Gamification design using tourist-generated pictures to enhance visitor engagement at intercity tourist sites

This study explores the potential of leveraging tourist-generated images to enhance engagement and loyalty at intercity tourist sites through a photo challenge game. With over 1.72 trillion photos shared annually on social media, these visuals offer a valuable resource for motivating participation. Unlike traditional games that focus on individual attractions, our approach targets intercity destinations to foster a deeper connection and sense of loyalty. The research methodology involved meticulous preparation of diverse and relevant datasets comprising tourist-generated images. These images were categorized and classified using advanced techniques such as GAN and geometric augmentation, employing an ensemble of models including EfficientNetV2B1, EfficientNetV2B0, and MobileNetV2. Additionally, a modified Siamese network compared tourist-submitted photos with standard photos from the warehouse, displaying the ranking publicly to boost engagement. The computational analysis demonstrated outstanding performance, with a classification accuracy exceeding 97.08% and a robust scoring system accuracy of 93.10%. User feedback was overwhelmingly positive, with a high SUS score of 96.09%. By capitalizing on the vast quantity of tourist-generated images, our photo challenge game successfully enhances engagement and loyalty at intercity tourist sites. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of combining advanced image processing techniques with gamification elements to create a memorable visitor experience and attract a broader audience of mature tourists.