Research and Intelligence

Research and Intelligence

“This is dynamite” said Andrew Dixon, Chief Executive of Newcastle Gateshead Initiative when introducing a presentation I gave on the visitor survey we conducted for North East England.

At Tourism UK we provide intelligence, and whilst we are happy that this is sometimes confused with the notion that we are intelligent, mostly what we do is ask other people questions and interpret their answers. I suppose having done it so many times does mean that we know what to ask, who to ask, how to ask it, how to interpret the results and how to decide what type of research approach will get you the answer you are looking for.

We think the key to market research is not only to be clear at the start on what it is you want to know, but also why you want to know it. To discover that Hungarian visitors, staying in self catering accommodation, who are aged under 45 and who are on their first visit to your area, spent 10% less on food and drink and 10% more on accommodation than the same visitors from Poland might be very interesting, but what are you going to do with such an astounding piece of information (no suggestions required thanks!)

At Tourism UK we work with our clients to establish what they need to know and what they are going to do with it when they find out the answer. Then we can advise on the best method of getting the answer and can deliver the solution pragmatically. Sometimes our clients know exactly what they want from the research, sometimes they want another perspective.