Within the framework of this exploratory project, carried out jointly with the Institute of Tourism of the HES-SO Valais and Cimark, the Icare Institute worked on the processing and analysis of data made available by the Magic Pass cooperative for the pilot resort of Vercorin.
While the Magic Pass has had many beneficial effects for the resorts, it has also had the consequence of modifying the type of clientele (origin, age, etc.) and their behaviour. In this context, it is more difficult for ski lifts and other resort actors to understand the expectations of guests and adapt their offers. The ambition of the project was to demonstrate that it is possible to develop a more detailed knowledge of the destination’s clientele thanks to a contextualised study of the data (smart data). The aim was to better target the actions to be taken and thus improve customer satisfaction.
After an initial phase of enriching raw historical data, Icare researchers experimented with automatic methods, using Machine Learning, to create typical customer profiles (clusters). On this basis, several visualisations were produced to offer easier analysis of key indicators and thus enable partners to benefit from them.
As the first studies proved to be relevant, the necessary interfaces for real-time analysis of the collected data were developed. These tools have been set up for use by the Vercorin ski lifts during the 2019-2020 winter season.
With the desire to go further in the creation of a “digitally integrated destination” in Vercorin, the experiences gained in this project should enable the scope to be extended in the future by integrating new sources into the data pool.
