On-site Trip Planning Support System Based on Dynamic Information on Tourism Spots

Abstract

Recently, due to the drastic increase in foreign tourists coming to Japan, there has been a demand to provide smart tourism services that enable inbound tourists to comfortably enjoy sightseeing. To provide satisfactory experiences for tourists, it is desirable to provide tourist information in a timely manner by considering dynamic information, which is information that changes over time, such as current congestion information in destination spots and travel route information, in addition to static information, such as the preferences and profiles of tourists. However, in many existing systems, serious problems occur, such as (1) a lack of support for on-site use, (2) a lack of consideration of dynamic information, and (3) heavy burden on tourists. In this paper, we propose a novel system that can provide tourism plans for tourism spots in a timely manner. The proposed system consists of the following two key mechanisms: (A) A mechanism for acquiring preference information from tourists (including preference on dynamic information); (B) a curation mechanism for realizing on-site tourism. To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system, we carried out evaluation experiments utilizing real tourism spots and simulations. As a result, we obtained the following primary findings: (1) On-site tourism spot recommendation is effective for tourists who do not make detailed tourism plans before sightseeing; (2) preference information for participants can be reflected in the tourism spot recommendation while massively reducing the burden on participants; (3) it is possible to obtain a higher satisfaction level than is achieved with model courses, which are often used for sightseeing.