POI Visitation Data

What is POI Visitation Data?

Point of Interest (POI) visitation data is information all about the number of visitors to a POI. This could be anything from an everyday location, such as shops, parks, churches or tourists attractions, to more unique places, like monuments or specific natural landmarks. These datasets can also tell you more detailed visitor information, for example how many people came to visit over a specific period of time and how long they stayed for.

How is POI Visitation Data collected?

There are 2 main ways of collecting POI visitation data:
On-site data collection - visitation data can be collected on-site by measuring how many people pass through manually or recording numerical values, say the number of cars parked at the location. This method is fairly accurate and comprehensive because it comes from first-hand experience but it is also less efficient because it takes a long time to collect and process, and is often more costly.
Geolocation data - another source of POI visitation data is by using geolocation data. This can track how many people are in one area at a certain time by counting the signals received from devices in the area using beacons. It’s frequently updated and cheap to carry out once beacons are installed, but can be a less accurate data source, because geolocating is not always spot-on.

What are the attributes of POI Visitation Data?

Primarily, POI visitation data will include information about the POI (eg. location or coordinates, name, function). Most importantly, it will tell you visitation information - this could be how many visitors came over a certain period as well as more detailed information such as vistor demographics and even personal details if these were collected.
This information should be regularly updated to reflect real-time visitation rates, but historical data can also be very useful to see visitation information over a historical period of time.

What is POI Visitation Data used for?

Public institutions and private companies use POI visitation data to learn more detailed information about different locations and the people who visit. This allows them to improve their visitors’ experience of the location.
Some organizations use POI visitation data to study the public’s behavioral trends, while businesses can use this data to track their in-store progress and compare it to competitors.
Local governments can also use POI visitation data to evaluate the popularity of public places and monuments and assess their performance.

How can a user assess the quality of POI Visitation Data?

The best POI visitation datasets will provide real-time or regularly updated visitation data so you can have the most comprehensive overview of different POIs’ visitation performance. Historical visitation records are also often very useful as you can see trends in the public’s behavior and use this effectively. Always make sure to read the data provider’s reviews before buying any POI visitation data, and you should ask for a data sample before you purchase to ensure that their data is the right fit for your needs.