Pacific Tourism Organisation and Trove Tourism Advisors Introduce Innovative Digital Platform to Drive Sustainable Tourism across Pacific Islands

The Pacific Tourism Organisation (SPTO) is currently working with Trove Tourism Development Advisors to develop the Digital Measurement and Benchmarking Platform (DMBP) which contains Sustainable and Digital Marketing Indicators. This activity is funded by the New Zealand Government under the Pacific Digital Tourism Transformation Project (Phase 2). The DMBP is an innovative tool that facilitates data collection, analysis, and reporting in real-time.

Earlier this month the online virtual training DMBP Training was conducted by SPTO Lead Digital Specialist Danny Cohanpour and Shubham Kathuria from Trove Tourism Development Advisors and attended by SPTO staff including Prashil Parkas, Kiniviliame Raicebe, Shayneel Narayan, Tarusila Ratuvakalevulevu, Catherine Mara and John Rosa.

Set to launch in November 2024, the purpose of the training was to familiarize the SPTO team with the features of Power BI including the Frontend (User Interface and Visualization) and the Backend (Data Management and Processing). Power BI is a business analytics tool developed by Microsoft that enables users to connect to various data sources, transform data, and create interactive reports and dashboards.

The DMBP will be launched on 13^th November 2024. It enables tourism stakeholders to gather valuable insights into tourist behavior, resource utilization, and destination performance, thereby supporting informed decision-making and policy formulation. Through its user-friendly interface and customizable features, the DMBP empowers destinations to influence data-driven strategies for enhancing sustainability and competitiveness in the global tourism market.

The DMBP are a set of measurable metrics, including environmental, social, economic, and digital marketing indicators, designed to monitor and assess the overall impact of tourism across Pacific Island nations, promoting sustainable and responsible development in the region.

SPTO Chief Executive Officer Christopher Cocker mentioned that the training ensures that SPTO staff are well-equipped to maintain the dashboard independently.

“The dashboard simplifies data reporting through visualizations, making complex information more accessible and engaging. Displaying sustainable indicators in an online dashboard allows for real-time monitoring and decision-making, helping National Tourism Offices and Tourism Organizations in the Pacific Region to track progress and identify areas for improvement, “Mr Cocker said.

Later this year, national tourism organisations (NTOs) across the Pacific will get a demo and training of the platform, specifically around how they can use the platform to visualize their marketing, sustainability and statistics data and benchmark their performance against the region.