Utilizing Deep Learning for Personalized User Experience in Cultural Heritage Tourism

Headed By Prof. Dr. Haslina Binti Arshad.

Konsortium Kecemerlangan Penyelidikan (KKP).

In tourism, cultural heritage is one of the key sectors in tourism and have a positive impact on economy. Tourism providers are now adopting innovative technologies to enhance the tourist experience. Adoption of Augmented Reality (AR) has allowed tourism sectors to move ahead from the traditional sources of tourist information providers such as tourist websites, tourist guides, and mobile applications to further enhance tourist experience. Smart tourism where technology is used in a particular destination, attraction or the tourist themselves can enhance tourist experience. To date, research in smart tourism has been overlooked. Most studies focused on ‘smart cities’ or ‘smart destinations’. Three elements of AR which are visualization and annotation, interaction and personalization can enhance tourist experience but have not been incorporated into a framework of smart tourism in cultural heritage. This program will explore these AR elements in location based cultural heritage tourism to enhance tourist experience. We will implement deep learning algorithm for the personalized tourism application. Each project will implement one of the elements in parallel. It will start with the requirement analysis on the types and techniques of personalization, visualization and annotation, and interaction which forms the initial framework. The design of the user profiling, POI and interaction technique are done based on its suitability for location-based AR (LBAR). The smart tourism application will utilize the data that are fed into the deep learning algorithm which are user data from personalization module, interaction technique preference from interaction module and destination data from visualization and annotation module. The evaluation of the personalized tourism will support the 3 elements incorporated into the framework of smart tourist experience in AR cultural heritage tourism. The proposed application and framework will support tourism industry through digitalization for enhancing tourist experience thus boosting the country’s tourism and tourism revenue.