Effectiveness of Mobile Recommender Systems for Tourist Destinations: A User Evaluation

Mobile recommender systems have the potential to substantially enrich tourist experiences. But handling mobile devices marks a big challenge for ordinary users. The acceptance and usability of such a mobile tour recommender can only be evaluated when utilized by the intended user group itself - real tourists. In afield trial in Gorlitz (Germany), 421 tourists explored the city with one of two different mobile information systems, a proactive recommender of personalized tours and a pull service presenting context-based information on demand. A third group of tourists was tracked by GPS receivers during their exploration of the destination relying on traditional means of information. Results point out that both mobile applications gained a high level of acceptance by providing an experience very similar to a traditional guided tour. Compared to the group tracked by GPS loggers, tourists using a mobile information system discovered four times more sights and stayed at them twice as long.