IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i5p2926-d512970.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Combining Social Media and Mobile Positioning Data in the Analysis of Tourist Flows: A Case Study from Szeged, Hungary

Author

Listed:
  • Zoltán Kovács

    (Department of Economic and Social Geography, University of Szeged, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary
    Geographical Institute, Research Centre for Astronomy and Earth Sciences, H-1112 Budapest, Hungary)

  • György Vida

    (Department of Economic and Social Geography, University of Szeged, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary)

  • Ábel Elekes

    (Hungarian Tourism Agency, H-1027 Budapest, Hungary)

  • Tamás Kovalcsik

    (Department of Economic and Social Geography, University of Szeged, H-6720 Szeged, Hungary)

Abstract

Despite the growing importance of mobile tracking technology in urban planning and traffic forecasting, its utilization in the understanding of the basic laws governing tourist flows remains limited. Knowledge regarding the motivations and spatial behavior of tourists has great potential in sustainable tourism studies. In this paper, we combine social media (Twitter) and mobile positioning data (MPD) in the analysis of international tourism flows in Szeged, a secondary urban center in Hungary. First, the content of geotagged and non-geotagged Twitter messages referring to Szeged in a six-month period of 2018 was analyzed. In this way specific events attracting foreign tourists were identified. Then, using MPD data of foreign SIM cards, visitor peaks in the investigated period were defined. With the joint application of the social media and mobile positioning analytical tools, we were able to identify those attractions (festivals, sport and cultural events, etc.) that generated significant tourism arrivals in the city. Furthermore, using the mixed-method approach we were also able to analyze the movements of foreign visitors during one large-scale tourism event and evaluate its hinterland. Overall, this study supports the idea that social media data should be combined with other real-time data sources, such as MPD, in order to gain a more precise understanding of the behavior of tourists. The proposed analytical tool can contribute to methodological and conceptual development in the field, and information gained by its application can positively influence not only tourism management and planning but also tourism marketing and placemaking.

Suggested Citation

  • Zoltán Kovács & György Vida & Ábel Elekes & Tamás Kovalcsik, 2021. "Combining Social Media and Mobile Positioning Data in the Analysis of Tourist Flows: A Case Study from Szeged, Hungary," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(5), pages 1-15, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2926-:d:512970
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2926/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/5/2926/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dario Bertocchi & Nicola Camatti & Silvio Giove & Jan van der Borg, 2020. "Venice and Overtourism: Simulating Sustainable Development Scenarios through a Tourism Carrying Capacity Model," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(2), pages 1-15, January.
    2. Kati Nilbe & Rein Ahas & Siiri Silm, 2014. "Evaluating the Travel Distances of Events Visitors and Regular Visitors Using Mobile Positioning Data: The Case of Estonia," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(2), pages 91-107, April.
    3. F. J. Cristófol & Gorka Zamarreño Aramendia & Jordi de-San-Eugenio-Vela, 2020. "Effects of Social Media on Enotourism. Two Cases Study: Okanagan Valley (Canada) and Somontano (Spain)," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-19, August.
    4. Dongwook Kim & Sungbum Kim, 2017. "The Role of Mobile Technology in Tourism: Patents, Articles, News, and Mobile Tour App Reviews," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(11), pages 1-45, November.
    5. Getz, Donald & Page, Stephen J., 2016. "Progress and prospects for event tourism research," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 593-631.
    6. Lambiotte, Renaud & Blondel, Vincent D. & de Kerchove, Cristobald & Huens, Etienne & Prieur, Christophe & Smoreda, Zbigniew & Van Dooren, Paul, 2008. "Geographical dispersal of mobile communication networks," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 387(21), pages 5317-5325.
    7. Jongwon Won & Jong Yoon Lee & Jong Woo Jun, 2020. "Influences of SNS (Social Network Service) Uses and Musical Consumption on City Branding: A Focus on Broadway, New York and the West End, London," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(9), pages 1-10, May.
    8. Yu Liu & Xi Liu & Song Gao & Li Gong & Chaogui Kang & Ye Zhi & Guanghua Chi & Li Shi, 2015. "Social Sensing: A New Approach to Understanding Our Socioeconomic Environments," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 105(3), pages 512-530, May.
    9. Xiang, Zheng & Gretzel, Ulrike, 2010. "Role of social media in online travel information search," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 31(2), pages 179-188.
    10. Chua, Alvin & Servillo, Loris & Marcheggiani, Ernesto & Moere, Andrew Vande, 2016. "Mapping Cilento: Using geotagged social media data to characterize tourist flows in southern Italy," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 295-310.
    11. David M. Fisher & Spencer A. Wood & Young-Hee Roh & Choong-Ki Kim, 2019. "The Geographic Spread and Preferences of Tourists Revealed by User-Generated Information on Jeju Island, South Korea," Land, MDPI, vol. 8(5), pages 1-17, April.
    12. Raun, Janika & Ahas, Rein & Tiru, Margus, 2016. "Measuring tourism destinations using mobile tracking data," Tourism Management, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 202-212.
    13. Saluveer, Erki & Raun, Janika & Tiru, Margus & Altin, Laura & Kroon, Jaanus & Snitsarenko, Tarass & Aasa, Anto & Silm, Siiri, 2020. "Methodological framework for producing national tourism statistics from mobile positioning data," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 81(C).
    14. Weiyang Zhang & Ben Derudder & Jianghao Wang & Wei Shen & Frank Witlox, 2016. "Using Location-Based Social Media to Chart the Patterns of People Moving between Cities: The Case of Weibo-Users in the Yangtze River Delta," Journal of Urban Technology, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(3), pages 91-111, July.
    15. Tarmo Kalvet & Maarja Olesk & Marek Tiits & Janika Raun, 2020. "Innovative Tools for Tourism and Cultural Tourism Impact Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-30, September.
    16. Teodoro Luque-Martínez & Nina Faraoni & Luis Doña-Toledo, 2019. "Auditing the Marketing and Social Media Communication of Natural Protected Areas. How Marketing Can Contribute to the Sustainability of Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-23, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wojciech Paprocki, 2021. "Virtual Airport Hub—A New Business Model to Reduce GHG Emissions in Continental Air Transport," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-19, April.
    2. Yarlein Ivama Julio Guerrero & Francisco Teixeira Pinto Dias, 2024. "Tourist Tracking Techniques and Their Role in Destination Management: A Bibliometric Study, 2007–2023," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(9), pages 1-24, April.
    3. Tamás Kovalcsik & Ábel Elekes & Lajos Boros & László Könnyid & Zoltán Kovács, 2022. "Capturing Unobserved Tourists: Challenges and Opportunities of Processing Mobile Positioning Data in Tourism Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, October.
    4. Marina Toger & Karima Kourtit & Peter Nijkamp & John Östh, 2021. "Mobility during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Data-Driven Time-Geographic Analysis of Health-Induced Mobility Changes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-21, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tarmo Kalvet & Maarja Olesk & Marek Tiits & Janika Raun, 2020. "Innovative Tools for Tourism and Cultural Tourism Impact Assessment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(18), pages 1-30, September.
    2. Tao Liu & Ying Zhang & Huan Zhang & Xiping Yang, 2021. "A Methodological Workflow for Deriving the Association of Tourist Destinations Based on Online Travel Reviews: A Case Study of Yunnan Province, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-15, April.
    3. Ana Condeço-Melhorado & Inmaculada Mohino & Borja Moya-Gómez & Juan Carlos García-Palomares, 2020. "The Rio Olympic Games: A Look into City Dynamics through the Lens of Twitter Data," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(17), pages 1-16, August.
    4. Estela Marine-Roig & Eva Martin-Fuentes & Natalia Daries-Ramon, 2017. "User-Generated Social Media Events in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(12), pages 1-23, December.
    5. Christina Katsikari & Leonidas Hatzithomas & Thomas Fotiadis & Dimitrios Folinas, 2020. "Push and Pull Travel Motivation: Segmentation of the Greek Market for Social Media Marketing in Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(11), pages 1-18, June.
    6. Judita Peterlin & Maja Meško & Vlado Dimovski & Vasja Roblek, 2021. "Automated content analysis: The review of the big data systemic discourse in tourism and hospitality," Systems Research and Behavioral Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 38(3), pages 377-385, May.
    7. Chunla Liu & Yingjie Qin & Yufei Wang & Yue Yu & Guanghui Li, 2022. "Spatio-Temporal Distribution of Tourism Flows and Network Analysis of Traditional Villages in Western Hunan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, June.
    8. Zbucki Łukasz, 2022. "Variability of mobile phone network logins in the Białowieża National Park during the 2019 and 2020 summer holiday periods in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic," Miscellanea Geographica. Regional Studies on Development, Sciendo, vol. 26(4), pages 169-177, October.
    9. Jing Qin & Ci Song & Mingdi Tang & Youyin Zhang & Jinwei Wang, 2019. "Exploring the Spatial Characteristics of Inbound Tourist Flows in China Using Geotagged Photos," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(20), pages 1-17, October.
    10. Veronika Mooses & Siiri Silm & Tiit Tammaru & Erki Saluveer, 2020. "An ethno-linguistic dimension in transnational activity space measured with mobile phone data," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-13, December.
    11. Tomáš Gajdošík, 2020. "Smart tourists as a profiling market segment: Implications for DMOs," Tourism Economics, , vol. 26(6), pages 1042-1062, September.
    12. Karasov, Oleksandr & Heremans, Stien & Külvik, Mart & Domnich, Artem & Burdun, Iuliia & Kull, Ain & Helm, Aveliina & Uuemaa, Evelyn, 2022. "Beyond land cover: How integrated remote sensing and social media data analysis facilitates assessment of cultural ecosystem services," Ecosystem Services, Elsevier, vol. 53(C).
    13. Dallen J. Timothy & Gábor Michalkó & Anna Irimiás, 2022. "Unconventional Tourist Mobility: A Geography-Oriented Theoretical Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(11), pages 1-12, May.
    14. Egbert Van der Zee & Dario Bertocchi, 2018. "Finding patterns in urban tourist behaviour: a social network analysis approach based on TripAdvisor reviews," Information Technology & Tourism, Springer, vol. 20(1), pages 153-180, December.
    15. Ana Muñoz-Mazón & Laura Fuentes-Moraleda & Angela Chantre-Astaiza & Marlon-Felipe Burbano-Fernandez, 2019. "The Study of Tourist Movements in Tourist Historic Cities: A Comparative Analysis of the Applicability of Four Different Tools," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-26, September.
    16. Tamás Kovalcsik & Ábel Elekes & Lajos Boros & László Könnyid & Zoltán Kovács, 2022. "Capturing Unobserved Tourists: Challenges and Opportunities of Processing Mobile Positioning Data in Tourism Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(21), pages 1-20, October.
    17. Shah Jahan Miah & Huy Quan Vu & John G. Gammack, 2019. "A Location Analytics Method for the Utilisation of Geotagged Photos in Travel Marketing Decision-Making," Journal of Information & Knowledge Management (JIKM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 18(01), pages 1-29, March.
    18. Lai Fan & Dayu Zhang, 2023. "Study on the hotspots of urban tourism spaces based on Instagram-Worthy locations data: Taking Beijing as an example," Environment and Planning B, , vol. 50(7), pages 1822-1837, September.
    19. Yong Gao & Chao Ye & Xiang Zhong & Lun Wu & Yu Liu, 2019. "Extracting Spatial Patterns of Intercity Tourist Movements from Online Travel Blogs," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(13), pages 1-18, June.
    20. Unchitta Kan & Jericho McLeod & Eduardo López, 2024. "Non-coresident family as a driver of migration change in a crisis: the case of the COVID-19 pandemic," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 11(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:5:p:2926-:d:512970. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.