025. You worked towards supporting local businesses, generating economic impact, and even increasing the value of commercial properties in your district. (Just to name a few!) And you did it in a lot of ways: improving cleanliness and safety, hosting events that bring people in, boosting tourism, and encouraging more visits to shops, restaurants, and entertainment.
With your full 2025 spending and visitation data now available, you can see exactly how your efforts paid off and what you should be focusing on in 2026. It&rsquo;s time to show stakeholders what worked and that your efforts are leading to more spending, stronger businesses, and real economic benefit for your community. By tying your work directly to spending in local businesses, you can clearly show how your investments turned into real revenue - and use those insights to double down on what worked as you plan for 2026.
The good news: you don&rsquo;t have to guess. We&rsquo;ll help you identify and highlight a civic leader&rsquo;s most essential metrics like total spending, spending by category, and a deep dive into which events or initiatives drove the biggest lift.
<h3>The Spending Metrics Available for all Districts:&nbsp;</h3>
Here are the metrics to include if you want to show how much money came into the district in 2025 - and what drove it:
Total spending in the district in 2025
Your clearest top-line indicator of economic impact
&nbsp;
Category-level spending
&nbsp;(including: Dining, Nightlife, Entertainment, Retail, Hotels, Grocery, Transportation, &amp; Apparel)
Compare year-over-year to show where growth happened, not just that it happened
&nbsp;
Total spending over time
(broken out by month and by day)
Great for showing seasonality, weekend vs. weekday patterns, and peak periods
&nbsp;
Total visits to the district, plus average spend per visitor at local businesses
This helps you tell a more complete story: more visitors, more value per visit, or both
&nbsp;
Event-level impact
Which events in 2025 drove the most visitation and spending?
Together, these metrics help you tell a clear story: not just that activity happened, but that your work helped drive real economic outcomes for the district.
<h3></h3>
<h3>Want to take it a step further?</h3>
Add context to the baseline metrics by pulling in year-over-year trends: what shifted across categories, seasons, or key days?&nbsp; Then connect those results back to what you did: events, campaigns, and on-the-ground initiatives.
Your dashboard can help here too: Layer in supporting insights like who&rsquo;s visiting, where they&rsquo;re coming from, and visitor makeup. (And since no one has time to build this from scratch every month, Datafy&rsquo;s monthly Talking Points help keep the story current all year long.)
<h3>A Final Thought:&nbsp;</h3>
At the end of the day, your stakeholders don&rsquo;t just want to hear that downtown was busy - they want proof it was valuable. When you lead with spending and connect outcomes back to the work you did, your 2025 story becomes clear and defensible. And even better: it gives you a data-backed foundation for what to prioritize, expand, and improve in 2026.
Want these insights for your district before your next board meeting? <a href="https://calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0/appointments/AcZssZ2k_FvLdV7oqki1nkXwbHPMInvpdJyNS_-S1Es=">Book some time </a>with Ian Ross, Datafy&rsquo;s VP of Civic, now.&nbsp;

Review 2025 performance with the metrics that prove downtown economic impact & learn how to use that data to guide smarter planning for 2026.

Prove Economic Impact of 2025 For Your Downtown with these Metrics

As downtowns review 2025 performance, leaders are asking: Did our efforts drive measurable economic impact? This guide outlines the key metrics that matter and how to use them to inform 2026 planning.

Your 2025 Data Is In: The Metrics That Prove Economic Impact For Downtowns

As we head into 2026, one theme cuts across every dataset: travel demand is holding, but it&rsquo;s more deliberate, selective, and uneven. The opportunity isn&rsquo;t about reigniting interest; it&rsquo;s about converting intent into bookings in a confidence-driven market.
Domestically, most travelers remain employed and active, but optimism is fragile. Budgets are tightening, planning windows are shortening, and travelers are taking fewer trips, but they&rsquo;re still traveling. Internationally, recovery is far from guaranteed, and competition for inbound travelers is intensifying. On the supply side, hotel performance continues to normalize, with clear winners and laggards by segment.
For destinations, 2026 is shaping up to be a year of conversion over momentum. Clear value, relevance, and timing will matter more than broad inspiration.

<h1>Travel Trends &amp; Forecast</h1>
<h3>How Destinations Can Win in a More Selective Travel Market</h3>
According to Future Partners&rsquo; January 2026 State of the American Traveler study, U.S. travelers are entering the year with cautious confidence, not outright pessimism, but far from optimism. Only 31.3% say they are financially better off than a year ago, and just 43.9% expect to be better off in the next 12 months, down five points year over year. Nearly half of Americans expect a recession within six months, and half report being more careful with their spending.
That caution is reflected in forward-looking intent. Only a quarter of Americans expect to take more leisure trips in the next year, and 29.5% expect to spend more on travel. The average annual leisure travel budget has declined 6.6% YOY to $5,511.
Yet recent behavior tells a different story: 68.6% of Americans took an overnight leisure trip in the past month, and 50% took a VFR trip, both up year over year. Travelers still expect to take an average of 3.8 leisure trips in the year ahead, with higher-income households planning significantly more travel than lower-income groups. Source: <a href="https://futurepartners.com/blog/the-state-of-the-american-traveler-in-january-2026/" rel="follow">Future Partners</a>
What this means for destinations:
<ul>
<li>
How destinations should respond: Shift from broad inspiration to decision-driving messaging. Travelers aren&rsquo;t canceling trips; they&rsquo;re justifying them. Lead with specific experiences, seasonal relevance, and clear reasons to travel now, not someday.
</li>
<li>
Shorter planning windows (roughly 11 weeks) mean heavier emphasis on mid- and lower-funnel tactics. Increase spend closer to travel dates, prioritize retargeting and in-market audiences, and lean into event- and moment-driven demand like the big soccer line-up this summer.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
Analytics trends to watch in your Datafy dashboard:
<ol>
<li>Individual audience segments - which are having the most impact?</li>
<li>Engagement and repeat visits among higher-income households and recent travelers</li>
</ol>
Together, these signals will matter more than top-line reach as destinations work to convert cautious intent into actual trips.

<h1>Travel Pricing</h1>
<h3>Travel Is Getting Cheaper&mdash;But Confidence Is the Real Barrier</h3>
The U.S. Travel Association&rsquo;s Travel Price Index shows a notable shift: overall travel prices are down 0.8% year over year, driven by declining airfares and moderating hotel rates. This comes even as broader inflation continues to pressure household budgets.
The implication is critical. If travel prices are easing while consumer caution remains elevated, cost is no longer the primary obstacle. The real barrier is confidence and justification&mdash;why this trip, why now. Source: <a href="https://www.ustravel.org/research/travel-price-index" rel="follow">U.S. Travel Association</a>
What this means for destinations:
<ul>
<li>
How destinations should respond: Translate easing prices into clear, locally relevant value. This is a strong moment to highlight resident and regional offers&mdash;for example, in-state or local resident rates similar to California-resident hotel pricing. When international visitation is soft, encouraging nearby travelers to rediscover their own backyard can stabilize demand.
</li>
<li>
Lean into drive-market and short-haul messaging that reinforces ease, proximity, and affordability. Promote shoulder-season value, flexible stays, and bundled experiences rather than blanket discounts. Messaging should make the decision feel low-risk and smart, not cheap.
</li>
</ul>
Analytics trends to watch in your Datafy dashboard:
<ol>
<li>Growth of in-state, regional, and drive-market visitation</li>
<li>Conversion rates tied to resident or regional offers</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Shifts in booking windows and length of stay among domestic travelers</li>
</ol>
Used well, easing travel prices create a window to activate local and regional demand, especially where international visitation remains uneven, by reinforcing value, convenience, and confidence.

<h1>International Visitation</h1>
<h3>U.S. International Demand Lags Global Recovery</h3>
Despite global tourism spending growing 6.7% in 2025, foreign visitation to the U.S. fell by roughly 6%, with international visitor spending down an estimated 7%. Europe and Asia captured a growing share of global travel, while the U.S. underperformed. Source: <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/visit/us-sees-drop-in-foreign-visitors-in-2025-even-as-global-tourism-spending-rises/articleshow/126539546.cms" rel="follow">The Economic Times</a>
What this means for destinations: International recovery cannot be assumed in 2026. Destinations will need to compete aggressively by prioritizing high-intent markets, simplifying travel narratives, and clearly articulating unique value, while relying on domestic and drive markets for stability.

<h3>Canada: Declines Persist, Importance Remains</h3>
Canadian travel to the U.S. remained sharply down in 2025, with overnight visitation off 22.1% YTD. Land travel declined more than 30%, while air travel proved more resilient. Younger, higher-value travelers ages 25&ndash;39 continue to lead demand, with spring and early summer 2026 showing the strongest intent. Source: <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/canadian-visitor-outlook-us-2026-scott-johnson-wusbc/?trackingId=K3BWhDqFTuKLNstSf6kzNg%3D%3D" rel="follow">XBorder Research</a>
What this means for destinations: Canada remains the most important international market by volume, but recovery will require active competition. Air-accessible markets, peak-season messaging, and clear value and ease-of-travel narratives will be essential.
 
<h1>Hotel Performance</h1>
<h3>Normalization, Divergence, and the Mid-Market Squeeze</h3>
U.S. hotels recorded their first full-year declines in occupancy and RevPAR since 2020. National occupancy fell to 62.3%, and RevPAR declined 0.3%, while ADR grew modestly (+0.9%). Performance continues to vary widely by market, with New York and San Francisco outperforming while Las Vegas and Houston lagged.
At the segment level, the split is becoming more pronounced and more consequential. Luxury pricing remains high and continues to attract affluent travelers willing to pay for experience. Economy options remain relatively affordable. The pressure point is the mid-scale and upper-mid-scale segment, where rates have climbed sharply and are increasingly out of step with traveler expectations.
This pricing dynamic is reshaping travel behavior. Travelers may still take trips, but they are adjusting how they travel, opting for shorter stays, tighter itineraries, and fewer add-ons to justify higher nightly rates. Sources: <a href="https://www.costar.com/products/benchmark/resources/press-releases/us-hotels-report-first-full-year-occupancy-revpar" rel="follow">CoStar</a>
What this means for destinations:
How destinations should respond: Plan for more trips with shorter lengths of stay. Messaging should spotlight itineraries that feel complete in fewer nights, emphasize must-do experiences, and encourage visitors to prioritize quality over quantity.
Promote shoulder nights, weekday travel, and multi-night value adds (not discounts) that encourage longer stays. Partnering with mid-scale hotels on experience bundles can help offset rate pressure while supporting local spend.
Analytics trends to watch in your Datafy dashboard:
<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;">Changes in average length of stay by hotel segment</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Day-spend and trip-spend patterns across attractions, dining, and retail</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Conversion differences between mid-scale, luxury, and economy traveler cohorts</li>
</ol>
While shorter stays may not materially hurt hotel room demand, they do impact destination economics. Fewer nights typically mean fewer meals, fewer attractions visited, and less retail spend, making it critical for destinations to actively defend length of stay, not just visitation.

<h1>Economic Context</h1>
<h3>Employment Holds, Caution Grows</h3>
The U.S. labor market remains stable but clearly cooler. Unemployment sits at 4.4%, while job growth slowed sharply at the end of 2025. Inflation remains elevated at 2.8% YOY, and interest rates are expected to stay higher for longer.
Sources: <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/us-job-growth-slows-december-unemployment-rate-eases-44-2026-01-09/" rel="follow">Reuters</a>
What this means for destinations: Travel demand isn&rsquo;t collapsing, but it is becoming more selective. Travelers are employed, yet cautious, reinforcing the need for urgency, relevance, and clear value rather than passive inspiration.
Analytics trends to watch in your Datafy dashboard:
<ol>
<li style="text-align: left;">Shifts in booking hesitation and abandonment rates</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Changes in advance purchase behavior</li>
<li style="text-align: left;">Performance differences between value-led and experience-led campaigns</li>
</ol>

Bottom Line
2026 is not about waiting for demand to rebound, it&rsquo;s about earning the booking. Destinations that clearly answer why now and why here, stay visible closer to travel dates, and lead with value instead of discounts will outperform in a cautious but still-traveling market.&nbsp;
<h5 style="text-align: left;">Curious how these trends are showing up in your destination? See how traveler intent and conversion signals are shifting in your market and where opportunity exists in 2026 with Datafy.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" title="Book a demo" rel="follow" style="color: #843fa1;">Book a demo.&nbsp;</a></h5>

As travel demand holds but confidence tightens, 2026 will be a year of conversion over momentum. Here’s what destination marketers need to know.

2026 Travel Forecast: Turn Cautious Demand Into Bookings

This special January 2026 edition of What’s News? is designed to be skimmed. Each section includes clear takeaways on how destinations can respond, plus the analytics trends you should be watching on your dashboard.

What's News? 2026 - The Big Picture

We analyzed spending from more than 90 million credit and debit cards to understand how travelers (50+ miles from home) spent in Q3 2025 compared to Q3 2024. Traveler spending rose 7.04% year over year&hellip; but the more important story is how that spending shifted, and what it signals for destinations.
<h2>What&rsquo;s happening and what it means for destinations:&nbsp;</h2>
<h3 role="presentation">Value is reshaping the visitor wallet.</h3>
Fast food and grocery spend are growing, while sit-down dining is slipping.
What to do? Highlight affordable, local, and quick dining. Promote &ldquo;under $20&rdquo; lists, dining weeks, and casual favorites to help support locally-owned businesses while also giving travelers what they&rsquo;re looking for.
<h3 role="presentation"></h3>
<h3 role="presentation">Experiences are still winning.</h3>
Experiences are proving remarkably resilient. Even as travelers pull back on lodging and dining, they&rsquo;re still spending on the moments that make a trip feel worth it.
What to do?&nbsp;Lead with attractions, events, culture, and outdoor experiences, and move &ldquo;things to do&rdquo; earlier in trip inspiration.
<h3 role="presentation"></h3>
<h3 role="presentation">Lodging spend is tightening.</h3>
A big drop in accommodation spending (-0.85 pts) signals shorter stays, budget accommodations, alternative lodging, and/or fewer overnight trips.
What to do?&nbsp;Partner with hotels on value-driven packages, push midweek breaks with lower nightly rates, and highlight included amenities to ensure that travelers feel that the stay is worth the spend.&nbsp;
<h3 role="presentation"></h3>
<h3 role="presentation">Visitors are moving less after arrival.</h3>
Declines in transportation and fuel point to a growing &lsquo;park once,&rsquo; mindset, where visitors stay close to where they sleep, eat and park.&nbsp;
What to do? Create walkable neighborhood itineraries and highlight districts where visitors can easily stay, eat, and explore. But remember: Less movement means less opportunities for visitors to discover (and spend in) other parts of your destination. Proactively market nearby areas by highlighting what makes them worth the extra time and money to visit.&nbsp;

<h2><img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/41RyDee3QkmhQ2kI7nM2" alt="undefined"></h2>
<h2>The Bottom Line</h2>
Visitor spending is shifting. Q3 showed us that lower-and middle-income travelers are prioritizing value without giving up on meaningful experience. To reach the majority of travelers in the bottom half of today&rsquo;s K-shaped economy, destinations should lean into affordability while clearly highlighting what makes it feel special&hellip; And then make it easy to explore once they arrive. Those that strike this balance will be best positioned to capture a larger share of a more selective travel wallet.&nbsp;

<h4>Talk to your CX rep or <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">schedule a time to talk</a> about turning these spending trends into a smarter destination strategy.</h4>

Traveler spending rose 7% in Q3, but where dollars shifted tells a bigger story about value, income divides, and experience-driven travel.

Q3 Travel Spending Trends: Where Travelers Cut & Splurge

Travelers are still spending, just not the same way. Q3 data reveals where they’re trading down, where they’re splurging, and what it says about today’s traveler.

What 90M Cards Reveal About Q3 Travel Spending

If you&rsquo;re ever wondered why different data sources can tell different stories, you&rsquo;re not alone. The truth is, not all data was built for the same purpose - and that&rsquo;s actually a good thing. When you understand what each type of data captures and what its strengths and weaknesses are, you can use them together to make clearer, more confident decisions.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s break it down in plain English.&nbsp;
<h3>What are the different types of data?&nbsp;</h3>
At the highest level, you&rsquo;re working with three main buckets: real data, big data, and research. Each captures something different, and has different strengths and limitations.&nbsp;

<ul>
<li>
Real data: A complete data set with an exact number. It&rsquo;s directly collected, complete and unmodeled data. Tickets sold for an event, I-94 Non-Immigrant Arrival Records, and lodging tax collections are all examples of real data.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Big data: Think of this as high-volume, statistically significant data that gives you a powerful view of trends and behavior. Think: Geolocation data, credit card spending, and survey-based lodging performance. It&rsquo;s fast, granular, scalable and great for identifying patterns, but doing so requires modeling data, so assumptions are required.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Market research: This captures insights data can&rsquo;t, like motivations, sentiment and decision-making logic. Surveys, intercept studies and focus groups are all examples of market research. They're great for explaining the &ldquo;why&rdquo; behind human behavior, but the data comes from relatively small sample sizes, and results are subjective and slower to collect.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>

<h3>How and when should each type be used?&nbsp;</h3>
The best type of data is the data that directly answers the question that you&rsquo;re asking. It can be tempting to start with the dataset and work backward, but the key is this: Begin with the decision that you need to make. Then, choose the data that supports that decision. Ask yourself: &ldquo;What am I trying to understand and what type of data naturally captures that?&nbsp;

Here&rsquo;s a cheat sheet:&nbsp;
Want to know how many people attended? &rarr; Real data, like ticket sales, point of sale, or tax data.&nbsp;
Want to know what they did, where they went, or how trends are shifting? &rarr; Big data, like geolocation, spending or lodging data. 
Want to understand why they came, what they felt, or what influenced their decisions? &rarr; Market research, like surveys or intercepts.&nbsp;
Don&rsquo;t forget this important truth: No single data source gives you the whole picture. Every dataset has strengths, blind spots, and trade-offs. That&rsquo;s why the most confident strategies layer them together - combining real data, big data and research to fill gaps, validate assumptions, and round out the story. Used together, they paint a clearer picture than any one data set could on its own.&nbsp;

A final thought&nbsp;
When you understand what each type of data does best - and use it with intention - unlock a fuller, more actionable view of your audiences and performance. Remember:&nbsp;
➜Real data shows what happened&nbsp;
➜Big data shows how people behaved&nbsp;
➜Research shows why they did it.&nbsp;
Used together, they can turn insights into clarity, and clarity into smarter, more confident decisions.&nbsp;

<h3>Ready to stop guessing and start seeing clearly? Let&rsquo;s talk about what Datafy can do. <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow" style="color: #236fa1;">Schedule a meeting</a> to chat.&nbsp;</h3>

Not all data tells the same story. Learn the difference between real data, big data, and research & how to use each to make better decisions.

Real Data vs Big Data vs Research: What’s the Difference?

Not all data tells the same story… and that’s exactly why the best decisions come from using the right data for the job. If you’ve ever wondered which data to use when, this quick guide breaks it down.

The Different Types of Data and When to Use Them

America hit a record in online Black Friday spending, but the bigger story is how differently shoppers behaved. Consumers bought fewer items, paid more per item, and were far more intentional about where every dollar went. It&rsquo;s another clear sign of the K-shaped economy: higher-income households spent confidently - especially on big-ticket and luxury goods - while middle- and lower-income shoppers hunted for deals on essentials and leaned on &lsquo;buy now, pay later&rsquo; (BNPL) to make holiday budgets work. At the same time, AI surged, with traffic from AI tools jumping eightfold and chat-based assistants influencing nearly a fifth of Cyber Week orders.&sup1; &sup2; &sup3;
Let&rsquo;s break down what the Black Friday data showed, and what it means for retailers:
<h3>Online (not in-store) is driving the growth&nbsp;</h3>
Black Friday&rsquo;s record online performance underscored where consumer attention truly lives. With digital spending surging past $11.8 billion and online sales up 9% year over year, shoppers made it clear that the browser (not the store) is their first stop.⁴ ⁵ In-store sales grew only 1.7%, reinforcing that research, comparison and confidence-building now happen online long before anyone considers walking in. And with AI tools elevating discovery and surfacing promotions instantly, the digital storefront has become the primary battleground for conversion.⁶
What this means for retailers: Small moments of friction with your website - slow pages, unclear promos, poor mobile performance - now directly cost revenue. Speed, clarity and mobile strength are now baseline expectations, and AI-friendly product info is increasingly essential. Retailers who understand how digital engagement translates into in-store visits will spend far more effectively in 2026.
<h3></h3>
<h3>Shoppers bought fewer items&hellip; but paid more for them&nbsp;</h3>
Consumers spent more, but they didn&rsquo;t buy more. Average units per order slipped from 2.9 to 2.7 even as selling prices rose about 7%.⁶ In other words: Higher prices - not broader purchasing - drove much of the year&rsquo;s growth. Meanwhile, budget-sensitive shoppers relied more heavily on promotions and BNPL to manage holiday spending, choosing only products that felt truly worth it.⁵
What this means for retailers: Value communication has never mattered more. Customers want durability, usefulness, and real savings, not hype. Clear product pages, transparent promotions and messaging that reinforces why a product is worth the price will outperform broad discounting. The more intentional your shopper becomes, the more intentional your value story must be.

<h3>The K-shaped consumer economy is impossible to ignore</h3>
The economic split was stark. Wealthier households drove strong performance in premium categories, while budget-conscious shoppers focused tightly on essentials and deep discounts. These groups behaved differently from the moment they entered the funnel to the moment they checked out, and retailers felt that divide.⁶ ⁵
What this means for retailers: One-size-fits-all campaigns won&rsquo;t work. Premium shoppers respond to quality cues; value-driven shoppers respond to justification and savings. Tailoring offers and creative to these very different realities is key. Lean on your Datafy dashboard to identify and segment these audiences, then use those insights to ensure that you&rsquo;re serving the right message, promotion, and product mix to the right shopper - rather than forcing everyone into the same campaign.

<h3>AI is shaping how consumers decide what to buy&nbsp;</h3>
AI didn&rsquo;t just show up this year &mdash; it exploded. Traffic driven by AI tools surged eightfold, and chat-based assistants influenced close to a fifth of Cyber Week orders.&sup3; ⁷ Shoppers aren&rsquo;t turning to AI to change what they buy; they&rsquo;re using it to decide how to buy. AI helps them compare prices instantly, evaluate which promotions are real, check inventory, and narrow choices quickly.
What this means for retailers: Your content must be structured for AI. Clear titles, consistent details, and transparent pricing help ensure your products surface during AI-assisted searches. Retailers who adapt early will show up faster in the customer journey.
It also means: Assume your shopper is comparing you in real time. Promotions must be simple, pricing must be consistent, and product information must be structured for AI tools to interpret easily.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">What this means heading into 2026&nbsp;</h2>
Black Friday showed us a shopper who&rsquo;s still willing to spend, but only when the value is clear and the experience feels effortless. They&rsquo;re guided by AI, selective, more deal-aware than before. This is where Datafy comes in. By bringing together customer behavior, store performance, and campaign results in one place, we give retailers a clear view of who their shoppers are and what&rsquo;s driving their decisions. Those insights make it easier to tailor messaging, refine promotions, and focus efforts on the right audiences&hellip; And that&rsquo;s the kind of clarity that will help retailers stay a step ahead in 2026.&nbsp;
<h4>Want clarity on your shoppers heading into 2026? Learn how Datafy helps retailers move faster and smarter. <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">Let's talk today</a>!</h4>

<h6>Citations</h6>
<h6>1. Reuters &ndash;&nbsp;Black Friday paradox: more shoppers, fewer dollars <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/black-friday-paradox-more-shoppers-fewer-dollars-2025-11-28">https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/black-friday-paradox-more-shoppers-fewer-dollars-2025-11-28 </a>AP News &ndash; Black Friday shopping and spending trends <a href="https://apnews.com/article/black-friday-shopping-spending-7f8b8e9244171333bfa6a7e8a91bffd0">https://apnews.com/article/black-friday-shopping-spending-7f8b8e9244171333bfa6a7e8a91bffd0</a></h6>
<h6>2. Business Insider &ndash;&nbsp;AI holiday sales: Black Friday + Cyber Monday 2025 <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-holiday-sales-black-friday-cyber-monday-2025-12?utm_source=chatgpt.com"> https://www.businessinsider.com/ai-holiday-sales-black-friday-cyber-monday-2025-12 </a>Reuters &ndash; U.S. consumers spent $11.8 billion online on Black Friday, Adobe Analytics says <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-consumers-spent-118-billion-black-friday-says-adobe-analytics-2025-11-29?utm_source=chatgpt.com">https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/us-consumers-spent-118-billion-black-friday-says-adobe-analytics-2025-11-29</a></h6>
<h6>3. AP News &ndash;&nbsp;Black Friday shopping spending report <a href="https://apnews.com/article/black-friday-shopping-spending-7f8b8e9244171333bfa6a7e8a91bffd0">https://apnews.com/article/black-friday-shopping-spending-7f8b8e9244171333bfa6a7e8a91bffd0</a></h6>
<h6>4. Reuters &ndash;&nbsp;Black Friday paradox: more shoppers, fewer dollars <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/black-friday-paradox-more-shoppers-fewer-dollars-2025-11-28">https://www.reuters.com/business/retail-consumer/black-friday-paradox-more-shoppers-fewer-dollars-2025-11-28 </a></h6>
<h6>5. Reuters &ndash;&nbsp;Cyber Monday spending in U.S. to hit $14.2 billion, Adobe forecasts <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/cyber-monday-spending-us-hit-142-billion-adobe-analytics-forecasts-2025-12-01?utm_source=chatgpt.com">https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/cyber-monday-spending-us-hit-142-billion-adobe-analytics-forecasts-2025-12-01</a></h6>

Shoppers spent more than ever this Black Friday, but their behavior revealed a shift retailers can’t afford to miss. Discover the impact (an

What’s News with Datafy: Retail / Black Friday edition

Shoppers spent more than ever this Black Friday, but their behavior revealed a shift retailers can’t afford to miss. Discover the impact (and what it means for 2026) in this month’s Retail Edition of What’s News?

The travel landscape continues to show strength as we head into the holiday season - just not evenly. Higher-income travelers, visiting friends and relatives (VFR) audiences, and long-haul segments are still moving with confidence, while middle-income households are becoming more selective as prices and holiday expenses rise. It&rsquo;s not a slowdown; it&rsquo;s a shift. Knowing where demand is holding, where it&rsquo;s softening, and how travelers are making decisions is what will help you close out 2025 strong.
Here&rsquo;s what&rsquo;s happening across travel, consumer behavior, and the broader economy this month - and what it means for your destination.
<h3>Turning High Intent into Real Trips</h3>
<a href="https://futurepartners.com/blog/the-state-of-the-american-traveler-in-november-2025/">Future Partners</a> reports exceptionally high intent: 92% of American travelers are planning a leisure trip in the next year. Even with recession concerns, travel budgets remain a priority. The tension is that people want to travel, but many feel more cautious about discretionary spending. Affluent travelers remain confident, while middle-income households are weighing value more carefully.
What this means for you: Destinations that speak differently to each audience will convert more of this strong intent into visitation - and your Datafy advertising dashboard can help you identify which is which. Lead with elevated, experience-forward content for affluent travelers, and make travel feel attainable for the middle market through flexible offers, clear value, and short-lead opportunities.&nbsp;
<h3>October&rsquo;s Travel Shift: Strength at the Top, Softness Below</h3>
<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/september-sees-fewer-us-travelers-than-august-more-year-kam-vbruc/">Omnitrak reported </a>that October outperformed 2024 for the seventh straight month, supported by strong TSA volumes, international outbound travel, and steady VFR demand. The only soft spot came from lower-income households trimming discretionary leisure travel. Overall travel didn&rsquo;t weaken&hellip; it shifted toward segments less sensitive to economic pressure.
What this means for you: Reaching the right audiences with the right message is more important than ever in this K-shaped economy. Prioritize the audiences still moving: higher-income travelers, VFR segments, and essential travel. At the same time, reinforce simplicity, convenience, and affordability to help cautious travelers commit.&nbsp;
<h3>Navigating a 7% Decline in International Inbound</h3>
Forecasts now show a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/posts/tourism-economics_declines-in-overseas-visits-to-the-us-accelerated-activity-7397697844918263811-rzZK/">7% decline in international inbound travel</a> for 2025, driven largely by a sharp drop in Canadian visitation and continued overseas softness. This is a macro-level shift that individual destinations cannot solve on their own.
What this means for you: Rebalance toward regional domestic feeders, where conversion is higher and cost of acquisition is lower. Maintain international activity - but right-size it and focus on high-yield markets where you&rsquo;re already seeing traction.
<h3>Luxury Hotels Continue to Outperform</h3>
Luxury and ultra-luxury hotels <a href="https://www.hospitality.today/article/wealthy-travelers-fuel-a-luxury-hotel-boom">continue to outperform</a> midscale segments, supported by resilient demand and strong pricing power among affluent travelers. Midscale leisure is softening as households feel more cost pressure.
What this means for you: Destinations should segment deliberately (seeing the theme yet?). High-income travelers respond to premium, experience-led storytelling, while the broader market needs value, approachability, and transparent pricing. Lean into your advertising dashboard&rsquo;s capabilities to identify these separate audiences, then cater the individual messaging accordingly.&nbsp;&nbsp;
<h3>A Divided Holiday Consumer</h3>
Retailers <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/11/21/retailers-bargains-consumers-walmart/">report steady everyday spending</a> but weaker discretionary purchases among lower-income households, signaling increased price sensitivity. Higher-income households are still spending, but consumers overall are prioritizing value more than before.
What this means for you: Make travel feel accessible. Shorter stays, bundled packages, flexible cancellation policies, and clearly communicated value help hesitant travelers commit without feeling like they&rsquo;re overspending during a high-cost season.
<h3>Reading the Labor Market Through Delayed Data</h3>
The <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/us-job-growth-beats-expectations-september-unemployment-rate-rises-44-2025-11-20/">delayed September jobs report</a> showed moderate job growth, but rising unemployment and downward revisions suggest the labor market is cooling. <a href="https://apnews.com/article/jobs-unemployment-economy-trump-tariff-bf603d63e13d6dc1083e9a6616c7ffee">ADP&rsquo;s more real-time data</a> shows similarly uneven gains and softening momentum heading into November.
What this means for you: For households that could be impacted by these market realities, expect continued value sensitivity and highlight travel that feels low-risk and worth the spend. Flexible policies, approachable price points, and clear messaging help travelers feel confident booking into early 2026.
Final Takeaway
Across every signal, the same theme emerges: demand is still there - it&rsquo;s just divided. Affluent travelers continue to perform, while middle-income households are choosing more carefully. Destinations that understand these segments, tailor their messaging, and emphasize value where it matters will close out the year strong. (Have no fear: This kind of segmentation and individualized messaging is easy with the help of your Datafy team and advertising dashboard.)&nbsp;
<a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">Connect with Datafy</a> today for insights into which travelers are still moving, where demand is shifting, and where your marketing will have the greatest impact.

The 5 topics this month... 1. Turning intent to trips 2. The K-shaped economy 3. International decline 4. Luxury hotels continue to perform 5. The holiday consumer and more

Travel Industry News: Data, Insights & Trends

Travelers still want to hit the road - but how they’re deciding where and when is changing. This month’s updates break down the shifts and offer practical steps to turn intent into visitation.

What's News with Datafy: November Tourism Edition

The World Cup is coming, and with it will be a wave of international and domestic visitors ready to cheer, explore and spend - and a once-in-a-generation opportunity for destinations to attract new visitors and measure their impact across their communities.&nbsp;
Use the following guidelines to help you effectively measure what's working and make adjustments when it's not.&nbsp;
<h3>Get Ready for Kickoff</h3>
Activate a Smart Ad Strategy
Use Datafy&rsquo;s tech to reach high-intent soccer fans based on their real-life behaviors. Tap into our pre-built World Cup audiences made up of travelers who have shown interest in both soccer and travel. (Think: people who have attended international and MLS soccer matches in the past.)
Know What&rsquo;s Working With Attribution Tracking
Add the Datafy attribution pixel across your World Cup campaigns - our&rsquo;s or anyone else&rsquo;s - to measure lift and see which channels are driving visitation&nbsp;
Track Future Bookings
Use Datafy Lodging, in partnership with Key Data, to keep an eye on confirmed reservations for an early read on event-related demand.&nbsp;

<h3>Understand Engagement Beyond the Stadium</h3>
Connect the Dots in Your Community
Fans may come for the game, but they&rsquo;ll eat, stay and play far beyond it. We&rsquo;ll show you how stadium attendance connects to activity at hotels, restaurants, attractions and more.&nbsp;
Follow the Spend
Pair visitation data with your Advance Spending Dashboard to see where visitors are putting their dollars - and where opportunity remains. (Pro tip: Compare spending during the tournament to the same time last year to measure real economic lift.)&nbsp;

<h3>Measure Impact (and Momentum)&nbsp;</h3>
Quantify Campaign Results
See how your World Cup campaigns moved the needle: incremental visitation, spend, length of stay, and the sectors that benefit most.&nbsp;
Apply Insights for the Future
Zero in on the audiences and markets that delivered the biggest impact, and use those audiences to refind future campaigns.&nbsp;
Re-Engage and Expand
Stay in front of visitors who came for the tournament and invite them back. Consider geo-conquesting to reach fans in hotel host destinations and inspire future travel to your destination.
Track Return Visits
Prove long-term economic impact by keeping tabs on repeat visitation over the next two years.&nbsp;

<h3>Not a Host City? You&rsquo;ve Still Got Options.</h3>
<ul>
<li>Advertise in Host Cities and Nearby Markets: Reach travelers adding extra stops to their itineraries (or just dreaming up their next trip) by targeting key feeder markets during the games.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Show Off Your Strengths: Not every visitor is there for soccer. Lean into what makes your destination stand out: outdoor adventure, culinary experiences, and more.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Measure and Adapt: Track how awareness and visitation shift during the event window and adjust your messaging as you go.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

Why It Matters Beyond the World Cup
The World Cup may be the biggest event on the horizon, but the same data-driven approach helps destinations understand and maximize the impact of any large gathering, festivals, sports tournaments, conventions, concerts, and seasonal travel spikes. Big events become smarter when you know how visitors move, spend, and return.

<h4>Ready to build a successful campaign strategy for your city's next big event? <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">Reach out</a> today to get started.&nbsp;</h4>

Understanding visitor behavior around major events and using those insights to refine ad campaigns and plan future strategy.

How to Guide: Measuring & Maximizing Visitation Around Major Events

Big events like the World Cup don’t just fill stadiums - they reshape travel patterns, spending, and demand. Destinations that are prepared to capitalize are the ones that will get ahead, capturing short-term boosts while setting the stage for long-term growth.

Your Guide to Measuring and Maximizing Visitor Impact Around Major Events

The TLDR: Affluent travelers hold strong, value seekers tighten their belts, and 2026 looms large with opportunity.&nbsp;
Those watching the travel economy this fall may have noticed a pattern: steady demand on the surface, but widening divides underneath. The story isn&rsquo;t one of decline - it&rsquo;s one of divergence. Some segments are thriving while others are tightening, and the destinations that understand the split will be best positioned heading into 2026.&nbsp;

<h3>The Big Picture: A K-Shaped Travel Economy</h3>
The story this month? Divergence.&nbsp;
Affluent travelers are spending confidently, while middle- and lower-income households are tightening budgets. The divide shows up in hotel data, airlines earnings, and traveler sentiment. Total travel spending remains stable, but it&rsquo;s being powered by premium segments.&nbsp;
What this means: Success in 2026 will come from balance. Utilize geolocation and credit card data to identify the most promising targets amongst both affluent and budget travelers, and focus communications and ad strategy accordingly. Destinations need to balance premium and value messaging to diversify your audience mix so you&rsquo;re not overexposed to one segment.&nbsp;

<h3>Air Travel &amp; Airlines: Premium Pays Off&nbsp;</h3>
TSA data shows steady skies. September and October screening volumes are holding above last year&rsquo;s levels. People are still flying, even as economic confidence cools. Take a closer look though: the real winners are airlines with strong premium and corporate demand (hello, Delta and United), while budget carriers (looking at you, Southwest and Alaska) are feeling more turbulence.&nbsp;
What should you do? Destinations need to take a multi-pronged approach to air travel right now. While demand remains steady, growth is concentrated among higher-spending segments. To keep visitation and revenue strong, focus on experiences and messaging that resonates with premium and business audiences, where confidence (and spending) remain solid. At the same time, don&rsquo;t lose sight of the value-seeker segment - they&rsquo;re still traveling, just more intentional and when and where to go.&nbsp;

<h3>Hotels: Upscale Holds, Midscale Slips&nbsp;</h3>
Hotel performance is softening overall (September was the seventh month of year-over-year declines), but luxury and upper-scale brands, buoyed by affluent travelers, continue to outperform. (For example: Hilton saw global revenue growth, while Wyndham&rsquo;s economy-heavy portfolio reported drops and lowered its annual forecast.)&nbsp;
What this means: Dive into your Datafy Lodging dashboard to track hotel metrics closely and craft campaigns that speak to both high-yield and value-driven travelers.&nbsp;
When it comes to hotels, DMOs need to protect yield, not just volume. Lodging options that align with premium and business segments are essential to hotel performance right now - but don&rsquo;t forget that affordable options are still important to sustain volume.&nbsp;

<h3>Domestic Travel: Resilient, Early, and Event-Driven&nbsp;</h3>
Americans aren&rsquo;t staying home. Nearly 60% plan to spend on leisure travel in the next three months, and a whopping 92% expect to take at least one leisure trip in the next year, according to the latest State of the American Traveler data from Future Partners.&nbsp;
What&rsquo;s changing is how they&rsquo;re planning. The average week-long vacation is now booked about 11 weeks in advance, giving destinations a much earlier window to reach travelers while they&rsquo;re still shaping their plans.&nbsp;
Big events are also starting to influence intent. The Route 66 Centennial and the 2026 FIFA World Cup are already showing up in traveler conversations and trip research, sparking early excitement and movement.&nbsp;
What it means for you: Longer booking windows create a chance to inspire travelers earlier and nurture intent over time. Layer in the buzz around major national events, and there&rsquo;s huge potential for destinations to use timely, event-connected storytelling to stay top-of-mind.&nbsp;
At the same time, double down on domestic drive markets. The segment&rsquo;s desire to travel remains strong - make sure that you&rsquo;re ready to capture that demand.&nbsp;

<h3>The Economic Context: Cautious, Not Crisis&nbsp;</h3>
The labor market is cooling, but not collapsing. The economy we&rsquo;re seeing is &ldquo;steady but cautious,&rdquo; where travel isn&rsquo;t stopping, but travelers are becoming more deliberate. (Trips may get shorter, closer, or more intentional).
What it means for you: Expect a value-conscious mindset in 2026. Lean into proven conversion channels and be willing to be flexible and nimble with campaigns as results come in.&nbsp;

The Takeaway: Travel demand isn&rsquo;t fading, but it is shifting. People are adjusting their travel to reflect what fits their current (and anticipated) budgets - but they&rsquo;re still traveling. The destinations that thrive will be those that meet both the traveler seeking value and the affluent travelers seeking higher-end experiences.&nbsp;
<h5>Want to understand how your visitors are shifting? Chat with us to see how Datafy&rsquo;s insights can help you track traveler behavior and adapt your strategy before the trends hit. <a href="https://calendly.com/datafy/datafy-meeting-with-christine?month=2025-10" rel="follow">Schedule a meeting today.&nbsp;</a></h5>

Trends at a glance: K-shaped recovery, premium air travel, midscale hotels, and cautious optimism ahead. Here’s what it all means for you.

Datafy's Industry News: Travel Edition | October 2025

Travel demand is steady, but the story underneath is more complex. Here’s what destinations need to know as we close out 2025.

What's News with Datafy: October Tourism Edition

Picture this: Your downtown is packed with locals and visitors for holiday events. There are lights in the trees, music in the air, the shops are buzzing, the streets are alive, and for a few magical weeks, your community is beaming with pride and festivity.&nbsp;
Then the event wraps up, and the questions start rolling in. Was it a success? Was it worth all the effort, resources and funding? Which businesses actually benefited?&nbsp;&nbsp;

From Holiday Magic to Measurable Impact&nbsp;
Holiday events are more than feel-good moments - they&rsquo;re powerful economic drivers for local businesses. But to fully make the most of them, local leaders need to understand who&rsquo;s coming, who spends money, and take strategic steps to boost turnout.&nbsp;
How we help:
<ol>
<li>
Boost Event Turnout -&nbsp; Our advertising technology reaches exactly the right people to motivate them to come to your events.
</li>
<li>
Boost Spending - We know the history of who spends at events and local businesses, and how to reach them.
</li>
<li>
Show your Impact - We give you the attribution data to show exactly how your efforts boosted attendance and how much money was spent at local businesses as a result.&nbsp;
</li>
</ol>

Step 1: Boost Event Turnout by Reaching the Right Audience Before the Lights Go On&nbsp;
We help you reach and motivate people who are likely to come to your holiday events.&nbsp; We build a digital audience of people who are in the holiday spirit - those who have attended other holiday events, participated in other festive activities, or even traveled for seasonal festivals in the past.&nbsp; Then, we help you reach them with ads that feel relevant, festive, and informative.&nbsp;

Step 2: Boost Spending to Support Local Businesses&nbsp;
We&rsquo;ll show you exactly which audiences tend to spend money in your downtown. Whether you&rsquo;re aiming for people who shop, dine, or stay overnight, we&rsquo;ll customize your audiences - and your messaging - to maximize total turn out, and optimize for the folks who are most likely to spend money in your local businesses.

Step 3: Measure and Report your Success
The event has ended and the lights are coming down, but it&rsquo;s not a wrap until the numbers are in. Datafy will show you how many people showed up, how much money was spent at local businesses, and how your efforts and advertising directly contributed to the positive impacts.&nbsp;
That means you can go back to your board, city partners, or event sponsors with real proof that your efforts paid off.&nbsp;

A final thought ~ The holidays may come and go, but the impact of a strong holiday season can last all year long. And with Datafy, you&rsquo;re not just planning an event - you&rsquo;re building a stronger, more connected community.

Ready to make the most of your holiday season? Datafy&rsquo;s here to help you bring more visitors &mdash; and more value &mdash; to your downtown celebrations. Schedule time to meet with us <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">here</a>.

Boost attendance, energy, and foot traffic to your events and the businesses that make your downtown unique this holiday season.

Strategies to Boost Visitation to your Downtown Events

More visitors, more revenue, more proof. Learn how downtown leaders are using Datafy to maximize holiday events - and show their impact with real data.

Strategies to Boost Visitation to Your Downtown Holiday Events

The environment facing retailers across the U.S. is&hellip; complicated. Teams are stretched thin managing promotional calendars, tracking sales performance, and finding ways to capture more share-of-wallet. Still, one question cuts through it all:&nbsp;What&rsquo;s actually working?&nbsp;&nbsp;
The good news? Those same challenges also create major opportunities for retailers who use the right data and tools to understand what&rsquo;s working and where to focus their energy.&nbsp;
Datafy helps retail marketers and analytics teams do exactly that. For years, we&rsquo;ve been helping destinations and travel organizations use data and ad-tech to understand their visitors and grow their business. Now we&rsquo;re bringing those same capabilities to retail - with tools designed to make things easier, campaigns smarter, and results clearer.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s exactly what our platform delivers:
<ol>
<li>
Clear shopper insights: Who&rsquo;s coming in, how often, and what they&rsquo;re buying&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Smarter targeting: Want to reach frequent shoppers, your competitors&rsquo; customers, or a certain demographic or geographic region? We&rsquo;ll build those audiences for you.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Digital campaign execution: Launch advertising campaigns across video, audio, native, CTV and more, all directly through Datafy&rsquo;s DSP.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Store performance analysis: From peak shopping hours to product adjacencies, we&rsquo;ll reveal the trends behind loyalty and repeat visits.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>Centralized data hub: Instead of juggling and stitching together disconnected reports, retailers can finally see all their data in one place - making it simpler (and a lot quicker) to analyze performance and act on real insights.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>

Why does it matter?&nbsp;
Most retailers that we talk to share the same frustrations:&nbsp;
I don&rsquo;t know if my ads are actually driving sales&nbsp;
We&rsquo;re spending too much time proving ROI to CPG and co-op partners
We&rsquo;re just guessing at what shoppers want&nbsp;

We&rsquo;ll take the guesswork off the table so that retailers can:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Plan smarter promotions and inventory decisions with analytics that tie directly to customer behavior and promotion performance
</li>
<li>
Show partners clear reports proving the impact and value of co-op spend&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Replace multiple tools and manual processes with a single platform&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Provide buyers with category insights to better inform inventory decisions
</li>
</ul>

Final Thoughts
At its core, Datafy is about making retailers' lives easier, more productive, and ultimately, more successful. We&rsquo;ll give you a clear, complete view of your customers, campaigns and store performance so that you can make smarter decisions, strengthen your partnerships, and prove the value of your efforts. We&rsquo;re here to help you focus on what really drives results - and grow your business with confidence.&nbsp;
Interested in getting started with Datafy for Retail? <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" title="Book a Demo" rel="follow">Set up a meeting today</a>.&nbsp;

From shopper insights to campaign analytics, Datafy is helping retailers prove ROI & make smarter decisions from one streamlined platform.

5 Must-Haves for an Effective Retail ROI Strategy

Struggling to connect the dots between campaigns, sales, and customer behavior? Discover how Datafy gives retailers clear insights, smarter targeting, and measurable results to drive growth and prove ROI.

Answering Retail’s Toughest Question: Finally, a Way to Prove ROI

As someone who works with destinations at the intersection of tourism and data, I saw North America&rsquo;s recent hosting of the international soccer tournament as a valuable preview of what next year&rsquo;s global showcase could bring. The event revealed patterns worth paying attention to - some surprising, others encouraging - but all that can help destinations prepare.&nbsp;
Despite world-renowned teams and passionate fans - including sizable Brazilian, Argentinian, and Mexican contingents - most matches drew just 36,000&ndash;39,000 spectators. Only a handful of games reached 90% capacity. International visitors came&mdash;but not in the numbers needed to fill stadiums or support the scale of the event.&nbsp;
That&rsquo;s a problem. According to the International Trade Administration, foreign arrivals to the U.S. by air were down 6.6% in June compared to last year, and new visa fees and entry barriers are making inbound international trips even harder. Fortunately, it&rsquo;s not all bad news: We&rsquo;ve seen domestic interest in these tournaments - and that interest is generating trips.&nbsp;So what&rsquo;s the takeaway? It&rsquo;s time to lean into domestic markets. Destinations that proactively engage local and regional audiences with smart targeting, early ticketing, and family-friendly experiences stand to benefit most, even if international turnout lags.
Destinations can be strategic about driving visitation to maximize soccer crowds - and Datafy can help.&nbsp;
A few easy steps to get started:
<ol data-end="807" data-start="215">
<li data-end="390" data-start="215">
Tap into our pre-built custom audiences Use audiences based on real-life travel behavior to connect with high-intent visitors who are genuinely interested in travel.
</li>
<li data-end="556" data-start="392">
Leverage soccer-specific audiences We have already built the audiences for you to reach groups that have attended previous international-play games&mdash;these are travelers already interested in soccer.
</li>
<li data-end="807" data-start="558">
Refine as teams and schedules are announced Once your destination knows which teams it&rsquo;s hosting, target the regions where fans are most likely to travel. You can also extend your reach to international audiences with Datafy&rsquo;s support.
</li>
</ol>
The next global tournament is coming fast, and the destinations that act early will be the ones that benefit the most. Here at Datafy, we&rsquo;re watching the trends in real time, and helping destinations move from insight to action in order to turn interest and attention into real visitation. The opportunity is there, and it&rsquo;s growing - so make sure that your destination is ready to capture it.&nbsp;
<a href="https://datafy-mega-events.beefreecontent.com/vVE3-2026s-mega-events">Make sure you&rsquo;re ready.&nbsp;</a>

North America just got a sneak peek at what the next global soccer tournament could look like—cities take note.

Soccer Fans - How to Get them to Your City in 2026

North America just got a sneak peek at what the next global soccer tournament could look like—and the lessons for destinations are clear. From surprising attendance patterns to domestic travel opportunities, here’s how your destination can ensure you turn fan interest into real visits.

This Summer’s International Soccer Tournament Highlighted an Uncomfortable Truth

The big picture: This month&rsquo;s headlines reaffirm a trend that we&rsquo;ve been tracking closely: economic pressure is changing how Americans travel - and who is still traveling. With inflation, tariff-related uncertainty, and a more selective consumer mindset taking hold, travelers are prioritizing value, simplicity, and shorter trips.&nbsp;
Meanwhile, Canadian visitation continues to decline sharply, and demand for lower-income U.S. travelers is softening. High-income audiences remain engaged - but are becoming more intentional with their spending. The moment calls for smart targeting, thoughtful messaging, and a strong local and drive-market focus.&nbsp;

<hr>

<h3><a href="https://skift.com/2025/07/14/travel-spending-slump-some-households-are-pulling-back-completely/" style="color: #843fa1;">Travel Demand Wavers: Sharpest Pullback from Lower-Income Travelers</a></h3>
Bank of America data shows three straight months of declining service spending, a trend we haven&rsquo;t seen in over a decade. Delta and Southwest both flagged weaker demand among price-sensitive flyers. Many households are skipping travel entirely, while others are cutting back to fewer, more meaningful trips.
What it means for you:&nbsp;
Travel demand is shifting - but it&rsquo;s not disappearing. Now is the time to adjust your audience and messaging to reach and resonate with more resilient travelers. Lean into your data to identify high-intent travelers, then optimize your messaging to highlight what today&rsquo;s travelers are really looking for: quality over quantity, and experiences that make trips feel truly worth it.&nbsp;

<hr>

<h3><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/07/15/summer-vacation-spending-slows/" style="color: #843fa1;">Closer to Home, Lighter on the Wallet</a></h3>
This summer, Americans are traveling less&mdash;and staying closer to home. A new Ipsos survey shows average vacation spending is down 25% compared to last year, with many families choosing road trips, staycations, or local weekend escapes instead of long-distance travel. Hotel bookings, flights, and even June PTO usage are all reflecting the slowdown.
 
What it means for you:
Drive market travelers are out there - you just have to be strategic about reaching them. Build audiences of high-intent visitors whose weekend habits or past trips suggest they&rsquo;re open to close-to-home escapes. Then, use targeting messaging that highlights convenience, affordability, and unique experiences that are close to home.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<hr>

<h3><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/suzannerowankelleher/2025/07/10/canadian-visitors-to-us-plummet-june-2025/" style="color: #843fa1;">Canadian Visitation Keeps Dropping</a></h3>
Canadian visits to the U.S. fell another 22% in June&mdash;six straight months of decline&mdash;due to growing tensions over tariffs, politics, and safety perceptions. Over 70% of Canadians say they&rsquo;re less likely to travel to the U.S. this year.
What it means for you:
This is a wake up call for destinations that are near the border or historically reliant on Canadian travelers. It&rsquo;s time to diversify markets, reinforce a welcoming brand message, and invest in cross-border trust-building if you want to reverse this trend.

<hr>

<h3><a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/large-us-banks-say-consumer-finances-are-healthy-despite-tariffs-2025-07-15/" style="color: #843fa1;">Consumer Mood: Resilient but Cautious</a></h3>
The economy&rsquo;s sending mixed signals. Consumer confidence dipped in June (per the Conference Board), but sentiment rebounded elsewhere (University of Michigan). Retail spending is still strong - up 0.6% in June - but growth is uneven, and inflation pressures from tariffs are a growing concern.
What it means for you:
Travelers are weighing their options more carefully - so give them a reason to choose you. Use your data insights to understand who is still traveling, then make your destination stand out by highlighting the experiences that make your destination feel like a smart spend. Now is the moment for smart, data-driven story telling.&nbsp;

<hr>

Want to dig deeper into how these trends are impacting your campaigns or markets?
 Let&rsquo;s talk. Contact your Datafy CX rep or send us a note at hello@datafy.com.

Real-time insights from Datafy to help you steer through the latest in the travel landscape as it is today.

Today's Industry News & How to Navigate it (Hint: Data)

Cutbacks, caution and changing consumer patterns - Here’s what travel leaders need to know this month.

What’s News with Datafy – July Tourism Edition

As AirBnB relaunches its Experiences platform, attractions around the world are asking themselves a crucial question: Should we rely on online travel agencies (OTAs) to drive bookings - or focus on a direct-to-consumer (DTC) strategy instead? The answer isn&rsquo;t black and white, which is why, here at Datafy, we believe in a mixed-media strategy to balance the broad reach of OTAs with the high-value and control of direct sales.&nbsp;
You can&rsquo;t deny the value of OTAs: The reach and visibility of OTAs like AirBnB Experiences, Viator and GetYourGuide offer attractions unmatched scale and exposure. Especially for small to mid-sized attractions, these platforms provide access to audiences that would otherwise be out of reach. However, the trade-offs are real: namely, much smaller margins for attractions once the OTAs have taken their commissions, and missing out on the collection of first-party data that can be strategically used to fuel future marketing.
Selling DTC still matters - now more than ever - for attractions. And with the right digital strategy, attractions can drive direct sales by target custom audiences in real-time. For example, they can send offers to visitors currently in-market, or re-engage locals who have been in the past but haven&rsquo;t visited in the last six months. This approach not only boosts immediate sales, but also allows attractions to keep 100% of the ticket revenue. (Plus, it captures valuable first-party data that can be used to advertise more efficiently and nurture customer relationships during critical need periods.)&nbsp;
Attractions need to strike the right balance, building a hybrid sales strategy that drives both scale and sustainability. Using OTAs to cast a wide net will increase reach and drive traffic; but it&rsquo;s just as important to defend the value of direct sales, relationships, and first-party data.&nbsp;
The bottom line? Don&rsquo;t choose between OTAs and DTC - use them both, strategically, and you&rsquo;ll do more than just fill seats
<h3 style="text-align: center;">- you&rsquo;ll drive growth, loyalty, and revenue.&nbsp;</h3>
Datafy can help! Want to learn more about how Datafy can help attractions drive revenue, increase visitation, and enhance marketing effectiveness? Find out <a href="https://www.datafy.com/industries/attractions" rel="follow">here.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Data and ad-tech company Datafy explores how attractions can use OTAs and direct sales to boost bookings, revenue, and marketing impact.

OTAs vs. Direct Bookings: What's Best for Attractions?

The smartest attractions aren’t picking sides between OTAs and direct sales—they’re building a strategy that pulls the best from both. Here’s why.

Should Attractions Partner with OTAs or Focus on Direct Sales?

Whether it&rsquo;s a museum, a historic landmark, or an amusement park, attractions can be the main reason people choose to travel - but in spite of their central role in the visitor experience, many still face significant challenges when it comes to data, marketing, and measuring their impact.&nbsp;
We saw a clear opportunity to solve these pain points at Datafy - so we went ahead and built a platform specially designed to help attractions make data-driven decisions and drive smarter growth.&nbsp;
Datafy Does Attractions!
We&rsquo;ve been working with destinations for years, and one thing has become clear: attractions are essential to tourism, but they&rsquo;re often flying blind when it comes to data and marketing performance for a few key reasons:&nbsp;
<ol>
<li>
Limited access to data: Many attractions rely on OTAs or third-party sellers that keep the customer data for themselves.
</li>
<li>
Outdated tech: It&rsquo;s common for attractions to still be using old POS systems that don&rsquo;t offer much insight into visitor demographics.
</li>
<li>
Pressure to report: Stakeholders want quick answers on&nbsp; ticket sales, visitation, marketing impact and more - but most attractions don&rsquo;t have the tools to provide them.
</li>
<li>
Underused partnerships: Even though attractions can be a massive draw to a destination, they don&rsquo;t always reap the full benefit of their DMO or CVB relationships. 
</li>
</ol>
That&rsquo;s Where Datafy Comes In
Datafy combines analytics and advertising into a simple, custom-built platform that&rsquo;s been designed to help attractions understand their audience, reach more visitors and measure what&rsquo;s working:
<ul>
<li>
Boost revenue and optimize performance: Uncover trends in visitation, ticket sales and visitor spending to optimize pricing, staffing, and promotional strategies to drive more revenue throughout the year.
</li>
<li>
Reach the right people: We&rsquo;ll help you use real-life behavior data to identify the audiences that are most likely to buy tickets, show up, and spend.
</li>
<li>
Drive direct sales: Drive traffic to your own channels to retain more revenue from each ticket sale and collect valuable data that can be used to advertise more effectively in the future.
</li>
<li>
Understand your visitors: Where are they coming from? When do they visit? Where else do they go during their visit? Our insights will tell you all of this, and more.
</li>
<li>
Make your marketing work harder: We&rsquo;ll help you connect the dots from advertisement to arrival, bringing full-circle visibility into the visitor journey and finally answering the question: Did my advertising actually work? 
</li>
</ul>
Attractions don&rsquo;t just entertain - they drive economic impact, tourism growth, and bring value to their communities. They&rsquo;re at the heart of the travel experience - And Datafy is here to provide the tools that they need to thrive in today&rsquo;s digital world.&nbsp;

Many attractions lack the tools to measure impact—Datafy is helping them boost revenue, reach visitors, and finally connect ads to outcomes.

Helping Attractions Thrive in a Data-Driven World

Attractions may be the heart of the travel experience, but many still struggle with data, marketing, and measurement—read how Datafy is helping them turn that around.

We know that the news is a lot right now: tariffs, debt, sentiment drops, airport meltdowns&mdash;you name it. But guess what? Travel&rsquo;s still moving. And your data shouldn&rsquo;t just sit there while the headlines spin. It should help you act.
So here&rsquo;s your cheat sheet to the 5 biggest travel and economic signals this week&mdash;and exactly how to use the Datafy technology at your fingertips.&nbsp;
Let&rsquo;s dig in:

📰 <a href="https://www.travelagewest.com/Travel/USA-Canada/memorial-day-travel-2025#:~:text=According%20to%20data%20from%20the,%2C%20with%202%2C951%2C859%20travelers%20screened.)">Record TSA Screenings, Despite Consumer Anxiety </a> Source: TravelAge West&nbsp;
💡 How to Use Your Data: People are still traveling&mdash; so let&rsquo;s lean into understanding the wheres and whys. Use your data to break down where your air travelers are coming from and compare them with your drive visitors. Filter by spend and trip length to understand who's making those decisions to travel, even in times of uncertainty. Then, double down on that group. Build messaging that plays into their motivations&mdash;escapes, milestones, reunions&mdash;and run attribution to see which emotional hooks actually convert.

<hr>

📰 <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-set-announce-newark-flight-cuts-reduce-congestion-officials-say-2025-05-20/">Newark Flight Reductions + ATC Shortages = Air Travel Headaches </a> Source: Reuters
💡 How to Use Your Data: Planning around air access? Proceed with caution. If your destination leans on airports like Newark or others prone to air traffic control disruptions, it&rsquo;s time to stress-test your drive market strategy. Dive into your data to find alternative feeder markets that don&rsquo;t rely on major airport hubs. Bonus move: track shifts in travel behavior from delayed regions and see if those frustrated fliers are choosing drive trips instead. React fast to catch that detour traffic before your competitors do.

<hr>

📰 <a href="https://www.hotelinvestmenttoday.com/Forecasts/CBRE-more-modest-with-revised-forecast">RevPAR Forecast Toned Down to +1.3% for 2025 </a> Source: CBRE
💡 How to Use Your Data: Revenue&rsquo;s still growing&mdash;but just barely. Now is the time to make your ads pull more weight. Use your attribution data to prove which campaign messages are actually turning into bookings and visits. Want to get extra efficient? Match lodging performance data with campaign timing and geography to fine-tune where and when to spend your next dollar.
<hr>

📰 <a href="https://apnews.com/article/economy-inflation-consumer-confidence-f7d2635e665fa1be2695c5e830fc23ae">U.S. Consumer Sentiment Falls (Again) </a> Source: AP News
💡 How to Use Your Data: Consumer confidence is low - so give them certainty where you can. Highlight value-first offers, simple itineraries, and low-stress planning. You can even use your Datafy portal to find audiences who&rsquo;ve traveled during past periods of economic instability. (They&rsquo;ve shown they&rsquo;ll still go, even when the vibes are off.) Build custom segments based on budget behavior or past travel tendencies and lean into clear, no-surprises messaging. ("No hidden fees" might hit harder this year than "luxury getaway.")

<hr>

📰 Focus on the Roadtrippers Source:<a href="https://apnews.com/article/memorial-day-travel-summer-6a7e62a50bb9703c748e5e81b6b4c993"> AP news</a>
💡 How to Use Your Data: According to AAA, 87% of travelers were planning to drive to their Memorial Day destinations this year. This isn&rsquo;t just a stat. It&rsquo;s your playbook. Right now, the primary opportunity for most destinations continues to be drive markets. Driving clearly remains the dominant transportation mode for U.S. travel. And while air travelers often stay longer and spend more - maintaining their status as an extremely valuable segment - the vast majority of visitors still arrive by car. This is why domestic drive markets should remain a primary focus right now - and luckily, Datafy&rsquo;s technology is built to help you capitalize on this group: Use geofencing to see where your drive market travelers are actually coming from, not just where you think they are. Build lookalikes based on past road trippers and launch short-lead campaigns that target last-minute planners within your 2&ndash;5 hour drive radius. This is the moment to work smarter in your backyard before chasing long-haul dreams.


Bottom Line: Yes, the travel landscape may feel unpredictable right now - both economically and behaviorally -&nbsp; but your data still delivers the insights you need to move forward with confidence. It&rsquo;s showing you where the opportunities are&mdash;today, not six months from now. Don&rsquo;t wait for the next market shift. Use your tools, trust your insights, and start adjusting in real time.
Need help spotting your next move? You&rsquo;ve got the data. <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">We&rsquo;ll help you read it</a>.

Travel trends move fast—like, “did we miss a memo?” fast. We’re here to break down the latest industry news and show you how to respond using the data you already have. Each month, we’ll connect what’s happening to practical ways you can adjust, react, and stay ahead (or at least do our best trying).

May Edition: What's News?

The ad-tech world has been abuzz over <a href="https://www.thecurrent.com/data-privacy-google-monopolized-ad-tech-product-markets-ruling">last month&rsquo;s ruling</a> that Google maintains an illegal monopoly in online advertising - harming publishers, customers, and all consumers of the open internet. And while we&rsquo;re still waiting for the specific penalties to be doled out, now seems like a good time to check in with Datafy&rsquo;s Kelby Bosshardt, president, co-founder, and go-to ad-tech expert, for some FAQs on what this ruling may mean for the ad-tech industry in the big picture.&nbsp;

Question: How did we get here and what comes next?&nbsp;
<blockquote>
After decades of pushing for profitability and growth at any cost, Google has developed three major pillars of its internet monopolization: Search, browsing (via Chrome), and digital advertising. This recent ruling could force it to bring down the anti-competitive walls it has built around its digital advertising business and open up opportunities for smaller companies. Up to this point, there hasn&rsquo;t been enough regulatory pressure to keep Google from controlling the whole ecosystem and singlehandedly setting the tone for the ad-tech industry. That&rsquo;s set to change now.&nbsp;
</blockquote>

Question: Is this lawsuit related to the other big Google lawsuit from 2024?&nbsp;
<blockquote>
The 2024 lawsuit on Google&rsquo;s illegal online search monopoly was a pivotal moment for the company and the industry because it demonstrated that the political will exists to potentially force the company to spin off Chrome - the engine that feeds the beast of its digital advertising. Data from Chrome tells them who, how and when to target, and spinning it off would impact Google&rsquo;s ability to know everything about consumers&rsquo; internet activity - and therefore how to target audiences with such precision.&nbsp;
While the 2024 lawsuit addresses a different pillar of Google&rsquo;s internet monopolization (browsing vs. digital advertising), it showed that there was a political appetite to reign the Google monopoly - and we&rsquo;re seeing that play out again now.&nbsp;&nbsp;

</blockquote>
Question: Is this a good thing?&nbsp;
<blockquote>
Overall, this ruling is welcome news for advertisers, and the open internet as a whole. While there may be some short-term disruptions, ultimately if the DOJ succeeds, it will make the internet a better place by fostering more competition and innovation.&nbsp;
It&rsquo;s no secret that Google has been engaging in anti-competitive practices for a long time. Its entire framework is about monopolizing the internet, and the latest ruling on digital advertising is another step in the right direction of bringing fairness back to the open internet.&nbsp;

</blockquote>
The Google lawsuit and its impact on the ad-tech industry is moving quickly - but we&rsquo;re here to help it make sense. We&rsquo;ll be back with more information as the case continues to move forward, but don&rsquo;t hesitate to reach out to your Datafy CX rep if you have any questions in the meantime.&nbsp;

As a new ruling takes aim at Google’s grip on digital advertising, Datafy’s Kelby Bosshardt unpacks what it could mean for the industry.

Google Ad Ruling: What It Means for Ad-Tech

A new ruling takes aim at Google’s grip on digital advertising. Datafy’s Kelby Bosshardt unpacks what it could mean for advertisers, consumers, and the ad-tech industry at large.

A Verdict on Google & Ad-Tech

The 41st annual National Travel and Tourism Week (May 4 - 10) is almost here - which means that it&rsquo;s time to celebrate travel&rsquo;s essential role in your local economy and community. And although May 4th is just around the corner, it&rsquo;s definitely not too late to take action.&nbsp;

Here are a few quick, easy ways your DMO can join the celebration and get the message out:
<ol>
<li data-end="537" data-start="161">Highlight local businesses + attractions: Spotlight the restaurants, hotels, tour operators, and quirky shops that make your destination worth the trip. Take out a small corner in your local paper to feature one each day&mdash;or shout them out on your LinkedIn and Instagram. Got a favorite? Let them know with a quick visit and a thank-you note.</li>
<li data-end="898" data-start="539">Celebrate tourism employees: From hotel front desk heroes to tour guides and restaurant crews&mdash;these folks make your destination shine. Deliver cookies or thank-you kits to local hospitality teams, organize a &ldquo;Tourism MVP&rdquo; post series on your social channels, or stop by with a simple &ldquo;thanks for being a great host to our visitors&rdquo; message. Little things go a long way.</li>
<li data-end="1277" data-start="900">Educate your locals on tourism&rsquo;s impact: Locals might not always love the extra traffic, but they do love what tourism brings&mdash;like more jobs and fewer taxes. Help them make the connection. Post bite-sized stats on social, host a quick Q&amp;A at a city council meeting, or organize a trail clean-up and use the moment to talk about how tourism helps fund that very trail.</li>
<li data-end="1574" data-start="1279">Work with media to spread the word on the impact of tourism: Want to get your story out there? Datafy&rsquo;s NTTW Media Toolkit has you covered. It&rsquo;s never been easier to grab the data that tells your tourism story&mdash;and turn it into press-ready content. Reach out to your CX rep and get rolling or <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">book a demo</a> with us to find out how you can benefit from this toolkit.</li>
</ol>

According to U.S. Travel Association, travel is a $2.9 trillion industry that is essential to America&rsquo;s success, supporting over 15 million American jobs while powering important industries, uniting people, benefiting society and contributing to the United States&rsquo; global competitiveness. It plays an essential role in stimulating economic growth, cultivating vibrant communities, creating job opportunities, inspiring new businesses, and elevating the quality of life for Americans.&nbsp;
<h2>So let&rsquo;s get out there and celebrate this NTTW!</h2>



&nbsp;1 U.S. Travel (2025, April). NTTW Messaging Guide. Retrieved from <a href="https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/national-travel-and-tourism-week">https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/national-travel-and-tourism-week</a>

Four quick, easy ways your destination can celebrate National Travel and Tourism Week (NTTW) & spotlight the impact of tourism in your community.

Four Ways to Support Your Destination During NTTW

With the start of NTTW just days away, it’s not too late to join the celebration — here are a few quick ways your destination can still get in on the action.

Four Ways to Support Your Destination During National Travel and Tourism Week

Datafy takes data security and cybersecurity seriously - and now we have the certification to prove it: This month, we successfully completed our SOC 2 examination, conducted by A-LIGN, the leading provider in cybersecurity compliance and the mitigation of cybersecurity risks.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
&ldquo;This certification demonstrates our continued commitment to data security, and shows that our clients can always count on Datafy to have the required safeguards in place to protect their data,&rdquo; said Datafy Co-Founder and President Kelby Bosshardt.&nbsp;
</blockquote>
Established by the American Institute of Public Accountants (CICPA), the SOC 2 examination is designed to ensure that the personal assets of potential and existing customers are protected to the highest standards. SOC 2 reports are recognized globally to affirm that a company&rsquo;s infrastructure, software, people, data, policies, procedures and operations have been formally reviewed.&nbsp;
<blockquote>
&ldquo;Congratulations to Datafy for completing their SOC 2 audit, a widely recognized signal of trust and security,&rdquo; said Steve Simmons, COO of A-LIGN. &ldquo;It&rsquo;s great to work with organizations like Datafy, who understand the value of expertise in driving an efficient audit and the importance of a high-quality final report.&rdquo;
</blockquote>

Datafy is now SOC 2 certified—proving our commitment to top-tier data security, compliance, and protecting client information.

Analytics & Ad-tech Provider Completes SOC 2 Audit

Datafy takes cybersecurity seriously—and now we’ve got the SOC 2 certification to back it up. A-LIGN put us to the test, and we passed. Read on to see what this means for you.

Datafy Completes SOC 2 Audit

Datafy&rsquo;s brilliant VP of Product Kelly Smith took the stage last month at the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Marketing Outlook Forum to talk about measuring marketing&rsquo;s impact on destination performance. The session included some great insights on different ways that DMOs can level up their measurement efforts.&nbsp;
Missed it? No worries--we pulled out some key takeaways for you:

Financial Stewardship Matters
Showing real ROI means more than just ad clicks. It&rsquo;s so much more powerful to be able to say &ldquo;We generated $30 for the local economy with every $1 that tourists spent.&rdquo;
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/slidesz/AGV_vUfRN-Y5EcNQ3eGMqEHRV29JmaHMV7uqOgT0fQaEj4TXe8Y6KOEj-5xG1m3p-O_PfcaMTCWmavFw7yBZcUFo9Dm81Fcl6QuVSMmF1621zuUhKg8ezQNalQwATfl0bvla6K1VomrhyA=s2048?key=yYTOrKxozqYDIpQsHA4dPiM6" height="65px;" width="74px;">
Get Beyond the Basics when Measuring Your Influence on Visitor Behavior
Imagine being able to report: &ldquo;8,000 people visited downtown area businesses after seeing our campaign to drive visitors to downtown during shoulder season; They spent an average of $237 per visitor, and total visitation to the area increased&nbsp; by 18% year-over-year." (Way more compelling than a CTR, right?)
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/slidesz/AGV_vUc_8COMCiypaqTcTlc0Bc5os3IseUImfRXLA59Pm0Q55MsYh6c4iesZrHM1KY0K0dzy2ql__Q0wUoeTZLOL9_u1gH-N6iXMPHq5YSKehqJVwgeutBctNqRdvvcYzh0OxRfdZNf4XQ=s2048?key=yYTOrKxozqYDIpQsHA4dPiM6" height="90px;" width="90px;">
Industry Leadership Looks Different for Everyone
There are so many ways for destinations to lead within their community. Whether it&rsquo;s pioneering new AI strategies, strengthening community partnerships, or building custom reporting models, the key is evolving basic KPIs into a holistic measurement approach to tell a full story.
<img src="https://lh7-rt.googleusercontent.com/slidesz/AGV_vUfVNKvoqewUcyB_ZCUiXGnWyYGxV35m6r5ueuWLtgyE8GfZrNUGmQ6I-wTYEaUgoy4RelAJhGI_DyxVuAbgX__PfxHtI2RBeG3DNERLwJvltAINSqiEVMpKafIBNOlTnujXRc6i4w=s2048?key=yYTOrKxozqYDIpQsHA4dPiM6" height="74px;" width="74px;">

Do these takeaways have your wheels spinning and make you want to dive deeper into your metrics? Hopefully, that&rsquo;s a big YES! And if so, we suggest starting with something simple: placing a pixel on your destination&rsquo;s website. It&rsquo;s the perfect way to move beyond basic clicks and impressions, giving you a more detailed picture of the visitors arriving&ndash; accessing insights like:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Where are your website visitors actually coming from?
</li>
<li>
What are your top visitation markets?
</li>
<li>
Which marketing channels are driving the most in-market visitors?
</li>
<li>
Are people who visit your website actually showing up in your destination?
</li>
</ul>
And since you&rsquo;ve made it this far, you&rsquo;re in for a treat: a <a href="https://www.datafy.com/free-pixel-signup" rel="follow">FREE </a>look into your visitor data with Datafy. We&rsquo;re currently offering DMOs the opportunity to place a pixel on their website at no cost, helping to better understand your audience, optimize your campaigns, and make smarter decisions. By using the power of your website and our innovative ad-tech capabilities, DMOs can leverage their own metrics to build smart strategies and truly grasp the impact that your visitors have on your destination.
You can head&nbsp;<a href="https://www.datafy.com/free-pixel-signup" rel="follow">here</a> to get started or reach out for questions.&nbsp;

Is your destination under the microscope? Pressure to show campaign value? Read these 3 tips on highlighting the key points your stakeholder

Key Takeaways: Measuring Marketing’s Impact on Destination Performance

Is your destination under the microscope? Pressure to show campaign value? Read these 3 highlights your stakeholders want to see when proving your marketing strategies are effective.

3 Things to Remember When Measuring Your Marketing’s Impact

Measuring results in destination marketing has always been challenging - especially with so many variations and opinions on how to do it effectively. The one thing that we can all agree on? We need to find a way to effectively link your marketing efforts to actual visitor conversions. This is why we love attribution - it actually makes that connection, and in doing so, gives DMOs valuable insights and a clear return on ad spend.&nbsp;
Still, there&rsquo;s a lot of uncertainty around how to best leverage attribution and what it&rsquo;s actually capable of, so let&rsquo;s go over some of the most popular misconceptions about everyone&rsquo;s favorite digital reporting strategy.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/T9MJSy01TU6l0UsDNvVV" alt="undefined" width="430" height="242" style="font-family: Lato, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Myth 1: Geolocation tracking is like a GPS tracking dart 
It sure would be convenient to be able to track users all throughout their day, as they went from the grocery store, to the bank, to the concert, like they coulddo when geolocation first came on the scene&hellip; But constantly evolving privacy regulations have made it nearly impossible to get such a full picture of any one person today. Now, users have full control over choosing where, what and when they share their data, and many opportunities to opt out, which means that we see more eclectic sets of location data than many would prefer.
A lot has changed since geolocation was born in the 2010s. Privacy laws are going to continue to move ahead in terms of individual choice, which impacts the amount of data and the consistency of the data that all geolocation providers receive. The reality of pick up today means that we need to&nbsp;
be thinking about attribution and working with the technology (and the data science and technology teams) that allow us to approach it in a broader and more nuanced way.
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/Ytk36NpbTPq7y2cUccDb" alt="undefined" width="237" height="237" style="font-family: -apple-system, BlinkMacSystemFont, 'Segoe UI', Roboto, Oxygen, Ubuntu, Cantarell, 'Open Sans', 'Helvetica Neue', sans-serif; display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Myth 2: A two-hour dwell time filter effectively differentiates between visitors and those driving through.&nbsp;
A two-hour dwell time filter would be fine if all devices collected background data. However, adding in an arbitrary dwell time filter won&rsquo;t work in the modern landscape, where the majority of users are only generating foreground data and choosing where, when and how to share their data.&nbsp;
This type of filter arbitrarily cuts your user base, generates a false sense of security and will distort your findings (Consider how cutting the foreground-sharing one-day visitors that didn&rsquo;t meet the dwell time requirement would incorrectly alter your top markets.) The landscape today requires a more nuanced approach to decipher between visitors and those driving through.&nbsp;

Myth 3: Third-party cookies are safe now that Google has changed its direction on them.&nbsp;
Digital marketers may have heaved a big sigh of relief when Google announced&nbsp;
that they wouldn&rsquo;t be deprecating third-party cookies after all - but don&rsquo;t stay too comfortable with your third-party reliant pixels attribution techniques.&nbsp;
The timing may have shifted, but we believe that Google still has every intention to keep deteriorating the effectiveness of third-party cookies to the point where they will eventually get phased out, and nobody will notice or care. We recommend moving forward with all digital marketing as if they are going to be going away.&nbsp;

Myth 4: Campaign booking data is the ultimate indicator of success&nbsp;
There&rsquo;s been an idea in the industry that campaign booking data - sending someone an ad and watching them click all the way through to completing a booking - is the ultimate indicator of success. But it&rsquo;s too risky to call this a silver bullet when you consider all the different ways, methods and locations that people can book today. (Plus, who&rsquo;s to say that person actually showed up at your destination once they confirmed their booking?)
No one source of data - even campaign booking data - can provide a complete picture of campaign success. Successful attribution requires a broad view of all the different ways that money and time can be spent within a destination - and most often, that is going to require considering additional sources such as geolocation data, spending data, and economic impact reporting.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/ApSH4INXT8OF9omWmLBL" alt="undefined" width="387" height="171" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
Final thoughts: We can all agree that it&rsquo;s a useful tool, but doing it right requires people who know what they&rsquo;re doing (we&rsquo;re talking data scientists and ad tech experts) and the right kind of software technology. (You&rsquo;ll want to make sure that it can be filtered down to your specific needs and point of view.) Because when it&rsquo;s done right, attribution can absolutely be the powerful and exciting tool that this industry needs it to be.&nbsp;
(Pssst: We do it right. <a href="https://www.datafy.com/contact" rel="follow">Reach out </a>if you want to talk about putting it to work in your destination.)

Breaking down 4 attribution myths in tourism marketing. Learn how to better measure visitor conversions and optimize your marketing efforts.

4 Big Attribution Myths—Debunked & Explained

Unpacking common misconceptions in campaign measurement for DMOs, this blog dives into how evolving privacy laws and data collection methods are reshaping the way we measure marketing success.

Myth-busting in Attribution: Tourism Edition

DMOs today have access to new and tech-savvy ways to track KPIs and report on the metrics that matter most to their stakeholders. And while we know that there&rsquo;s comfort in the familiar of doing what we&rsquo;ve always done, it&rsquo;s important to remember that all major industries have gone through massive periods of transition as they adapted to the new technology that improved their industry. (Anyone remember when Netflix used to send DVDs in the mail?) Now it&rsquo;s finally the tourism industry&rsquo;s turn to adapt. Because the times are a&rsquo;changing, and technology is changing with it.&nbsp;
Before we jump into where we&rsquo;re going, let&rsquo;s be clear where we&rsquo;re coming from:&nbsp;
Old School Metrics: How did we measure our success before?&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Social media followers: The more the merrier, right?
</li>
<li>
Website traffic and engagement: Time on site, clicks and pageviews were key.
</li>
<li>
Visitor guide orders or e-news sign ups: Tangible, in your hands.
</li>
<li>
Clicks, cost-per-click, or CTRs: Your everyday metrics.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Impressions and/or unique reach: How many eyeballs did the campaign hit?
</li>
</ul>
These metrics are still around today, and remain helpful for DMOs looking to measure destination success. However, now they can be enhanced with new school, tech-heavy metrics to give a more holistic, comprehensive look at measurement:&nbsp;

And this takes us to today and where we should all be going, with the&nbsp;New School Thought of Metrics: How can we enhance what we&rsquo;re already doing?&nbsp;
<ol>
<li>
Quantify and track local sentiment: If you aren't already, it&rsquo;s time to start looking at, and quantifying, the extent to which a community&rsquo;s residents understand how tourism impacts and intersects with their quality of life. This means leveraging resident sentiment studies to identify and track specific metrics such as tourism&rsquo;s perceived impact on the environment, or local opinion on the need to update the local convention center to remain competitive. Doing so will allow DMOs to develop necessary messaging, clear up misinformation, and create strategic communication outreach plans.
</li>
<li>
Contextualized Return on Marketing Influence: This is a fancy way of ways that DMOs should follow the path from the ad impressions being served, all the way through the visitor spending in-market. Successfully doing so requires monitoring and integrating KPIs like brand engagement, In Real Life (IRL) attribution, ROAS, visitor spending, incremental lift, and hotel ADR, occupancy and demand.
</li>
<li>
Financial segment performance analysis: Us again with the fancy-sounding phrases - but we&rsquo;re just trying to say that DMOs can look at room tax revenue, ADR, occupancy, and demand and visitor spending to try to understand and report on the true economic impact of tourism to their local community.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Market- and/or Segment-specific visitor value: Now DMOs can use data and analytics to identify your highest-value visitors, and then very specifically target to bring more of them in-market. Doing so requires tracking KPIs like IRL attribution, destination management, and visitor spending.&nbsp;
</li>
</ol>

We, for one, are excited to see that some within the industry are already adopting these metrics within their organizations. If you&rsquo;re one of them, great &ndash; you&rsquo;re ahead of the curve! If not, don&rsquo;t worry - your DMO can be using these tools for clearer stakeholder communication, hyper-relevant strategy development, and showcasing your marketing successes in no time. Let&rsquo;s get started!&nbsp;

Understand how adapting to today’s technologies will give DMOs a more holistic, comprehensive look at measuring destination success.

Future-Ready Metrics for Destination Marketers (DMOS)

Adapting to today’s technology will give DMOs a more holistic, comprehensive look at measuring destination success. Read on to dig in further.

Future-Ready Metrics for DMOs

2025 is here - So let&rsquo;s make sure that we&rsquo;re ready for it. Predicting the future in an industry as rapidly evolving as ad-tech is pretty bold, but we&rsquo;ve never been one to back down from a challenge here at <a href="http://www.datafy.com">Datafy</a>. (Plus, we have in-house ad tech experts that give out great advice.) Here&rsquo;s what we think the industry can expect in the coming year now that we&rsquo;ve turned the page on 2024.&nbsp;

Media consumption has peaked
The amount of time people spend with media has peaked - with media consumption plateauing for the first time in 2024. Consumer downtime has become saturated - meaning we&rsquo;re all spending the same (or less) time reading online content, scrolling our feeds, or watching TV as we did last year. Seeing as we&rsquo;re not spending more time on any one type of content, it&rsquo;s more important than ever that brands be across all of them. Reaching your core audiences across various media types&nbsp; (mobile, desktop, social, CTV, traditional tactics, etc.) will be an essential part of digital strategy moving forward.&nbsp;

Attention metrics are going to get more&hellip; attention
Just serving a bunch of ads and then using traditional metrics (like impressions and clicks) to measure campaign effectiveness is a thing of the past. Today&rsquo;s diminished attention spans will force us to get more creative to improve viewability and engagement - and to start thinking innovatively about measuring conversions. We want to start seeing stop-the-scroll opportunities like interactive videos, high-impact mobile, and creative that connects with your audience emotionally. And when it comes to reporting? It&rsquo;s time to start prioritizing different quality metrics like advertisement interactions, viewability and ad positions, and, ya know, whether people are actually visiting your destination after viewing your ads to prove that you really caught a user&rsquo;s attention with those impressions.&nbsp;

Holistic measurement is going to matter more&nbsp;
Companies using dependable data methodologies to paint a more holistic picture of their marketing effectiveness will come out on top in the next five years. Doing so will require looking at more data perspectives and using them to tell stakeholders a trustworthy and verifiable story. This might look like integrating campaign and destination-specific spending data to evaluate the value of a visitor or showing market-based incrementality to evaluate incremental return on marketing influence.&nbsp;
<img src="https://cdn.buttercms.com/mCbOm7pRS6SP7caFIiXx" alt="undefined" width="455" height="455" style="display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">

User privacy evolves towards &lsquo;user choice&rsquo;&nbsp;
As Apple and Google have both shown us with their recent shifts in privacy and data protection, privacy here in the U.S. is evolving towards &ldquo;user choice,&rdquo; with a heavy emphasis on a user experience with more &lsquo;opt-in&rsquo; and &lsquo;opt-out&rsquo; opportunities. Audiences will continue to value the personalization and convenience that come with these companies leveraging their data - but pay attention to the fact that this enables the country&rsquo;s two biggest data collectors to play by their own rules as they leverage their vast collection of first-party data, and in doing so, are using perceptions of privacy to strengthen their competitive positioning and box out their competition.&nbsp;

Let&rsquo;s not forget AI&nbsp;
We&rsquo;d be remiss not to mention the elephant in the room: AI. In 2025, AI will make shifts in ad tech around how we plan and execute campaigns and target audiences, with programmatic auction decision-making, contextual placement and more. And while the guardrails around AI and development have a way to go, there will be a way to strategically leverage AI this year to assist with targeting decisions, campaign messaging and optimization, dynamic contextual delivery, and even analysis and reporting assistance.&nbsp;

Interested in hearing more about what we can expect for the future of ad-tech this year? We go more in-depth on the topic with Authority Magazine <a href="https://medium.com/authority-magazine/kelly-smith-of-datafy-on-the-future-of-adtech-50f50d4910ae">here</a>. Check it out!&nbsp;

2025 ad-tech predictions are in! From AI to audiences to attention metrics, here’s what we think will shape digital advertising this year!

Ad Tech Predictions for 2025

Here’s what we think the industry can expect in the year ahead now that we’ve turned the page on 2024.

Google made waves in the ad-tech world last month with the surprise announcement that it was scrapping its plan to deprecate third-party cookies. After years of planning for a cookie-less landscape, this about-face has left digital marketers scrambling to understand what this means for the ad-tech world and how their digital strategies need to be adjusted in the wake of the shift.&nbsp;
Here&rsquo;s what leaders at Datafy had to say in light of the announcement:&nbsp;
Candie Perkins, Datafy Co-founder and CEO, on what this means for Datafy clients:&nbsp;
&ldquo;We&rsquo;re always stressing the importance for our clients to remain forward-thinking. In a lot of ways, the threat of cookie deprecation has pushed those willing to evolve to uncover the new gold standard. Even in the wake of this announcement, we believe that this new gold standard lies in cookie-less solutions&hellip; Because if you can find innovative ways to ensure and respect your users&rsquo; privacy, why wouldn&rsquo;t you? Our clients can stay ahead of the curve by putting privacy first and being highly-selective about the advertising technologies you invest in. In doing so, you&rsquo;ll remain an active participant in shaping what comes next.&rdquo;
Kelby Bosshardt, Datafy Co-Founder and President, on what&rsquo;s happening in the big picture:&nbsp;
&ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s more happening under the surface than what Google announced, and I don&rsquo;t think that this is the end of the story.
Google has been struggling to convince EU regulators that their plans to deprecate third party cookies were privacy-friendly and could be done in a way that wouldn&rsquo;t ultimately strengthen Google&rsquo;s monopoly on digital advertising. The EU repeatedly forced Google to delay the plan, knowing that once third party cookies were gone,&nbsp; all the data and control would be squarely in Google&rsquo;s hands and there would be no system of checks and balances to allow other companies to compete with them.
This is where it gets interesting. Google isn&rsquo;t doing away with their proposed plan. In fact, they&rsquo;re doubling down on the EU-rejected &ldquo;Privacy Sandbox&rdquo; plan. All they changed was enforcement. Rather than forcing Chrome users to adopt the Privacy Sandbox by removing third party cookies, they announced they will give users the &ldquo;choice.&rdquo; Sound familiar? Marketers may remember when Apple rolled out ATT (App-Tracking-Transparency) and asked users to decide whether or not to allow third-party sharing. What the users were really doing was choosing between receiving targeted advertising from Apple AND third parties OR receiving targeted advertising from Apple and nobody else. It&rsquo;s not a secret in this industry that Apple plays by a different set of rules than what it forces everyone else to do - and this &ldquo;choice&rdquo; offered in the ecosystem that they control led to Apple becoming one of the world&rsquo;s largest ad-tech platforms almost overnight. (Not to mention: It generates billions of dollars a year for Apple.)
I think that Google is planning to do something in a similar vein - offering a &ldquo;choice,&rdquo; but then, through PR campaigns and user experience and design choices, will guide the vast majority of users to &ldquo;choose&rdquo; to use the privacy sandbox - ultimately achieving their desire of killing third party cookies and cutting off competitors, without the pressure and scrutiny from the EU regulators.&rdquo;

Don&rsquo;t hesitate to reach out to your Datafy CX rep with any questions you have about how this pivot from Google may affect your ad-tech strategies in the future.&nbsp;

Cookies, are they coming or going? Datafy explains what this update may mean for your advertising campaigns and overall marketing plans.

A Note from Datafy: Google’s Third-Party Cookies Pivot

Google made waves in the ad-tech world last month with the surprise announcement that it was scrapping its plan to deprecate third-party cookies. Read on to see what the team at Datafy has to say about it.

A Note from Datafy on Google’s Third-Party Cookies Pivot

Big news: Datafy&rsquo;s all-new Advanced Spending Dashboard is now live - and it&rsquo;s giving Datafy clients new ways to enrich their work using comprehensive insights into how and where spending most impacts their destination. Before we get into the fun part - how you can actually put this new data to work in your destination - let&rsquo;s take you behind the curtain to touch on how we did it, and why it matters.&nbsp;

The new spending module looks at a cross-section of credit and debit cards from Mastercard, Visa, Discover and American Express. But rather than just aggregating and spitting the data back out, Datafy&rsquo;s in-house data science team - with its years of experience in cleaning, analyzing, and modeling datasets for the travel industry - applies Datafy&rsquo;s proprietary algorithm to the new raw data. This means that the previously-honed logic and technology that made us experts at factors like detecting trips, identifying visitors, removing anomalies, and correcting for sample distribution irregularities, has turned this new raw data set into the most accurate and relevant spending data available to destinations - And, it has exciting implications for the high confidence that users can have when looking at tourism-related metrics like average spend per visitor, average transactions per trip, trip length of spenders, and top spending markets.&nbsp;

Now that you know how it works, let&rsquo;s talk about how you can actually put it to use in your destination.&nbsp;

<ul>
<li>
Understand and identify your &ldquo;ideal visitor&rdquo;: Are you trying to reach overnight visitors? Or maybe your hotels are full, and you want to spread the economic impact around so that more local businesses are benefiting - then let&rsquo;s talk about reaching those that spend in retail or dining and nightlife.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Identify spending trends: Compare annual spending year-over-year and understand how spending fluctuates throughout the year. Examine the seasonal visitation patterns in your destination and see how that is reflected in spending.&nbsp;&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Understand your top markets: Clearly identify which markets contribute the most to your destination in terms of economic impact and discover which region&rsquo;s visitation is driving the most economic impact to your community.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Understand which categories are driving the most impact: Is accommodation the economic heavy-hitter in your destination? How does its impact compare to that of dining and nightlife? Or specialty retail? This tool gives us a clear picture of that breakdown.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>

This new data does a LOT - but it&rsquo;s also worth touching on what it doesn&rsquo;t do. It isn&rsquo;t a 100% capture of all spend (cash, anyone?), nor is it a direct replacement for economic impact studies, sales tax, or lodging data. (We filter out all transactions that are not in a tourism-related category, because we want this figure to be reflective of only visitor spending.)

Do you have questions about how you can put the new Advanced Spending Data to work in your destination? Reach out today and let&rsquo;s get started.&nbsp;

Big news: Datafy’s all-new Advanced Spending Dashboard is now live - and it’s giving Datafy clients new ways to enrich their work using comp

Datafy Launches NEW Advanced Spending Dashboard

Big news: Datafy’s all-new Advanced Spending Dashboard is now live - and it’s giving Datafy clients new ways to enrich their work.

Ever feel like the answers to your questions about CTV are more gray than black and white? You may find yourself asking questions like:&nbsp;
Where will my ads run? Are they running on Chromecast or Apple TVs? Did any of the ads run on [insert popular streaming app here]? Why is this CTV more expensive than what another vendor quoted me?&nbsp;
And the unsatisfying truth is that, oftentimes, the answer to these kinds of questions is going to be, &ldquo;well, it&rsquo;s a little more complicated than that...&rdquo; Let&rsquo;s talk about why that is.&nbsp;

<h2>CTV can mean different things to different agencies and vendors.</h2>
Depending on how they place CTV, agencies and vendors can be referring to different things when they mention CTV. They could be talking about:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Pure, private CTV: CTV in its purest form refers to streaming video delivered in a living room environment through Connected TV devices. (Think: Apple TV, smart TVs, Chromecast, etc.) Psst&hellip; this is what Datafy means when we say &ldquo;CTV&rdquo;!&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Open Exchange CTV: A diluted version of pure CTV that allows for ads to appear on uncontrolled content, apps, or networks, placed on re-sold inventory, or run on public TVs. (Think about those muted TVs in your dentist&rsquo;s waiting room.) This kind of uncurated inventory is generally less selective, and therefore less premium&hellip; which is why Datafy avoids placing anything outside of our custom, curated placements.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Over the Top (OTT), including CTV: Big screens through Connected TVs, plus smaller screens such as tablets, laptops, desktops, and/or smartphones.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
It&rsquo;s important to remember that you may be targeting undesirable placements if your CTV inventory is not curated. And while buying non-curated Open Exchange CTV can keep costs down, it will definitely dilute some of the key benefits of a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.datafyhq.com/blog/three-things-about-connected-tv-ctv-advertising">solid CTV strategy</a>.&nbsp;

<h2>Everyone wants a piece of the advertising pie.</h2>
CTV inventory is bought and sold through complex pathways, and vendors can usually buy the same ad space through several different channels:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Directly from the content owner: The owner controls programming on their specific channel (for example: Fox, NBC Universal, etc.) and sells the ad space through a traditional sales funnel on a full contract commitment. (As opposed to programmatically on an impression-by-impression basis.)&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Through premium distributors: Content is aggregated across distributors like Hulu, xfinity, Sling, etc.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Working with aggregated publisher content from larger cable or telecomm providers: (i.e. Comcast, AT&amp;T, etc.) This often offers additional targeting, based on the provider&rsquo;s subscriber data and their ability to bundle CTV inventory with traditional TV space.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Through private deals or Open Exchange CTV supply aggregators: Allowing for more refined and specific first-party and third-party targeting across broader and more diverse content like Roku, SpotX, etc.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
Why does this matter to the general media buyer? Because you can be buying similar inventory in different ways, depending on how your audience is watching their shows, and who has the best price for the same inventory. This can lead to self-competition or unexpected reporting on KPIs or capabilities.&nbsp;

<h2>Some reporting is less transparent than you'd think.</h2>
CTV comes with <a href="https://www.datafyhq.com/blog/three-things-about-connected-tv-ctv-advertising">amazing measurement and targeting benefits</a> - but, depending on who you bought the ad from, reporting can get a bit sticky as some content owners like to keep pieces of information for themselves. Oftentimes, we&rsquo;ll see a drop in content-level transparency (where was the ad placed?), but increased transparency on the audience / household-specific metrics (who saw the ad?). Or, vice versa, we&rsquo;ll see a decrease in audience transparency paired with an increase in content-level transparency.&nbsp;
While we all want the most transparent content reporting AND the most refined targeting options, getting both can be pretty unrealistic when it comes to CTV. Instead, placement options with the most refined audience targeting will tend to favor audience or household-specific metrics, whereas placement options with the most transparent content reporting will generally favor content-level metrics.&nbsp;
So with that, we'll leave you with some final questions to ask yourself and your CTV vendor if you're ever feeling like you need additional clarity on the topic:

Ask Yourself
Is content reporting (where I am placing my ad) more important or is the audience (who sees my ad) more important to me?
What reporting metrics do I want?
How much am I willing to pay per targeted household?

Ask Your Vendors
Is your CTV running in exclusively big-screen, private living room environments? How do you know?
Have you curated your premium content placements? Do you know if these deals exclude re-sold inventory?
Are you limiting your delivery by content category, network, app, etc? Can you?
Who are you buying your inventory from?
Can you report genre, network, app and/or channel-level reporting to show where my ads appeared? If not, what exactly can you share?
What device types do you target to hit that CPM? Are you targeting premium content only?

Feel like the answers to your questions about Connected TV advertising are more gray than black & white? Datafy's got you covered, read on.

Why Connected TV (CTV) Advertising is Not Black & White

Ever feel like the answers to your questions about CTV are more gray than black and white? Oftentimes, the unsatisfying answer to these questions is going to be, “Well, it’s a little more complicated than that…” Let’s talk about why that is.

CTV: It’s Not Black and White

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are under increasing pressure to demonstrate accountability in their reporting metrics. Heightened economic challenges and closer scrutiny of their budgets means that the need for tourism boards to utilize meaningful data and KPIs to showcase their true impact has never been more critical.. And while traditional metrics like CTR, impressions, and website traffic are still useful, they are no longer sufficient to validate the effectiveness of digital marketing efforts. Instead, it's essential to shift focus to the metrics that genuinely reflect success.
Fortunately, technology has evolved significantly in the last few years, making it possible to do exactly this. So let&rsquo;s make sure that your DMO is using the meaningful data that will enable your organization to adjust to the new demands on performance indicators and report on the metrics that truly matter.
For the full conversation, watch the recording.

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Economic challenges demand better metrics for DMOs. Traditional KPIs fall short. See how destinations are making a shift in their reporting.

KPIs & Conversions for Destinations and their DMOs

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are under increasing pressure to demonstrate accountability in their reporting metrics. Fortunately, technology has evolved significantly in the last few years, making it possible to do exactly this. Find out what destinations are doing for better reporting and strategizing with this new data at their fingertips.

KPIs and Conversions for DMOs in the New Digital Landscape

There&rsquo;s no denying that 3rd party cookies have been a tremendously helpful tool for marketers, and that DMOs will feel their absence when Chrome officially disables. We&rsquo;re especially going to feel it in areas like website retargeting, third-party website analytics, and interest-based advertising audiences, as traditional website retargeting becomes more difficult, reaching niche audiences becomes more expensive, and digital demographics targeting become unreliable &ndash; or disappear entirely. It&rsquo;s essential to recognize that these challenges have created the need for new solutions.&nbsp;&nbsp;
So how can DMOs execute successful audience targeting strategies that don't require third-party cookies? The answer lies in placing a greater emphasis on first-party data, leaning into geo-based and contextual targeting strategies, and in the emerging concepts of identity networks and clean rooms.
First-party data
<ul>
<li>We know how hard your DMO has been working to build this list, so let&rsquo;s start growing it and using it &ndash; Not only for email marketing campaigns, but also for more types of programmatic targeting and in-market attribution.</li>
</ul>
Geo-based and contextual strategies
<ul>
<li>Leaning into geo-based strategies (putting your advertising dollars into the geographical markets where you&rsquo;ll get the most traction) and contextual strategies (placing advertising on websites whose readers are likely to share your interest) will still allow DMOs to reach their most strategic audiences.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Clean rooms and identity networks
<ul>
<li>The deprecation of cookies will lead to the rise of identity networks and clean rooms &ndash; two concepts that allow us to analyze and activate customer data within the new privacy framework, and work hand-in-hand with each other to allow us to link online activity to the same user.</li>
</ul>
Contact your Datafy CX representative or&nbsp;<a href="https://www.datafyhq.com/contact" rel="follow">book a demo</a> to see how we&rsquo;re already implementing these critical emerging marketing tactics for destinations.

DMOs can and are successfully adapting to the loss of third-party cookies and Datafy is helping them using these three strategies...

The Cookie-less Future

As third-party cookies phase out, marketers face challenges in retargeting, analytics, and audience targeting. Here we explain how DMOs can navigate this shift by leveraging first-party data, geo-based and contextual strategies, and emerging tools.

Due to ongoing shifts in user privacy frameworks and geolocation data, (we&rsquo;re looking at you, Apple and Google!) it&rsquo;s time for our industry to adapt. As we all know, more user control over data sharing impacts data availability and consistency - so let&rsquo;s recognize the new limitations while continuing to focus on what geolocation still does better than anything else.&nbsp;
There are a few best practices that DMOs can employ this year to make sure that they&rsquo;re getting the most out of their geolocation data, in light of the privacy changes:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Focus on large footprint areas: Geolocation data&rsquo;s reliability depends on having a sufficient sample size - and the new privacy restrictions means that there may not be enough data available in smaller footprints to be able to consider the data reliable and valid. (The smaller a point of interest is, the less likely it is to have enough data available to be suitable for analysis.) This means that geolocation data is not a people counter, nor is it likely going to be relevant for, say, an individual shop or restaurant.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Strategic KPIs: Focus on KPIs like origination markets, length of stay, and seasonality and relative performance. These KPIs are still an area of great strength for geolocation data, and are also critical to DMO strategy and accountability.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Layer in additional data sets: Layering in additional data sets like spending, airport, or lodging data will create a more well-rounded view of the destination and create multiple reference points. Doing so will create more comprehensive and accurate insights, and give you even more confidence in your data.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Updated modeling and analysis tools: Data vendors need to be working with updated modeling and analysis tools that are reflective of the new ways that users are approaching geolocation data. Make sure that your vendor isn&rsquo;t being left behind!
</li>
</ul>
At the end of the day, smartphone geolocation data still boasts over 150 million active monthly users, so let&rsquo;s not make the error of discounting its significance or applicability to the tourism industry. As long as these adjustments are made, it can and should still be considered a central pillar of your digital marketing strategy - we know that it&rsquo;s going to remain one of ours!&nbsp;

Adapting to privacy shifts: Exploring how the evolving landscape of user privacy impacts geolocation data usage and your data.

Privacy Frameworks - Navigating these new parameters

New Privacy Frameworks - What To Do

Ogden, UT (April 25, 2024) - Analytics and ad-tech platform provider <a href="http://www.datafyhq.com">Datafy</a> announced today the launch of its new generative AI tool, an embedded conversational analytics tool, designed specifically for the needs of destination marketing organizations (DMOs). The new tool seamlessly integrates AI functionality into Datafy&rsquo;s industry-leading data analytics software technology, offering enhanced visitor and data analytics capabilities that can analyze and synthesize large amounts of data with previously unprecedented speed and efficiency. This launch marks Datafy as the first-to-market in creating an automated, integrated AI tool for data interpretation in the travel industry, and provides clear direction on the significant role that AI can play in destination marketing.&nbsp;
Datafy&rsquo;s new AI tool allows users to identify new stories, KPIs and trends by using one of two pre-engineered prompts. Both offer consistent summaries of the high-level KPIs most important to DMOs; they primarily differ in whether they are summarizing or analyzing the data:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>
Data Summarization Prompt: Provides a simple summary of the data by extracting and conveying the dataset&rsquo;s key information into a coherent and concise textual format. May include easy-to-understand statistics and trends.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Analysis Prompt: Offers insights and analysis from the data to identify trends and provide a deeper view into the destination.&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>
<blockquote>
&ldquo;We&rsquo;ve made AI manageable and approachable by offering access to succinct, consistent, and easily-interpreted results. We&rsquo;ve taken the guesswork out of figuring out how to feed real data, context, and high quality prompts into the AI,&rdquo; said Datafy Co-founder and President Kelby Bosshardt.
&ldquo;Our fully-integrated system enables DMOs to quickly give stakeholders thorough insights into how their destination is performing, and we can&rsquo;t wait to see it stretch beyond that. We&rsquo;re excited to see our clients use it to identify insightful trends, to structure advertising campaigns, and as a brainstorming tool to develop strategies.&rdquo;
</blockquote>
At a time where many DMO leaders remain hesitant to embrace generative AI tools such as ChatGPT in destination marketing, Datafy's new AI capabilities represent a tangible way that tourism professionals can harness its power to enhance and streamline their marketing efforts - freeing up more time to focus on what they do best.&nbsp;&nbsp;
To learn more about Datafy&rsquo;s industry-leading technology capabilities, visit <a href="http://www.datafyhq.com">www.datafyhq.com</a>.&nbsp;

*Skift (2024, April)&nbsp; ChatGPT&rsquo;s Value for Tourism: Few Boring Top 10 Lists. Retrieved from <a href="https://skift.com/2024/03/06/chatgpts-value-for-tourism-fewer-boring-top-10-lists/">https://skift.com/2024/03/06/chatgpts-value-for-tourism-fewer-boring-top-10-lists/</a>

Expanding tech capabilities from data analytics leader puts power of AI in hands of DMOs

DATAFY LAUNCHES NEW AI TOOL WITHIN TECHNOLOGY PLATFORM

What&rsquo;s iROAS? It stands for Incremental Return on Ad Spend, and it measures your marketing effort&rsquo;s impact on revenue. The key difference between iROAS and the oft-used ROAS is&nbsp;incrementality. ROAS doesn&rsquo;t always give the full picture, but being able to measure incrementality means that we can better illustrate the value of your marketing efforts, when taking into account the visitation that is already occurring. iROAS allows you to isolate the impact of your marketing, separate from other potential factors and in doing so, makes it possible to verify that your organization&rsquo;s marketing efforts led to incremental attributable trips - trips that would not have occurred otherwise.&nbsp;
Determining iROAS requires proving the impact excluding the baseline. It measures a baseline visitation rate - a rate that people from certain markets are already showing up in your destination, with or without advertising efforts. First we determine: At what rate did this control group show up in-market? These are your baseline visits. Then, we measure the same question, but for people who were exposed to the campaign&rsquo;s advertising. At what rate did the ad-targeted audience show up in-market? Comparing the two may reveal a statistic such as:&nbsp;&ldquo;Ad-aware customers were 9.5x more likely to visit than the control group.&rdquo;&nbsp;In doing so, it becomes possible to link your marketing efforts to increased visitation in your communities.&nbsp;
The exact iROAS figure is determined by subtracting baseline visits from attributable visits, and multiplying that number by the average spend of the visitor when they&rsquo;re in-market. This number represents the incremental campaign impact, removing any baseline visitation we expect was happening anyway. Then, that number is divided by cost of the campaign, and - voila - you have your iROAS!&nbsp;

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As the tourism industry maintains an increased focus on stewardship, we&rsquo;re going to continue to see growing economic pressure on tourism boards - making it more important than ever for DMOs to really be able to prove their impact. Doing so is going to require a more sophisticated approach than what we&rsquo;ve been doing in the past, which is why we expect that the iROAS metric is going to become one of the most important and sought-after KPIs moving forward.

With iROAS, help your DMO showcase its value, optimize strategies, and thrive in an era of economic challenges and heightened accountability.

iROAS: The Metric that Matters for DMOs

You’ve heard of ROAS, but the metric that everyone’s talking about is iROAS. Let’s make sure that you’re one of them.

IROAS: The Metric that Matters

When it comes to leveraging geolocation data for destination marketing, two fundamental concepts emerge: visitor makeup and visitation estimates. While these concepts can work together while painting a full picture of a destination&rsquo;s narrative, their methodologies and the questions that they answer are very different. Of course, this tends to make things more complicated - so we&rsquo;re here to explain.

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Why does this all matter?&nbsp;Because knowing when and how to utilize visitor makeup vs. visitation estimates will help DMOs leverage more impactful data that will resonate with their audiences and ultimately drive more successful marketing.&nbsp;
Still looking for additional clarity on visitation estimates vs. visitor makeup? Check out the video below, where we break down these concepts even further.


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A two-minute read for DMOs seeking to understand the methodologies behind geolocation data for their destination.

Geolocation 101: Understanding your data

Are you using geolocation data the right way? 
Do you need help understanding how your geolocation estimates are made? 
Dive into this quick read to make sure you're asking the right questions when digging into your data.

Geolocation Data 101: Understanding your geolocation data

We won&rsquo;t try to deny it: We talk about attribution a lot. But in our defense, it&rsquo;s a really big deal in our world. Attribution is an all-star in the realms of KPI measurement and reporting &ndash; so it&rsquo;s no wonder why we&rsquo;re such big fans. Let&rsquo;s talk about the essentials &ndash; the what, who, where and why &ndash; of attribution&hellip; and when we&rsquo;re done, you may find yourself just as excited about it as we are.

What is attribution?
Big picture: Attribution is a reporting strategy that gives digital marketers invaluable insights into the specific digital strategies that are converting for your organization by linking media efforts to digital or in-market conversions. It allows you to measure** the performance of your digital marketing channels and even see which of your different digital channels are performing best.
Who should do it?
You! But more specifically: Attribution is for any DMO that wants to show the impact of their work by being able to measure and report on the visitation to their destination that has occurred as a result of their digital advertising efforts.
Where can it be utilized?
Datafy can run attribution in conjunction with our own advertising program &ndash; but we know that you may have a diversified digital campaign across multiple vendors / channels. Are you working with media channels like Connected TV, digital streaming audio, sponsored content, or native ads? No problem &ndash; we can place a Datafy pixel on your digital media. We&rsquo;re talking everything from your own website, to external digital media placements.&nbsp;
Why is it important?
Remember when we said that attribution allows you to analyze the performance of your digital marketing? Think about what this means for a DMO: We can measure and report on visitation to your destination from those that have been exposed to your advertising. This gives DMOs the opportunity to present a defendable ROI for their marketing efforts. Insights from attribution can also be used to help inform strategy, build trust with stakeholders, secure long-term funding, and gain advantage over competitors.

Now that you know the ins and outs of attribution, let&rsquo;s not forget about the all-important how. Luckily, this is an easy one. Just connect with your Datafy CX representative. Together, you can discuss your goals and current strategies and come up with a plan for target impressions, length of campaigns, top vendors/tactics, and anything else you need to get started.&nbsp;

&nbsp;**What kind of measurements are we talking about? When attribution is part of your digital strategy with Datafy, you can also expect visitor insights from ad-aware, in-destination visitors, an impact calculator to show return on ad spend, incremental lift analysis on paid media, and visitor attribution metrics broken down by vendor, campaign and tactic.

Discover why attribution is the secret sauce of digital marketing, who should be paying attention, where it fits into your strategy, and why you'll be just as excited about it as we are.

Attribution 101: Understanding the who, what and why behind attribution

Discover why attribution is the secret sauce of digital marketing, who should be paying attention, where it fits into your strategy, and why you should be just as excited about it as we are.

In 2023, advertisers acknowledged that CTV is no longer an emerging tactic. In 2024, we expect brands to stop asking &ldquo;should I invest in CTV?&rdquo; and start asking &ldquo;how should I invest in CTV?&rdquo;&nbsp;
Investment in CTV is growing every year, and we can expect it to keep growing as advertisers continue to link CTV campaigns to real business goals and successes. And it&rsquo;s not just for Coke and Doritos anymore&hellip; Creative new programmatic advertising programs offer accessible advertising budgets that make it possible for tourism organizations to dabble in this exciting advertising medium, while our next-level attribution abilities make reporting back on your CTV efforts more meaningful and defensible than ever.&nbsp;
Given its strong results, rapid growth and relevance to the tourism industry, Datafy believes that CTV is one of the topic tactics that our clients need to be considering for their 2024 media mix. And here are a few things about CTV to keep in mind as you and your team are building out your plan:&nbsp;
<ol>
<li>
CTV is not as expensive as it seems. While CPMs can cause sticker shock when you compare to other digital tactics or even traditional TV, more refined targeting capabilities paired with frequency capping can allow a greater penetration of your core audience segments, and even generate a lower cost per aware household when compared to other tactics.
</li>
<li>
CTV&rsquo;s impressions are good. And we mean really good. CTV offers higher levels of attention, ad recall, and co-viewing than other tactics. (Yes, including traditional TV). What does that mean? Your lower cost-per-aware-household can still lead to higher destination recall and even more aware people who are engaged with the streaming content - and receptive to the short ad breaks.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
CTV is highly-measurable - and partnering with Datafy takes it to the next level: Datafy provides real-time data insights and full-circle visitor attribution reporting, which can include: video completion rates, cross-device digital conversations, and even in-market footfall attribution.&nbsp;
</li>
</ol>
Interested in learning more about CTV and how it can be leveraged to reach your business goals? Reach out to <a href="https://www.datafyhq.com/contact" title="our team" rel="follow">our team </a>today and get started.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

What exactly is Connected TV (CTV) and why does it matter for your digital advertising and marketing strategies? Datafy explains.

Three Things to Know about Connected TV Advertising

The what, how and why of Connected TV (CTV).  Datafy discusses what exactly  CTV is and why it matters for your advertising strategies and that bottom line.

Three Things to Know about CTV

Let&rsquo;s skip right past the obvious &ndash; the&nbsp;time saved and the ease of use &ndash; and get into the nitty gritty of these five benefits to having your data and advertising programs linked.

<ul>
<li>
Full-Circle Advertising: Datafy&rsquo;s full-circle advertising capabilities help close the loop between your marketing efforts and their verifiable ROAS. First, our extensive geolocation data sets are used to identify the audiences with the highest likelihood of converting on your visitation goals. Then, this target audience is exposed to your advertising and Datafy gets to work observing if and when those who were served the campaign&rsquo;s creative arrived in-market. Detailed attribution reporting is provided at the end of the campaign to demonstrate the advertising&rsquo;s real economic impact on the destination, but that&rsquo;s not where the cycle ends &ndash; insights into what worked and what didn&rsquo;t work goes right back into building strategy and audiences for the next one.
</li>
<li>
Measuring Incrementality: We know how important it is to be able to prove incremental lift &ndash; but how can you have a clear understanding of the trips that were influenced by your marketing without having an undeniably comparable control group?&nbsp; Datafy&rsquo;s large sample size of data means that we can reserve a segment of devices that meet your targeting requirements as a control group in order to measure visitation without campaign exposure. By leveraging Datafy&rsquo;s data capabilities to identify and track the group who visited in-market but were not exposed to the campaign&rsquo;s advertising, and then comparing it to the rate of ad-exposed people that are visiting, we can identify incremental lift and provide a full picture of campaign effectiveness. This also allows a defensible, uninflated lift calculation based on a specific segment of visitors (for example, only focused on markets and demographics).
</li>
<li>
Strong data fuels strong advertising: Access to back-end data enables Datafy to pull targeted custom, hyper-specific segment audiences with the highest likelihood of converting. The linking of data and advertising programs then allows for Datafy to seamlessly deliver the advertising campaign to this group, and track whether or not those within the target audience show up in-market. Then, Datafy dashboard&rsquo;s live feed allows us to make changes to campaign strategy on-the-fly as needed. (For example: If we notice that the target group from one market isn&rsquo;t booking room nights, should we shift the market focus or update the messaging?)
</li>
<li>
A verifiable ROI: Datafy&rsquo;s unique bundling of data and advertising enables our clients to report on raw data with a verifiable, defendable ROI attached to their marketing efforts. Rather than making assumptions based on digital behavior, Datafy reports on what people physically do. The results? Think along the lines of presenting a campaign recap that shows the minimum, physical number of hotel room nights booked as a result of your campaign, or a total number of day visitors that came from mobile devices exposed to your campaign.&nbsp;
</li>
<li>
Big players in other industries are already doing it: While the bundling of data and advertising is relatively new in the tourism industry, it&rsquo;s already standard practice across-the-board in other industries. With the introduction of the Datafy tech stack, DMOs are now empowered to enjoy the efficiency and effectiveness of data-driven programmatic advertising that the rest of the ad tech world has already been harnessing for years. (Not to mention: doing so will allow DMOs to keep up with the cookie-free future, when new privacy laws will require organizations to find alternate ways to observe user behavior and generate and reach qualified audiences.) &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;
</li>
</ul>

What about the data? It goes without saying that none of the above matters unless the data in question is high-quality, large in sample size, and collected and cleaned ethically and with integrity. You can rest assured that Datafy only works with the most robust, high-quality and privacy-compliant-data available - but it&rsquo;s what we do with the data once we&rsquo;ve received it that really sets us apart. All Datafy data is sourced, cleaned, stored, and modeled in house, ensuring that we have the cleanest, most normalized big data sets in the industry. Then, that data is optimized for the travel and tourism industry.
Our ability to layer multiple big data sources (like geolocation, spending, vehicle, lodging, and other owned data sets) into our platform is icing on the cake, because integrating additional data streams beyond your go-to geolocation data means that you can rely on results with more confidence.&nbsp;

Dive into the five overlooked benefits of DMOs linking their geolocation, spending, and demographics data to their advertising programs.

Datafy's 5 reasons to link data & advertising programs

Data and advertising go hand in hand. With both in one place you have the ability to unlock verifiable ROI, precise audience targeting, and strategic insights for future campaigns. Read on to see why we believe having both is essential – or at least an advantage.

5 reasons DMOs need their data and advertising programs linked

When it comes to tourism, we know that more is not always better &ndash; and that a destination&rsquo;s locals, stakeholders, and community leaders and organizations can become sensitive and frustrated if they begin to feel that their community is experiencing a case of over-tourism. DMOs in this situation may feel the pressure to explain and defend their marketing strategies in an effort to protect their funding &ndash; and luckily, Datafy&rsquo;s tech capabilities make us uniquely equipped to address the very specific needs of heavily-trafficked destinations. Read on for a few use cases to help support your messaging if you find yourself in similar situation.

Use Case: Audience Analysis
Using geolocation data to conduct an audience analysis can help DMOs understand who their visitors are, when they are coming, and where they are coming from. Observing and measuring visitation over time not only helps determine visitation levels and trends, but it can also identify situations where you may need to take proactive action in communicating to locals and stakeholders in your community.
Case in point: Imagine that a community is upset after a busy holiday weekend leaves its beaches covered in litter, and quickly points the finger at tourists. What if you could run the geolocation data and discover that the majority of visitors to the beaches were actually from within 15 miles away? At this point, a DMO can prove that the pollution came from locals and highlight that their marketing efforts only target visitors coming from further distances due to the higher economic value that they bring to the destination.

Use Case: Drive Visitation Beyond Your Destination's Hot Spots
Geolocation data can give you insights into your destination&rsquo;s most frequented attractions; then full-circle advertising gives you the capabilities to target those already in-market and encourage them to get off the beaten path.
What can this look like? Imagine you discover that 99% of visitors spend time in your top attraction while in-market. This can lead to overcrowding, a less-than-ideal visitor experience, and an under-utilization of your destination&rsquo;s other attractions. With an understanding of the data, the DMO can begin targeting visitors in-market and encouraging them to visit other areas within the destination &ndash; enriching the visitor experience, dispersing traffic and reducing crowding from your go-to spots.

Use Case: Identify and reach 'ideal travelers' and higher-yield visitors
Marketing for heavily-trafficked destinations is never about bringing more people in &ndash; it&rsquo;s about bringing the right people in. You really only want the visitors that are going to bring the highest possible value to your destination, right? Doing so means that you have to be very specific about the people you want to reach.
What can this look like? Datafy enables you to be really, really clear about the people that you want to reach. This can mean using past visitor engagement to reach people that have already stayed in your destination. (Data shows that repeat visitors spend more than first timers.) It can also look like geo-conquesting to serve ads to people that have stayed with your competitive set, or targeting look-a-likes audiences, where behavioral targeting allows you to create and reach audiences that look like your destination&rsquo;s highest-value visitors.
And what does this not look like? Maybe you&rsquo;ve identified that people coming in-market from within 50 miles away bring little-to-no economic benefit to your destination. They don&rsquo;t stay in hotels, they&rsquo;re rarely eating in the restaurants, and spend little time shopping. So let&rsquo;s make sure that no proactive marketing efforts are going out to this group.
&nbsp;
Use Case: Encourage off-peak season visitation
Did your audience analysis reveal strong seasonality with a clear peak season within your destination? Imagine you&rsquo;ve discovered that 70% of your year-round visitation occurs during the summer months. With a clear understanding of your seasonality needs, you can create messaging around your winter programming and activities and target an audience of snowbirds that have shown interest in winter travel.&nbsp;
To play devil&rsquo;s advocate &ndash; some may comment: We already know that summer is our busiest time. Why do we need data to tell us what we already know? That may be the case, but have you dug deeper into your summer visitation? Is visitation consistent throughout the week, or is it mainly Thursday &ndash; Sunday? If so, what can you be doing to encourage those visiting over the weekend to extend further into the weekdays?
A shift in visitation patterns can have a huge impact on a local community. For example, it can open the door for steady employment opportunities that don&rsquo;t rely on peak periods.

Embracing data insights isn't just about optimizing tourism; it's about creating a more harmonious and rewarding experience for both visitors and locals. By tapping into the wealth of information offered by geolocation, spending and demographics data, DMOs can tailor their approach to&nbsp;alleviate overcrowding, attract valuable visitors, and even out visitation throughout the year, allowing DMOs to pave the way for a tourism landscape that thrives sustainably while enriching the lives of those within its community.

If a destination has more than enough visitors is there really a need for a DMO?  Four use cases from Datafy as to why the answer is YES

Four tech-savvy marketing strategies for DMOs

Some might ask: If a destination already has more than enough visitors, is there really a need for a DMO? Or for destination marketing in general? The answer to these questions is an emphatic YES. Read on as we dive into use cases on how DMOs in heavily touristed destinations can embrace tech-savvy marketing strategies to reach their goals.

A Use Case for Tech-Savvy Marketing in Heavily-Touristed Destinations

These days, destination marketing organizations (DMOs) are increasingly recognizing the need for data insights to gain a deeper understanding of their visitors and for strategic decision making. But as companies like Apple and Google continue to make changes in their respective app store policies that impact data collection and sharing, there are steps that DMOs should be taking to ensure that they&rsquo;re focusing on best case uses for their geolocation data, while still remaining aware of its limitations.&nbsp;
The Value:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>Understanding Visitor Behavior: Geolocation data gives DMOs insights into visitor behaviors like: Where are your tourists coming from? What areas are they visiting while in-market? And how long are they staying for? Having an understanding of these behaviors and patterns gives DMOs the opportunities to identify the demographics and markets that are most likely to convert - not to mention, it can clue you into important insights like which regions, hot spots and attractions are bringing in the most visitors.&nbsp;</li>
<li>Audience Analysis: Geolocation data also provides DMOs valuable insights into the origin of their visitors. By understanding where people are coming from and the percentage share from each origin market, DMOs can identify key audiences and trends - and then tailor their advertising strategies accordingly. Imagine geolocation data revealing the emergence of a strong new feeder market that had not previously been targeted with proactive marketing before. Datafy&rsquo;s capabilities make it easy to quickly identify and then begin targeting this new market to capture a group with a high likelihood of conversion that had previously been flying under the radar, resulting in a much more efficient allocation of resources.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Optimizing Visitor Experiences: Geolocation data gives DMOs actionable insights into crowd density and movement within a destination, enabling organizations to anticipate peak times and manage visitor flow more effectively. So if a destination knows that its downtown area receives higher-than-normal footfall during weekends in summer, they can use this information to push their off-the-beaten-path attractions and work to draw the crowds away from their most heavily-trafficked areas at their busiest times.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Strategic Decision-Making: The ability to analyze visitor data over time enables DMOs to identify emerging trends and changing preferences, and then quickly adapt their marketing strategies and product offerings accordingly. For instance, geolocation data can reveal which origin markets produce more hotel visitors vs. day trippers - and DMOs can take this information to strategically craft messaging that will market to these different groups most effectively.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Personalization and Customization: Geolocation data allows DMOs to deliver hyper-personalized marketing campaigns with targeted messages, recommendations and offers based on a visitor&rsquo;s location and past behavior. Looking to drive visitation during your destination's big wellness event or food festival? Target yoga aficionados or foodies that live 50+ miles away. Our research shows that tailoring marketing efforts to individual preferences creates a more engaging experience, fosters loyalty to the brand, and increases a consumer&rsquo;s likelihood of visiting the destination. </li>
<li>Tracking Marketing Campaign Effectiveness: Geolocation data can also help DMOs measure the success of their marketing campaigns and better report to their stakeholders with verifiable impacts of their marketing efforts. Was there a trackable increase in visitation after the launch of a marketing campaign? Analyzing this over time gives DMOs the ability to report back with provable results tied to their marketing campaigns.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Supporting Data Sources: As we like to say: the more data sources, the better. Diversifying your data sources means expanding your sample size, which always leads to more confidence in your results. Geolocation data can be supported by other data sources (such as vehicle, credit card, lodging and ticketing data) to provide a more comprehensive understanding of visitor patterns.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Limitations of Geolocation Data:
<ul>
<li>Sample Size and Representativeness: To put it simply: Geolocation data&rsquo;s reliability depends on having a sufficient sample size. While there is no standard sample size, there is a general threshold that needs to be met for the data to be considered reliable and valid. Depending on the footprint of various points of interest, some sample sizes may not be large enough to be suitable for all types of analysis.&nbsp; </li>
<li>Estimates vs. Direct Data: Geolocation data provides valuable estimates, but it should not be considered as a full replacement for ticketing data or property-reported point of sale/demand reports. It is not a people counter; its primary value lies in providing insights into audience composition and behavior. </li>
<li>Privacy Considerations: As with any data collection, ensuring privacy and compliance with relevant regulations is crucial with geolocation data. Geolocation data always needs to be handled carefully, with appropriate measures in place to protect individual privacy. All Datafy data is 100% opt-in certified and in full privacy compliance - a company-wide decision made in order to ensure that our analysis consists of the cleanest data and highest-standard of data policies. *It&rsquo;s also important to note that we enforce limitations to the types of POIs that data can be pulled for, as Datafy will not geofence places that could potentially be used to identify or isolate people based on race, religion, medical status, or other highly-personal or potentially sensitive identifiers.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>
Geolocation data remains a powerful tool for DMOs - but it&rsquo;s important to stay mindful that there are limitations to its use. In spite of these limitations and challenges, the responsible utilization of geolocation data is an incredible asset for DMOs that can make significant contributions to informed decision making and ultimately successful marketing efforts.&nbsp;

There is value and limitations to everything, big data is no different. Understand how travel and tourism can best benefit from geolocation data

Reliability of Geolocation Data from Datafy for DMOs

Geolocation data remains a powerful tool for DMOs - but it’s important to stay mindful that there are limitations to its use. In spite of these limitations and challenges, the responsible utilization of geolocation data is an incredible asset for DMOs that can make significant contributions to informed decision making and ultimately successful marketing efforts.

Destination successes, tech insights, and expert perspectives - helping destinations discover opportunities through the world of data and ad-tech.

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