1. Destination Inspiration using
eTourism tool
Martin Goossen
Henk Meeuwsen, Jappe Franke & Arjen de Jong
Alterra, part of Wageningen University and
Researchcentre
Wageningen, The Netherlands
Martin.goossen@wur.nl
ENTER 2014 Research Track
Slide Number 1

2. Agenda
• Introduction
– Problem
– Previous research
• Method
• Results
• Evaluation
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Slide Number 2

3. Introduction
• tourism as an opportunity for (rural)
economic development
• Match preferences (demand) and supply to
be successful
• Critical factor (for some tourists) in the
supply is, among others, the landscape and
its land use
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Slide Number 3

4. The problem
• a severe lack of information regarding
subjective choices, preferences and
consumer attitudes when it comes to
landscape assessment.
• Traditional ways (questionnaire) are very
costly and high proportion of non response
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Slide Number 4

5. Central question
How to collect landuse preferences data of
the consumers (tourists) on an European
scale in a cost efficient way and with high
response
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Slide Number 5

6. Previous Research
• Use internet and give something useful and
save preferences in database (Google
method)
• Finding holiday destination is most
stressfull (30%) source: Skyscanner 2012 (N=20,000)
• Average 7-10 hours on internet to find
destination source vakantie.nl 2010 (N=3,500)
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7. Destination Recommendation
Systems (DRS)
• Semantic (enter words for search)
- Choose a land or region
- Content from tourism industry (reliable,
complete?)
• Photos
- Not complete
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Slide Number 7

8. Method
connect European digital geographical databases
(GIS) with individual preferences:
•Land use
•Climate
•Relief
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Slide Number 8

9. Method
e-SCAPE (Electronic information system for
landSCAPE preferences)
Smart landscape tool :
•Digital geographical data
•www.myplacetobe.eu as a Holiday Planner
•European database with preferences and
personalized maps
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Slide Number 9

10. Method
•
•
•
•
Divide Europe in gridcells of 5 x 5 km²
Count the amount of land use in %
16 types of land use
Compare the amount with prefered
amount land use
• Overlay of all selected land uses
• Score gridcell 1-10
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Slide Number 10

11. Method
Type of Holiday
Type of Land use at your destination
Type of Land use in the surroundings
Attractiveness of landscape around home
Climate indicators
Altitude differences
Recreation Activities
Type of users
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12. Results of 1 year
-
35,258 visitors
3313 unique visitors (10%)
57% of the visitors is male.
The average age is 41 years.
About 6800 personalized maps
Country
Netherlands
France
Canada
Belgium
United Kingdom
Germany
Italy
Spain
Switzerland
United States
Other countries
Total
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N
2169
102
97
92
91
88
48
44
41
41
500
3313
%
65.5
3.1
2.9
2.8
2.7
2.7
1.4
1.3
1.2
1.2
15.2
100
Slide Number 12

13. Results of 1 year
- 20% prefer mountains (500-1500 meter)
- 19% prefer hills (100-500 meter)
Table 2. Amount (%) type of holiday per country
Type
Active
Beach
City trip
Other
Water sport
No specific
N
Total
40.5
11.3
7.4
6.6
3.2
31.0
3313
BE
32.6
6.5
8.7
8.7
7.6
35.9
92
CA
5.2
2.1
5.2
0.0
1.0
86.6
97
CH
41.5
7.3
2.4
4.9
4.9
39.0
41
DE
42.0
6.8
10.2
3.4
3.4
34.1
88
ES
29.5
20.5
15.9
2.3
0.0
31.8
44
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FR
24.5
4.9
4.9
3.9
3.9
57.8
102
IT
45.8
14.6
8.3
2.1
0.0
29.2
48
NL
46.6
11.1
6.3
7.9
3.4
24.8
2169
UK
33.0
16.5
11.0
6.6
3.3
29.7
91
Slide Number 13
US
39.0
14.6
7.3
12.2
2.4
24.4
41

14. Results of 1 year
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Slide Number 14

15. Results of 1 year
Table 4. Average (%) amount of preferred land use by country
Land use
Forest
Beaches, dunes and sands*
Fresh water
Mixed arable land and pastures
Villages*
Natural grassland**
Moors and Heathlands**
Glaciers and perpetual snow**
Plantation
Pastures
Arable land*
Shrubs**
Wetlands**
Marshes
No vegetation
Industry*
Total
BE
CA
CH
DE
ES
FR
IT
NL
UK
US
23
17
14
14
14
14
12
12
11
11
9
9
8
6
6
2
22
16
15
17
15
17
14
10
9
16
7
8
13
10
6
1
21
25
13
11
21
14
6
17
10
12
7
5
5
4
8
5
26
14
11
14
15
14
12
23
10
12
9
6
6
6
5
3
22
15
13
13
14
14
9
11
11
13
19
8
6
4
10
2
27
16
17
18
16
18
8
14
7
14
22
2
9
1
3
1
22
22
16
15
16
17
11
10
14
11
7
11
7
8
6
10
22
18
13
12
14
14
5
13
14
11
9
4
6
3
6
5
23
16
14
14
13
13
12
11
12
11
9
9
8
7
6
2
23
25
12
11
13
17
13
11
10
10
5
9
4
5
9
6
29
21
16
16
18
8
12
16
7
17
11
9
4
5
1
0
ENTER 2014 Research Track
*significance level <0.01: ** significance level < 0.05
Slide Number 15

16. Results of 1 year
Table 6. Preferred (%) recreational activities during a holiday
Activity
Percentage
Hiking/walking
50.2
Visit natural sites
48.1
Visit monuments, castles, ruines 39.6
Swimming
39.5
Visit bars, pubs, café
38.3
Visit restaurants
36.3
Photographing
36.3
Visit cities
34.5
Biking
33.8
Relaxing, sunbathing, reading
33.6
ENTER 2014 Research Track
Slide Number 16

17. Evaluation
-
Promote the website
More user friendly
Known region as reference
Distance/country as a preference
Warning not logical preferences
Too much preferences
Scores at selected destination
Cost efficient growing database
- Map matching
- National/regional version
- Connection with accommodation
ENTER providers
2014 Research Track
Slide Number 17

18. Thanks for listening
Sub-titel corps 28 News Gothic regular
Martin.goossen@wur.nl
+31 317 481674
GET INSPIRED FOR A HOLIDAY IN EUROPE:
www.myplacetobe.eu