Where do tourists go in our cities, and what do they need? Until now the only way to find out was to ask. Dr Deborah Edwards reports how a mix of smart thinking and cutting-edge technology is putting much more useful data in the hands of tourism planners.

Using GPS tracking, Google Earth maps and photo geotagging, UTS researchers have been analysing visitor movements through London, Canberra and Sydney. Their research shows not only where tourists go but how long they spend and what they do there. It maps entire journeys – on foot, car or public transport – and reveals surprising results about visitor behaviour.

For some, a trip to the art gallery might be a three-hour expedition. Others might duck in, clock the most famous painting, then continue on their journey. For many, a visit to the park would involve some time on the grass. Others drive through without getting out of the car. As you’d expect, their needs and expectations vary accordingly.

The traditional way of finding out was to ask, but as researchers discovered, people recall things in very different ways. GPS tracking gives a true picture of where people go and how long they spend there.

Deborah Edwards, Bruce Hayllar and Tony Griffin from the UTS School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism are, to the best of their knowledge, the first in Australia to have done this work. Their research in London was funded by UTS, and their studies in Canberra and Sydney were supported by the Sustainable Tourism Cooperative Research Centre and Tourism New South Wales. They are now attracting interest from other cities around Australia.

Says Hayllar, ‘We’re interested in knowing where people go because it can influence things like products, services and transport. By understanding at a deeper level how tourists engage with a destination, we can put in place plans and strategies to improve that destination.’

Tourist trails in London

A single London tourist trail captured by GPS and viewed in Google Earth

Their most recent study was completed in London, in partnership with the University of Westminster. They captured 40 trails from domestic and international tourists, and analysed them for patterns.

They recruited visitors from accommodation venues and hotels. After collecting demographic data, participants were given a GPS watch (a Garmin 305) and a camera to take photos during their day trip. At the end of the day the researchers uploaded the data to Google Earth, showed them the trails, and talked through why they went where and what they did.

Maps reveal patterns of heavy activity around popular locations, and they also reveal less-visited parts of town. Both have implications for planners.

‘From the perspective of those selling tourist products, businesses want visitors to go where they are, and to have a much richer experience of the city’, says Bruce Hayllar. ‘If there are quiet parts of the city, we can ask why, and look at strategies to develop them.’

This study is about the patterns: where people go; the decision points in their journey; and parts of the city where they don’t go. Cities have different patterns of tourist activity, and this has a lot to do with urban design. London has a diverse, weblike pattern, with dispersed attractions. There are many different ways to get around – by Tube, bus, or on foot – so transport doesn’t sharply define the pattern of tourist activity in London.

By comparison, Sydney has a spine-centric pattern, focused on George St and Pitt St, Chinatown and Darling Harbour, with a lot of activity on the Central to Circular Quay train line. In the Sydney study, few people ventured beyond The Rocks and inner city. Some people walked onto the bridge, but most didn’t go all the way across. Fewer still went to Manly or the zoo. In Sydney, people walked up to 34 kilometres a day.

Getting an accurate report

In interviews, people often remembered what they thought was important, but ignored or forgot other things.

In the past, the only way to verify reports was by direct observation or by wear patterns on the floor (in the case of a gallery or museum). GPS shows not only where they go, but how long they stop. A tourist’s experience of the National Gallery in London illustrates its usefulness.

Deborah Edwards says, ‘If we only collected tourist information manually, they would fill out a survey and say they went to the gallery. We might assume they were there for three or four hours, but the GPS pattern indicated very little activity. Looking at the time, I realised they were only in there for twelve minutes. They said, “We just wanted to see [Van Gogh’s] Sunflowers”. So GPS reports a true experience.’

Other activities that often aren’t reported are going to the movies, or the comparative amounts of time spent shopping, sightseeing, or on public transport. In some cases people forget where they have been, and are only reminded by seeing the trail on Google Earth. It’s hoped that through more detailed information, tourism planners will be better able to provide improved services to visitors.

Edwards has been interested in spatial mapping of tourists for several years, but until recently the technology has been too expensive or difficult to use. ‘Technology is unfolding all the time. As our expertise grew, there was a parallel growth in the available technology. In the years we’ve been doing it, the technology has expanded exponentially.’ The technology is out there, but no one until now has used it in this way.

‘We used the innovation to bring the ideas together, to create new ways of understanding’, she says. ‘Innovation is either developing new ideas or being creative with existing products.’

Dr Deborah Edwards is the Sustainable Tourism CRC Senior Research Fellow in Urban Tourism in the School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism at UTS: Business.

Learn more…

The full report “Visitors to Urban Destinations: Understanding Tourist ‘Experiences’ and ‘Behaviour’ in Cities” can be downloaded from the Sustainable Tourism CRC website in early October.