Travel recommendations in a mobile tourist information system

An advanced mobile tourist information system delivers information about sights and events on a tourists travel route. The system should be personalized in its interaction with the tourist. Data that can be used for personalization are: the tourists interest profile, an analysis of their travel history, and the tourists feedback about sights. Existing mobile information systems for tourists do not tailor their information delivery to the tourists interests. In this paper, we propose the use of personalised recommendations that consider all of the personal information a tourist provides. We adopt and modify techniques from recommended systems to the new application area of mobile tourist information. We propose a number of methods for personalised recommendations; and select a subset of these for implementation. This paper then presents the implemented recommended component of our TIP system for mobile tourist informatio

Tourism mobile and recommendation systems - a state of the art

Recommendation systems have been growing in number for the last fifteen years. To evolve and adapt to the demands of the actual society, many paradigms emerged giving birth to even more paradigms and hybrid approaches. Mobile devices have also been under an incredible growth rate in every business area, and there are already lots of mobile based systems to assist tourists. This explosive growth gave birth to different mobile applications, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. Since recommendation and mobile systems might as well be integrated, this work intends to present the current state of the art in tourism mobile and recommendation systems, as well as to state their advantages and disadvantages

Advanced recommendations in a mobile tourist information system

An advanced tourist information provider system delivers information regarding sights and events on their users' travel route. In order to give sophisticated personalized information about tourist attractions to their users, the system is required to consider base data which are user preferences defined in their user profiles, user context, sights context, user travel history as well as their feedback given to the sighs they have visited. In addition to sights information, recommendation on sights to the user could also be provided. This project concentrates on combinations of knowledge on recommendation systems and base information given by the users to build a recommendation component in the Tourist Information Provider or TIP system. To accomplish our goal, we not only examine several tourist information systems but also conduct the investigation on recommendation systems. We propose a number of approaches for advanced recommendation models in a tourist information system and select a subset of these for implementation to prove the concept

Recommendation & mobile systems - a state of the art for tourism

Recommendation systems have been growing in number over the last fifteen years. To evolve and adapt to the demands of the actual society, many paradigms emerged giving birth to even more paradigms and hybrid approaches. These approaches contain strengths and weaknesses that need to be evaluated according to the knowledge area in which the system is going to be implemented. Mobile devices have also been under an incredible growth rate in every business area, and there are already lots of mobile based systems to assist tourists. This explosive growth gave birth to different mobile applications, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. Since recommendation and mobile systems might as well be integrated, this work intends to present the current state of the art in tourism mobile and recommendation systems, as well as to state their advantages and disadvantages

MARKETING COMMUNICATION IN THE VISIT PHASE THROUGH GUEST.NET - AN INDESTINATION, LOCATION-BASED SYSTEM AT MAISTRA HOTEL CHAIN IN CROATIA

Hoteliers have always endeavoured to retain guests within their facilities, to profit maximally by offering them additional services. Informing guests of various options is performed within in-house marketing techniques, whereas some are ICT based. Purpose. Hotel chain websites are aimed at the acquisition of guests and as such are inadequate for displaying detailed, service and current information that guests need during their stay in a tourist destination (e.g. happy hour offer at the lobby bar). What about information provided to guests once in the tourist destination? This paper will present one such solution: the Guest.net. It is an in-destination, location-based website accessible from all Maistra Inc. properties, representing a good solution for hotel chains with various nearby positioned tourism facilities aimed at retaining guests within chain facilities. Design/Methodology/Approach. The approach used in this paper is the case study method. Findings and Implications. Klante, Kroschel and Bolls theoretical information model (2004) was expanded by adding the planning in situ phase in tourism. Benefits of the application of similar guest services for hotel chains have been listed. Limitations. Limitations steam from the case study method and relate to the minor geographical area researched. Originality. There is an evident lack in research of customers in tourism during the visit phase, regarding their decision making process, especially in the evaluation of alternatives and their purchase decision in situ (Law, Buhalis, Cobanoglu, 2014), thus this paper broadens the identified gap in the information collection phase in the destination

Mobile Datenbanken - heute, morgen und in 20 Jahren. Tagungsband zum 8. Workshop des GI-Arbeitskreises "Mobile Datenbanken und Informationssysteme" am 28.2.2005 im Rahmen der BTW 2005 in Karlsruhe

Der Workshop Mobile Datenbanken heute, morgen und in 20 Jahren ist der nunmehr achte Workshop des GI Arbeitskreises Mobile Datenbanken und Informationssysteme. Der Workshop findet im Rahmen der BTW 2005, der GI Fachtagung für Datenbanksysteme in Business, Technologie und Web, vom 28. Februar bis zum 01. März 2005 in Karlsruhe statt. Das Workshopprogramm umfasst zwei eingeladene Vorträge sowie sieben wissenschaftliche Beiträge, die vom Programmkomitee aus den Einreichungen ausgewählt wurden. Für den zweiten Workshoptag, der im Zeichen intensiver Diskussionen stehen soll, wurden zwei weitere Einreichungen als Diskussionsgrundlage ausgewählt. Inhaltlich spannt der Workshop einen weiten Bogen: Von fast schon klassischen Fragen aus dem Kernbereich mobiler Datenbanken, wie etwa der Transaktionsbearbeitung in diesen Systemen, bis hin zu neuen Multimediaanwendungen auf mobilen Geräten und von der Anfragebearbeitung in Ad-hoc-Netzen bis zur Analyse des Stands der Technik beim Entwurf mobiler Anwendungen. Diese Breite spiegelt die Breite der Fragestellungen, die bei der Betrachtung von mobiler Informationsnutzung zu Tage treten, wider. Wir hoffen mit unserem Workshop einen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis dieser Fragestellungen zu liefern und ein Forum zum Austausch von Fragen, Lösungsansätzen und Problemstellungen zwischen Praktikern und Forschern aus dem universitären Umfeld zu bieten

PSiS mobile

Os sistemas de recomendação têm vindo a ser cada vez mais utilizados nos últimos anos. Por isso, é imprescindível que estes sistemas se adaptem à evolução da sociedade incluindo cada vez mais novas funcionalidades, tais como a adaptação do sistema ao contexto da pessoa. Esta adaptação pode ser feita através de, por exemplo, dispositivos móveis, que têm vindo a apresentar uma taxa de crescimento de vendas muito grande. Dada a crescente integração dos sistemas de recomendação com os sistemas móveis, foi elaborado um estudo sobre o estado da arte dos sistemas de auxílio ao turista que utilizam dispositivos móveis, sendo apresentadas as suas vantagens e desvantagens. Estes sistemas móveis de auxílio a turistas foram divididos em dois grupos: os que apresentam apenas a informação sobre pontos de interesse e os sistemas que são capazes de efectuar recomendações, com base no perfil do turista. Um breve estudo sobre os sistemas operativos para dispositivos móveis é apresentado, sendo especialmente focado o sistema operativo Android que foi o escolhido para esta implementação. Como os dispositivos móveis, actualmente, ainda possuem várias limitações, estas foram descritas e apresentadas as boas práticas no desenvolvimento de aplicações para este tipo de sistemas. É também apresentado um estudo que visa descobrir qual é o método mais leve e mais rápido para trocar dados entre a parte servidora e a parte móvel. Com a parte introdutória apresentada, é exposto o projecto desenvolvido nesta tese, o PSiS Mobile. Este sistema é um módulo que faz parte do projecto PSiS e pretende trazer todas as vantagens dos sistemas móveis para o sistema base já implementado. O projecto PSiS foca-se no estabelecimento de planos de visita personalizados com indicação de percursos para turistas com tempo limitado. Apoiando a definição de planos de visitas de acordo com o perfil do turista (interesses, valores pessoais, desejos, restrições, deficiências, etc.) combinando os produtos de turismo mais adequados (locais de interesse, eventos, restaurantes, etc.) em itinerários eficientes. A utilização de dispositivos móveis para acompanhamento da visita permite uma rápida interacção entre o turista e o sistema. Assim, o PSiS poderá recolher informação contextual do utilizador para que o perfil do mesmo seja enriquecido. O sistema apresentado é composto por duas partes: a parte cliente e a parte servidora. Toda a informação, como por exemplo o perfil do turista, histórico de viagens e valores de similaridade entre utilizadores está presente na parte servidora. O processo de recomendação também é efectuado pela aplicação servidora, sendo esta a responsável pela atribuição de uma classificação aos pontos de interesse tendo em conta o perfil do utilizador em causa. A base de dados do PSiS possui toda a informação relativa aos pontos de interesse numa determinada cidade ou região e o portfólio completo do histórico de visitas de cada utilizador. A componente móvel é uma parte muito importante para o sistema, pois interage com o utilizador no terreno. Um dispositivo móvel como o PDA, não só permite a apresentação de informação relevante ao utilizador, como também permite a recolha automática de informação contextual (por exemplo, a localização). Toda esta informação contribui para a definição de um perfil completo e para uma melhor adaptação do sistema às necessidades do utilizador. De forma a nem sempre estar dependente do servidor, a aplicação móvel possui rotinas para a realização de recomendações básicas. Ou seja, a aplicação móvel não realiza a classificação dos pontos de interesse, mas apenas mostra os principais resultados já formados pela parte servidora. Por exemplo, se um utilizador gostar de comida Chinesa, um restaurante Chinês nas imediações irá ter uma boa classificação e, por isso, ser recomendado. A aplicação móvel mostra ao turista o percurso definido para o dia em que o mesmo se encontra, sendo feito o rastreio do trajecto que o mesmo efectua. Assim, o sistema consegue saber se o horário do planeamento está a ser cumprido ou não. Caso não esteja, é invocado um algoritmo de planeamento que irá tentar corrigir o atraso ou o adiantamento perante o horário inicial. Depois de visitar um ponto de interesse, é pedido ao utilizador para fornecer feedback sobre o mesmo. Se desejado também é possível mostrar os pontos de interesse existentes perto do turista (usando as coordenadas GPS obtidas pelo dispositivo móvel) organizados por categorias, raio de distância, etc. Apesar dos dispositivos móveis possuírem várias restrições, pretendeu-se proporcionar ao utilizador uma boa experiência, através de uma aplicação rápida, de fácil utilização e adaptável, incluindo funcionalidades de planeamento, realidade aumentada e integração com a rede social do sistema. Todos estes factores contribuem para a disponibilização de informação detalhada ao turista.Recommendation systems have been growing in a relative number over the last years. But with the actual society evolution and expectations, these systems need to be improved to include new features, such as adapting the system to the context of the user. This adaptation can be performed using mobile devices, which nowadays are under an incredible growth rate in every business area. Since recommendation and mobile systems might be integrated, this work presents the current state of the art in tourism recommendation systems using mobile devices, and states their advantages/disadvantages. A brief study of mobile devices operating system is made and Android Operating System is described, presenting his functionalities and demonstrate how it works, in a software engineering way. Since mobile devices have several limitations a study will be presented to discover the lightest and fastest way to exchange information between a server and a mobile client. PSiS Mobile, that is the proposal of this thesis, is a mobile recommendation system and planning support, designed to provide an effective support during the visit of a tourist, providing context-aware information and recommendations about places of interest to visit based on tourist preferences and his current context

Administration Service for the Tourist Information System (TIP)

The modern day tourists do not want to deal with the hassle of using a large number of travel guides and paper maps while travelling. They would prefer to be able to access required information via their mobile phones or Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). We realise that the delivered information may be originally available in numerous information formats. To support the administrator of the tourist guides the programme is required to help sorting information from these different sources and to help inserting them into a system. Our goal with this project is to develop a software support for processing information import via a graphical user interface, to support the administrator in identifying and extracting the appropriate sight information from various resources. The interface also helps in transferring and storing the structured and unstructured data into the TIP database

User-centred and context-aware identity management in mobile ad-hoc networks

The emergent notion of ubiquitous computing makes it possible for mobile devices to communicate and provide services via networks connected in an ad-hoc manner. These have resulted in the proliferation of wireless technologies such as Mobile Ad-hoc Networks (MANets), which offer attractive solutions for services that need flexible setup as well as dynamic and low cost wireless connectivity. However, the growing trend outlined above also raises serious concerns over Identity Management (IM) due to a dramatic increase in identity theft. The problem is even greater in service-oriented architectures, where partial identities are sprinkled across many services and users have no control over such identities. In this thesis, we review some issues of contextual computing, its implications and usage within pervasive environments. To tackle the above problems, it is essential to allow users to have control over their own identities in MANet environments. So far, the development of such identity control remains a significant challenge for the research community. The main focus of this thesis is on the area of identity management in MANets and emergency situations by using context-awareness and user-centricity together with its security issues and implications. Context- awareness allows us to make use of partial identities as a way of user identity protection and node identification. User-centricity is aimed at putting users in control of their partial identities, policies and rules for privacy protection. These principles help us to propose an innovative, easy-to-use identity management framework for MANets. The framework makes the flow of partial identities explicit; gives users control over such identities based on their respective situations and contexts, and creates a balance between convenience and privacy. The thesis presents our proposed framework, its development and lab results/evaluations, and outlines possible future work to improve the framework