Tourist Commission Subscribes To Placer.ai Again
The Harrodsburg Herald/Robert Moore
The Harrodsburg-Mercer County Tourist Commission is seeking to determine how many people show up for events like the eighth annual Oktoberfest by re-subscribing to an analytics platform that promises to provide more information about local events, including attendance
Robert Moore
Herald Staff
[email protected]
The Harrodsburg-Mercer County Tourist Commission has re-subscribed to an analytics platform that promises to provide more information about local events, including attendance.
At their last regular meeting of the year, on Wednesday, Dec. 10, the tourist commission voted to resubscribe to Placer.ai for a year. The cost of the subscription is $26,000 in two payments.
The commission previously purchased a year’s subscription to Placer.ai in 2023. The company provides location analytics through location intelligence and foot traffic data software. The data provided through the subscription includes trends, trade areas and visitor demographics, with a 92-96 percent accuracy. The cost for their original subscription was $22,000, and at last week’s meeting, Daarik Gray, the executive director of the tourist commission, recommended they lock in the price before it goes up again in January.
The tourist commission, which is funded from restaurant and rooming taxes, has sought for years to measure the return on their investment into local tourism. Their budget last year was $1,059,500, with most of the money—$873,900—spent on marketing. That includes nearly $600,000 in sponsorships and grants.
On Wednesday, Kaitlyn Harder, the community development and events coordinator for the tourist commission, said it would be nice to be able to utilize the information as they began strategic planning in January of next year. The tourist commission has also shared the information with local events and venues, butt here have been issues when it comes to managing that data.
During the original subscription period, the data files Placer.ai shared were so massive the commission’s computers struggled to open them. There were other issues as well. Placer.ai relies on geofencing, which establishes a virtual perimeter around a real-world geographic area to count whoever enters or exits the area. In 2024, the tourist commission had to release corrected attendance figures after John Lyons, the owner of Daynabrook Farms, noted that the data only included the showbarn, not around the whole farm, resulting in an undercount. Others have also criticized the data, which relies on cell phone data, saying children don’t carry cell phones.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Gray said the commission could better utilize the software this time around, with their upgraded computers.
The data goes back to 2017, and the commission will be able to search certain districts, selecting dates and time ranges. Assistant Director Connor Souder said Placer.ai pulls data from 7-10 percent of the population and uses an algorithm to extrapolate.
The board unanimously approved re-subscribing.
Board member John Holiday said Placer.ai would benefit the community. Holiday they needed to devise rules for using the information.
“It could be a really good tool for law enforcement,” he said.
