Stars Of The Stats

During the last year or two, I’ve written a handful of data-driven list features for The i newspaper. These tend to be something along the lines of “Seven under-the-radar places to visit this summer” — but, rather than me simply using my noggin (always a risk, frankly) and choosing said places, these rely on data from travel companies to back up each suggestion.

That might be an analysis of flight prices at a given period, with a chart of the cheapest and priciest. It could be the average hotel rates in a single city or selected cities in a continent. It might be currency-related — where’s a bargain right now, and where’s not? It might have to do with visitor numbers. There’s also web traffic, though I’m a little more sceptical about that as a metric, as traffic can easily remain one crucial stage removed from actually booking.

Anyway: sometimes these commissions can be quite last-minute, which means I have to request such stats with a preposterous turnaround time. Consequently, I have a permanent, precious list of those who I know are generally likely to be able to save my bacon. Gem at Skyscanner is one — a bona fide legend, and lovely to boot. Last week, Kate at Grifco (courtesy of Opodo) and Matt at Finn (for HotelPlanner.com) excelled themselves.

If you have a travel-related client who can produce any of the sort of stats mentioned above, and reckon that they will, more often than not, be willing and able to do so really speedily (in no less than 48 hours, say), please do let me know for my future reference. There’s a good chance of multiple mentions in one of these pieces, which also appear online. Plus, as ever, I’ll be more inclined to scratch your clients’ backs elsewhere, when feasible, in return for such welcome help.