Designing Recommender Systems for Tourism

In this paper, we argue that the process of developing travel recommender systems (TRS) can be simplified. By studying the application domain of tourism information systems, and examining the algorithms and architectures available for recommender systems today, we discuss the dependencies and present a methodology for developing TRS, which can be applied at very early stages of TRS development. It aims to be insightful without overburdening the project team with the mathematical basis and technical detail of the state of the art in recommender systems, thereby enhancing the developer team’s adhesion and reducing the project risks of such systems. A shortened version of this report has been published as “Tobias Berka and Manuela Plößnig: Designing Recommender Systems for Tourism. In: 11th International Conference on Information Technology in Travel and Tourism (ENTER), 2004.”