Facility location using GIS enriched demographic and lifestyle data for a traveling entertainment troupe in Bavaria, Germany

This paper presents the development and subsequent application of a facility location methodology for selecting good show locations for a traveling entertainment troupe in Bavaria, Germany. The troupe is headquartered at a theater in Munich and wishes to expand its audience by offering traveling shows to select sites across Bavaria. A spatial analysis of the region is completed via classic location theory modeling techniques, leading to the development of a multi-criteria facility location approach for application. Additionally, we use location analytics techniques on demographic and consumer spending data extracted from the Business Analyst Web App (BAWA) system for each of the 95 districts in Bavaria. This data is integrated into a decision support system to weight consumer demand values with district lifestyle population patterns aggregated at the postal code level. Lifestyle-weighted demand is then used to identify locations that maximize the amount of customers within a given travel distance to a show while maintaining dispersion of selected facilities.