Recommender Systems in Tourism: A Case for Interactive Approaches
by Dietmar Jannach, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt, Austria
Abstract
There are various ways in which recommender systems can support their users in touristic contexts, from the selection of a destination, over pre-trip itinerary planning, to point-of-interest recommendation during the trip. In many of these application scenarios, building a recommender system solely on long-term interest profiles is not possible. Instead, interactive approaches are required in which users have the opportunity to interactively state and eventually revise their needs and preferences, and where the system is also able to explain its suggestions.
In this talk, we first review several application scenarios for recommender systems in tourism and summarize their specific requirements. We then focus on interactive recommendation approaches and specifically address the topics of explanations for recommender systems and mechanisms for user control.
About the speaker
Dietmar Jannach is a full professor of Information Systems at AAU Klagenfurt, Austria. Before joining AAU in 2017, he was a professor of Computer Science at TU Dortmund, Germany. In his research, he focuses on the application of intelligent system technology to practical problems and the development of methods for building knowledge-intensive software applications.
In the last years, Dietmar Jannach worked on various practical aspects of recommender systems. He is the main author of the first textbook on the topic published by Cambridge University Press in 2010 and was the co-founder of a tech startup that created an award-winning product for interactive advisory solutions.