Opinion Mining to Analyze Perception of a Touristic Destination”, in C. Avcikurt et alii, Global Issues and Trends in Tourism

This chapter is based on certain key observations presented in the first part of this study. The first observation, also made by Lozato-Giotart (Lozato-Giotart, 2008, p.15) is that we are living at a time when there is no place on earth that is not affected by tourism. Because it affects all parts of the earth, however remote, the ‘tourist question’ (Lozato- Giotart, 2008, p. 10) is increasingly complex and important, and is a fit topic for academic research in various disciplines. It is transversal and complex, and requires different methods of analysis which can jointly describe how demand perceives an area. This implies that perception is based primarily on the object, the area, but develops on the basis of other related variables such as communication of evaluation and views, marketing and sensory experience. It is also necessary to look at the identity of the area, which has recently become an important question because it concerns local identities of circumscribed places having particular characteristics. This identity involves associations between society and place in terms of cognition, emotion and perception (Banini, 2009, p.8). The perceptions of internal and external users orient expectations and demand in the area, and need to be recorded in systematical quantitative analyses. Tourism cannot in fact be studied or evaluated in isolation from the real perception of the demand side, which is structured in the codifiable and emblematic aspects of local identity. This perception itself involves expectations of the tourist before visiting the place, and which underpin the elaboration of the experience. Tourists in fact choose destinations on the basis of image resulting from a subjective construction, rather than the attractiveness of the destinations. The tourist will have his or her own idea of the place formed from various sources; books, stories, guidebooks and tourism brochures. As well as orienting the tourist towards one place rather than another, these images are also used to interpret the trip and become the measurement stick for it, because the trip and destination will be evaluated on this basis. The reasons for visiting a particularly place are not in fact traditional criteria. Pictures and images count much more than words in choosing a destination, hotel and services (Ejarque, 2015). This is why identifying tourist perception is so important; it is determinant in the demand and fruition of tourism. For this reason, the second part of the research presents Sentiment Analysis, which is a new instrument for studying perception. It is a method of listening to opinion, typically online, and collects the huge quantity of data about user opinions and preferences by systematically monitoring general social networks, (Twitter, Facebook, etc.) and professional social networks (e.g. LinkedIn). Sentiment Analysis is first described, then applied to a case study, where it provides ex post qualitative data on a particular issue. It is used to measure tourist perception of a particular area, and reveals tourist expectations and levels of satisfaction after the trip. The case study focuses Salento, the peninsular on the heel of Italy in the south of the region of Puglia, which has recently become an important destination for both Italian and foreign tourists