The mobile tourist guide: an OR opportunity

Nowadays, an average tourist plans a vacation using web sites, magazine articles and guidebooks. The inability to modify this holiday plan in real-time motivates the need for a Next Generation Mobile Tourist Guide (MTG). The MTG, a handheld embedded device, is aware of the tourist's preferences, attraction values and trip information. Based on real-time and reliable data, the device can immediately suggest new integrated holiday plans. To develop these holiday plans, additional OR research and very specific decision models are required. In this paper, the Tourist Trip Design Problem (TTDP) is defined as an extension of the Orienteering Problem (OP).