D2 - Digital Demand ©, results may surprise you

The first source of results we will look at is the comparative volume of searches for a place and its benchmarks by dimension. We can conclude whether a place is more or less relevant by the sheer mass of searches within each area of focus. How so? If a place has in its mind that it is well-known for its tourism offer, stakeholders may be overestimating its competitiveness in terms of real demand. Search volume would determine whether competitors are doing better in terms of actual interest and engagement and how they are perceived. International perceptions could confirm that global markets think highly of a place. Still, search volume analysis will show whether the global community is proactively interested, or in other words, putting their search where their mouth is.

We would be hard-pressed to say that the average traveller planning their vacation doesn’t begin with, or at least eventually, search for their desired destination to optimise their experience once on the ground. To top it off, those who receive the most searches have a greater search to execution ratio, whether it be hotel booking, study abroad program, or business investment.

The power of search results by brandtags can tell us which areas of focus are performing most proportionately in terms of digital appeal and the reality of the offer. In other words, are people searching for relevant information and is the content being shown relevant to the place. Brandtags work as determinants in what people search for by country, region, or city, while digital supply assesses the content displayed.

In looking at a specific geographic location, parallels can be drawn between demographic and psychographic factors and their corresponding brandtag searches by volume, more greatly elaborated in the upcoming section. What is really of interest to whom? Places depend on relevant information being found when searched online. For example, when searching for “live in Frankfurt” on Google, the Google search results were as follows (see the print screen below). The influence which provoked this search could have come from countless sources. The demand, however, led to finding these results (supply), which now have the power to determine whether this individual decides to pursue a life in Frankfurt.

Within the dimension of talent, it is vital to understand whether there is a skills gap going unaddressed and is thus affecting the appeal for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and impacting tourism development opportunities. The economic gain in understanding who is searching for what may be the key to unlocking a wealth of untapped domestic potential from neighbourhoods to the national level. Likewise, gathering data that highlights international searches for your place is a tool of measurement in gauging whether actions, activities, or policies are taking hold in the minds of global citizens and sparking a real interest in your country, region, or city.

D2 – Digital Demand © software breaks down the effects of seasonality in global searches for individual dimensions. At any given time, this tool effectively sheds light on monthly trends such as tourism planning periods and annual growth rates of talent attraction. Trend behaviour is deduced when organic searches occur. In other words, there is no one-off event driving results and skewing data. Reading into consumer behaviour, we can see when considerations for purchases are being made precisely during the year. Similarly, this speaks to investment search periods that may not follow such an easily anticipated annual pattern but show growth (or decline) nonetheless.

COVID-19 waved goodbye to most trending behaviours projected for 2020. We have seen in certain cases; however, the dimensions of tourism and talent have nearly fallen off the chart in terms of searches around March and April, but another story could be told for investment. While investment patterns are often more erratic, the spontaneity in this year’s trend was that search volume was only slightly affected, if at all (search results are limited to specific countries, regions, or cities and not a global average). Reckoning the possibility that this phenomenon has anything to do with the seamlessness of online services offered by a country, region, or city for FDI, we’d venture to say that there are models available in the global market which other place leaders would benefit from to maintain the inflow of investment during restrictive times.