Automatic Generation of Custom Tourist Routes

Abstract

In this paper we present a new tool for the automatic generation of custom tourist routes. Starting from the user preferences (place to visit, starting and ending points, available time, favourite types of attractions) our system is able to extract information from the Web and to suggest a custom route to the user. Our system is based only onto online information, which is dynamically extracted at the query time, so that it can work for every location in the world, with no restrictions. Furthermore, our method does not require any user intervention, unless the input parameters. Our system is also able to give to the users supplementary information about the route stops, as a photo slideshow and a textual description of the places. We implemented a Web application, which has been available online, and we test our prototype with the help of some Facebook focus groups. We collected users'feedback through an online evaluation form.