Place Informatics, the leading provider of footfall and location visitor behaviour data monitoring in the UK, has recently expanded its services and is now helping councils, businesses and planners understand how organised events such as Festivals, Christmas Lights and Markets, Firework Displays and even retail promotions are impacting their communities and boosting local businesses.

Local councils across the UK often have a limited budget to manage a number of key events throughout the year. These events are designed to bring the community together and also to attract new visitors from further afield to the local area to help promote, support and increase trade for local businesses. Visitor data is vital for the marketing teams at councils to understand how successful these events have been by providing post-event analysis showing not only visitor numbers but also hotspots for visitors at the event and what catchment areas they have travelled from.

These insights can also help councils plan for potential new events by reviewing historic events or comparative ones in other towns across the UK to see how many visitors attended, where they travelled from and how they behaved at the event. This data also shows what facilities were used such as bus station and train station usage, parking, retail, hospitality and even if the visitors stayed overnight. This can help council teams inform commercial traders and businesses located on expected visitor numbers allowing them to plan out staffing and stock requirements.

Examples of how this data has been used include adding additional services, hospitality outlets and other facilities at events to attract specific types of visitors, according to the social demographic profile of the location and increase footfall further. As the data shows the flow of visitors, targeted adverts and signage have been used to help direct consumers to town centres and other local attractions after the event.

Place Informatics helps organisations understand where their visitors come from, where they visit whilst in the area and how they interact and behave in any location. By using mobile GPS data, Place Informatics is able to provide actionable insights which help support and enable decision making – to assist in health and safety, conservation, events, marketing and proving return on investment for economic regeneration projects.

Clive Hall, CEO of Place Informatics, commented, “Local events are vital for many communities and if planned well can offer a huge economic boost to businesses and services. Our data has helped councils across the UK successfully plan all types of events ensuring they have the right infrastructure and services in place to minimise any negative impact on the community whilst maximising footfall and boosting as many local businesses as possible.

We offer local councils and businesses detailed insights to show how visitors are behaving on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis and also provide reporting to assess the performance of regular or special events. We can also provide details of the postcode area that visitors have travelled from, giving valuable information needed to make informed choices and maximise the return from these.”