On February 14, the President Statistics Poland, Dr. Dominik Rozkrut, together with the representative of the Korean Consortium, Mr. Tae Yong Yoon, senior advisor to the Korean Import and Export Bank (KEXIM), signed an agreement on the implementation of the project entitled “Use of Big Data sources in monitoring changes in tourism in Poland”. The contractor of the project will be the Statistical Office in Rzeszów, specializing in, among others, sport and tourism statistics.

The inception seminar was attended by representatives of Kyung-Hee University, Korean Import and Export Bank and Ars Praxia Corporation. These institutions, together with KT corporation, form the executive consortium of the project, which is part of the Korean Knowledge Sharing Program. The program is aimed at setting the ground for mutually beneficial economic cooperation by supporting projects in areas where Korea has extensive experience, such as: economic development planning, macro-financial policy, science and technology, culture, sports and tourism, public finance, health, labour market and environment. The Polish side, next to the President of Statistics Poland, was represented by representatives of official statistics (both from Warsaw and the regional branch in Rzeszów) and Mr. Dominik Borek, Director of the Department of Tourism at the Ministry of Sport and Tourism.

The project “Use of Big Data sources in monitoring changes in tourism in Poland” will set a new quality in terms of combining statistical and non-statistical data sources, in particular the use of Big Data (including data from mobile operators) for even more accurate monitoring of such phenomena as border traffic, or accommodation. The project will result in guidelines on the legal framework for access to data of mobile operators, the use of this data to create statistics in the field of tourism, proposals for programs and good practices as for methodology and human resources needed to work with large data sets.

The project subscribes to the innovation strategy of Statistics Poland, an institution no longer associated only with numbers. Statistics Poland’s official numbers, data and information are currently adopting innovative forms of interesting products, services and applications in order to meet the diverse needs of our users even more.

We invest in development, starting from the development of talents and staff competences, as part of the newly established Data Science Academy, through modern and friendly applications such as the Geostatistics Portal, to story-telling and tools facilitating analytical work (SMUP, Strateg ). For years, being at the forefront of the ODIN ranking regarding data opening, implementing innovative research and methodological work, Statistics Poland does not lose sight of its mission, which remains to provide reliable, objective information based on facts. This mission translates into the constant pursuit to explore new opportunities brought about by technological development. Data and information are now not difficult to obtain, Internet provides them in a fraction of a second. But are they based on facts? Are the sources proven, comparable, reliable? How to properly connect and interpret them? How to do it quickly? GUS, combining the 105-year-old tradition of the institution underlying the reconstruction of the independent Polish State with openness, innovation and development, knows the answers to these questions. By putting the user and his right to information, treated as a public good, in the centre, Statistics Poland constantly proves that #StatisticsoftheFutureisAlreadyHere.