{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T01:38:54Z","timestamp":1760060334840,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":31,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]],"date-time":"2025-08-19T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1755561600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Scientific and Technical Research Center of Morocco (CNRST)","award":["28\/2020"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["28\/2020"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Digital"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Optimizing tourist routes is a critical challenge in smart tourism, which aims to enhance the visitor experience while optimizing practical parameters. However, traditional routing algorithms often fail to provide personalized and efficient itineraries in complex real-world environments. This study aims to develop a hybrid framework that integrates Simulated Annealing for global route optimization with the A algorithm* for accurate local pathfinding, leveraging geographic data from OpenStreetMap. The proposed method computes the shortest paths between all Points of Interest using A*, constructing a comprehensive distance matrix, and applying Simulated Annealing to determine the most efficient visiting sequence. The framework was evaluated in the Old Medina of Fez, Morocco, demonstrating its effectiveness in generating realistic and efficient itineraries. Compared to alternative strategies such as Genetic Algorithms, the hybrid approach achieves superior computational efficiency and produces better routes in terms of travel distance. These findings highlight the practical applicability of the framework as a modular service for smart tourism applications, offering tourists and tourism platform developers a scalable solution for personalized and sustainable itinerary planning.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/digital5030036","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]],"date-time":"2025-08-19T11:41:41Z","timestamp":1755603701000},"page":"36","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Hybrid Framework: The Use of Metaheuristics When Creating Personalized Tourist Routes"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"5","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-2341-3502","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Youssef","family":"Benchekroun","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering, Systems and Applications Laboratory, National School of Applied Sciences-ENSA, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez P.C. 30050, Morocco"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0006-5964-446X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hanae","family":"Senba","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering, Systems and Applications Laboratory, National School of Applied Sciences-ENSA, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez P.C. 30050, Morocco"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3174-6863","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Khalid","family":"Haddouch","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Engineering, Systems and Applications Laboratory, National School of Applied Sciences-ENSA, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez P.C. 30050, Morocco"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3922-5592","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karim","family":"El Moutaouakil","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mathematics and Data Science Laboratory, Polydisciplinary Faculty of Taza, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez P.C. 35000, Morocco"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2025,8,19]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"100020","DOI":"10.1016\/j.array.2020.100020","article-title":"Smart tourism: State of the art and literature review for the last six years","volume":"6","author":"Kontogianni","year":"2020","journal-title":"Array"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"100228","article-title":"A systematic literature review for the tourist trip design problem: Extensions, solution techniques and future research lines","volume":"9","author":"Morais","year":"2022","journal-title":"Oper. 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