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Emery County approves two-year Placer AI contract to quantify tourism patterns
Summary
The county travel bureau secured a two-year contract with Placer AI for anonymized mobile-location data to help target marketing and strengthen grant applications; commissioners acknowledged privacy concerns but approved the purchase (year 1: $12,000; year 2: $13,000).
Emery County commissioners on Oct. 21 approved a two-year contract with Placer AI, a location-data vendor, to provide anonymized mobile-location insights intended to help the county quantify visitor behavior, support marketing and strengthen grant applications.
Andy, representing the county travel bureau, told the commission the service uses anonymized cell-phone location data to show where visitors go in the county, how they interact with businesses and from which markets they originate. He said the travel board recommended a two-year agreement after reviewing comparable proposals; the contract price is $12,000 the first year and $13,000 the second year.
Commissioners and attendees discussed privacy; one commissioner described the technique as "kind of creepy," and staff responded the data do not include names or phone numbers and are purchased from apps that users permit to share location data. Staff said outputs can be shared with local businesses (data reports) though the software license itself would be county-controlled.
Proponents said the data will make grant applications more competitive by providing concrete measures of visitor origin and spending patterns. After discussion, the commission moved, seconded and approved the contract.
