Creating itineraries using decision analysis

With the age of technology and information, tourists today are more informed. The dynamic nature of the ever growing tourism industry, the ever changing demands and the drive towards customization coupled with the availability of offline, online and mobile commerce has led to products and services being developed to plan and organize travel. Websites like TripHobo, TripIt, TripAdvisor etc. have simplified the reservation systems involved in planning for trips. They may give the customers recommendations based on the rankings and ratings of other people, and probably in the near future, may recommend places to visit within the city based on history. But until now, there has not been a solution which suggests the destinations to be visited and no system accounts for one of the best measures of personal requirements, i.e. the 'utility'. This thesis describes a new method for recommending a complete itinerary to tourists (especially individual travelers). It proposes a model which uses decision theory and data available online to customize, choose and build an itinerary for a tourist. The objective of the model is to find the combination of tourist destinations along with the number of days that the tourist should spend at each destination and the recommended activities. The combination is chosen in a way that maximizes the utility of the trip: in lay terms, the itinerary should maximize the satisfaction that the tourist derives from the trip.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Industrial Engineering

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2016

Author dc:creator

• Sancheti, Ninad Lalit

Contributors dc:contributor

• Thurston, Deborah L.

• Itinerary
• Building
• Recommendation
• Decision Analysis

Statement dc:rights

• © 2016 Ninad Sancheti

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/92801

OAI record oai:identifier

https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=etdms&identifier=oai%3Awww.ideals.illinois.edu%3A2142%2F92801