• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
The Data Lab

The Data Lab

Pruple button with the word menu
  • Business Support
        • Business Support

          We’ll help you harness the power of data so you can innovate and grow your business.

          Visit our Business Support page

        • Accessing Talent
          • Data Talent
          • Placements
        • Funding
        • Small Business Support
        • Digital Strategy
        • Academic Project Funding
        • The Data Lab Community
  • Professional Development
        • Professional Development

          We’ll help you harness the power of data so you can innovate at work and also advance your career.

          Visit our Professional Development page

        • Workshops
        • Online Courses
        • Data Skills for Work Programme
        • The Data Lab Community
  • Students
        • Students

          We’ll help you learn about the power of data and gain real-world experience and career-focused qualifications.

          Visit our Students page

        • The Data Lab Academy
        • PhD
        • TDL Academy Placements
        • Scholarships
        • The Data Lab Community
  • Partner With Us
        • Partner With Us

          We work in partnership with companies to help them gain maximum benefit from the strategic use of data.

          Visit our Partner With Us page

        • Collaborate With Specialists
        • Partnerships
  • About Us
        • About Us

          We discover opportunities, connect people and ideas, develop knowledge and expertise and bring game-changing data projects to fruition.

          About Us

        • Our Team
        • Careers With Us
        • Academic Opportunities
        • The Data Lab Community
        • Case Studies
        • News & Podcasts
        • DataFest
        • Scottish AI Alliance
        • Contact us

Edinburgh Tourism Innovation Challenge Boosts Edinburgh Tourism Industry Through Collaboration

Community & Events, News, Support to innovate 04/07/2017

Over 120 attendees gathered for the first stage of The Edinburgh Tourism Innovation Challenge (ETIC), which culminated on the 8th October. The event was the first of three stages in the Edinburgh Tourism Innovation Challenge, whose aim is to connect Edinburgh’s tourism and tech sectors.

The challenge weekend, run by The Data Lab and Product Forge, and sponsored by IntechnologyWifi and Scottish Enterprise, brought together data and tourism enthusiasts to form 16 teams, with an overall aim to solve challenges in Edinburgh’s tourism industry with data-driven solutions.

The teams focussed their energy on creating projects with key objectives such as predicting visitor patterns, modelling movement and flow of people around the city and helping discovery of new or under-utilised tourism spots.

The winning idea was from Team Budi, made up of Jack Horsburgh, Zsolt Husz, Erin Roche and Sean Paterson. Team Budi utilised IntechnologyWifi and Historic Environment Scotland data to create TruScot “ a mobile app, designed to incentivise visitors with points and discounts to visit tourist attractions outside the usual tourist hotspots.

Runners up included Team T, who created a platform making visitor data accessible to local businesses to help them make data-driven decisions. Fellow runners up, Team Geyser built an online dashboard that analysed visitor data and presented this in a way that was quickly understandable for local businesses. The A Team used beacon technology to send push notifications to mobile devices to spread visitors out.

These ideas will be showcased at the upcoming ETAG Digital Solutions for Tourism Conference on 26th October 2017.

Graphic Facilitator Clare Mills from ListenThinkDraw created this beautiful live illustration during the teams’ pitches:

The next stage of #ETIC17 is the launch of the £15,000 Innovation Fund, sponsored by ETAG. Teams are encouraged to apply for funding to help develop data-driven solutions for Edinburgh’s Tourism Industry. The Innovation Fund will award five projects up to £3,000 each.

ETIC will culminate during DataFest18, in Spring 2018, where the developed and prototyped ideas funded will be presented during a DataFest18 Fringe event.

Watch a summary of the weekend event:

Joshua Ryan-Saha, Skills Manager at The Data Lab said: “What is great about this initiative is not just the collaboration across different sectors but the focus on identifying key challenges affecting tourism in Edinburgh and then actively finding innovative ways to address them. It will be good to see how these ideas are taken forward.”

Danny Cusick, Director of Tourism, Textiles and Food & Drink at Scottish Enterprise said: “The Edinburgh Tourism Innovation Challenge has produced a strong field of excellent concepts. Tourism and data innovation are two of Edinburgh, and Scotland’s, most dynamic industries. This was recently recognised by the Open Data Institute’s new UK Tech Innovation Index which named Edinburgh as the most active tech innovation community outside of London.”

Natalie Duffield, CEO at IntechnologyWifi added, “I’m delighted to see collaborations between tourism and data innovation businesses progress this weekend. We look forward to supporting these teams to develop their innovative ideas and connect them to potential commercial buyers from across the visitor economy to enable new tourism growth opportunities. We have been very impressed with the quality of ideas brought forward by the teams over the weekend, some of which could be successfully developed into commercial applications of great potential. We were also inspired by watching talented and ambitious individuals from all over the world come together at ETIC17 and try to solve problems for the good of Edinburgh. As the city’s digital partner, our WiFi network can provide the platform for their innovations to support the sustainable growth of the tourism industry.”

Data represents a £20 billion transformational opportunity for Scotland’s economy as businesses understand and harness the massive benefits of data-driven innovation. It is estimated that Scotland’s strengths in data could attract an additional 1500 new jobs by 2020.

Innovate • Support • Grow • Respect

Get in touch

t: +44 (0) 131 651 4905

info@thedatalab.com

Follow us on social

  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • TikTok

The Data Lab is part of the University of Edinburgh, a charitable body registered in Scotland with registration number SC005336.

  • Website Accessibility
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms & Conditions

© 2023 The Data Lab

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsReject AllAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-advertisement1 yearSet by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin, this cookie is used to record the user consent for the cookies in the "Advertisement" category .
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
CookieLawInfoConsent1 yearRecords the default button state of the corresponding category & the status of CCPA. It works only in coordination with the primary cookie.
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
CookieDurationDescription
_ga2 yearsThe _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report. The cookie stores information anonymously and assigns a randomly generated number to recognize unique visitors.
_ga_DPXX4XJSJ82 yearsThis cookie is installed by Google Analytics.
_gat_gtag_UA_54851888_11 minuteSet by Google to distinguish users.
_gat_UA-54851888-11 minuteA variation of the _gat cookie set by Google Analytics and Google Tag Manager to allow website owners to track visitor behaviour and measure site performance. The pattern element in the name contains the unique identity number of the account or website it relates to.
_gcl_au3 monthsProvided by Google Tag Manager to experiment advertisement efficiency of websites using their services.
_gid1 dayInstalled by Google Analytics, _gid cookie stores information on how visitors use a website, while also creating an analytics report of the website's performance. Some of the data that are collected include the number of visitors, their source, and the pages they visit anonymously.
CONSENT2 yearsYouTube sets this cookie via embedded youtube-videos and registers anonymous statistical data.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
CookieDurationDescription
personalization_id2 yearsTwitter sets this cookie to integrate and share features for social media and also store information about how the user uses the website, for tracking and targeting.
VISITOR_INFO1_LIVE5 months 27 daysA cookie set by YouTube to measure bandwidth that determines whether the user gets the new or old player interface.
YSCsessionYSC cookie is set by Youtube and is used to track the views of embedded videos on Youtube pages.
yt-remote-connected-devicesneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
yt-remote-device-idneverYouTube sets this cookie to store the video preferences of the user using embedded YouTube video.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
CookieDurationDescription
cl-bypass-cache1 hourNo description
muc_ads2 yearsNo description
SAVE & ACCEPT
Powered by CookieYes Logo