Tracking Tourist Spatial-Temporal Behavior in Urban Places, A Methodological Overview and GPS Case Study

The tourism industry is inundated with tourists who have diverse profiles and choose to spend their time in different ways when visiting urban destinations. Understanding the so-called spatial-temporal behavior of tourists would include, a study of their movement within the space, the duration of time they spend at any given location and the services they utilize, all of which can provide valuable information not only to Destination Management Organizations, but also to all stakeholders involved in tourism businesses and the field of tourism research. While spatial-temporal behavior of tourists can be monitored and measured by several tracking methods, no general overview on the methodological approaches has been provided so far. Therefore, this research paper attempts to investigate and describe the possible tracking methods, while outlining the associated advantages and disadvantages of tracking tourist behavior in an urban place. Since using the Global Positioning System (GPS) has proven to be the most promising method in measuring tourist movement patterns in an urban destination, a case study undertaken in Salzburg City will highlight the benefits and limitations of using the GPS as a tracking technique. Understanding all the possible tracking methods and their advantages and disadvantages will serve as a theoretical basis for the future monitoring of tourist spatial-temporal behavior in urban destinations and allow researchers to select the appropriate approach for their project.