San Gimignano Tackles Day-Tripper Tourism with Data: +6% Bookings and +20% Average Rates

The Challenge

Overcoming Day-Tripper Tourism

Despite being one of Italy’s most famous historic towns, in 2022, over 90% of San Gimignano’s visitors arrived and left on the same day. This day-tripper tourism flow negatively impacted the city’s commercial and hospitality sectors.

Moreover, most arrivals were concentrated in the summer months, from May to September, leading to overcrowding without generating substantial economic benefits for the town.

The Tourism Consortium needed to understand and shape visitor behavior, targeting promising markets with campaigns focused on overnight stays. The goal was to leverage real-time insights and data to anticipate trends and develop effective strategies.

Why Choose Data Appeal?

The Perfect Tool to Analyze, Plan, and Measure 

San Gimignano found a key ally in D/AI Destinations, which enabled the town to monitor and utilize valuable information about accommodations, short-term rentals, events, and visitor behavior. 

The insights provided by Data Appeal’s destination marketing and management platform helped the town adopt a new data-driven approach. This included analyzing the current tourism landscape, planning targeted and effective actions, and measuring results to refine and improve strategies.  

The Solution

Targeting the Right Markets to Boost Overnight Stays and Measure Impact

Using D/AI Destinations, the municipality can better profile visitors, identify popular attractions, and monitor seasonality trends to:

• Design personalized marketing campaigns and offers tailored to visitor origin and peak travel times.
• Gather feedback through online reviews to understand strengths and weaknesses, sharing insights with local operators to enhance the visitor experience.
• Collaborate with accommodations to offer multi-day itineraries that encourage longer stays.
• Introduce new events aligned with tourist preferences to extend the season.
• Measure the real impact of each initiative on the destination and long-term goals, comparing current data with previous periods.

The Results

Increased Overnight Stays, Rates, and Seasonality

Thanks to its new data-driven marketing plan, San Gimignano achieved and exceeded its goals in under 12 months:

• Boost in direct bookings and average rates: Hotel bookings rose by 6%, and short-term rentals increased by 7%. Average prices on OTAs grew by 20%, while saturation rates decreased, coupled with a rise in direct bookings.
• Extended tourism season by three months: Bookings and visitor numbers now span from April to November, rather than the traditional May to September, showing increased activity year-round.
• Higher Seasonal Balance Index: This proprietary index measures the destination’s tourism stability across seasons. A 3-point increase reflects a more consistent flow of visitors throughout the year.