How Data Helps You Look Awesome in These 6 Meetings
You’re sitting in yet another meeting and wondering — Could this have been an email?
The problem is that you’re supposed to be leading this meeting. And although you have plenty of important things to tell the people you’re sitting (or Zooming) with, you can’t help but wonder if you’re getting the point across.
Meetings are unavoidable for destination leaders who need to forge strong relationships and share timely information to make the best possible decisions. But it’s easy to feel like your conversations are going in circles, sidelined by loud opinions and competing ideas.
Cue the superhero music, because data is coming to the rescue!
Sharing data up-levels your contribution to meetings of all kinds — from monthly board meetings to stakeholder discussions and conversations with elected officials. Data cuts through misperceptions and gets everyone on the same page, creating an objective foundation on which to build consensus and collaboration.
Whether you’re advocating for changes, reporting on the impact of your efforts, or communicating the value of tourism to your community, data will focus the conversation on the right questions. By bringing data to the table, you’ll save time, communicate more clearly, and make better strategic decisions.
Here’s how data transforms six common destination meetings:
1. Board meetings
Sure, they’re the board — but right now, you’re the main character. This is your chance to steer the narrative, and in order to influence those big decisions — annual budgets, program investments, policy changes — you need to to have a finger on the pulse of the visitor economy and the community at large.
📊 What data to share: Offer board members a vibrant big-picture snapshot of how the destination is performing. Share data that shows where visitors are coming from, where they go within the destination, and where they spend their money. If your organization is funded by lodging taxes, then align these insights with the relevant lodging data. If the board is considering a specific initiative, choose the data that best demonstrates the impact of taking action.
🦸 Data hero pro tip: Context is what allows us to make meaning from data. When you share visitor insights, also share how these indicators have changed over time. Are visitors spending more or less in a particular category than last year? Are you seeing increased visitation to a specific neighborhood or region? Destinations are dynamic — highlight the changes that matter.
2. Stakeholder conversations
Community stakeholders are a varied bunch: coffeeshop owners, park rangers, restaurateurs, gallerists, tour guides, nonprofit executives, and neighborhood leaders. These folks interact directly with visitors every day, giving them a unique perspective on questions that impact the visitor economy and resident quality of life.
These groups benefit from a big-picture awareness of the destination. But more importantly, they also want to understand the visitor trends that are most relevant to them, their neighborhoods, and their businesses.
📊 What data to share: Break out visitation and spending data by categories to illustrate how visitors engage with specific sectors such as food, arts and entertainment, or outdoor recreation. Zoom in on activity in individual regions. And don’t forget the residents — show how locals and visitors combine to create economic impact, and where a higher proportion of visitors could create friction.
🦸 Data hero pro tip: Categories and regions are two powerful elements of Zartico’s Place-Based Strategy, which helps destination leaders see the full spectrum of visitor impact on their communities. Read more about how these elements and our data work in harmony.
3. Staff meetings
Data isn’t meant to be a secret. Democratizing data across your organization empowers your team with new ways of understanding their work, and it invites them to up-level their own data literacy skills — expertise that will only become more valuable in the future.
Setting the scene with data allows the whole team to think creatively and proactively to solve problems the organization may not even have considered in the past.
📊 What data to share: The focus of the discussion will dictate what insights are best to bring to staff meetings, but generally speaking, data that shows changing trends or untapped opportunities can be a great conversation starter. Other insights may fuel cross-departmental initiatives — such as efforts that combine marketing and community development experts to promote a new heritage trail.
🦸 Data hero pro tip: Equip your team with the training they need to confidently engage with data. The Zartico Academy (coming late September!) offers self-paced courses and certification tracks for anyone within the organization, from data beginners to experienced researchers.
4. Civic meetings
When you step into a local Rotary or Kiwanis club meeting, you’re surrounded by local residents who are also leaders within their workplaces and neighborhoods. These meetings are great opportunities for sharing the value of tourism — and they may be also be where you encounter misperceptions about the tourism industry and its impact on the community.
📊 What data to share: Visitor spending data is a powerful way to illustrate the positive impact of the visitor economy on local residents’ quality of life. Highlighting what visitors do and buy can also demonstrate how the visitor economy supports beloved local amenities such as music venues, parks, and restaurants.
🦸 Data hero pro tip: Not all data comes from a dashboard. Explore Asheville President & CEO Vic Isley likes to start her presentations by asking for a show of hands — Who in the room is an Asheville or Buncombe County native, and who was a visitor before they became a resident? Read more about how she dispels “anec-data” in her city.
5. Meetings with elected officials
Elected leaders at every level of government — city county, county commission, and state legislature — want to know how the visitor economy is shaping the lives of their constituents and supporting the broader economy in their district. Leading with this data frames your advocacy efforts in a way that works best for all players.
📊 What data to share: Focus on economic impact indicators such as jobs, offset taxes, and direct visitor spending. Humanize this data by shining a spotlight on important community assets such as the new baseball complex that welcomes traveling teams and also gives local athletes a place to enjoy the benefits of youth sports.
🦸 Data hero pro tip: Subscribers to our ZDOS™ Destination and State applications can add on a political district module that easily filters destination data by district so you can customize your insights to individual representatives.
6. Advertising agencies
Raise your hand if you’ve ever planned a multi-million dollar campaign based on a few hundred survey responses. (Yep, we’ve been there, too.) Now imagine the dream team that you and your agency could become with tens of thousands of data points at your fingertips.
Powerful destination data not only lays the foundation for success, but also measures real, in-market results of your agency’s efforts.
📊 What data to share: Use origin market data — at the metro, county, or city level — to target the visitors who bring the greatest value to your destination. Then use the same filters in post-campaign analysis to determine whether your efforts generated a lift in visitation or spending. Optimize digital campaigns by aligning website analytics with visitation trends to understand planning windows and content engagement.
🦸 Data hero pro tip: Zartico’s Market Index and Website Contribution insights combine multiple data streams to reveal trends in visitation, spend, and online engagement — a synergy that supercharges marketing effectiveness.
Data has a place in every destination conversation
Destination insights — especially those derived from robust geolocation, spending, and event data streams — have the power to transform a routine meeting or compulsory conversation into an opportunity for connection and collaboration.
Setting the stage with an objective perspective opens up space for new possibilities. And it demonstrates to everyone involved that you, as the destination leader, have a solid understanding of what’s happening within the community and the visitor economy.
Have you ever used data to make a splash at a destination meeting? Tell us about it! Tag us on LinkedIn and share your data impact story.
