Understanding Tourist Movement Patterns in a Destination: A GIS Approach

Abstract

KEYWORDS: spatial movement , travel itineraries , Hong Kong , geographic information system (GIS) This paper presents preliminary findings of research examining the movement patterns of tourists within a destination. The study focuses on fully independent individual travellers visiting Hong Kong. Little research has been conducted looking at movements within a destination. Macro or inter-destination movement patterns may inform intra-destination movements. Factors affecting tourists ' choices of itineraries give reasons to support the shaping of the patterns. These factors include human factors (type of individual, travel party, motivations, etc), physical factors (destination geomorphology), trip factors (main or secondary destination, first-time or repeat visitor, etc) and the time factor (length of stay in destination, total trip duration). Geographic Information System is used for documenting spatial -temporal movements of tourists through mapping.

Information Technology Applications in Hospitality and Tourism: A Review of Publications From 2005 to 2007

“…Lau and McKercher (2006) used Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to track the tourists' movement pattern within a destination. This technique can have great benefits for tourism marketers to understand consumer behavior while at the destination and to develop strategies for creating tourism experiences.…”

Pattern mining in tourist attraction visits through association rule learning on Bluetooth tracking data: A case study of Ghent, Belgium

“…Yet, empirical studies into tourist mobility have traditionally been rather scarce due to the labor-intensive and often expensive nature of traditional methods such as direct observation (Hartmann, 1988) or personal interviews (Kemperman, Borgers, & Timmermans, 2009). Space-time diaries (Connell & Page, 2008;Janelle, Goodchild, & Klinkenberg, 1988;Lau & McKercher, 2006) shift some of the weight away from the researchers but are often characterized by a low reliability as respondents tend to forget or neglect to register certain activities. Recently, however, tracking technologies offer a more scalable and objective way to capture spatiotemporal behavior in a detailed way (Shoval & Isaacson, 2009).…”

The Tourist Behaviour in Different Environments: A Literature Review

“…In addition, little research has been conducted looking at movements of tourists. As Lau and McKercher (2006) reported, factors such human (motivation and travel party) and physical (destination geomorphology) affect tourists' choices of itineraries and give reasons to support the shaping of the movement patterns. Thus, it can be said that contemporary tourism is fundamentally constructed culturally, socially and materially through images and performances of destinations.…”

“…Furthermore, people construct views through space, and organize the acquired knowledge, information and experience through the senses (Lau & McKercher, 2006). Thus, the tourist perception is generally referred to the outcomes that visitors have constructed for a physical and social environment they have visited.…”

“…This means that perception is different for each individual tourist at any time regarding anything or towards different environment setting. This is indeed because of the perception is strongly linked to psychology, and people construct their views based on cognitive processes that capture and organize knowledge, experiences and information through the senses (Lau & McKercher, 2006). Thus, a destination's pull factors, such as their promotional activities, weather, beaches, scenery, facilities and attractions are also important influences in setting expectations, and subsequently, in meeting the needs of tourists.…”