Development of Sightseeing Spot Recommendation System Considering Users' Visit frequency

The present study aimed to design, develop, operate and evaluate a sightseeing spot recommendation system that can efficiently support tourists while considering their visit frequencies. This system was developed by integrating social networking service (SNS), Web-geographic information systems (GIS) and recommendation system. The system recommends sightseeing spots to users with different visit frequencies, adopting two recommendation methods (knowledge-based recommendation and collaborative recommendation methods). Additionally, the system was operated for 6 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 users travel or plan tours was high, and the recommendation function of sightseeing spots, which is an original function, has received mainly good ratings. From the results of access analyses 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 has been used by different types of devices just as it was designed for, and that the system has been used according to the purpose of the present study, which is to support the sightseeing activities of users.