Tour recommendation and trip planning using location-based social media: a survey

Tourism is both an important industry and popular leisure activity undertaken by millions around the world. One important task for tourists is to plan and schedule tour itineraries that comprise multiple captivating Points-of-Interests based on the unique interest preferences of the tourist. The complex task of tour itinerary recommendation is further complicated by the need to incorporate various real-life constraints such as limited time for touring, uncertain traffic conditions, inclement weather, group travel, queuing times and crowdedness. In this survey, we conduct a comprehensive literature review of studies on tour itinerary recommendation and present a general taxonomy for touring-related research. We discuss the entire process of tour itinerary recommendation research including: (i) data collection and types of datasets; (ii) problem formulations and proposed algorithms/systems for individual travellers, groups of tourists and various real-life considerations; (iii) evaluation methodologies for comparing tour itinerary recommendation algorithms; and (iv) future directions and open problems in tour itinerary recommendation research.