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 economic footprint. Living Lab connects accommodation, employment, procurement, and transport data to a defined local economy, and follows the pound from the hotel to the laundry, the caterer, the maintenance contractor, and out again through the national contract or the imported input. Reference data is published by UN Tourism.
Measures the visitor economy’s ongoing contribution: GVA, employment, and tax, with a segment-level supply-chain and retention breakdown. Where accommodation revenue is gross or net of overseas ownership. Where food, transport, and retail spend stays with local suppliers. Year-to-year movement attributed to named drivers, not left unexplained. Signal137 produces the figure the whole committee can stand behind.
Tests what a change to the supply chain would do to retention: a local procurement rule, a licensing change, growth in the two or three sectors that currently import the most. Demand137 shows where five points of retention comes from before the policy is signed.
| Product | Your question | You get | What it changes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Signal137 | How do we report the visitor economy's contribution to GVA, employment, and tax? | A footprint figure with a defined scope, geography, and period, not a rounded headline | A figure that survives comparison with the national accounts or a rival estimate |
| Signal137 | Where does the value stay, and where does it leak? | A segment-level breakdown of the supply chain, with retention by segment | Procurement, licensing, or investment targeted where retention is weakest |
| Signal137 | Is this the same as economic impact? | No. Footprint is total ongoing scale; impact is the incremental change one decision caused | The two are never blended, so the public-value case is not challenged for double-counting |
| Signal137 | How much of the hotel revenue actually stays here? | Ownership structure and booking channel traced, per segment | The accommodation figure stated gross or net, as it should be |
| Signal137 | What about informal, cash, or short-term rental activity the official data misses? | Reliable proxy signals included and flagged as modelled; gaps stated, not filled | The number is honest about what it cannot see |
| Signal137 | How often is the figure updated, and what moved it? | On each source's documented schedule, with year-to-year change attributed to named drivers | The trend is explained, not merely reported |
| Signal137 | How does this sit with the tourism satellite account? | A segment-level, supply-chain view of the same activity, at local geography | The figure can be acted on locally, not only reported nationally |
| Demand137 | What would a local procurement rule do to retention? | Retention modelled under each policy option, with the counterfactual stated | The rule tested before it is signed |
| Demand137 | Which sectors should we grow so more of the value stays? | The sectors where retention gains are largest, ranked | Industrial policy and tourism policy point the same way |
| Both | Who holds this, and where? | Model, data, and a trained team inside your jurisdiction | The capability survives the change of official or consultant |
None of the three states what it includes, what period it covers, or whether the money stayed. A footprint figure is only useful when it carries its own definitions, and it is only defensible when it is kept separate from impact.
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.
During the 2026 World Cup, host-city hotel rates rose 13% on average. Miami rose 30.3%. New York fell 4.5%. The average was true and useless: it would have told all 16 cities the same thing, and been wrong for most of them.
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.
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