Effectiveness of mobile recommender systems for tourist destinations: A user evaluation

Mobile recommender systems have the potential to substantially enrich tourist experiences. As their handling marks a big challenge for ordinary users, its acceptance can only be evaluated when utilized by the intended user group itself - real tourists. In a field trial in Görlitz (Germany), 421 tourists explored the city with one of two different mobile information systems, a proactive recommender of personalized tours and a pull service presenting contextbased information on demand. A third group of tourists was tracked by GPS receivers during their exploration of the destination relying on traditional means of information. Results point out that both mobile applications gained a high level of acceptance by providing an experience very similar to a traditional guided tour. Compared to the group tracked by GPS loggers, tourists using a mobile information system discovered four times more sights and stayed at them twice as long