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Forecasting tourist arrivals at attractions: Search engine empowered methodologies

Author

Listed:
  • Katerina Volchek

    (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)

  • Anyu Liu

    (University of Surrey, UK)

  • Haiyan Song

    (The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong)

  • Dimitrios Buhalis

    (Bournemouth University, UK)

Abstract

Tourist decision to visit attractions is a complex process influenced by multiple factors of individual context. This study investigates how the accuracy of tourism demand forecasting can be improved at the micro level. The number of visits to five London museums is forecast and the predictive powers of Naïve I, seasonal Naïve, seasonal autoregressive moving average, seasonal autoregressive moving average with explanatory variables, SARMAX-mixed frequency data sampling and artificial neural network models are compared. The empirical findings extend understanding of different types of data and forecasting algorithms to the level of specific attractions. Introducing the Google Trends index on pure time-series models enhances the forecasts of the volume of arrivals to attractions. However, none of the applied models outperforms the others in all situations. Different models’ forecasting accuracy varies for short- and long-term demand predictions. The application of higher frequency search query data allows for the generation of weekly predictions, which are essential for attraction- and destination-level planning.

Suggested Citation

  • Katerina Volchek & Anyu Liu & Haiyan Song & Dimitrios Buhalis, 2019. "Forecasting tourist arrivals at attractions: Search engine empowered methodologies," Tourism Economics, , vol. 25(3), pages 425-447, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:toueco:v:25:y:2019:i:3:p:425-447
    DOI: 10.1177/1354816618811558
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    Cited by:

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    4. Ling Tang & Chengyuan Zhang & Tingfei Li & Ling Li, 2021. "A novel BEMD-based method for forecasting tourist volume with search engine data," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(5), pages 1015-1038, August.
    5. Jiao, Xiaoying & Chen, Jason Li & Li, Gang, 2021. "Forecasting tourism demand: Developing a general nesting spatiotemporal model," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    6. Han Liu & Yongjing Wang & Haiyan Song & Ying Liu, 2023. "Measuring tourism demand nowcasting performance using a monotonicity test," Tourism Economics, , vol. 29(5), pages 1302-1327, August.
    7. Haodong Sun & Yang Yang & Yanyan Chen & Xiaoming Liu & Jiachen Wang, 2023. "Tourism demand forecasting of multi-attractions with spatiotemporal grid: a convolutional block attention module model," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 205-233, June.
    8. Li, Hengyun & Hu, Mingming & Li, Gang, 2020. "Forecasting tourism demand with multisource big data," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    9. Yang, Yang & Fan, Yawen & Jiang, Lan & Liu, Xiaohui, 2022. "Search query and tourism forecasting during the pandemic: When and where can digital footprints be helpful as predictors?," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    10. Siqi Emily Lu & Brent Moyle & Sacha Reid & Elaine Yang & Biqiang Liu, 2023. "Technology and museum visitor experiences: a four stage model of evolution," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 151-174, June.
    11. Doris Chenguang Wu & Shiteng Zhong & Richard T R Qiu & Ji Wu, 2022. "Are customer reviews just reviews? Hotel forecasting using sentiment analysis," Tourism Economics, , vol. 28(3), pages 795-816, May.
    12. Jian-Wu Bi & Tian-Yu Han & Yanbo Yao, 2024. "Collaborative forecasting of tourism demand for multiple tourist attractions with spatial dependence: A combined deep learning model," Tourism Economics, , vol. 30(2), pages 361-388, March.
    13. Gang Xie & Xin Li & Yatong Qian & Shouyang Wang, 2021. "Forecasting tourism demand with KPCA-based web search indexes," Tourism Economics, , vol. 27(4), pages 721-743, June.

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