Seasonal travel patterns influence industries like retail, real estate, and advertising. By leveraging geospatial data, businesses can make smarter decisions based on how people move throughout the year. Here's what you need to know:

• Why it matters: Seasonal insights help companies choose better locations, stock inventory based on demand, and target ads effectively.
• Key data types: Foot traffic data, Points of Interest (POI) data, and movement patterns are essential for understanding travel behavior.
• Steps to analyze:
  
  1. Gather accurate geospatial data.
  2. Identify seasonal trends and anomalies.
  3. Measure impacts on key metrics.
  4. Develop actionable strategies.

Quick overview

Using tools like heat maps, time-series charts, and dashboards, you can visualize trends and create strategies to improve operations and ROI. 

To start, choose a reliable data provider who can deliver clean, insight-ready datasets. Then, segment that data by season to uncover actionable patterns. Use these insights to adjust inventory, refine marketing, and optimize location strategies.

Mastering maps with geospatial data

The right geospatial data is essential for effectively analyzing seasonal travel patterns. This involves identifying and securing specific data types that provide insights into seasonal travel behavior.

Key data types

To track and understand seasonal travel behavior, focus on these three types of geospatial data:

• Foot traffic data
  Includes visitor counts, dwell times, time-stamped movement records, seasonal fluctuations, and insights into peak and slower periods.
• Points of Interest (POI) data
  Covers business locations, categories, operating hours, venue capacity, and details about the surrounding area.
• Movement pattern data
  Tracks travel routes, cross-visitation trends, and origin-destination flows

Sources for data

You can obtain reliable geospatial data from sources such as specialized providers (e.g., Echo Analytics), government agencies like the U.S. Census Bureau and the Department of Transportation, or mobile data aggregators.

At Echo Analytics, we provide extensive mobility insights with high polygon coverage for effective analysis and mapping visualization

"Our challenge was to find mobility data that seamlessly integrates with our users' GIS workflows. Echo Analytics, which provides a database of businesses and stores enriched with mobility analysis, was the ideal solution."
– Jaime Neves, Data & Location Services, Esri

Evaluating data quality

When selecting geospatial data sources, prioritize these quality factors:

The strength of our data providing service is how we process data. Our quality assurance focuses on volume, brand accuracy, completeness, and freshness of the data. This guarantees that the data provided is regularly updated, deduplicated, cleaned and delivered in a useable structured format. It’s the heavy lifting done for you. Once you have the quality data in hand, the next stage is preparation and organization for analysis. 

Data preparation steps

Data cleaning methods

Cleaning geospatial data is essential for precise seasonal travel analysis. Echo Analytics uses a thorough cleaning process. Here are some of the main areas of our cleaning process: 

Seasonal data organization

Breaking down cleaned data into seasonal segments makes it easier to spot trends. The process can look a little something like this: 

• Temporal segmentation:
  
  • Split data into seasonal blocks
  • Assign seasonal tags to data points
  • Standardize time windows for easier comparisons
• Pattern recognition:
  
  • Cluster similar movement behaviors
  • Pinpoint seasonal highs and lows
  • Monitor year-over-year shifts

Finding travel patterns

Spotting seasonal travel trends involves combining geospatial and time-based data for a clearer picture of visitor behavior.

Pattern analysis methods

Here’s several techniques to analyze location data effectively:

Data visualization tools

Turning raw data into clear, actionable visuals is crucial. Here are primary tools used:

• Heat maps: Highlight visitor density across areas, showing seasonal hotspots and quieter zones.
• Time-series charts: Track visitor flow over time, making it easy to spot peak and off-peak periods.
• Interactive dashboards: Allow users to explore travel data dynamically with customizable views and filters.

"Echo Analytics consistently delivers high-resolution, location-based data, even in underserved areas critical to our work, enabling us to extend analyses into regions lacking actionable insights."
– Alessandra Feliciotti, Project & Operations Manager, MindEarth ^[1]

Example analysis

In 2024, we conducted an analysis to show the impact of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour had on foot traffic in major European cities such as Paris, Madrid, Lisbon, and Stockholm. The analysis revealed an increase in economic activity and foot traffic across those European cities when Taylor Swift was in town. 

While travel behavior in this case had more to do with a music tour than the season, it demonstrates the valuable information marketers, advertisers, real estate personnel, and retailers can derive from analyzing travel behavior with the right data. 

Using results for business decisions

Turn travel trends into actionable strategies for your business.

Reading travel data results

Keep an eye on these seasonal metrics to understand customer behavior better:

Use these insights to shape more precise operational plans.

Echo Analytics features

These are the insight products that make us the ideal provider for understanding seasonal travel behavior:

• Catchment analysis: Pinpoints where your customers are coming from.
• Cross-visitation insights: Tracks customer movement between locations.
• Travel pattern tracking: Monitors behaviors before and after visits.
• Foot traffic data: Understand foot traffic flows to assess locations and target audiences effectively.

Conclusion

Key steps to follow

Turn geospatial data into actionable insights by working through these steps:

These steps provide a clear path to crafting a data-driven travel strategy. Use them as a starting point to make the most of geospatial insights today.