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The HKUST Business School has unveiled a groundbreaking initiative in collaboration with a Hong Kong-based information provider aimed at catalysing Hong Kong’s tourism resurgence through advanced technology. This innovative project leverages the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to usher in a new era of predictive insights for the tourism industry.
Spearheaded by the School’s Center for Business and Social Analytics (CBSA) and the company’s cutting-edge AI platform, the Tourism Index introduces an unprecedented approach to forecasting. By harnessing the capabilities of natural language processing and machine learning, the initiative meticulously analyses an extensive dataset of over 10 million data points sourced from social media, online travel platforms, and travel forums in Mainland China.
Traditionally, the tourism sector has grappled with delayed access to vital statistics, hindering effective business planning. The Tourism Index ingeniously bridges this gap by offering forward-looking projections for key tourism metrics, including overall sector outlook, arrivals of mainland visitors, hotel occupancy rates, and average daily hotel rates.
This real-time foresight, accessible to the public, unveils a clear glimpse into the near-term trajectory of the industry. The forecasts, which are updated monthly on the 10th, draw insights from historical tourism data and over 20 influential factors tied to travel, including sentiments and desires gleaned from online and social media discourse.
The Senior Associate Dean of HKUST Business School and Director of CBSA underscored the pivotal role of technology in this initiative. With nearly 80% of visitor arrivals attributed to mainland visitors, the revival of Hong Kong’s pandemic-affected travel sector hinges on data-driven strategies.
By seamlessly merging business acumen and technological prowess, the research team has devised forward-looking indices that illuminate immediate trends in essential tourism metrics. Professor HUI’s vision extends beyond the project’s impact on the tourism realm – it stands as a testament to the boundless potential of data analytics, championing the widespread integration of robust big data technologies throughout the business landscape and beyond.
The CEO of the tech company and Tech Advisor at CBSA elaborated on the process noting that by leveraging the tech company’s extensive database of Chinese media data and an automated data processing platform, the predictive model that powers the Tourism Index executes sophisticated analysis of expansive text data sourced from digital platforms frequently engaged by Chinese travellers. This method reveals the technological underpinnings steering shifts in Hong Kong’s tourism landscape.
The Adjunct Associate Professor at HKUST Business School and Technology Advisor of CBSA noted that tourism is a peak industry. To enhance the industry’s adaptability amid dynamic shifts, the Index engineered a series of predictive tourism indices. The Tourism Index pioneers the fusion of big data text analytics and tourism forecasting, transcending conventional surveys and circumventing the lag inherent in industry statistics.
The Chairman of the Hong Kong Hotels Association (HKHA) noted that the initiative is a stride in the tech-infused tourism panorama. It underscores the two parties’ commitment to innovation and harnessing advanced technology to generate vital tourism benchmarks, fuelling economic resurgence and tourism revitalisation.
HKHA recognises the value of precise and perceptive technology-driven tourism indicators, offering hotel operators data-powered insights for astute decision-making. The Association anticipates collaborative efforts with HKUST and the tech company, propelling sustainable tech-driven growth within Hong Kong’s hospitality sector and advancing the city’s smart city metamorphosis.
The Tourism Index encompasses the Composite Index alongside its three constituent indices: the Visitor Arrivals Index, the Hotel Occupancy Index, and the Hotel Average Daily Rate Index. These components amalgamate data-powered technology, with allocated weights of 50%, 25%, and 25%, respectively, to forecast Hong Kong’s tourism landscape.
