Living Lab’s first economic model was for the Singapore Grand Prix in 2012. In 2025 we became a software platform: government-grade intelligence for the visitor economy
Tourism community impact assessment. Living Lab produces evidence granular enough to describe a specific neighbourhood, honest enough to state what it cannot decide, and open enough that the side which did not commission it can check it. Reference data is published by UN Tourism.
Attributes what tourism did to a defined area over time: visitor spend retained locally against leakage, long-term rental stock and short-term letting listings against visitor demand, and whether promised jobs, procurement, or funding reached local people. Every figure states its source and its uncertainty, so it can be checked rather than trusted.
Tests what a proposed change would do to the same neighbourhood before it is signed: a licensing rule, an event calendar, a development. Usually scoped through the council, DMO, or funder that holds the commissioning relationship. What the evidence cannot do is decide whether a trade-off is acceptable. That judgement stays with residents and their representatives.
| Product | Your question | You get | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal137 | Is tourism a net benefit, a cost, or a mixed picture in our neighbourhood? | Local employment, spend, and price effects by area, not a citywide average | Evidence that speaks to the streets affected, in the forum where the decision is made |
| Signal137 | Is short-term letting changing who can afford to live here? | Housing stock, rental price, and listing volume over time, matched against visitor demand | The pattern is raised while a policy window still exists |
| Signal137 | Did the promised community benefit reach local people? | A traceable path from visitor spend to locally retained value versus leakage | The funder or operator is held to a benefit case that can be checked |
| Signal137 | Will the numbers just support whoever commissioned them? | Stated assumptions, sources, and uncertainty on every output | The side that did not commission the work can check the result |
| Signal137 | What did the festival do to our street? | Event cadence, accommodation pressure, and resident sentiment for the defined area | One event's local effect, separated from the citywide total |
| Demand137 | What would a licensing change do to this neighbourhood? | The yield, displacement, and fiscal effect of each option, at area level | The rule is tested before it is signed |
| Demand137 | What happens if nothing changes? | Base, downside, and supported scenarios with a stated counterfactual | The cost of waiting is visible alongside the cost of acting |
| Both | We are a resident association, not a government body. Can we use this? | Usually via the council, DMO, or funder that holds the commissioning relationship | The concern is brought, and the route to commission it is advised |
| Both | What can this evidence not tell us? | Whether a trade-off, jobs against noise, funding against congestion, is acceptable | The value judgement stays with the community and its representatives |
| Both | Who holds the data, and does it identify anyone? | Aggregated and governed: never a named resident or visitor, only the pattern | The evidence is usable in public without exposing anyone |
Oman has announced plans for a high-altitude destination at Jabal al Akhdar, combining sports training, wellness, and tourism at 2,400 metres. It is the kind of project a Gulf government can commit to at once, and the kind that lives or dies on a demand case nobody has yet published.
A major event is a rallying point for civic pride, and just as easily a rallying point for protest. The difference is usually whether residents can see what the event does for their street, in terms they recognise, before the road closures start.
The owners of the Bulls and the Blackhawks are putting a reported US$7bn into 55 acres around the United Center: housing, a music hall, a hotel, retail, a park. The arena already hosts more than 200 events a year. The question a developer should ask is what the other 165 nights are worth.
Tourism is close to a tenth of the world’s output and employment, and almost every government still plans it in pieces. A country that governs its visitor economy as one system keeps more of what it pays for. On an illustrative US$20bn economy, five points of retention is US$1bn a year.
Hand a country that is losing visitors the largest sporting event ever held on its soil, and see whether the event can overcome the friction. It could not. Measured per hotel across 16 host markets, the 2026 World Cup delivered as a tournament and failed as a remedy.
We turn messy event and tourism data into decisions that help communities grow. Bring curiosity and rigour. We will hand you questions nobody has answered yet.
Get the latest from the Fabrik newsroom
