Why data should be at the heart of your tourism marketing

This month's Knowledge Hub article is provided by the South West Visitor Economy Hub, a regional initiative helping tourism businesses across Devon & Somerset share and access data on visitor trends.

By bringing together anonymised booking and performance data from hundreds of local businesses, alongside footfall analytics and survey responses, the Hub gives the region's visitor economy a clearer, more collaborative picture of what's really happening on the groundinsi - ght that's normally out of reach for any single business working alone.

If you run a visitor attraction, accommodation business, or tourism experience in the South West, you already know your customers better than any spreadsheet ever could. But here's the thing: the businesses getting the most out of their marketing budgets right now are the ones combining that hard-won local knowledge with something else — good, timely data.

It's not just for the big players

There's a common misconception that "data-driven marketing" is something reserved for national tourism boards or big hotel chains with dedicated analytics teams. In reality, some of the most useful tourism data comes from pooling information across many small and medium-sized businesses — exactly the kind of businesses that make up Devon's visitor economy.

When individual businesses share anonymised booking trends and visitor numbers it builds a regional picture that benefits everyone. A B&B owner in Sidmouth and a walking tour operator in Dartmoor might never cross paths, but together their data — alongside hundreds of other contributors — helps reveal exactly when visitors are coming, what they're looking for, and where the gaps and opportunities lie.

When these statistics are coupled with trip characteristics and visitor profile intelligence we get a clearer picture of who, where and when we should be marketing our product.

What good data actually tells you

Shared regional data can help answer questions that are difficult to figure out alone, such as:

● When should I be marketing harder? Data can reveal shoulder-season opportunities you might otherwise miss — those quieter weeks in May or October when demand is creeping up but most local competitors haven't noticed yet.

● What's actually driving bookings? Trends around activities, accommodation types, or visitor origin can show you which audiences to prioritise in your messaging.

● How does my business compare? Benchmarking against wider regional trends helps you spot whether a quiet month is a local issue or a sector-wide pattern.

We've seen this play out clearly before. Last year, regional data highlighted a sustained rise in dog-friendly bookings across the South West — a trend that gave dozens of local businesses the confidence to adjust their offer and marketing around pet-friendly stays, right as demand was building. That's the value of data: it turns a hunch into a decision you can act on with confidence.

A two-way street

The system works best when it works both ways. The more businesses that contribute their data, the richer and more accurate the regional picture becomes — which in turn makes the insights more useful for every contributor, including you. It's a genuinely collaborative effort, and one that's helping shape smarter, more responsive tourism marketing for Exeter and across Devon and the wider South West.

Getting involved

This is exactly the thinking behind the South West Visitor Economy Hub's data-sharing initiative. Businesses across the region are already contributing anonymised data and, in return, gaining access to regional insights, trend reports, and benchmarking that would otherwise be out of reach for a single business.

Signing up is straightforward, and the more voices in the room, the better the picture for everyone. You can register and start exploring the platform at swvehub.co.uk/sign-up