TriPlan: an interactive visual analytics approach for better tourism route planning.

Area of Science:

• Tourism planning and development
• Human-computer interaction
• Visual analytics

Background:

• Traditional tourism route planning is labor-intensive and costly, involving extensive field studies.
• Existing route recommendation systems often use unexplainable black-box models and lack route evaluation guidance.
• Interactive itinerary customization tools often lack destination image perception and route assessment support.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose TriPlan, an interactive visual analytics system for tourism product developers.
• To provide intuitive planning guidance for novel tourism route development.
• To address limitations in existing route planning methods, including explainability and evaluation.

Main Methods:

• Design and implementation of an interactive visual analytics system (TriPlan).
• Development of coordinated visualizations for route pattern and destination image analysis.
• Integration of a hierarchical planning view and automatic route optimization algorithms.
• Inclusion of user interactions for itinerary adjustment and optimization.

Main Results:

• TriPlan facilitates analysis from both overall route patterns and individual destination images.
• The system provides a hierarchical view for understanding plan structure.
• Automatic optimization and interactive adjustments enhance itinerary planning.
• Usability and effectiveness validated through case studies and expert interviews.

Conclusions:

• TriPlan offers an effective solution for tourism route planning, addressing limitations of existing methods.
• The system empowers developers with data-driven insights for improved tourist experiences and competitiveness.
• Interactive visual analytics can significantly enhance the complexity of tourism product development.