Exploring trajectories and tourist behavior using the entropy curve

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a new method that allows calculating the characteristics of tourist paths, favoring the understanding of visitor behavior. Changes and complexities are considered between a first phase of quasi-random "search" of attractions and tourist sites to visit, and a second phase of direct access to places of interest in the territory. This method is based on the notion of entropy curve, where a low value corresponds to a direct and rapid access to the preselected or recently defined sites, and a high value corresponds to an almost random search for tourist sites showing a more erratic behavior of the tourist. The location in space and time of the high entropy parts of the tourist trajectory would allow making better decisions related to the management of tourism in a given territory.