Why do funders ask where visitors come from?
Because it shows reach. A site that draws people from other states or countries brings attention and spending to its town, and some tourism and lodging-tax funders ask how many visitors traveled from out of the area. A mostly local audience is worth showing too: it tells a community funder that you serve your neighbors.
Where do you get hometown data?
- A "Hometown" or "Where are you from?" column in the guest book or on sign-in sheets. If yours doesn't have one, add it to the next sheet you print.
- A question at check-in: at the desk, on a kiosk or after a QR check-in. Keep it optional and short. City and state, or a ZIP code, is enough.
- Event registrations and ticket sales that ask for a ZIP code.
You don't need everyone's hometown. You need enough of them, collected the same way all year.
How do you clean up hometowns in a spreadsheet?
Keep the hometown exactly as written in one column, and add clean columns beside it:
| Column | What to write | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Hometown as written | Copied from the page | bend or |
| City | Standard spelling | Bend |
| State or province | Two-letter code | OR |
| Country | Spelled out | United States |
| Party size | People on that line | 2 |
Standardize as you go: "Calif.", "CA" and "California" all become CA. When a hometown is blank or unreadable, mark it Unknown and keep the row. Those visitors still count; they just have no hometown.
How do you sort visitors into local and out of town?
Pick a rule, write it down and use it every year. Common choices:
- Same county, the rest of the state, other states and other countries.
- In state and out of state.
- Distance: under or over 50 miles from your site.
Then count by party size, not by line. A family of five from Ohio is five visitors from Ohio.
How do you map where visitors come from without sharing names?
Map counts by area, never individual visitors. A map shaded by state or country, or dots sized by city, shows your reach without showing anyone's address. Many spreadsheet programs can draw a simple map chart from a column of states or countries and their counts.
Leave out places with only one or two visitors if a single dot could point to one person, especially in small towns.
How should you present visitor origins to a funder?
- Give each share with its base: how many visitors came from out of state, out of how many who wrote a hometown, and how many left it blank.
- Lead with the top few states or countries, then the map.
- Compare years only when you asked the question the same way both years.
- Keep names out of anything you send. Counts by place are all a funder needs.
For the totals that go with these origins, see how to get visitor numbers for a grant application.
Or let Public Lands Log do it
Public Lands Log turns guest books, QR check-in signs, kiosk sign-ins and trail counter files into visitor numbers by month, where visitors came from, a live map and funder-ready reports.
- Photograph or scan the guest book pages, hometown column and all. We read each page, and your staff check the sign-ins against the photo before anything counts.
- Put up a QR sign where there is no desk. Print it at home; visitors scan it with the phone camera, with no app and no account, and the hometown question is optional.
- Your public map shows counts by area, never names.
30 days, 150 pages, no card. After the trial, Standard is $490 a year or $49 a month. Start by January 31, 2027 and it is $390 a year for as long as you stay subscribed. See pricing
See it working first: here's a live map from a visitor center in Omaha, Nebraska, counts only and never names.
Questions about where visitors come from
What if most visitors leave the hometown blank?
Report the hometowns you have and say how many visitors gave one. A short, optional question gets more answers than a long one, and a staff member asking "Where are you visiting from?" at the desk helps too.
Should we ask for a ZIP code or a town?
Either works. A ZIP code is easier to count and map; a town and state is friendlier to write in a guest book. Visitors from other countries may not have a ZIP code, so leave room for a country.
Is it safe to publish a map of where visitors came from?
Yes, if it shows counts by area and never names or street addresses. Leave out places with only one or two visitors if that could point to a single person.
Can we show how far visitors traveled?
Yes. Once each hometown has a city and state, you can sort visitors into distance bands, such as under and over 50 miles from your site. Say which rule you used.