Using a market basket analysis in tourism studies

Abstract: Understanding tourist visitation patterns is crucial for decision makers in order to create smart tourism industry. A growing body of tourism research uses geo-location data in order to better understand tourism demand. In this paper, we present a new approach based on a market basket analysis. This approach uses geo-location data shared by tourists on tourism platforms in order to bundle the range of available tourism services and understand which experiences are consumed together. The approach was tested on the case of Vienna, Austria. Based on our analyses we argue that the proposed approach has potential for use at the destination level and provides relevant information on tourism demand patterns important for smart tourism decision-making.