{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,6]],"date-time":"2026-03-06T07:36:24Z","timestamp":1772782584384,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":35,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2018,9,6]],"date-time":"2018-09-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1536192000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Understanding tourism related behavior and traveling patterns is an essential element of transportation system planning and tourism management at tourism destinations. Traditionally, tourism market segmentation is conducted to recognize tourist\u2019s profiles for which personalized services can be provided. Today, the availability of wearable sensors, such as smartphones, holds the potential to tackle data collection problems of paper-based surveys and deliver relevant mobility data in a timely and cost-effective way. In this paper, we develop and implement a hierarchical clustering approach for smartphone geo-localized data to detect meaningful tourism related market segments. For these segments, we provide detailed insights into their characteristics and related mobility behavior. The applicability of the proposed approach is demonstrated on a use case in the Province of Zeeland in the Netherlands. We collected data from 1505 users during five months using the Zeeland app. The proposed approach resulted in two major clusters and four sub-clusters which we were able to interpret based on their spatio-temporal patterns and the recurrence of their visiting patterns to the region.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s18092972","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2018,9,6]],"date-time":"2018-09-06T10:38:38Z","timestamp":1536230318000},"page":"2972","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":22,"title":["Unsupervised Hierarchical Clustering Approach for Tourism Market Segmentation Based on Crowdsourced Mobile Phone Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7878-1471","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jorge","family":"Rodr\u00edguez","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, Ghent University, St-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium"},{"name":"ESPOL Polytechnic University, Escuela Superior Polit\u00e9cnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda en Electricidad y Computaci\u00f3n, Campus Gustavo Galindo Km 30.5 V\u00eda Perimetral, P.O. Box 09-01-5863, EC090112 Guayaquil, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-2795-8094","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ivana","family":"Semanjski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, Ghent University, St-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5628-6974","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Sidharta","family":"Gautama","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Telecommunications and Information Processing, Ghent University, St-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-5327-4000","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Nico","family":"Van de Weghe","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Geography, Ghent University, Krijgslaan 281 (S8), B-9000 Ghent, Belgium"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Daniel","family":"Ochoa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"ESPOL Polytechnic University, Escuela Superior Polit\u00e9cnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Facultad de Ingenier\u00eda en Electricidad y Computaci\u00f3n, Campus Gustavo Galindo Km 30.5 V\u00eda Perimetral, P.O. Box 09-01-5863, EC090112 Guayaquil, Ecuador"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2018,9,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"898","DOI":"10.1016\/j.tourman.2006.05.010","article-title":"Seasonal tourism spaces in Estonia: Case study with mobile positioning data","volume":"28","author":"Ahas","year":"2007","journal-title":"Tour. Manag."},{"key":"ref_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"217","DOI":"10.1177\/0309132507075370","article-title":"Transportation geography: New directions on well-worn trails","volume":"31","author":"Keeling","year":"2007","journal-title":"Prog. Hum. Geogr."},{"key":"ref_3","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"335","DOI":"10.1061\/(ASCE)UP.1943-5444.0000125","article-title":"Forest recreation opportunity spectrum in the suburban mountainous region of Beijing","volume":"138","author":"Xiao","year":"2012","journal-title":"J. Urban Plan. 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