Large-Scale Cross-Cultural Tourism Analytics: Integrating Transformer-Based Text Mining and Network Analysis

The growth of the tourism industry in Southeast Asia, particularly in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, establishes the region as a leading global tourism destination. Numerous studies have explored tourist behavior within specific regions. However, the question of whether tourists’ experience perceptions differ based on their cultural backgrounds is still insufficiently addressed. Previous articles suggest that an individual’s cultural background plays a significant role in shaping tourist values and expectations. This study investigates how tourists’ cultural backgrounds, represented by their geographical regions of origin, impact their entertainment experiences, sentiments, and mobility patterns across the three countries. We gathered 387,010 TripAdvisor reviews and analyzed them using a combination of advanced text mining techniques and network analysis to map tourist mobility patterns. Comparing sentiments and behaviors across cultural backgrounds, this study found that entertainment preferences vary by origin. The network analysis reveals distinct exploration patterns: diverse and targeted exploration. Vietnam achieves the highest satisfaction across the cultural groups through balanced development, while Thailand’s integrated entertainment creates cultural divides, and Indonesia’s generates moderate satisfaction regardless of cultural background. This study contributes to understanding tourism dynamics in Southeast Asia through a data-driven, comparative analysis of tourist behaviors. The findings provide insights for destination management, marketing strategies, and policy development, highlighting the importance of tailoring tourism offerings to meet the diverse preferences of visitors from different global regions.