Social Recommendation GIS for Urban Tourist Spots

Since the amount of information submitted and made public about tourist spots in urban areas is very large compared to that for regional tourist spots, it is difficult for people who do not have much knowledge of or acquaintance with the places concerned to efficiently obtain information necessary for taking tourist trips. This study aims to develop a social recommendation media GIS (Geographic Information Systems) specially tailored to recommend tourist spots in urban areas. The conclusions of this study are summarized in the following three points. (1) Social recommendation GIS, an information system which integrates a Web-GIS, an SNS (Social Networking Service) and a recommendation system into a single system, was operated in the central part of Yokohama City in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan. The social recommendation GIS uses a design to make it possible to redesign systems in accordance with target cases. (2) The social recommendation GIS was operated for two months for members of the general public who are more than 18 years old. The total numbers of users was 98, and the number of pieces of information submitted was 232. (3) The web questionnaire to users showed the usefulness of the integration of a Web-GIS, an SNS and a recommendation systems, because the functions of reference and recommendation can be expected to support tourists' excursion behavior. Since the access survey of log data showed that about 35% of accesses were from mobile information terminals, it can be said that the preparation of an optimal interface for such terminals was effective.