Linked Data Based Framework for Tourism Decision Support System: Case Study of Chinese Tourists in Switzerland

Zhan Liu¹, Anne Le Calvé¹, Fabian Cretton¹, Nicole Glassey Balet¹, Maria Sokhn¹, Nicolas Délétroz²

¹Institute of Information Systems, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), Sierre, Switzerland.
²Institute of Tourism, University of Applied Sciences and Arts Western Switzerland (HES-SO Valais-Wallis), Sierre, Switzerland.

DOI: 10.4236/jcc.2015.35015                

Abstract

Switzerland is one of the most desirable European destinations for Chinese tourists; therefore, a better understanding of Chinese tourists is essential for successful business practices. In China, the largest and leading social media platform—Sina Weibo, a hybrid of Twitter and Facebook—has more than 600 million users. Weibo’s great market penetration suggests that tourism operators and markets need to understand how to build effective and sustainable communications on Chinese social media platforms. In order to offer a better decision support platform to tourism destination managers as well as Chinese tourists, we proposed a framework using linked data on Sina Weibo. Linked Data is a term referring to using the Internet to connect related data. We will show how it can be used and how ontology can be designed to include the users’ context (e.g., GPS locations). Our framework will provide a good theoretical foundation for further understand Chinese tourists’ expectation, experiences, behaviors and new trends in Switzerland.

Keywords

Linked Data, Semantic Web, Decision Support System, Natural Language Processing, Behaviors Analysis, Social Networks, Chinese Tourist, Switzerland, New Trends, Sina Weibo

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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