A Sightseeing Spot Recommendation System That Takes into Account the Visiting Frequency of Users

Yudai Kato,Kayoko Yamamoto

doi:10.3390/ijgi9070411

Abstract

The present study aimed to design, develop, operate and evaluate a sightseeing spot recommendation system that can efficiently and usefully support tourists while considering their visiting frequencies. This system was developed by integrating social networking services (SNSs), Web-geographic information systems (GIS) and recommendation systems. The system recommends sightseeing spots to users with different visiting frequencies, adopting two recommendation methods (knowledge-based recommendation and collaborative recommendation methods). Additionally, the system was operated for six weeks in Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and the total number of users was 61. Based on the results of the web questionnaire survey, the usefulness of the system when sightseeing was high, and the recommendation function of sightseeing spots, which is an original function, received mainly good ratings. From the results of the access analysis of users’ log data, the total number of sessions in this system was 329, 77% used mobile devices, and smartphones were used most frequently. Therefore, it is evident that the system was used by different types of devices just as it was designed for, and that the system was used according to the purpose of the present study, which is to support the sightseeing activities of users.

Highlights

Due to the advancement of information in recent years, anyone can send and receive information regardless of time and place, and obtain an abundance of various information from the internet
In comparison with the preceding studies mentioned above, the first original feature of the present study is that the system can be utilized by users with different travel frequencies including tourists that visit for the first time and have little knowledge and sense of locality as well as tourists who are repeat travelers and have an abundance of knowledge and sense of locality concerning sightseeing spots
The second original feature is that the system adopts both knowledge-based recommendation and collaborative recommendation as methods to recommend sightseeing spots according to the different preferences of users that occur due to the difference in visiting frequency

Summary

Introduction

Due to the advancement of information in recent years, anyone can send and receive information regardless of time and place, and obtain an abundance of various information from the internet. Okamura et al (2007) [1] identified the difference in sightseeing spots where tourists with different visiting frequencies visited. In this regard, taking up Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan as an example, the enhancement of sightseeing support for repeat travelers was addressed as one of the issues on sightseeing (Kamakura City, 2016) [2]. It is best to provide sightseeing spot information according to the visiting frequency of tourists This is because it is difficult to use the same method to provide adequate and appropriate support for both tourists that visit for the first time and have limited knowledge and sense of locality, as well as tourists including repeat travelers who have knowledge and sense of locality concerning sightseeing spots

Methods

Results

Conclusion