Tourism boards or destination authorities must first know which phase the destination is in, and understand the strategic imperatives needed to evolve to the next phase. They should then identify the data use cases required to address each strategic imperative and select which data use cases to prioritize for each phase, as indicated in the chart above.

An emerging destination must secure a critical mass to be recognized as a “must-visit” destination. The diagram below illustrates the four phases of such tourism destinations. This evolution represents the ideal growth pathway; while not all destinations are able to reach the advanced phases, this should be their objective.

As several countries in MENA strive to strengthen their positions as global tourism destinations and travel hubs, data analytics and intelligence have become crucial to establishing global presence and gaining competitive edge. In fact, data can help these countries break the growth deadlock of emerging destinations by fueling marketing excellence, stimulating supply creation and improving visitor experience.

In this article, Oussama Ahmad and Karim Hayek present ten Proven Tactics from the Battlefield.

Before exploring machine learning (ML) data catalogs, let's define what a basic data catalog is: a central repository that stores metadata.