Tourist route optimization in the context of Covid-19 pandemic

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel tourist route optimization method based on a backtracking algorithm, designed to enhance safety and manage overcrowding during and after the Covid-19 pandemic.

Contribution

It adapts the traveling salesman problem to improve tourist navigation and promote less-visited spots while ensuring social distancing measures.

Findings

Facilitates safer tourist navigation during Covid-19

Revives less-visited attractions within destinations

Supports social distancing and crowd management

Abstract

The paper presents an innovative method for tourist route planning inside a destination. The necessity of reorganizing the tourist routes within a destination comes as an immediate response to the Covid-19 crisis. The implementation of the method inside tourist destinations can be an important advantage in transforming a destination into a safer destination in times of Covid-19 and post-Covid-19. The existing trend of shortening the tourist stay length has been accelerated while the epidemic became a pandemic. Moreover, the wariness for future pandemics has brought to the spotlight the issue of overcrowded attractions inside a destination at certain moments. The method proposed in this paper proposes a backtracking algorithm, more precisely an adaptation of the travelling salesman problem. The method presented aims to facilitate the navigation inside a destination and to revive certain less-visited sightseeing spots inside a destination while facilitating the social distancing measures imposed by Covid-19.