Tell Me Where to Go: An Experiment in Spreading Visitor Flows in The Netherlands

Ondrej Mitas (), Rajneesh Badal, Maud Verhoeven, Koen Verstraten, Liselotte de Graaf, Helena Mitasova, Wendy Weijdema and Jeroen Klijs
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Ondrej Mitas: Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences, 4817 JS Breda, The Netherlands
Rajneesh Badal: Zoey, 1066 JS Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Maud Verhoeven: Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences, 4817 JS Breda, The Netherlands
Koen Verstraten: Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences, 4817 JS Breda, The Netherlands
Liselotte de Graaf: Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences, 4817 JS Breda, The Netherlands
Helena Mitasova: Center for Geospatial Analytics, College of Natural Resources, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC 27695, USA
Wendy Weijdema: Marketing Oost, 8041 BL Zwolle, The Netherlands
Jeroen Klijs: Academy for Tourism, Breda University of Applied Sciences, 4817 JS Breda, The Netherlands

IJERPH, 2023, vol. 20, issue 8, 1-23

Abstract: Cities attracting large numbers of tourists increasingly face crowding and public resistance to tourism growth. As a result, governments strive to spread tourists from the best-known attractions to less-visited locations to improve both residents’ and tourists’ quality of life. Evidence of success and best practices herein is largely anecdotal, and the effects on tourist experience are also unknown. Thus, we undertook a randomized 2 × 2 experiment in the province of Overijssel (The Netherlands), wherein tourists staying at vacation parks near small and mid-sized cities were exposed to information which emphasized attractions in either heavily visited or less-visited areas. Participants were also assigned to receive the information in either a passive or a conversational form. Location and daily emotion, as well as experience evaluation on the last day of the vacation, were recorded via mobile platforms. We found that tourists receiving information on attractions in less-visited areas engaged in significantly more movements around these attractions, and significantly less around heavily visited areas. The conversational form of information delivery was more positively evaluated than information delivered passively. Furthermore, vacation experience emotions and evaluations were largely unaffected. Thus, it is clearly possible to direct tourists to less-crowded locations without negatively affecting their vacation experiences.

Keywords: emotion; experience; tourism; tourist flows; spatial behavior; recommender systems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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