Jackson’s Tourism Data Dashboard Leads the Industry

Jackson Hole, WY – The Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board (JHTTB) is now tracking and reporting on more than just hotel occupancy numbers – much more.

New data and a state-of-the-art display allow Jackson Hole’s tourism industry to better anticipate and respond to the needs of the destination. Locations around the world are taking notice, recognizing that traditional visitor tracking falls short of telling the full story of tourism in a popular destination. Jackson Hole’s tourism data dashboard, which launched to the public on January 14, 2025, will be presented to an international audience in June at the Travel and Tourism Research Association (TTRA) Annual Conference in Galway, Ireland.

While tourism represents a $1.68 billion industry for Teton County, with it comes the challenge of balancing the needs of locals, businesses, and visitors with the protection of public lands and the preservation of the region’s culture and heritage. The JHTTB identified 55 key performance indicators (KPIs) in its Sustainable Destination Management Plan (SDMP) to measure how the destination performs not just economically, but also environmentally and socially. In order to tell the complex story of Jackson’s dynamic tourism industry and align destination monitoring with community values, the JHTTB turned to big data.

Using funding provided by the Wyoming Office of Tourism’s Destination Development Program, the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board partnered with the University of Wyoming Jay Kemmerer WORTH Institute to collect local data from 37 sources. Leading analytics platform provider, Datafy, then leveraged advanced technological capabilities to synthesize large-scale tourism data within a custom-built, interactive software platform. By developing more robust and sophisticated metrics and showcasing them in a clear reporting system, the JHTTB and its partners can capture the greatest benefit for all.

“The quantity and diversity of the data makes this one of most comprehensive data visualizations ever deployed for tracking sustainability and overall destination impact, and we can’t wait to watch it shift tourism in Teton County towards a more sustainable model,” said Kelby Bosshardt, Datafy Co-Founder and President.

Jackson’s dashboard was selected by industry experts from “a record number of submissions” to be included in the TTRA conference because it reflects “the highest standards of innovation, applicability, and value for [tourism industry] attendees.” Many destinations track traditional tourism metrics like visitor demographics, lodging data, and sales tax receipts, but Jackson is among the first to include reporting on statistics like average daily traffic, usage of public transportation, waste sent to and waste diverted from the landfill, vehicle-wildlife collisions, and visitor and resident sentiment. Clearly communicating this information for public consumption will help the industry understand, and shape, Jackson Hole’s tourism landscape.

“Our vision is for Jackson Hole to be a wild and resilient destination where the community, economy and natural ecosystem simultaneously thrive,” said Crista Valentino, Executive Director of the JHTTB. “To do so, we need to understand not only who is visiting, but what they are doing while they are here and how these visits impact the landscape. This data dashboard enables the public and key decision makers to visualize all this information in one place and to create better strategies and solutions that will move Teton County towards a more sustainable future.”

“We love using our custom software to find novel ways to measure big data, and JHTTB’s commitment to developing and tracking new, sustainably-focused KPIs gave us an exciting opportunity to do exactly this,” Bosshardt added.

Like the ever-changing landscape of the tourism industry, the dashboard will have similar abilities to adapt quickly as new data becomes available.

DATA DASHBOARD

Through strategic allocation of Teton County’s lodging tax funds, the Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board stewards Jackson Hole toward a sustainable destination, where our leadership, marketing, management, and community engagement ensure the vitality of our natural and human ecosystems.

Media contact:
Jackson Hole Travel & Tourism Board
Crista Valentino
lodgingtax@tetoncountywy.gov
(307)201-1774