Evaluation of Online Itinerary Planner and Investigation of Possible Enhancement Features

Current information available to the tourists visiting Hong Kong seems to be abundant and fragmented. Usually, individual tourists tend to plan their itinerary well ahead they arrive, either through tourist guide or online information sources (e.g. existing itinerary planning websites). With the enhancement of information technology, it is expected that online itinerary planning would be a complete supplementary to the hard copy travel guides and magazines in the future. However, current online itinerary planner overlooks the transportation link and optimum travel plan. For example, several tourist spots can be visited in a sequential manner so as to optimise the time spent. It is the place where this project plays its role. This project aims to develop a scheduling algorithm based on the Greedy Algorithm that helps prepare an itinerary for tourists visiting Hong Kong on an individual basis. Tourists’ limited knowledge in the spatial extent of and transportation facilities of Hong Kong have always been obstacles of arranging an efficient (optimal) travelling plan. With the view to minimize the travelling time and maximize the time of sightseeing, shortest travelling time between tourist spots have been adopted as the principle in deriving the solution. The benefit brought by the presence of this system and the current availability of tourist information (both transport and tourist spot) will be assessed and evaluated.