A Comprehensive Survey on Travel Recommender Systems

Travelling is a combination of journey, transportation, travel-time, accommodation, weather, events, and other aspects which are likely to be experienced by most of the people at some point in their life. To enhance such experience, we generally look for assistance in planning a tour. Today, the information available on tourism-related aspects on the Internet is boundless and exploring suitable travel package/product/service may be time-consuming. A recommender system (RS) can assist for various tour-related queries such as top destinations for summer vacation, preferable climate conditions for tracking, the fastest way to transport, or photography assistance for specific destinations. In this survey, we have presented a pervasive review on travel and associated factors such as hotels, restaurants, tourism package and planning, and attractions; we have also tailored recommendations on a tourist’s diverse requirements such as food, transportation, photography, outfits, safety, and seasonal preferences. We have classified travel-based RSs and presented selection criteria, features, and technical aspects with datasets, methods, and results. We have briefly supplemented research articles from diverse facets; various frameworks for a travel-based RS are discussed. We believe our survey would introduce a state-of-the-art travel RS; it may be utilized to solve the existing limitations and extend its applicability.