Application of business intelligence in the tourism industry: A case study of a local food festival in Thailand

Local festivals and special events are known to have a great impact on the local community, society, economy, and culture. Massive data about products tourists purchase, services they experience, destination choices they evaluate, and accommodations they select at the events can be captured, but the key question is how to translate such data into meaningful information so that event organizers understand the behavior of tourists in order to increase their satisfaction and boost revenues and profits. This study outlines a way to integrate a business intelligence framework to manage and turn data into insights for festival tourism. This framework combines the architecture of database management, business analytics, business performance management, and data visualization to guide the analyst in drawing knowledge from the visitor data. A case study from a local festival in Thailand is conducted to demonstrate the practical validity of the proposed business intelligence framework.