Government tourism & economic development
Mapping Montana’s tourism assets with AI.
Modern Logic built a tourism asset database for Montana that combines open data, state datasets, AI categorization and search. It is designed to help identify tourism strengths and gaps across communities statewide.
At a glance
A tourism asset database for the State of Montana.
Built with our partner Lawrence & Schiller for the Montana Department of Commerce, Office of Tourism.* TAD is live and in use by the State of Montana and destination marketing organizations across the state.
- Tourism assets cataloged
- 60,000+
- Destination marketing websites indexed
- 100s
*References to work performed for the Montana Department of Commerce, Office of Tourism, are provided for informational purposes only and do not constitute or imply an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation of Modern Logic or its services by the State of Montana or any of its agencies.
The challenge
Tourism data scattered across Montana.
Montana’s tourism economy spans rural fishing towns, ski destinations and urban centers, and the information about it lived in many places at once.
What we were up against
- Disconnected datasets. Tourism information existed across inconsistent state, federal and local sources, none of which talked to each other.
- Inconsistent records. The same tourism asset often appeared in multiple systems under different names and categories.
- Geographic imbalance. Smaller rural communities risked being overshadowed by larger urban centers in any naive ranking.
- A tight public-sector budget. Manual verification and moderation workflows would have exceeded the budget for a project of this scope.
No single dataset could tell the whole story.
Our approach combined open data, state-managed information and AI-powered normalization into one analysis engine, built to stay practical and affordable at statewide scale.
What we built
An AI-powered tourism intelligence platform.
- Tourism asset aggregation Collects and unifies tourism assets from OpenStreetMap, state-managed datasets, and destination marketing organization websites.
- AI categorization & deduplication AI models categorize, normalize, and identify duplicate tourism assets across very different datasets.
- DMO website search engine Indexes hundreds of destination marketing organization websites to discover tourism businesses, attractions, and infrastructure.
- Balanced gap analysis Multiple scoring methods are designed to reduce geographic and population bias when evaluating tourism gaps across the state.
- Community self-representation Designed so communities can improve their own visibility by updating their websites and contributing to OpenStreetMap.
- Tourism scoring visualization Visual indicators and scoring models show tourism opportunity gaps across Montana communities at a glance.
The architecture
A statewide tourism intelligence platform.
Our partner, Lawrence & Schiller, is one of the Midwest’s most trusted agencies for marketing and web development. When their client asked for an AI-powered data platform, L&S brought in Modern Logic.
The ask was ambitious: catalog tourism assets across an entire state, accurately, without constant human oversight, on a budget that would have been unthinkably small a few years earlier.
We designed a modular architecture, worked with a small team using CI/CD, unit tests and end-to-end integration tests, brought in open data, and iterated on prompts and models to build an accurate, efficient tagging system. The result is a searchable, geographically aware (GIS) dataset.
- Over 60,000 tourism assets
- OpenStreetMap, state data, and DMO integrations
- AI categorization, deduplication, and normalization
- Multiple scoring methods for rural and urban communities
- Automatic data updates
- Designed for low-cost hosting
Before and with TAD
What TAD provides.
| Area | Before | With TAD |
|---|---|---|
| Tourism data | Scattered across disconnected datasets and websites. | One searchable statewide database. |
| Community listings | Fragmented or inconsistent representation. | A way for communities to update their own listings through OpenStreetMap and their websites. |
| Scoring | Analysis that risked geographic or population bias. | Several scoring methods to compare side by side. |
| Planning | Heavy reliance on subjective interpretation. | Statewide data that planners can measure against. |
Where the project stands
Live, in use, and delivered as promised.
This project is a collaboration between the State of Montana, our partner Lawrence & Schiller, and Modern Logic. Modern Logic built the platform, giving L&S the technical capability to take on a project that would otherwise have been a stretch.
We’ll add measured results here once the platform has been in use long enough to show them.
- Launched and in use by the State of Montana and destination marketing organizations
- Delivered on time and on budget
- Over 60,000 tourism assets cataloged and kept up to date
FAQ
Frequently asked questions.
How can AI help tourism planning?
AI can help tourism planning by categorizing and analyzing large datasets, identifying gaps in tourism infrastructure, deduplicating inconsistent records, and generating objective insights for investment decisions.
Why did Modern Logic use OpenStreetMap instead of proprietary mapping systems?
OpenStreetMap keeps the platform cost-effective, community-driven and extensible, and it lets communities improve their own tourism visibility directly.
How did Modern Logic reduce bias in tourism scoring?
Modern Logic developed multiple scoring methods that give different geographic perspectives, designed to avoid overvaluing either large urban centers or smaller rural communities.
How does AI help combine multiple tourism datasets?
AI models were used to categorize tourism assets, normalize inconsistent records, and determine when listings from different systems referred to the same real-world location or business.
Can Modern Logic build cost-effective AI systems without excessive infrastructure costs?
Yes. Modern Logic focuses on practical and efficient AI implementations, using the right-sized models and infrastructure for each project while minimizing unnecessary cost and energy consumption.
Bring us your hard problem.
Have fragmented data, operational blind spots, or a difficult planning problem? Modern Logic builds practical AI and custom software that solves real business challenges, without unnecessary complexity or cost.
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