In the first episode, we explore how data is invaluable to the tourism industry. In 2020, Edinburgh’s world renowned Fringe festival was cancelled, leaving the city eerily quiet in what normally is a peak time for tourism. Josh Ryan-Saha, an expert in data and tourism with the Data Driven Innovation programme talks about the catastrophic drop in visitors to Edinburgh caused by the pandemic - and how data might help bring the tourists back and help the city’s hospitality businesses recover. He is also joined by Galina Andreeva and Ewelina Lacka of the University of Edinburgh, who are involved in innovative data research projects to address these fundamental issues to the Edinburgh city region economy. The panel discuss how their findings can be part of the solution to help the city recover - and why they will never complain about too many tourists in Scotland’s capital again.