More than 700 events · 14m room nights · US$12bn GVA · 49 countries · 180 cities · in the past 12 months
- Our purpose
Our purpose
To optimise the global visitor economy
The problem
Events are attracted and planned without knowing what they will deliver and how to optimise them,. What competing events are on? What hotel supply looks like? Do we need to issue more STR licenses? Or remove some? Will people buy tickets? Airlines add routes with a near-perfect view of their own profitability and no view of national economic strategy. Marketing spend, short-term rental licensing, hotel approvals, event dates and manay move factor are all act on the same economic basis, each one changing the return on the others.
Each team optimises what it can see, and joining those views grows the whole.
Connecting the decisions takes data in one place, on one method, at the speed the decisions need it.
How it works
Living Lab connects scattered visitor economy data from events, aviation, accommodation, and price signals into one digital twin of that visitor economy. Our data, machine learning capacity and economic model underlies it all so governments and businesses can make great decisions.
Events, flights, hotel rates, social media, pay days, visitor movement, and price signals across 218 countries, updated on one geo-temporal spine. It does not need to be copied, cleaned, or reconciled by the client.
The average GVA uplift available to a mature visitor economy that plans nationally rather than in silos
Delivered by events that deployed Living Lab in the last 12 months.
Our clients are governments, cities, airports, rights holders, and destination developers. We supply a fitted model, the data, machine learning and a trained team, in-country.
Two products
What happened. On-demand economic impact attribution for past events. GVA, tax, jobs, and retained visitor spend, per event, per city, on one method.
What will happen. Machine learning enabled forward demand pictures for routes, sites, event portfolio optimisation, inventory, and policy decisions.
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How we work
Living Lab does not sell a report and leave. We deploy the Living Lab Engine, the data, and a trained team inside the client’s organisation. The team works alongside the people making the decisions, in their time zone, on their calendar.
Evidence first. Real economic impact, not attendance or volume, drives policy and investment.
Why the visitor economy matters
It is fast, and it multiplies. The visitor economy responds on existing infrastructure. Visitors arrive and spend, and because it is labour-intensive, that spending becomes jobs almost as fast. Hotel spend flows on to local produce, staff and suppliers, and reaches sectors far beyond tourism. International visitors bring foreign currency that helps balance trade.
It builds the place. Visitor spending and levies attract the capital that funds roads, airports, parks and transit that residents use every day. They also give the justification to protect the culture and landscape that drew the visitors in the first place. It offers a wider range of jobs than almost any sector, from first roles for young people to skilled and entrepreneurial ones. It also lets a boutique, a café or a craft market compete beside the largest operators.
The visitor economy is one of the most powerful levers we have for growth and for social mobility. I’m proud of what we do. It’s important.