Skyscanner unites with Forwardkeys for “even greater insight into tomorrow’s travellers”

Travel distribution company Skyscanner has revealed details of its new partnership with industry analysts ForwardKeys. The team promises to create two analytical products, ‘Travel Willingness’ and ‘Catchment Area’, designed to provide knowledge on the movements and habits of regional travellers.

With access to over 70 million active users and 1,200 global partners, Skyscanner has the global infrastructure and required scale to provide the internet search data which “correlates to a high degree with the flight booking data captured by ForwardKeys”.

“A great opportunity to support a wider range of businesses with Skyscanner data”

The new products will marry ForwardKeys’ data science capabilities with travel intent data from Skyscanner to create a way for companies to gain knowledge of where travellers begin their journeys, at a local level, on top of which airports they take off from and land at.

Commenting on the possibilities of the new deal, Hugh Aitken, Skyscanner’s senior director of strategic partnerships, said: “Partnering with ForwardKeys presents a great opportunity to support a wider range of businesses with Skyscanner data and the unique insights that this can provide. We look forward to seeing the varied applications of these new techniques and the returns that they deliver in the future.”

Areas of understanding

The analysis available through this new partnership will benefit a range of businesses, from airports and hotels, to destination marketing organisations and outdoor advertising companies. With the unique ability to identify the demand for destinations, segmented by the traveller’s location, an improved understanding can be gained for:

• Leakage areas: The analysis can highlight where one airport is losing business to a competitor and what they might be able to do to reduce this issue, eg. fare adjustments;
• Marketing and merchandising opportunities: A display of the geographic make-up of the future footfall to your destination and suggest how you can tailor your marketing strategy and optimise your regional marketing investments;
• Return on investment: Insights into the effectiveness of efforts by destination marketing organisations, tourism boards and even airports who have sought to promote a specific location.

“Uncovering their intention to travel, even before they have booked”

Laurens van den Oever, chief marketing officer for  ForwardKeys, said: “Thanks to our partnership with Skyscanner, we are now able to provide even greater insight into tomorrow’s travellers – firstly by identifying their location and secondly by uncovering their intention to travel, even before they have booked.”