Potential-of-Interest Maps for Mobile Tourist Information Services

Abstract

To prevent tourists from being overwhelmed by a flood of tourist information, this paper proposes an alternative approach to tourist information services, namely potential-of-interest maps. Potential-of-interest maps visualize the sightseeing potential of each place in a tourist area, which is estimated from data about locations where previous visitors have found something impressive. Such maps provide visual aids for tourists and will save their effort at decision making. In this paper, we first compare five possible approaches for obtaining data about locations where previous visitors have been impressed, among which the use of photo geo-tags is concluded the most promising. We then construct an example of potential-ofinterest maps making use of Flickr’s photo data. Finally, we develop a prototype of a mobile tourist information tool which features a potential-of-interest map. In our user test, nine of twelve test users show an intention to use this tool again at other destinations.