Data

Fáilte Ireland plans to use mobile data to gather information on tourists’ movements

Tourism agency also wants to gather statistics on the Irish people leaving to holiday abroad through ‘strictly’ anonymised phone data

The move to collect anonymised phone data comes after regular surveys carried out on tourism by the Central Statistics Office (CSO) were halted by the pandemic. Picture: Getty

Fáilte Ireland is considering a plan to use overseas tourists’ mobile phone data to build a database on their movements in Ireland, as well as how long they stay here.

Tender documents filed by the state’s tourism agency shows it is assessing the potential to use “anonymised mobile phone data” as part of an attempt to build new data sources on people coming and going from Ireland.

It is seeking an operator who can identify ...