A Sightseeing Spot Recommendation System That Takes into Account the Change in Circumstances of Users

The present study aimed to design, develop, operate and evaluate a sightseeing spot recommendation system for urban sightseeing spots in order to support individual, as well as group sightseeing activities while taking into consideration the user’s needs, which can change according to the circumstances (each user’s important conditions and sightseeing unit). The system was developed by integrating Web-GIS (Geographic Information Systems), the pairing system, the evaluation system, as well as the recommendation system into a single system, and it was also connected with external SNS (Social Networking Services: Twitter and Facebook). Additionally, the system was operated for four weeks in the central part of Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, and the total number of users was 52. Based on the results of the web questionnaire survey, the usefulness of the system when sightseeing was high, and the recommendation function of sightseeing spots, which is an original function, has received mainly good ratings. From the results of the access analysis of users’ log data, 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.