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Research and development (R&D) are fundamental to our operations at ForwardKeys and play a crucial role in our ability to innovate within and beyond the global air travel data market  to respond to evolving customer needs.

We are currently involved in active or recently completed projects across three distinct technological domains, each with a unique focus and purpose.

Data Space for Tourism

The Data Space for Tourism (DSFT) project, completed in October 2023, was an initiative funded under the Digital Europe Programme to provide guidelines to the European Commission for the DSFT's future implementation. This project, crucial to the European Strategy for Data, aligned with the Data Governance Act's goals of fostering data sharing trust, increasing data availability, and simplifying data reuse.

Coordinated by ForwardKeys and including Modul University, City Destinations Alliance, and the European Travel Commission, the DSFT project focused on creating a transparent, interconnected, and interoperable data ecosystem for the tourism industry.

Its achievements included developing a comprehensive tourism data inventory, engaging stakeholders to co-design potential governance models, producing a technical report for DSFT's design, and creating a strategic blueprint for its deployment.

GEOTURISTA

The GEOTURISTA project, ongoing under the "Ultima Milla" initiative by SEGITTUR, runs from June 2023 to November 2024. Coordinated by ForwardKeys, with EVENTS and EURECAT as partners, it aims to extend the understanding of travellers' impacts on destinations, specifically around large-scale events.

The project involves scientific-technical analysis to segment tourists based on their profiles, entry points, and activities, using geolocated data from mobile apps and telecom operators. This will enable more sophisticated segmentation and characterization of visitors, assisting tourism businesses in making informed decisions.

Total Air Traveler Forecasting Models

The Total Air Traveler Forecasting Models Enhancement project, funded by the EOI Activa Startup regional program, is a collaboration between ForwardKeys and startup DeepSense running from June to December 2023.

The main aim is to enhance our Total Air Market (TAM) algorithm, which estimates the total number of travellers moving between any pair of airports globally, along with the characteristics of their trips, such as duration, origin, and booking time. The need for this algorithm arises from the absence of a comprehensive dataset encompassing all airline tickets worldwide.

The project addresses the challenges in data accuracy in the post-pandemic context, aiming to develop a methodology to predict official statistics and enhance the algorithm's reliability.

Looking ahead

As we close out another successful year for innovation at ForwardKeys, we have two core areas of focus on the horizon for 2024. Firstly, more in-depth analysis of the social, economic and environmental impact of tourism on destinations, and secondly, achieving more accurate forecasting of key indicators such as tourist activities, behaviour and spending during their stay.

These two strands form part of our overall “Beyond the Airport” strategy — deepening our understanding of visitor impact and helping DMOs and related organisations to develop a holistic view of the effects of tourism activities on their destinations. We look forward to sharing more detail on these areas of innovation in due course.