Taxi Trails: Tourist App

Swedish minicab service Taxi Stockholm is using big data to give visitors to the city the chance to travel like a local. In collaboration with design agency King, Taxi Stockholm has developed Taxi Trails, a new app that tracks the routes of all the firm's taxis to create a heat map showing the most popular destinations.

Described as a "totally new type of tourist guide", the app is based on data from more than eight million trips made by the firm's cabs every year. Users can filter the data by date of trips, time of the week or the type of area visited – such as "hip" or "posh".

The venture is a great example of how brands can use previously overlooked data sets to improve service or enhance brand profile. The app uses information that has been collected since Taxi Stockholm's inception in 1989, but this is the first time it has been put to use.

For more on how big data is being used to make public transport more efficient, take a look at our blog post on the AllAboard project launched last year by IBM, and the Reisplanner travel app which aims to make travel in the Netherlands faster and less crowded.

Consumers are increasingly expecting personalised travel advice, insider information and exclusive travel tips from travel and hospitality brands. Smart hotels are responding by becoming hyper-local cultural hubs, while peer-to-peer travel site Airbnb is expanding its offer to include supperclubs and 'experiences'.

Meanwhile, in a bid to get the most exclusive insider information, some travellers are even using apps such as Tinder to crowdsource travel and entertainment advice – see Modern Dating for more.