CHIP: a Recommender System and a Travel Planner for Cultural Tourism

In recent years a renewed focus has been posed on the promotion of Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods to support the definition of new means to understand, study, preserve, valorise, and enjoy the Cultural Heritage (CH). In particular, the fruition of CH by the greater public can benefit from the availability of intelligent recommender systems and travel planners. On the basis of appropriate data and meta-data associated with cultural attractions and curated by experts, such systems help tourists to plan personalised cultural trips and enjoy tailored experiences. Moreover, territorial administrations, policy makers, and other stakeholders have the opportunity to promote territory, possibly focusing on less-known material or immaterial heritage. In this paper we present CHIP (Cultural Heritage Itinerary Planner), a recommender system and travel planner for cultural tourism. We present an overview of the system architecture and then focus on the solutions implemented for the Travel Recommender System (TRS) module, which provides tourists with relevant recommendations of points of interest, and for the Travel Planner (TP) module, which builds personalised itineraries based on the users' preferences and taking into account travel constraints. CHIP is currently being tested with data about the tourist attractions of the Umbria region in Italy, a region with a strong cultural vocation. Finally, we highlight future developments and goals of the project.