The City of Seminole will soon be able to see how many visitors are coming into the city through a company that tracks location- specific cell phone data.

At its regular monthly meeting held Dec. 10, the City Council approved a one-year subscription to Placer.AI, a location analytics company, at a cost of $11,200. The subscription will be funded via the city’s motel tax/tourism proceeds.

“Placer.AI is the premier geo data information system. By subscribing, we will have an understanding of how many people are visiting Seminole, for what events and where they’re coming from,” City Manager Steve Saxon explained to the council.

Saxon said that a trial run with the company during the recent state baseball tournament held at the Brian Crawford Memorial Sports Complex revealed that 47,000 visits were made. Of that number, 28,000 were different people, meaning some entered twice.

“We’re thinking of using this for events like the Fourth of July and the Made in Oklahoma Festival, so the council can make informed decisions about how to spend tourism dollars,” Saxon told the council.

When asked how the company identifies where people are from, Saxon explained that the company tracks where the phone is plugged in when the user is charging it for extended periods of time, which is likely to be the user’s home.

Vice Mayor Cory Crabtree, who will assume the mayor’s chair next spring, said he hopes to be able to go beyond the one-year subscription to the company and include it in the city’s yearly budget.

The subscription proposal was met with unanimous approval by the council.