Gamified Participatory Sensing in Tourism: An Experimental Study of the Effects on Tourist Behavior and Satisfaction

Abstract

In the tourism sector, user-generated information and communication among tourists are perceived to be more effective and reliable contents. In addition, the collection of dynamic tourism information with high spatio-temporal resolution is required to provide comfortable tourism in response to the changing tourism style with the advancement of information technology. Participatory sensing, which can collect various types of information is a useful method by which to collect these contents. However, continuous participation of users is essential in participatory sensing, and it is one of the most important points to stimulate participation motivation. In the tourism situation, we also need to pay attention to the total tourist satisfaction of participants. In this paper, we adopt gamification, i.e., the implementation of game design elements in real-world contexts for non-gaming purposes, for participatory sensing as an incentive mechanism to motivate participants with active participation and collect the necessary information efficiently. Within the framework, where points are given when completing the requested sensing task (=mission), two sensing missions with different burdens; Area Mission and Check-in Mission, and three different types of rewarding mechanisms; Fixed, Variable and Dynamic Variable, are designed as a gamification mechanism. We implemented these elements in the proposed participatory sensing platform application and conducted an experimental case study with 33 participants at an actual tourist spot: Kyoto, Japan. Then, we investigate the effects on tourist behavior and satisfaction by analyzing collected sensor data, mission logs, and post-survey answers. As a result, we can conclude the following: (1) the tourist behavior is changed due to the proposed gamification design and the necessary information was collected efficiently; (2) the participants tend to prioritize Check-in Mission over the sightseeing, which can induce a behavior change but might impact sightseeing enjoyment.

ParmoSense: Scenario-based Participatory Mobile Urban Sensing Platform with User Motivation Engine

“…No. (44) Nov. 22nd, 2016 3 days 14 S9 (45) Nov. 26th, 2017 1 day 30 S10 (46) Jul. 29th, 2020 Through the deployment of these scenarios, we obtained the following knowledge: • Because participants were willing to attend events by themselves, we confirmed that the set of motivating functions on ParmoSense are sufficiently effective to obtain sufficient contributions from the general public.…”

ParmoSense: A Scenario-based Participatory Mobile Urban Sensing Platform with User Motivation Engine

“…To encourage active contribution of participants, we provided all the available motivating functions such as static/dynamic request (F3), points and coupons (F4). The detail analysis of these case studies (S9 and S10) are provided in our other papers [42,43]. Through these case studies, we observed the following on the effectiveness of the implemented functions for scenarios belonging to this category:…”

A Sightseeing Planning Support System with Gamification

“…Regarding (3), as mentioned in Section 1, Ishikawa et al [29], kawanaka et al [30], Hidaka et al [31] and Egger et al [32] developed sightseeing support systems incorporating gamification. In addition to these studies, Mesáro et al [33], Bujari et al [34], Panou et al [35] and Kotsopoulos et al [36] targeted cultural, historical and natural heritages, and provided users with the information concerning these places and supported their excursion behaviors.…”