Tourist Site Classification Using Keyword Matching Approach: Towards the Development of a Personality Based Tourist Recommendation System

Abstract

The tourism domain consists of emotionally driven experiences between the tourists and their destinations. Psychological aspects of tourists‟ preferences are increasingly becoming an important factor to consider in the development of systems that enhance better recommendations. Studies on analysis of personality traits as well as developed systems on tourism guide/recommendation exist, however, there is less effort towards the classification of tourist sites according to personality traits and its implementation. This study, therefore, attempts to develop a tourist attraction guide through matching keywords from personality types (Big Five personality dimensions) to tourist locations in order to suggest suitable locations. Data on tourist sites were obtained from online sources with a focus on Nigeria tourist sites. The classification and matching of personality type to tourist site was done using trait keywords obtained from reviews, ratings and feedback. The tourist site information was filtered based on the personality type classification in order to deliver information about the tourist site to a user. The system prototype was implemented using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, PHP and MySQL. The resulting system is a web-based application that suggests tourist locations based on the personality preference specified by a user.