social tourist greetings from the algorithm

A Deep Dive Into Charli D'Amelio's Infinite Hoodie Collection

It’s truly unparalleled.

Charli D’Amelio is the queen of TikTok, and she sits atop a throne of comfy and stylish hoodies. Her videos almost always feature one of her favorite baggy pieces. And, for D’Amelio it seems, the more bigger hoodie, the better. Here’s a look at some of her best ones.

D’Amelio knows how to rock the graphic-heavy Social Tourist Hoodie ($65, Social Tourist ), a logo pick from her and sister Dixie’s newly launched brand. The chest reads “Greetings from the algorithm. The views here are amazing,” which is, honestly, fitting for a TikToker.

• Help & Contact
• Français
• Watch List Expand Watch List Loading... Sign in to see your user information
• Recently Viewed
• Bids/Offers
• Purchase History
• Saved Searches
• Saved Sellers
• Notification
• Expand Cart Loading... Something went wrong. View cart for details.

Picture 1 of 12

Social tourist colorblocked hoodie greetings from the algorithm xxs, oops looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server..

Refresh your browser window to try again.

Shop with confidence

Seller information.

• mcdealz247 ( 2405 )
• 99.4% positive feedback
• Save seller
• See other items
• Contact seller
• Visit store

Item specifics

Item description from the seller, shipping and handling, sales tax for an item #235445424140, return policy, payment details, detailed seller ratings, average for the last 12 months, seller feedback (2,374), more to explore:.

• Colorblock Hoodies for Women ,
• Hoodie Anti Social Social Club Hoodies & Sweatshirts for Men ,
• Colorblock Hoodies & Sweatshirts for Women ,
• Anti Social Social Club Camouflage Hoodies for Men ,
• Anti Social Social Club Black Hoodies for Men ,
• Anti Social Social Club Orange Hoodies for Men ,
• Anti Social Social Club White Hoodies for Men ,
• Hoodies & Sweatshirts Anti Social Social Club for Men ,
• Anti Social Social Club Yellow Hoodies for Men ,
• Anti Social Social Club Solid Hoodies for Men

• Find a Store

• Watch List Expand Watch list Loading... Sign in to see your user information
• My eBay Summary
• Recently Viewed
• Bids/Offers
• Purchase History
• Selling/Sold
• Saved Searches
• Saved Sellers
• My Messages
• Get Exclusive Savings
• Notification
• Expand cart Loading... Something went wrong. View cart for details.

Picture 1 of 5

Social tourist l.a. ca greetings from the algorithm social media t-shirt men’s s.

• Add to cart
• Add to Watchlist

Oops! Looks like we're having trouble connecting to our server.

Refresh your browser window to try again.

Shop with confidence

Seller information.

• flipalife ( 1336 )
• 97.1% positive Feedback
• Save seller
• Contact seller
• Visit Store
• See other items

Item specifics

Item description from the seller, postage and handling, sales tax for an item #325330435393, return policy, payment details, detailed seller ratings, average for the last 12 months, seller feedback (1,138), more to explore:.

• Hoodie Anti Social Social Club Hoodies & Sweatshirts for Men ,
• L&S Clothing for Men ,
• L&S Button-Up Casual Shirts for Men ,
• GUESS Size S T-Shirts for Men ,
• Quiksilver Size S T-Shirts for Men ,
• Zara Size S T-Shirts for Men ,
• Size S Napapijri T-Shirts for Men ,
• Size S Shirts for Men ,
• T&S T-Shirt Tops for Women ,
• Size S Casual Shirts for Men

More From Forbes

Charli and dixie d’amelio launch social tourist: a trend-forward apparel brand in partnership with hollister.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

Charli and Dixie D'Amelio launch teen-forward brand, Social Tourist.

Charli and Dixie D’Amelio are launching Social Tourist, a new trend-forward apparel standalone brand within the Abercrombie & Fitch Co. portfolio. The lifestyle brand creates trend-forward apparel that allows teens to experiment with their style while exploring the duality of who the D’Amelio’s are on social media and in real life. Social Tourist will be available exclusively in Hollister stores and online . The sisters worked with Hollister on product selection, design, branding, positioning, and marketing alongside their father, Marc D’Amelio. Social Tourist became a family affair intersecting Marc’s longtime expertise in the apparel space with the girl’s unique lens of being at the epicenter of social media for Gen-Z. With over 250 million Tik Tok followers, the D’Amelio’s first worked with Hollister as “Chief Jeanealogists,” where they tested and approved every aspect of Hollister’s denim; launched the #MoreHappyDenimDance TikTok challenge, which garnered over 5.4 billion views worldwide; and dropped a series of limited-edition, co-created collections. So when it came time to bring Social Tourist to life, partnering with the Hollister team was a natural fit. 

Charli D'Amelio in Social Tourist.

“We would all sit down as a family brainstorming with the Hollister team on Social Tourist. For a lot of other kids our age, that’s also what we do no matter if you’re an influencer, content creator, or you’re just in high school. Everyone uses social media, but at the same time, it’s like, who really knows how to do it? We’re all tourists in our own way,” explained Charli on how the name Social Tourist came about. “Being a social tourist can really bring everyone together to really interact with other people online. You’re able to use your own social media to portray yourself in whatever light you want other “social tourists” want to see you in.” Dixie added the versatility that Social Tourist brings to the Gen-Z consumer. “I just want people to be able to wear comfortable clothes and be cute while not having to think about it. I feel like I’m always looking for one place that I can buy my entire wardrobe because I can’t find pieces here and there. This is where you can get all the basics and some cute add-ins to your closet.”

Dixie D'Amelio in Social Tourist.

Both Charli and Dixie learned about the apparel and clothing industry by watching their father work in the industry when they were younger. Marc would take Charli and Dixie to his New York office as they would watch him in design meetings, interacting with buyers and closing sales calls. “We would sit and watch our dad design clothes and on putting things together on photoshop for hours. I was just so interested in it, and that’s what I wanted to go to college for.  I worked at a clothing store in high school and  I loved being around clothes. So creating a brand has always been something I’ve wanted to do,” Dixie shared. Charli also was inspired by her father’s career and also learned how to sew from her grandmother, “Besides being obviously inspired by my dad because he was in the clothing business, dance has been a big part of my life. I remember going to competitions seeing everyone in their custom pieces and my grandmother taught me to sew so I’ve always been fascinated by making clothes that people can feel confident in. I just want everyone to be able to step out of the house in Social Tourist feeling the best they ever been.”

Best Travel Insurance Companies

Best covid-19 travel insurance plans.

As the consultant for social tourist, Marc D’Amelio, having over 30 years of experience in sales and design, found it to be a great experience to work together as a family with the Hollister team to bring all of their talents under one roof with Social Tourist. “What I learned through this process is that, although Dixie and Charli were not clothing designers, they definitely had a viewpoint that was well-received. Hollister looks at it like, what do you guys think about this, and they listen. When Dixie and Charli talk, they really listen and Hollister wasn’t just a big company trying to take advantage of the fact that Dixie and Charli had a huge platform, this is a true partnership and a true collaboration. I don’t just want to create things for the sake of commerce, I love the fact that we’re creating something that will hopefully have an impact,” Marc stated. 

Social Tourist collection designed by Charlie and Dixie D'Amelio.

Social Tourist will have four distinct apparel lines: dual-gender items, trend pieces such as dresses and skirts, everyday essentials featuring premium basics, and swim. Each collection will include limited-edition items, with new products dropping approximately every four weeks. “We’ve always loved fashion, and it’s been amazing to be so involved in this process. We feel like Social Tourist really represents both of us and explores how our generation is balancing who they are on social media with real life,” said Dixie. “The first product drop is all about introducing the brand to our fans, and the second drop in June reflects our individual personalities – designs that reflect Dixie’s personality are a bit edgier, with dark color palettes and patterns, where my vibe is shown through super feminine and cute styles. We can’t wait to put our vision out into the world!” added Charli.

Social Tourist will be one of the first standalone digitally-driven brands for the Abercrombie and Fitch Co. portfolio.“We couldn’t be more excited to introduce a new brand to the Abercrombie & Fitch Co. portfolio. Social Tourist builds on our successful relationship with two of the most popular social influencers, Charli and Dixie D’Amelio. The exclusive multi-year partnership has the girls working side-by-side with our teams to create a trend-forward product that reflects the sister’s unique attitude and lifestyle,” shared CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch Co, Fran Horowitz. “It taps into Gen-Z’s digital-first mindset and the power of social selling, offering monthly limited edition digital exclusive drops that will not be restocked. We view Social Tourist as a long-term growth vehicle, and believe that the partnership will help us unlock new opportunities to bolster our omni-channel strategy and authentically connect with our customers in new ways.”

Starting May 20th, Social Tourist will be sold exclusively through Hollister stores and www.socialtourist.com globally.

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

• Diversity Inclusion
• Advisory Panel
• Our Audience
• Private Tourism Academies
• Tourism Ambassador Training
• Destination Training
• Tourism Keynote Speakers
• Sponsorship
• Business Class Podcast
• Skill & Knowledge
• Product Training
• Our Technology
• Become An Instructor
• Sponsorship Opportunities
• Product Training & Promotion
• Hire Us To Speak

How to Greet Visitors: 20+ Examples to Try in Your Destination

Quick take : want to wow visitors each moment they step into a neighborhood hotel, restaurant, shop, or taxi keep reading. this post will:.

Offer scripts to use when greeting visitors.

Shed light on different welcoming techniques and tourist greeting examples.

Provide tips on   using your CRM   to improve visitor greetings and interactions. 

I distinctly recall a moment about a year ago. I was with friends in Denver’s Cherry Creek neighborhood, known for its upscale shopping, dining, and hotels. One of my friends was getting married in a couple of months and stopped by the store where he and his groomsmen got their tuxedos.

He was greeted by name and with a cold beer. Handshakes and hugs all around.

When we left, I asked my friend, “Do you know them?” He said, “Yeah, they’re helping me with my tux.”

Their entire relationship was forged on a transaction, a customer-brand interaction. But it was authentic. I’m not in the market for a tux, but if I were, that’d be my first stop.

How you greet your destination visitors — along with your succeeding interactions with them — make lasting impressions. It’s a low-cost investment you can make to improve the visitor experience and yield profound results.

RELATED: Turn Community Members Into Tourism Advocates & Ambassadors

One study shows that more than half of shoppers will return to a destination because they’ve previously had “superior customer service.” Plus, in retail, that positive experience can help prevent shoplifting .

Keep reading if you’re looking for techniques and examples to greet visitors to your destination. We’ve compiled some of the greetings and follow-up questions you and associates should try when interacting with visitors.

Sales greeting techniques: why they’re important

Lack of acknowledgment from front-line staff is one of  visitors’ top three most significant complaints  about shopping — and it could be a contributing factor to why  one Salesforce report  found that only 32% visit stores because they enjoy the experience.

The greeting is customers' first impression of your brand, at least as it relates to that specific in-person experience. “A good customer greeting or even the absence of [one] is the first piece of the customer shopping environment,” says Stephen Ekstrom, Chief Strategist at The Tourism Academy | tourismacademy.org . “They can get a sense of your message through greetings.” That greeting should set the stage for the experience your visitor is about to have.

How do you greet visitors to your community?

Vary greeting techniques and specific verbiage instead of speaking from a script every time. “It displays brand authenticity,” he says. “When destinations train front-line workers to greet in various ways, it allows not just the destination, but also the tourism ambassador to share the breadth and depth of your destination's values.”

That’s not the only reason you should change it up. Ekstrom points out that this demonstrates authenticity, an awareness of what’s happening in the destination, and authority and presence on the visitor front line. That presence is crucial: Three-quarters of consumers place much importance on interacting with sales staff when needed, according to the Salesforce report cited before.

RELATED: Customized Training Solutions For Front Line Workers

Plus, it feels personal. Customers want to hear their greeting, and it becomes impersonal if everyone who walks in after them is greeted the same. “Greetings, let your guest know you’re there to provide a great visitor experience,” Ekstrom says.

“[Greetings are] also important in sales conversion and loss prevention,” Ekstrom says.

Customer greeting techniques to use in your destination

To help brainstorm ideas, Ekstrom buckets associate-visitor interactions into four categories:

Familiarity

Commonality, orientation.

Small talk is a great way to break the ice and establish a friendly, human connection with visitors. “Typically, small talk is for those visitors you don’t recognize,” Ekstrom says.

Small talk, greetings, and questions should invite two-way conversation. Avoid questions that can be answered with a yes or no — they can quickly lead to dead ends. Ekstrom points out that relationship-building hinges upon that back-and-forth.

“It’s not necessarily the first question that is the most important or the first greeting the associate gives,” he says. “It’s the one that follows up the more important response, particularly regarding this bucket.” Those follow-up questions should be natural progressions of your associates' conversations.

Examples of small talk questions you can use when engaging with visitors:

Are you enjoying your afternoon?

How’d you hear about us?

Did you watch the game last night? I stayed up to watch the end!

How’s your day going?

What are you up to the rest of the day?

Who are we shopping for today?

Customer greeting example: Small talk in action

If you’ve ever been to a Chick-fil-A, you know how great their staff is at small talk. Friendly smiles, upbeat energy, and lots of easy small talk make every experience positive. They interact with you while you wait for your order through light conversation. Once, they gave me nearly a dozen free salads because they were closing, and I needed to get rid of them. But it’s not just me who feels this way — they’ve consistently earned the top spot in their industry's American Customer Satisfaction Index .

Remember that experience I had with my friend at the tuxedo shop? That was under the category of what Ekstrom calls familiarity. “Familiarity is when you’ve seen a visitor before,” she says. You’ve already established an initial relationship with a visitor.

Now, it’s about nurturing that relationship. Demonstrate to your returning visitors more than just remembering them — show them you’re getting to know them.

You can use tech to your advantage. Many POS (point of sale) solutions like Vend have built-in customer management features that allow you to add notes and track previous purchases. You can reference these things when encountering a returning visitor and use the data you have to tailor their guest experience.

Salesforce also found that 64% of consumers want personalized offers from retail brands, while more than half will switch to another brand if you don’t integrate personalization into your communications.

“Regulars want to feel like they’re in a   community   and belong,” Ekstrom says. “I like to train my students to be friendly and personable, but not necessarily speak and communicate as they would with friends.” He says to keep it to one or two sentences, as anything that goes overboard can negatively affect the experience.

Examples to get started with your familiarity interactions:

What brings you in to see us again?

It’s great to see you again.

Welcome back! How’ve you been?

Did you have a good weekend?

Coming in for another ___ (insert their previous purchase)?

Customer greeting example: Familiarity in action

You can take a look at hair salons. Many stylists have loyal clientele; it’s one of their selling points when searching for a chair to rent in a salon. Consumers go to the same stylist for years. You share personal stories and information with your stylist; you develop a real relationship. They return to the salon because of the human interactions and the quality of service they receive from that particular stylist. When her stylist moved, My mother would drive 45 minutes to get her hair done. Treat your associates as your version of stylists who can create that authentic, human connection.

This is when your associates represent the people behind your brand and share a piece of themselves (and, thus, your brand) with customers. “Commonality establishes a relationship through something happening in common,” Ekstrom says.

Establishing commonalities with customers through your community members gives visitors something to connect with. A shared value, perception, or even voice can make your destination relatable and instill trust.

Examples of questions and statements to say to visitors during that first greeting  

I like your ___ (shoes, scarf, coat, hairstyle, lipstick, etc.)

Wow, how are you navigating town?

How are you enjoying the great weather we have here?

Have you gotten outside to enjoy the fall colors yet?

Have you been around the corner to store X? It’s one of my favorites. (Follow up with What do you like about that store?)

Ekstrom's tips on commonality:

1. Be specific : Rather than asking, ‘How about this weather?’ try something like, ‘Did you get outside to enjoy the warm weather we’ve been having?’ “You can show true engagement,” says Ekstrom of specificity.

2. Be personal: You're encouraged to share a bit about yourself through the lens of your destination. “Personal testimonials are important when establishing commonality,” Ekstrom says. “And they need to be true and helpful.”

3. Be authentic: Visitors can sniff out insincerity in an instant. Ambassador-visitor interactions should be faithful to both the brand and our people.

4. Be positive:   Every interaction should be positive. Ekstrom gives an example: rather than saying, ‘When will it stop raining? we can't do anything!’ opt for ‘You’re more than welcome to stay here as long as you need to stay dry.’ “That’s a good way to take commonality, which sometimes tends towards discomfort or inconvenience, and put a positive spin on it,” she points out.

Customer greeting example: Commonality in action

I was shopping for a new snowboard at my local  Christy Sports Ski and Snowboard shop. I hadn’t bought a new one in longer than I’d like to admit, so I didn’t know much about the latest products available. The associate helping me out was a snowboarder himself, and he gave me an objective overview of the different kinds of boards available. Then, he gave me his opinion through his own snowboarding experiences. I immediately trusted him because we established something in common and I knew he was speaking authentically through his own experiences. I bought a snowboard from him that same day, even though I had initially planned to shop around.

Orientation is welcoming and familiarizing visitors to the space in your town. These interactions direct visitors to what they need and help them feel comfortable while exploring.

Sometimes, visitors will tell you exactly what they’re looking for. In that case, orientation is more straightforward: Guide those individuals to get exactly where they want to go. You could also offer helpful information they might not have thought of.

For example, if someone’s looking for running shoes in your sports apparel shop, you could also point out that the running socks are buy-one-get-one and available on your way to the shoe section. Then, mention your favorite running trails nearby.

Examples of orientation responses for the “I’m just looking” visitor:

I like to start in this area and work my way around.

Take your time to look around. Some people stay here for a lifetime just exploring.

After that initial engagement, check in with that customer with things like:

Would you like a guided tour?

Can I offer any recommendations?

How about I start a fitting room for you while you continue looking around?

Would you like me to hold your cup of coffee at the counter so you can explore the museum?

Are you finding what you thought you would?

Customer greeting example: Orientation in action

Every time I walk into REI, I am greeted by a sales associate. They often stand by the front doors to greet and say goodbye to customers. Whenever a customer walks in, they inquire about what the customer needs to do or which type of product they’re looking for. The associate then tells them exactly where they need to go and even communicates with the rest of the floor to send a staff member if the customer needs help. It’s a great way to welcome customers to the store and help them find what they need in an ample space.

During notable shopping seasons (e.g., back to school, Mother’s Day, the winter holidays, etc.), having a seasonal greeting in your backpack is helpful. Depending on the occasion, you can choose to weave in the following phrases or statements into your visitor greetings:

Happy holidays!

Visiting or shopping for someone special?

Are you here for the festival this weekend?

Non-verbal best practices for greeting visitors

The best greetings aren’t just about what you say. Several non-verbal factors can influence how well your greeting will be received. Consider the following.

Look the part

You and your fellow ambassadors (volunteers) must be presentable when facing visitors. The more likable your appearance is, the higher the chances visitors would respond favorably to your greeting.

The right look depends on your setting. Someone working at a shop that sells beach attire clothes would dress differently than someone at a four or five-star hotel. Regardless of your dress code, see that you’re wearing clean and pressed clothing. If makeup is required, ensure that your face and hair are touched periodically throughout the day to keep your best foot forward.

Please make sure to time your greeting correctly.

The timing of your greeting will affect how your spiel will land. In most cases, it’s best to wait about 15 to 30 seconds after someone has walked in before you greet them. This gives them enough time to get their bearings and adjust to your environment. Welcoming them too soon could overwhelm visitors, so wait before approaching them.

Please be careful with your body language.

Your body language should feel open and welcoming. Keep your arms at your sides (rather than crossing them) and maintain healthy eye contact. Keep an appropriate distance between yourself and shoppers to avoid invading their personal space.

Continuing the interactions

In addition to the tips above, Ekstrom reiterates the importance of keeping the conversation going but being mindful of visitor preferences. “I like to take the cue from the visitor,” she says. “Typically, locals are very attuned to what’s happening in the neighborhood and the vibe.”

It comes down to your intuition and noting social cues. “If it feels like you’re asking too much, you’re asking too much. If you feel like it’s been a long time since you checked in, you’ve waited a long time to check in.”

How can you “read” your visitors? Consider:

Body language

Verbal cues

Eye contact

Remember that every person, and thus every visitor, is different. “More than [one interaction] for someone who’s very introverted might be too much,” Ekstrom notes. "If a visitor feels like they’ve been authentically and genuinely engaged, you can take their cue for back and forth conversation.”

Train your employees

Ekstrom nods that the best tourism ambassadors are inherently good at interpersonal communications. There are some characteristics that you can’t teach. “A true community advocate associate likes to engage,” he says.

However, you can teach colleagues visitor greeting techniques to enhance their skills and provide a destination-authentic visitor experience. “We need to trust that they can be empowered with the destination knowledge and the brand values to make that engagement genuine,” says Ekstrom.  

Retail Dive reports that almost one-third of front-line employees don’t receive formal training, including sales greeting techniques. However, retail staff training is an area that would benefit from more attention, especially about employing these in-destination tactics. For example, the Salesforce report found that 44% of consumers usually know more about products than associates.

“It’s quite a catch-22 in that the more that we train people to be genuine, it almost becomes more disingenuine,” Ekstrom points out. “When we’re pressuring people to be authentic, it comes across as inauthentic.”

But practical ambassador training is easier said than done. Retail Dive also reports that 35% of retail employees found their training “very effective,” and only 31% felt “extremely engaged” after their workout.

Ekstrom has found one effective training technique: role-playing. “I think that destinations and their front-line partners like hotels, restaurants, attractions, and local shops are best served with experience-based training,” he says. “No one likes to role-play training activities, but that makes them effective and efficient because it highlights confusion, misalignment, and discomfort.” It puts your people on the spot and replicates the real-life experience.

Ekstrom suggests that you switch it up: role play with extroverted, introverted, suspicious, and even rude visitors to help your people build the collective skill set and learn which responses are brand-appropriate.

Ekstrom points to a local Seattle ice cream shop, Molly Moon’s Homemade Ice Cream, as a brand that has effectively trained associates — Scoopers — to ask the right questions and make every customer experience positive. There’s almost always a line out the door. “I always feel genuinely greeted, even though the interactions are quick,” he describes. “[The Scoopers are] so friendly and have fantastic personable personalities. Even though the engagement is quick, I never feel like I’m being rushed.” Customers can taste as many ice cream flavors as they like, and there are visuals to keep you occupied during the wait. “By the time I get to an associate, I don’t feel frustrated and like I waited forever. I’m quite excited,” he says. “That quick but genuine engagement is a great way to cap my experience with the store.”

Employing effective sales greeting techniques

One straightforward way to effectively greet and interact with visitors is to put yourself in their shoes. How would you like to be helped? Authentic, genuine interactions will almost always win over sales practices.

Leave a comment

Related articles, how to create a tourism ambassador program, destination success: a step-by-step guide for destination marketing organizations to train travel agents and tour operators, hidden gems: the essential roles of tourism ambassadors in community development.

• Skip to main content
• Keyboard shortcuts for audio player

How social media algorithms 'flatten' our culture by making decisions for us

Tonya Mosley

"The act of choosing a piece of culture to consume is a really powerful one," says writer Kyle Chayka. He's the author of Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture. Getty Images hide caption

"The act of choosing a piece of culture to consume is a really powerful one," says writer Kyle Chayka. He's the author of Filterworld: How Algorithms Flattened Culture.

If you opened Facebook, Twitter or Instagram about a decade ago, you'd likely see posts from friends and family, in chronological order. Nowadays, users are hit with a barrage of content curated by an algorithm. Passionate about plants? Sports? Cats? Politics? That's what you're going to see.

"[There] are equations that measure what you're doing, surveil the data of all the users on these platforms and then try to predict what each person is most likely to engage with," New Yorker writer Kyle Chayka explains. "So rather than having this neat, ordered feed, you have this feed that's constantly trying to guess what you're going to click on, what you're going to read, what you're going to watch or listen to."

Book Reviews

In 'filterworld,' only you can save yourself from bad taste.

In his new book, Filterworld , Chayka examines the algorithmic recommendations that dictate everything from the music, news and movies we consume, to the foods we eat and the places we go. He argues that all this machine-guided curation has made us docile consumers and flattened our likes and tastes.

"For us consumers, they are making us more passive just by feeding us so much stuff, by constantly recommending things that we are unlikely to click away from, that we're going to tolerate [but] not find too surprising or challenging," Chayka says.

What's more, Chayka says, the algorithms pressure artists and other content creators to shape their work in ways that fit the feeds. For musicians working through Spotify or TikTok, this might mean recording catchy hooks that occur right at the beginning of a song — when a user is most likely to hear it.

Code Switch

What internet outrage reveals about race and tiktok's algorithm.

Though the algorithms can feel inescapable, Chayka says increased regulation of social media companies can mitigate their impact. "I think if Meta, Facebook's parent company, was forced to spin off some of its properties, like Instagram or WhatsApp, and those properties were made to compete against each other, then maybe users would have more agency and more choices for what they're consuming," he says.

Interview highlights

On how the internet takes power away from gatekeepers

There's this huge power of the internet to let anyone publish the art that they make or the songs that they write. And I think that's really powerful and unique. ... [In] the cultural ecosystem that we had before, there were these gatekeepers, like magazine editors or record executives or even radio station DJs, who you did have to work through to get your art heard or seen or bought. And so these were human beings who had their own biases and preferences and social networks, and they tended to block people who didn't fit with their own vision.

Now, in the algorithmic era, let's say rather than seeking to please those human gatekeepers or figure out their tastes, the metric is just how much engagement you can get on these digital platforms. So the measure of your success is how many likes did you get? How many saves did you get on TikTok or bookmarks? How many streams did you get on Spotify?

So I think there are advantages and disadvantages to both of these kinds of regimes. Like, on the internet, anyone can put out their work and anyone can get heard. But that means to succeed, you also have to placate or adapt to these algorithmic ecosystems that, I think, don't always let the most interesting work get heard or seen.

On the difficulty of knowing what's going outside your specific algorithm

These digital platforms and feeds, they kind of promise a great communal experience, like we're connecting with all the other TikTok users or all of the other Instagram users, but I think they're actually kind of atomizing our experiences, because we can never tell what other people are seeing in their own feeds. We don't have a sense of how many other people are fans of the same thing that we are fans of or even if they're seeing the same piece of culture that we're seeing, or experiencing an album or a TV show, in the same way. So I think there's this lack of connection ... this sense that we're alone in our consumption habits and we can't come together over art in the same way, which I think is kind of deadening the experience of art and making it harder to have that kind of collective enthusiasm for specific things.

On how success on social media determines who gets book deals, TV shows and record deals

TED Radio Hour

How can we look past (or see beyond) our digital filters.

Every publisher will ask a new author, "What is your platform like? How big of a platform do you have?" Which is almost a euphemism for, "How many followers do you have online?" — whether that's [on] Twitter or Instagram or an email newsletter. They want to know that you already have an audience going into this process, that you have a built-in fan base for what you're doing. And culture doesn't always work that way. I don't think every idea should have to be so iterative that you need fans already for something to succeed, that you have to kind of engage audiences at every point in the process of something to have it be successful. So for a musician, maybe you'll get a big record deal only if you go viral on TikTok. Or if you have a hit YouTube series, maybe you'll get more gigs as an actor. There's this kind of gatekeeping effect here too, I think, where in order to get more success on algorithmic platforms, you have to start with seeding some kind of success on there already.

On how some film and TV shows lean into becoming internet memes

You can see how TV shows and movies have adapted to algorithmic feeds by the kind of one-liner, GIF-ready scenes that you see in so many TV shows and movies now. You can kind of see how a moment in a film is made to be shared on Twitter or how a certain reaction in a reality TV show, for example, is made to become a meme. And I think a lot of production choices have been influenced by that need for your piece of content to drive more pieces of content and to inspire its own reactions and riffs and more memes.

On how algorithms impact journalism

Untangling Disinformation

New study shows just how facebook's algorithm shapes conservative and liberal bubbles.

Instagram Suggested Posts To Users. It Served Up COVID-19 Falsehoods, Study Finds

Algorithmic feeds, I think, took on the responsibility that a lot of news publications once had. ... In decades past, we would see the news stories that we consumed on a daily basis from The New York Times front page on the print paper or as on The New York Times homepage on the internet. Now, instead of the publication choosing which stories are most important, which things you should see right away, the Twitter, or X, algorithmic feed is sorting out what kinds of stories you're consuming and what narratives are being built up. We now have TikTok talking heads and explainers rather than news anchors on cable TV. So the responsibility for choosing what's important, I think, has been ported over to algorithmic recommendations rather than human editors or producers.

On how passive consumption affects how deeply we think about culture

I think passive consumption certainly has its role. We are not always actively consuming culture and thinking deeply about the genius of a painting or a symphony. ... It's not something we can do all the time. But what I worry about is the passivity of consumption that we've been pushed into, the ways that we're encouraged not to think about the culture we're consuming, to not go deeper and not follow our own inclinations. ... And I suppose that when I really think about it ... the kind of horror that's at the end of all this, at least for me, is that ... we'll never have the Fellini film that's so challenging you think about it for the rest of your life or see the painting that's so strange and discomforting that it really sticks with you. Like I don't want to leave those masterpieces of art behind just because they don't immediately engage people.

Sam Briger and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.

• social media

Tourism profile measure for data-driven tourism segmentation

• Original Article
• Published: 13 April 2024

Cite this article

• Guillaume Guerard 1 , 2   na1 ,
• Quentin Gabot 1   na1 &
• Sonia Djebali 1  

The digital revolution has brought about profound changes in research within the tourism segmentation field. The ease of grasping tourists’ behaviors is facilitated by the digital traces left on social networks. Existing studies focusing on tourists’ digital traces typically apply clustering algorithms to the tourism context. This paper introduces a novel measure, named tourism profile measure for determining tourism segmentation, also known as tourism profiling. The approach involves establishing a new clustering algorithm that centers on stays conducted by tourists, utilizing both the context and content of the trips. The proposed measure is then simulated and experimentally evaluated using a real dataset across various periods and diverse nationalities, particularly in the context of the French capital, Paris.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price includes VAT (Russian Federation)

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Rent this article via DeepDyve

Institutional subscriptions

Data availability

No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

GADM: https://gadm.org/index.html .

https://pro.visitparisregion.com/chiffres-du-tourisme/profil-clientele-tourisme .

https://github.com/SmartGridandCity/TourismProfileMeasure .

Hu F, Li Z, Yang C, Jiang Y (2019) A graph-based approach to detecting tourist movement patterns using social media data. Cartogr Geogr Inf Sci 46(4):368–382

Article   Google Scholar  

Zhang K, Chen D, Li C (2020) How are tourists different?—reading geo-tagged photos through a deep learning model. J Qual Assur Hosp Tour 21(2):234–243

Alén E, Losada N, Domínguez T (2016) The impact of ageing on the tourism industry: An approach to the senior tourist profile. Soc Indic Res 127(1):303–322

Rafael C, Almeida A (2017) Socio-demographic tourist profile and destination image in online environment. J Adv Manag Sci 5 (5)

Chareyron G, Da-Rugna J, Raimbault T (2014) Big data: a new challenge for tourism. In: 2014 IEEE international conference on big data (big data), pp 5–7. IEEE, New York

Amaro S, Duarte P, Henriques C (2016) Travelers’ use of social media: a clustering approach. Ann Tour Res 59:1–15

Godoy D, Amandi A (2005) User profiling in personal information agents: a survey. Knowl Eng Rev 20(4):329–361

Eke CI, Norman AA, Shuib L, Nweke HF (2019) A survey of user profiling: state-of-the-art, challenges, and solutions. IEEE Access 7:144907–144924

Araniti G, De Meo P, Iera A, Ursino D (2003) Adaptively controlling the QOS of multimedia wireless applications through" user profiling" techniques. IEEE J Sel Areas Commun 21(10):1546–1556

Nilashi M, Ibrahim O, Ithnin N, Sarmin NH (2015) A multi-criteria collaborative filtering recommender system for the tourism domain using expectation maximization (em) and pca-anfis. Electron Commer Res Appl 14(6):542–562

Cufoglu A (2014) User profiling-a short review. Int J Comput Appl 108 (3)

Gavalas D, Kenteris M (2011) A web-based pervasive recommendation system for mobile tourist guides. Pers Ubiquit Comput 15(7):759–770

Logesh R, Subramaniyaswamy V, Vijayakumar V, Li X (2019) Efficient user profiling based intelligent travel recommender system for individual and group of users. Mobile Netw Appl 24(3):1018–1033

Refanidis I, Emmanouilidis C, Sakellariou I, Alexiadis A, Koutsiamanis R-A, Agnantis K, Tasidou A, Kokkoras F, Efraimidis PS (2014) myvisitplanner gr: Personalized itinerary planning system for tourism. In: Hellenic conference on artificial intelligence, pp 615–629. Springer, New York

Abbasi-Moud Z, Vahdat-Nejad H, Sadri J (2021) Tourism recommendation system based on semantic clustering and sentiment analysis. Exp Syst Appl 167:114324

Cao L, Luo J, Gallagher A, Jin X, Han J, Huang TS (2010) A worldwide tourism recommendation system based on geo tagged web photos. In: 2010 IEEE international conference on acoustics, speech and signal processing, pp 2274–2277. IEEE, New York

Massimo D, Ricci F (2019) Clustering users’ pois visit trajectories for next-poi recommendation. In: Information and communication technologies in tourism 2019, pp 3–14. Springer, New York

Rodríguez J, Semanjski I, Gautama S, Weghe N, Ochoa D (2018) Unsupervised hierarchical clustering approach for tourism market segmentation based on crowdsourced mobile phone data. Sensors 18(9):2972

Wind YJ, Bell DR (2008) Market segmentation. Routledge, London

Google Scholar  

Calantone RJ, Johar JS (1984) Seasonal segmentation of the tourism market using a benefit segmentation framework. J Travel Res 23(2):14–24

Dolnicar S (2020) Market segmentation for e-tourism. In: Handbook of e-tourism, pp 1–15

Deseure-Charron F, Djebali S, Guérard G (2022) Clustering method for touristic photographic spots recommendation. In: Advanced data mining and applications: 18th international conference, ADMA 2022, Brisbane, Australia, November 28–30, 2022, Proceedings, Part II, pp 223–237. Springer, New York

Xu D, Tian Y (2015) A comprehensive survey of clustering algorithms. Ann Data Sci 2(2):165–193

Backer E, Jain AK (1981) A clustering performance measure based on fuzzy set decomposition. IEEE Trans Pattern Anal Mach Intell 1:66–75

Blanco-Moreno S, González-Fernández AM, Muñoz-Gallego PA (2023) Big data in tourism marketing: past research and future opportunities. Span J Market-ESIC (ahead-of-print)

Dolnicar S (2002) A review of data-driven market segmentation in tourism. J Travel Tour Market 12(1):1–22

Article   MathSciNet   Google Scholar  

D’Urso P, De Giovanni L, Disegna M, Massari R, Vitale V (2021) A tourist segmentation based on motivation, satisfaction and prior knowledge with a socio-economic profiling: a clustering approach with mixed information. Soc Indic Res 154(1):335–360

Gauch S, Speretta M, Chandramouli A, Micarelli A (2007) User profiles for personalized information access. In: The adaptive web, pp 54–89

Wassler P, Nguyen THH, Schuckert M (2019) Social representations and resident attitudes: a multiple-mixed-method approach. Ann Tour Res 78:102740

Chung MG, Herzberger A, Frank KA, Liu J (2020) International tourism dynamics in a globalized world: a social network analysis approach. J Travel Res 59(3):387–403

Leal F, González–Vélez H, Malheiro B, Burguillo JC (2017) Semantic profiling and destination recommendation based on crowd-sourced tourist reviews. In: International symposium on distributed computing and artificial intelligence, pp 140–147. Springer, New York

Amoretti M, Belli L, Zanichelli F (2017) Utravel: smart mobility with a novel user profiling and recommendation approach. Pervasive Mobile Comput 38:474–489

McKercher B, Tolkach D, Eka Mahadewi NM, Byomantara DGN (2023) Choosing the optimal segmentation technique to understand tourist behaviour. J Vac Market 29(1):71–83

D’urso P, Massari R (2019) Fuzzy clustering of mixed data. Inf Sci 505:513–534

Melnykov V, Maitra R (2010) Finite mixture models and model-based clustering. Stat Surv 4:80–116

Xu R, Wunsch D (2005) Survey of clustering algorithms. IEEE Trans Neural Netw 16(3):645–678

Singh PK, Othman E, Ahmed R, Mahmood A, Dhahri H, Choudhury P (2021) Optimized recommendations by user profiling using a priori algorithm. Appl Soft Comput 106:107272

Huang Z (1997) Clustering large data sets with mixed numeric and categorical values. In: Proceedings of the 1st Pacific–Asia conference on knowledge discovery and data mining (PAKDD), pp 21–34. Citeseer

Li C, Biswas G (2002) Unsupervised learning with mixed numeric and nominal data. IEEE Trans Knowl Data Eng 14(4):673–690

Cheeseman PC, Stutz JC (1996) Bayesian classification (autoclass): theory and results. Adv Knowl Discov Data Min 180:153–180

Hsu C-C (2006) Generalizing self-organizing map for categorical data. IEEE Trans Neural Netw 17(2):294–304

Ahmad A, Khan SS (2019) Survey of state-of-the-art mixed data clustering algorithms. IEEE Access 7:31883–31902

Ping Y, Gao C, Liu T, Du X, Luo H, Jin D, Li Y (2021) User consumption intention prediction in Meituan. In: Proceedings of the 27th ACM SIGKDD conference on knowledge discovery & data mining, pp 3472–3482

Gössling S (2018) Tourism, tourist learning and sustainability: an exploratory discussion of complexities, problems and opportunities. J Sustain Tour 26(2):292–306

Niaraki AS, Kim K (2009) Ontology based personalized route planning system using a multi-criteria decision making approach. Exp Syst Appl 36(2):2250–2259

Cannas R (2012) An overview of tourism seasonality: key concepts and policies. Almatourism-J Tour Cult Territor Dev 3(5):40–58

Moreno A, Valls A, Isern D, Marin L, Borràs J (2013) Sigtur/e-destination: ontology-based personalized recommendation of tourism and leisure activities. Eng Appl Artif Intell 26(1):633–651

Jia Z, Yang Y, Gao W, Chen X (2015) User-based collaborative filtering for tourist attraction recommendations. In: 2015 IEEE international conference on computational intelligence & communication technology, pp 22–25. IEEE, New York

Borràs J, Moreno A, Valls A (2014) Intelligent tourism recommender systems: a survey. Exp Syst Appl 41(16):7370–7389

Hakimi SL, Yau SS (1965) Distance matrix of a graph and its realizability. Q Appl Math 22(4):305–317

Struyf A, Hubert M, Rousseeuw P (1997) Clustering in an object-oriented environment. J Stat Softw 1(4):1–30

Müllner D (2011) Modern hierarchical, agglomerative clustering algorithms. arXiv preprint arXiv:1109.2378

Download references

Author information

All authors contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

Léonard de Vinci Pôle Universitaire, Research Center, 92 916, Paris La Défense, France

Guillaume Guerard, Quentin Gabot & Sonia Djebali

LI-PARAD Laboratory EA 7432, Versailles University, 78035, Versailles, France

Guillaume Guerard

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

Conceived and designed the analysis: G.G. and S.D. Collected the data: S.D. Contributed data or analysis tools: G.G. and Q.G. Performed the analysis: G.G. and Q.G. Wrote the paper: G.G. Correction to reviewers: G.G.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Guillaume Guerard .

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest.

The authors declare no Conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Guerard, G., Gabot, Q. & Djebali, S. Tourism profile measure for data-driven tourism segmentation. Int. J. Mach. Learn. & Cyber. (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13042-024-02145-z

Download citation

Received : 19 November 2023

Accepted : 16 March 2024

Published : 13 April 2024

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/s13042-024-02145-z

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Tourism segmentation
• Similarity measure
• Machine learning

Advertisement

• Find a journal
• Publish with us
• Track your research

• IEEE Computer Society
• Editorial Board
• Back Issues
• Calls for Papers
• Submit a Manuscript

TripAdvisor: A long journey begins into the algorithm of world’s largest travel community to learn ‘sentiment analysis’

TripAdvisor  is the most successful online forum in the travel and tourism industry. Easily the world’s largest travel community, it reaches 390 million unique visitors each month and lists 465 million reviews and opinions about more than 7 million accommodations, restaurants, and attractions in 49 markets worldwide.

Map of the popularity of TripAdvisor searches in Google over the last five years.

Its recommendation algorithm provides a goldmine of data for analysts who work in marketing and are keenly interested in the opinions of consumers on the products and services they buy.

Analysts mine social media and other outlets for “sentiment analysis” and use that information to study what people like and don’t like—and, more importantly why —so that they can develop better marketing campaigns.

Researchers from the University of Granada  have studied a number of web platforms and propose TripAdvisor as a highly valuable source for sentiment analysis.

Read TripAdvisor algorithm and sentiment analysis research here

Sentiment analysis is the process of computationally identifying and categorizing opinions expressed in a piece of text to determine whether the writer’s attitude toward a particular topic, product, or experience is generally positive, negative, or neutral, the authors say.

“The interest in sentiment analysis has increased significantly over the last few years due to the large amount of stored text in Web 2.0 applications and the importance of online customer opinions. As a result, more than 1 million research papers contain the term ‘sentiment analysis,’ and various start-ups have been created to analyze sentiments in social media companies,” the new study says.

Distribution of sentiments between TripAdvisor users (bubble ratings) and four sentiment analysis methods (SAMs): SentiStrength, Bing, Syuzhet, and CoreNLP. Red indicates negative sentiments, orange neutral, and green positive.

“Multiple studies on TripAdvisor exist, but there is no complete analysis from the sentiment analysis viewpoint,” the report adds, written by Ana Valdivia ,  M. Victoria Luzón,  and  Francisco Herrera, all of the University of Granada in Spain.

TripAdvisor  is a user-generated content website that “offers a plethora of reviews detailing travelers’ experiences with hotels, restaurants, and tourist spots. TripAdvisor has since been ranked as the most popular site for trip planning, with millions of tourists visiting the site when arranging their holidays,” the authors write in “ Sentiment Analysis in TripAdvisor, ” published in the July/August 2017 issue of IEEE Intelligent Systems .

The researchers developed an analysis for studying the matching between users’ sentiments and automatic sentiment-detection algorithms.

TripAdvisor’s sentiment analysis algorithm analyzes “sentiment polarity,” which labels reviews as simply good, bad, or neutral. Difficulties arise when the algorithm tries to scour the text for grammatical nuances, cultural variations, jargon, and misspellings.

Extracting accurate labels and fine-grained details from reviews is not as easy as it seems, but it is important because it reveals the reasons why reviewers may or may not like what is called an aspect .

“An aspect refers to an attribute of the entity, for example, hotel room cleanliness, the staff at a tourist spot, or the service at a restaurant. Aspect-based sentiment analysis aims to identify the sentiment toward an aspect and extract fine-grained information about specific TripAdvisor-based opinions (hotels, monuments, restaurants, and so on),” according to Ana Valdivia and her colleagues.

Granada (Paseo de los Tristes). TripAdvisor is the most popular site for planning a trip.

Other challenges include detecting irony/sarcasm in a post or review, which can make text appear negative when it is not, or detecting spam, which is not authentic.

While the research continues to evolve with regard to sentiment analysis, TripAdvisor gives researchers one of the most extensive databases of opinions to test new and better algorithms.

Despite some challenges with opinion summarization and opinion retrieval, the authors were bullish about how sentiment analysis is a growing field.

“The implementation of sentiment analysis techniques to mine sources of opinion is crucial to understanding the faults and assets of a tourist service. Given the large number of applications in the tourist domain, sentiment analysis has great potential to directly influence quality improvement in tourism,” the researchers say.

Research related to sentiment analysis in the Computer Society Digital Library:

• Affective Computing and Sentiment Analysis
• Statistical Approaches to Concept-Level Sentiment Analysis
• Semantic Multidimensional Scaling for Open-Domain Sentiment Analysis
• YouTube Movie Reviews: Sentiment Analysis in an Audio-Visual Context
• Knowledge-Based Approaches to Concept-Level Sentiment Analysis

Research related to transportation systems in the Computer Society Digital Library:

• Mapping Social Media for Transportation Studies
• Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Protecting Transportation Infrastructure
• Verification of Cyberphysical Transportation Systems
• RHODES to Intelligent Transportation Systems
• Navigation and Multimodal Transportation with EasyTransport
• The Growing Role of IT in Transportation
• Machine-Vision Systems for Intelligent Transportation Systems