A Location Analytics Method for the Utilization of Geo-tagged Photos in Travel Marketing Decision-Making, Journal of Information and Knowledge Management (in press) A Location Analytics Method for the Utilization of Geo-tagged Photos in Travel Marketing Decision-Making

Location analytics offers statistical analysis of any geoor spatial data concerning user location. Such analytics can produce useful insights into the attractions of interest to travelers or visitation patterns of a demographic group. Based on these insights, strategic decision-making by travel marketing agents, such as travel package design, may be improved. In this paper, we develop and evaluate an original method of location analytics to analyze travelers’ social media data for improving managerial decision support. The method proposes an architectural framework that combines emerging pattern data mining techniques with image processing to identify and process appropriate data content. The design artifact is evaluated through a focus group and a detailed case study of Australian outbound travelers. The proposed method is generic, and can be applied to other specific locations or demographics to provide analytical outcomes useful for strategic decision support.