Why hyperlocal is the new global for the travel industry

Our digital experiences are altered by layers of data; we are tracked via GPS, monitored through our click trail, spending habits and site behaviors. Anyone who’s ever planned a trip knows this. As you gather and assemble data, travel sites begin learning more about your intentions — the location, who is traveling and budget all work to curate the perfect experience. 

This data can help you make informed, better decisions. A museum may be recommended, or a popular brunch spot; recommendations to improve our experiences. When the recommendations reflect an authentic understanding of neighborhoods and what they offer, we call them “hyperlocal.”

If we want a personal, truly meaningful connection with the places we travel to, we need to zoom in on the microdata that builds a digital footprint. It creates the opportunity to go global, efficiently. It affects every part of the ecosystem by making even the most curated nuances entirely scalable. This capability holds the key to peak customer satisfaction.

We willingly submit our data everyday, allowing our lives to be driven by an algorithm. This data then not only feeds our decisions, but also feeds others’ planning a similar stay. After all, the next four-person family has different needs and interests that the algorithm didn’t consider. This data is often limited to metropolitan areas, without much option to narrow it down to suburbs, or even better, the unique and intricate neighborhoods that make up the city’s social infrastructure.

Hyperlocalization: The human experience

Neighborhoods are inherently intimate. By proximity alone, groups of people can collectively experience the same defining moments and culture, and create similar memories. These intricate, layered systems are always evolving and growing, creating a richer backlog of information on the smallest, most invisible of barriers.

It is not always easy though, to discover these experiences. When we book a hotel, we are told about its basic offerings. We do not often have an in-house concierge to plan our excursions, introduce us to local experiences, or examine the safety of our location. Technology that is inspired by hyperlocal data can play a central role in emotionally-resonant personalization.

Two blocks can be the difference between office buildings and authentic restaurants and two more can be somewhere that locals would advise you to avoid. A simple search engine may not be able to tell the difference. What can? Leveraging data that zooms in closer can help with a safer decision or route.

We are living in a pivotal time when artificial intelligence plays a large role in not only technology, but every day discussion and decisions. But this pool of information is only beneficial when it is informed by the human experience. Especially when it comes to information on well-being and accessibility, hyperlocal data must be dynamic. That is where AI fails to act alone.

Technology is a necessary component in how we report and analyze safety at the hyperlocal level — working in tandem with the residents and visitors experiencing their neighborhoods — yet it can never fully replace the human experience. The fabricated consciousness behind ChatGPT cannot independently roam and report on our neighborhoods. AI relies on the input of human knowledge.

Hotels should consider what data-led, human-informed hyperlocal insights can do for them as providers. Real-time safety data is invaluable for everything from concierge recommendations to your pricing models and elasticity. Although our data is collected every time we skim the terms and conditions, or jump to accept cookies, the results we get from our searches are generalized. Our data has done enough to zoom out and expand our borders, but now it must turn inwards, to bring us a richer, safer experience. 

Tech’s role in hyperlocal: To empower and to limit

Technology has made accessing information and communicating easier than ever before, including our neighborhood and its community. Through apps like Nextdoor and Ring Community, we can get a collection of anecdotal experiences and collaborate together to meet individual needs. However, these forums can be biased; they also exclude the experiences of those who do not live in the neighborhood.

What’s more, accurate, hyperlocal data does not just end at regular updates. Location-based data, feedback loops, self-reporting, and multiple sources are required to inform well-rounded decisions. If all this information can be gathered and easily accessible, pinpointing exact locations that cater to specific needs, the hard work is done for us.

Hyperlocal data must also be dynamic — in the same way Google Maps accesses our location in the moment, so too must our safety data. Wherever we go — and whenever we require it — we need access to information regarding unsafe water, illness outbreaks or after-dark neighborhood experiences. This information exists — it is how safety scores have been created for years — but few have granular access to it.

We have reached a point where empowered, measured and safe self-reporting is possible. Through cell phones, wearables and other devices, we can identify a degree of hyperlocality as close as two or three blocks. We’re capable of calculating safety at minute distances, informing all stakeholders and individual travelers with ultra-refined, location-specific data. Hotels, rentals, ride shares and all tourism alike can harness this power. 

By delivering hyperlocal data we can unlock untapped potential for changing how tourism works on a digital level. With support from the tourism industry and its counterparts, these safety features can incentivize more travelers to explore beyond the closest coffeeshop, encouraging broader economic prosperity.

By empowering locals and tourists alike to report real-time safety issues on a block-by-block basis, we are able to immediately measure the trends and capture safety progress to appropriately score and inform the community at-large. In conjunction with neighborhood statistics, hyperlocality can include qualitative and quantitative data to remain fluid and not static.

Hyperlocalized data creates the personalization that reflects our appetite or unique experience and embraces a traveler’s individuality, while keeping them safe in foreign places. When we zoom out on this collaborative data, we are able to see a more holistic view of our cities — demonstrating the reciprocal power of hyperlocal information.

The beauty in technology is that what we put in can be exceeded by what we get out. The power of travel is the power of hyperlocal.