Do you want to manage a data project effectively in the transportation industry? You must know the possible international travel data scraping applications and the best web data sources worldwide.
Transportation carriers can use international travel data scraping to extract information related to various modes of transportation, including airlines, railways, buses, car rental companies, and marine transportation carriers. It enables data collection on routes, schedules, fares, availability, and other relevant details from multiple sources.
This guide will dig into the global transportation industry and teach you all the data types and websites in each region and country.
International Travel Data Applications
A travel data scraper for transportation carriers allows businesses, travellers, or travel agencies to gather comprehensive information about different modes of transportation.
For railways, the scraper can collect data on train schedules, departure and arrival times, seat availability, and ticket prices. This information helps you plan the train journeys, book tickets in advance, and optimise your travel itineraries. It also assists in analysing train route popularity and demand patterns.
Bus travel data scraping involves gathering data on bus schedules, routes, stops, and fares from various bus companies. This information helps travellers determine the best bus options, view the amenities, and book tickets. Bus data scraping is particularly useful for frequent travellers seeking affordable transportation options.
Car rental data scraping focuses on extracting information from car rental companies, including vehicle availability, pricing, rental policies, and locations. This data allows travellers to compare car rental options, view different vehicle types, and make reservations based on their needs.
Last but not least, travel data scraping for marine transportation carriers can find and extract a massive quantity of data (from vessel to port information). Here are see some examples.
By using international travel data scraping for transportation carriers, businesses and travellers can access accurate and up-to-date information, compare options, and make informed decisions about their transportation choices or marketing and pricing strategy. It streamlines the data-gathering process from multiple sources, saving time and effort while improving travel experience.
Now that you know the transportation data types, it’s time you learn the best data sources and URLs for the transportation industry.
Are you interested in airlines and flights? We are going to talk about that extensively in the next episode. Stay tuned!
International Travel Data Sources for Transportation Carries
Transportation carriers operate in many travel and tourism sectors with dozens of web data sources you can use to extract valuable data for your web scraping and data mining and analytics project or your business strategy.
We found the top travel data sources for each transportation category. Some data can be public, while others may require subscriptions or API access agreements.
Railways Travel Data Sources
Railway data varies from country to country, and you can often find it from national railway companies or transport authorities. Here are some data sources for railway information segmented by continent.
| Region | Railways Data Source | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | Indian Railways: Offers data on train schedules, routes, and fares | www.indianrail.gov.in |
| China Railway Corporation: The state-owned railway system of the People’s Republic of China. | china-railway.com.cn | |
| Europe | Deutsche Bahn (Germany): Offers train schedules, routes, and fares for Germany and other European destinations. | bahn.de |
| SNCF (France): Offers information about train schedules, fares, and routes across France. | sncf.com | |
| Realtime Trains (Great Britain): An independent provider of real-time information about railways services in the UK. | realtimetrains.co.uk | |
| North America | Amtrak (USA): Provides data on train schedules, routes, and fares in the United States. | amtrak.com |
| VIA Rail (Canada): Offers data on train schedules, routes, and fares in Canada. | viarail.ca | |
| South America | Satélite Ferroviario (Argentina): Provides data on train schedules, routes, and fares in Argentina. | sateliteferroviario.com.ar |
| HOTOSM Brazil Railways: it provides train transportation data sets in West, North, East, and South Brazil. You can download them for use in GIS applications. | data.humdata.org | |
| Africa | HOTOSM South Africa Railways (OpenStreetMap Export): Offers OpenStreetMap exports for use in GIS applications. | data.humdata.org |
| Australia | Transport for NSW: Provides data on train schedules, routes, and fares in New South Wales. | transportnsw.info |
| DataVic: The Victorian Government’s open data platform where you can find data sets on the train transportation service. | discover.data.vic.gov.au |
It’s important to note that many of these websites may not offer open data APIs, and the data usage is subject to their terms and conditions. You might need to contact the railway companies or transport authorities directly for more details or specific information,
Bus Companies Travel Data Sources
You can often find data about buses on local transit authority websites or national bus service providers. Here are some resources segmented by continent.
| Region | Bus Data Source | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Asia | Redbus India: The largest Indian online bus ticket booking service. You can find schedules and routes for various bus operators throughout India. | redbus.in |
| BusMap (Vietnam): A service offering real-time tracking and routes for buses in major Vietnamese cities. | busmap.vn | |
| Europe | FlixBus: This service offers bus schedules and routes across different European countries. | flixbus.com |
| National Express (UK): Offers bus schedules and routes across the UK. | nationalexpress.com | |
| North America | Greyhound (USA): Provides bus schedules and routes across the USA. | greyhound.com |
| Trailways (USA): Offers bus schedules and routes in select regions of the USA. | trailways.com | |
| South America | Recorrido (Chile): Offers information about bus schedules and routes in Chile. | recorrido.cl |
| Omnilineas (Argentina): The website provides online booking, bus schedules and ticket prices for regular bus services in Argentina. | omnilineas.com | |
| Africa | Intercape (South Africa): Provides bus schedules and information across South Africa with 155 coaches, 110 routes, and 30 sales offices. | intercape.co.za |
| Australia | Greyhound Australia: Provides bus schedules and popular routes across Australia with over 180 stops. | greyhound.com.au |
Again, please be aware that using these websites and their data should respect their terms and conditions. Many of these websites do not offer open data APIs. So, you might need to contact the bus service providers or local transit authorities directly for more specific information.
Car Rental Companies Data Sources
Car rental data sources can vary significantly, and many companies are not likely to openly share their detailed data due to competitive reasons. Anyway, here are some general data sources and some of the top car rental companies in the world.
| Data Source | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|
| Global Car Rental Data | Provides car rental data and market research. | globalcarrental.nl |
| Auto Rental News: | Offers news and industry research on the global car rental industry. | autorentalnews.com |
| Hertz | An international rental company offering services in 150 countries. | hertz.com |
| Enterprise Rent-A-Car | A global company with more than 7,600 locations worldwide. | enterprise.com |
| Avis Car Rental | Operates one of the world’s best-known car rental brands with approximately 5,500 locations in more than 165 countries. | avis.com |
| Budget Car Rental | An industry leader providing vehicle rental services through its network of approximately 3,350 locations in more than 120 countries. | budget.com |
| Alamo Rent A Car | A car rental agency in the United States. Based in Clayton, Missouri, it has branches across North America, South America, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. | alamo.com |
| National Car Rental | An international car rental company that serves the daily rental needs of frequent airport travellers. | nationalcar.com |
| Sixt Rent a Car | An international car rental company with over 4,000 locations in over 105 countries. | sixt.com |
| Europcar | A car rental company owned by Volkswagen Group. The company operates in 140 countries | europcar.com |
| Thrifty Car Rental | A subsidiary of The Hertz Corporation with headquarters in Estero, Florida and many offices around the world. | thrifty.com |
| IBISWorld | Provides market research reports which include key statistics and analysis on market characteristics, operating conditions, current and forecast performance, major industry participants, and more. Note: The data comes at a cost. | ibisworld.com |
Marine Transportation Carriers
| Marine Data Source | Description | Website |
|---|---|---|
| MarineTraffic | A platform that provides real-time data about the movements of ships globally (also through an API). | marinetraffic.com |
| VesselFinder | Similar to MarineTraffic, it provides real-time and historical AIS data. | vesselfinder.com |
| VesselTracker | Offers real-time and historical vessel and port data. | vesseltracker.com |
| Direct Ferries | The website provides data about ferry schedules, ticket prices, and routes worldwide. | directferries.com |
| Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) | It contains data and information about the maritime sector | bimco.org |
| Clarksons Research | Provides a wide array of shipping and maritime data. Most of it is accessible through subscription. | clarksons.net |
| World Port Source | Provides information about ports worldwide. | worldportsource.com |
| International Maritime Organization (IMO) | Offers data and statistics on multiple maritime topics. | imo.org |
| European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) | Provides access to the SafeSeaNet data, Long Range Identification and Tracking (LRIT) data, and historical vessel tracks. | emsa.europa.eu |
Your Next Step
International travel data in the transportation industry is diverse, massive, and dynamic by nature. Efficient data monitoring, extraction, and management with optimum results is challenging. You must also understand how to gather them without breaking the rules.
A data scraping company can help you find and design the right data solution optimised around your company’s needs, workflow, IT resources and infrastructure.
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Disclaimer: Always respect user privacy and copyright, follow ethical data scraping practices, and abide by the terms and conditions of the websites or platforms you’re scraping data from, as unauthorised data extraction may lead to legal or privacy issues. Therefore, ensure that your data collection and analysis methods are compliant. Furthermore, data can be noisy, unstructured, and constantly changing. Therefore, use a tool or service that can handle the volume and variety of data from multiple web sources. This article is for information purposes only and not intended as legal advice. Consult a lawyer for complete knowledge of the local and international laws.
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