Systems and methods for estimating demand for attractions
Certain embodiments disclosed herein provide devices, systems, and methods of using location-based virtual audience feedback to estimate interest in an attraction at one or more venues. Certain embodiments provide devices, systems, and methods of using location-based virtual audience feedback and/or other audience data to estimate interest in a plurality of attractions or other items of interest at a particular venue.
1. A system for calculating a total participation estimate for one or more attractions at a venue, the system comprising:
a data store that stores data associated with members of a prospective audience for the one or more attractions;
a computing device in communication with the data store, the computing device configured to:
receive data directly or indirectly from members of the prospective audience, the data comprising, for each individual member of the prospective audience, attraction interest data based on actions taken by an audience member indicating interest in a particular attraction and location data based on a geographic location of the audience member;
determine at least one numerical attraction interest parameter value from the attraction interest data, wherein the at least one numerical attraction interest parameter value comprises a total number of times an individual member has performed one of the actions, a fraction of recent actions of the member that are for the particular attraction, a number of recent actions the member has taken compared to recent actions taken by an average member, or a number of actions the member has taken compared to a highest number of actions taken indicating interest in the particular attraction by any member of the prospective audience;
determine a distance between the geographic location of the audience member and the venue using the location data;
calculate a numerical interaction term that accounts for a magnitude of the distance when it is determined that the geographic location of the audience member is within an intermediate region where distance is expected to play a role in determining an individual probability of participation in an event featuring the particular attraction at the venue;
calculate an individual probability of participation for each individual member of the prospective audience, wherein the individual probability of participation is calculated by:
weighting a plurality of numerical user parameter values, the plurality of numerical user parameter values comprising the at least one numerical attraction interest parameter value of the audience member and the numerical interaction term when the individual member is located in the intermediate region;
summing the weighted numerical user parameter values to generate a score; and
calculating the individual probability of participation from the score by inverting the logit function; and
calculate a total participation estimate for at least one of the one or more attractions if the at least one of the one or more attractions were to be placed at the venue by summing the individual probabilities of participation of the prospective audience members.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to receive the attraction interest data by tracking a number of times when a member of the prospective audience operates a user interface element configured to register interest in an attraction.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the computing device is configured to receive the attraction interest data by tracking a number of times when a member of the prospective audience searches for an attraction using the World Wide Web.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein the computing device is configured to receive the attraction interest data by receiving information about the interests of a member of the prospective audience.
5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the computing device is configured to receive the location data by obtaining geographical location information automatically from an electronic device used by the audience member.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein the computing device is configured to receive the location data by receiving Global Positioning System data.
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein the computing device is configured to receive the location data by logging an IP address of an electronic device used by the audience member.