Data was at the core of this idea. Firstly we used a constant data flux of live locations of everyone (owning a phone) in Brussels. Which was recalculated into real-time moving hotspots with different color density. Until then, this data was only used to make statistical reports on public events for security reasons. We used this raw live data for the first time (in bèta version) to map out live locations. We were able to separate locals from tourists based on their phone numbers. The raw data was recalculated into liquid colored shapes.

Visit.brussels, Brussels’ Tourist Board, has been working relentlessly to restore Brussels’ international reputation as a worthy city-trip destination. Numbers have been rising steadily over the past years. However, Brussels generally isn’t deemed a worthy Summer destination, nor do many people consider it worthy of visiting as much as neighboring cities like Paris or Amsterdam. Tourists that do find their way to Brussels, often end up at the same cliché tourist spots, as proven on social media.

The objective was to inspire the next generation of millennial tourists and to convince them of the fact that Brussels is much more than what they often think it is. We had to raise consideration for Brussels as a Summer destination, through content and engagement on social networks. The primary target was to get 10M visitors to Brussels by 2020 and to raise the amount of visitors in August (2018: 69% occupation of hotels).

In collaboration with Belgium’s biggest telco provider Proximus, we created the first ever real-time city guide. Innovative in its kind as we used a custom algorithm that recalculates the density of people within certain zones to create live hotspots, that shows where the tourists are, and compares it to where the locals are hanging out. It continuously generates up-to-date lists per category (eat – drink – do), within the trending zones of interest, enabling tourists to finally capture the essence and flow of the city.

Hotspots led to locations, which showed up when zooming into those areas. These locations were detailed as we developed a custom CMS to handle and curate API’s from Google, Foursquare and others. We used the live location data at their side, to show how popular those places were, meaning we combined both datasets: user location data and venue and event data.

We worked with telco provider Proximus to track each phone in Brussels. That way we ensured we’d have 99% of correct data to display real live activity.

But we not only tracked live locations of people, we developed a complete database with all information on places in Brussels like bars, restaurants, musea,.. We therefore used several API’s like Google MyBusiness, Facebook Places and the API of Brussels. This data was sorted by different custom made filters and was ran through our own algorithm displaying the best, trending and closeby locations.

This worked partly based on a ranking system, e.g when a location had many reviews it got ranked higher. Places that were hot were as well scored positively by the editorial team (of locals themselves). And for a location further away to show up, it needed to rank high in the general ranking, which included what was trending.

To provide tourists with a local experience we let them follow the locals. To make this possible we used the live mobile phone location data. Until then, this data was only used to make statistical reports on public events for security reasons. We used this raw live data for the first time (in bèta version) to map out live locations. We were able to separate locals from tourists based on their phone numbers. The raw data was recalculated into liquid colored shapes.

Hotspots led to locations, which only showed up when zooming into those areas. These locations were detailed as we developed a custom CMS to handle and curate API’s from Google, Foursquare and others. We used the live location data at their side to show how popular those places were. Meaning we combined both datasets: user location data and venue and event data.

We noticed a stark increase in overnight bookings on Airbnb, proving that we attracted more millennial tourists. It also proved that our insight about millennials is right: they are always on the look for ways to ‘live’ a city like a local, more so than to visit it like a tourist.

Global reach: 6.2M

Total impressions: 62.5M

+200K platform visits in 175 countries.

CPC Google: 0.13€

CPC Facebook: 0.97€

+7,5% more visitors to all Summer events in Brussels compared to 2018.

Hotel occupation in July 2019: 78,3% (vs. 76% in 2018)

Hotel occupation in August 2019: 67% (vs. 69% in 2018) – HOWEVER:

+18% more nights booked on Airbnb* in July 2019, compared to 2018.

+22% more nights booked on Airbnb* in August 2019, compared to 2018.

Number of overnight visitors in 2019: 9.4M (7% increase vs. 2018)

*The millennial way to visit a city.