BERRYVILLE — Clarke County officials are looking into using artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor visitation at county businesses and attractions.
They say they’re not interested in obtaining personal information or finding out where specific people travel.
Rather, they maintain using AI would help them determine which places are visited mostly by locals and by out-of-towners. They could then use the data to, for instance, figure out where more tourism marketing efforts and dollars should be directed.
It’s part of efforts to generate more tourism for county recreational and historical attractions, as well as locally-operated stores and restaurants. Money that tourists spend in those places helps boost the local economy, according to officials.
But using AI could be expensive.
Placer.ai, a California-base company with more than 4,000 customers nationwide, made an online presentation to the Clarke County Economic Development Advisory Committee (EDAC) on Wednesday. Its services would cost the county about $15,000 annually, officials said.
That’s “a big chunk of change for something we don’t know if we’re going to get a return on our investment,” EDAC member Bev McKay said.
After the video conference, the committee told Economic Development and Tourism Director Michelle Ridings to consult with similar companies to learn about their services and see if their prices are lower.
EDAC member Betsy Pritchard said that as a small business owner, she thinks using AI to determine where marketing money should be directed would be worthwhile.
“The idea is amazing,” said member Mark Gribble, a retired airline sales worker.
“But I’m not one for jumping onto the first thing (you see) and buying it,” said McKay, the Clarke County Board of Supervisors’ White Post District representative.
He suggested looking for a grant to help any AI costs, at least initially.
Ridings told Ryan Denisi, a Placer.ai senior account executive, she’ll get back in touch with him within a few months.
The company works with firms in more than 30 industries, including “pretty much every big-box retailer and theme park,” Denisi said.
Various localities across the United States also are among a list of customers he supplied.
Ridings said Placer.ai obtains its data by monitoring cellphones with their geolocation settings turned on.
The company has “partnerships with multiple mobile apps” from which the data is received, Denisi said.
“We don’t collect any personally identifiable data,” he said — just information on where people are and where they go.
So “we can’t drive up to your house, thank you for coming” and ask why you decided to visit somewhere, he said.
Yet it can track anonymous people’s movements down to census blocks where they live. That allows information to be gleaned on, for example, how far visitors travel to reach particular destinations and what times of the day they visit places, it emerged during the video conference.
In explaining Placer.ai’s services, Denisi presented data the company already has collected on visitation at the Blandy Experimental Farm near Boyce.
McKay, in whose district Blandy is located, said the visitation numbers seemed too high. He questioned whether data sources could be confusing employees, plus people delivering goods to the farm, with tourists.
He also mentioned that both Clarke County residents and visitors could be opposed to their movements being monitored in any form. Some people consider it to be invasions of their privacy.
When asked about that notion after Wednesday’s meeting, Ridings said she doesn’t think it’s a major concern.
“People already are aware that Google is watching where they go and what they do,” she said, referring to the popular online search engine and email provider.
Anyone who’s concerned can simply turn off their phones or their apps to keep from being monitored, Ridings added.
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