Data Strategyat Destination Canada

Yue (Tina) Qian

September 20th, 2019

DC’s markets cover 89% of all arrivalsWhere Destination Canada Markets

My Background

Tina Qian

• Data Scientist at Destination

Canada

• Master of Data Science, UBC

What We Will Talk about Today

Our Issues Our FutureOur Strategy

Our Issues Our Strategy

Data Governance Issues

Data Accessibility

No Single Version of Truth

Folder

Folder Folder

Folder

Data

Data

Our Solution: Improve Data Governance

Data Files

Database

?

Improved Accessibility

Single Version of Truth

Better Data Quality

Data Files

Folder Folder

Efficiency Issues: Non-Transferable Work

Provincial Level• Monthly Data from 2008:

138 Excel Files or PDF Files

• Provinces:

6 Provinces in ‘Month East’

6 Provinces in ‘Month West’

Total: 138 x 12=1656 cells --> 4 hours

In St John’s?

Compression of Hotels

Our Solution: Data Transformation

Data Files

Database

Data

Transformation

Human Readable

Machine Readable

Efficiency Issues: Repetitive Processes

• Monthly Data Transformation

• Monthly Report

• Dashboards Updated Monthly & Quarterly

Our Solution: Automation

API Data Files

Database

Data

Transformation

Analysis

Automated Process

Reports

Data Pipeline

Dashboards

Data Pipeline

Python

Data Pipeline – Faster Reporting

7 Sources

17 Tables10 Streams 35 Tables

Used to Take:

1 Day

Now with Pipeline:

< 1 Minute

Making Research Relevant: Answering the Important Questions

Our Problem is Silos between Marketing and Research

Marketing Data

Survey Data

Arrivals

Spend

Hotel Rate

Flight

Survey

Research

MarketingMore Insights about

How Marketing

Influence Arrivals

Proof of Concept

1. Increased Exposure?

2. More Arrivals to Canada?

3. More Arrivals to Québec City?

4. Due to Marketing?

5. How Much More?

Questions Data Answers

Marketing Data from SK

Frontier Count Data from

Statistics Canada

Spend Data

Flight Booking Data

Survey Data from

Statistics Canada

Drama-Mentioned Québec City

Contents Got More Likes

20% More Overnight Arrivals to

Canada in 2017

246% More Spend on Hotel & Food

in Québec City in 2017

Booking Much More in Advance

Marketing Drove Up to 200% More

SK Tourists to Québec City and

29% More Tourists to Canada

during April-October in 2017

How Multi-Source Data Analysis Quantified the Influence of South

Korean Drama on Arrivals to Québec City

The Amount of Arrivals Driven by the Drama and Our Marketing

• Drama and the Marketing Only Influenced Arrivals for Pleasure during Tourist Season

(April-October)

• Other Factors That Contributed to More Arrivals for Pleasure Influenced All Places in

Canada Evenly

• Spend on Food & Hotel Reflected the Number of Arrivals and Spend Per Person Did

Not Vary among Places in Canada

Assumptions:

Calculations:

• In Québec City, Spend Data Is Used to Estimate the Incremental Increase Rate of

Arrivals Due to the Drama and Our Marketing Strategy

• In Canada, Spend Data, Survey Data and Frontier Count Data Together Is Used in the

Calculation

Our Future

Destination Canada’s Next Steps

1. Empower Staff:

Minimize Coding

Training

2. Keep Improving Data Governance:

At Destination Canada:

o All Data into Database

o Staff in Charge of Their Own Data

What This Could Mean for Our Partners

Access to Our Transformed Data Tables

-> Do Your Own Analysis

Real Time Data Access

-> Updated as We Update Our Data

Row Level Security

-> Your Data Can Be Uploaded, but Will Be Seen Only by You

Advanced BI Tools

-> An Extended License for Partners to Access

Q & A

Questions?

Thank you Merci