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Interactive Genetic Algorithms for a Travel Itinerary Planning Problem

Article · January 2000

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 INTERACTIVE GENETIC ALGORITHMS FOR A TRAVEL ITINERARY
PLANNING PROBLEM
Fang-Cheng Hsu
fanechi@email.au.edu.tw
Department of Information Management
Aletheia University, No. 32 Chen- Li St., Tamsui, Taipei, 25103, Taiwan

Jiah-Shing Chen
jschen@im.mgt.ncu.edu.tw
Poren Chen
poren@im.mgt.ncu.edu.tw
Department of Information Management
National Central University, Chung-Li 32054, Taiwan

Abstract
We often need to make a travel itinerary plan for our daily lives, and it is important that a travel be
organized in an adequate way. Today, the travel information in multiform for independent tourists is sufficient,
but the sufficient information is not enough for making a successful itinerary planning. The travel itinerary
planning problem is ill-structured in nature, which means goals, decision criteria and other constrains of the
problem are unable to completely predefined. To solve such a problem, we need a system to handle time
constrains, various recreational activities needs, real transit service and actual street system, as well as a flexible
approach to coordinate and to integrate the diverse sources of information to support tourists in planning their
trips. In this study, we propose an interactive genetic algorithms -based model to solve such a travel itinerary
planning problem. Initial results of the test show that the proposed model is good for itinerary planning indeed.

Keywords: Itinerary Planning, Interactive Genetic Algorithms

1. Introduction

Making a short, one day especially, travel itinerary plan is a regularly decision-making problem must be
confronted in our daily lives. It is important that a travel be organized in an adequate way. Today, the travel
information in multiform is sufficient for foreign independent tourists, but only with the sufficient information is
not enough for making a successful itinerary planning.
To solve such an itinerary planning problem, we need possess time constrains, various recreational
activities, real transit service, actual street system, and user preference under different circumstances. However,
the travel itinerary planning problem is ill-structured in nature, which means goals, decision criteria and other
constrains of the problem are unable to completely predefined.
Traditionally, travel itinerary planning models are based on the concept of the Operations Research (OR).
To use the models, users are asked to completely pre -build their criteria into objective functions and to preset all
constrains. Hence, users cannot but take only objective variables into consideration as soon as possible. In other
words, some subjective variables, e.g. their preferences, are forced to give up. In addition, the goal of the
OR-based model is to search a single optimal solution. However, there might be conflicts between criteria in
objective functions, the single optimal solution hence not necessary be reached. Actually, Gorry and Scott
Morton pointed out that the OR-based approach is not sufficient for the less structured problems [6]. A related
concept for unstructured problem is Simon’s bounded rationality [11]. In his satisfying mode, the decision
maker sets up an aspiration, goal, or desired level of performance and then searches the alternatives until one is
found that achieves this level.
From a decision-making perspective, Henig et al. believe that a good decision-making should be an
interactive process, in which a decision-maker learns to understand his criteria by looking for attributes, then

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adds, combines or possibly reduces the number of criteria, and finally modifies the attributes and expands the
set of alternatives accordingly [3, 7].
We may, therefore, reasonable say that it needs a model with a flexible approach to handle all constrains
and criteria, including preference, and to integrate the diverse sources of information to support tourists in
planning their trips. However, until then very few systems possess the features have been proposed.
The purpose of this paper is to propose an Interactive Genetic Algorithms -based Model for solving such a
travel itinerary planning problem. We use Tokyo city itinerary planning as an example to illustrate how the
proposed model can help tourists make his itinerary planning with a good decision-making process.

2. Background

2.1 Travel Itinerary Planning Problem

If size of location to be visited is fixed, the order of any two locations is indifferent, and the shortest tour for the
locations is the only criterion to be considered, then the travel itinerary planning problem falls into a class of
problems known as the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP). There is not any real-world travel itinerary planning
as simple as TSP, hence, real-world travel itinerary planning problems usually be formulated as variations of
TSP [1, 13].
Vaughn et al. have defined a travel itinerary planning problem (TIPP) [13]. In the TIPP, itineraries
comprise a set of sequenced locations with various recreation activities and trips that connect these locations.
The travel itinerary planning is based on a set of itinerary attributes (e.g., travel time and cost, stay time at a
place, etc.) and other non-predefined tourists’ preference to identify a satisfactory itinerary for the tourists. In
other words, it is a multi-criteria decision process, which accounts for something like costs and time-consuming
of the itinerary and tourists’ preference as its criteria to build an itinerary.
In this study, we also take geographic criteria into consideration (e.g., visiting park area in day time, or
walking along the sea-shore at evening). The travel itinerary planning problem define here is a complex one that
belongs to a class of problems, which no analytical solution is known to exist. We believe that there exists not
any optimal itinerary that is superior to others. For instance, an itinerary has a minimal travel time may not has a
minimal monetary cost. In this study, we assume tourists are naturally interested in an itinerary that has a
satisfactory combination of itinerary attributes.
The travel itinerary planning we concerned includes activity planning and trip planning. Although activity
planning is generally perceived to take place before the trip planning, plans designed with this planning process
usually inappropriate and likely to be modified during the course of a tour. It is necessary to make those two
kinds of planning simultaneously in order to find a solution about the whole problem. In a sense, the travel
itinerary planning is a Multi Criteria Decision-Making (MCDM) problem.
Generally speaking, we can classify methods of MCDM problems into two categories: Multiple Objective
Programming (MOP) and Multiple Attribute Decision-Making (MADM). In practice, we learned that MOP is
suitable for decision problems with infinite, continuous alternatives and a set of well-prepared objectives and/or
constraints; On the other hand, MADM is suitable for decision problems with discrete alternatives and a little set
of prepared alternatives.
When decision-makers adopt MOP approach, from a decision-making point of view, he will be forced to
start with a set of well-defined criteria; if he apply the MADM approach, then he will be asked to choose one
optimal solution from a certain set of alternatives prepared by the analyst rather than the decision-maker. It is
doubtful that either approach can bring good outcomes for solving the decision-making problems. Hence, we
need an approach, which follows a good decision-making process, to help decision-makers to handle their multi
criteria decision-making problems.
But what is a good decision-making process? Henig et al. believe that a good decision-making is an
interactive process, in which a decision-maker learns to understand his criteria by looking for attributes, then
adds, combines or possibly reduces the number of criteria, and finally modifies the attributes and expands the
set of alternatives accordingly [3, 7]. In the case of the travel itinerary planning, a tourist should play both the
roles of an itinerary generator and a criteria setter

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 It is clear that to build a travel itinerary planning model based on the foregoing concept will confront with
two difficulties:
First, the number of alternatives and attributes are large in travel itinerary planning problems; making the
search space beyond human capability. Therefore, how to provide a system to support tourists to take on the role
of an itinerary generator is becoming a big challenge.
Secondly, because the search space of travel itinerary planning problems is large, guiding tourists to learn
to understand his preference through interactive process, and helping him to establish his criteria appropriately
is another challenge.

2.2 Interactive Genetic Algorithms

Interactive Genetic Algorithm (IGA) is a genetic algorithm except that fitness function is replaced by human
evaluation. A specific feature of the IGA is intended to combine the global search ability of GA (Genetic
Algorithms) [4, 8] and the evaluation capabilities of humans. Hence, the IGA is fit for solving a problem with a
fitness function that contains subjective factor of the users.
Interactive genetic algorithms have been used to solve problems that cannot be easily solved by GA, such as
design and art [2, 19, 11] or multiple criteria decision support [4, 9].
Basic procedures of a system to apply IGA is as follows:
1. The system generates a set of chromosome as initial population.
2. Then, phenotypes of the chromosome set are presented to the user.
3. The user evaluates each chromosome proposed by the system.
4. Based on user’s evaluation, IGA selects the chromosome, and generates new chromosomes in the
next generation by applying crossover or mutation.
5. Go back to 2 until user’s preference is satisfied.

3. Proposed Method

In this paper, we propose an IGA -based model to meet essentials of the good decision process. The model we
proposed includes 3 significant modules: (1) Geographic Information System (GIS) module, (2) Interactive
interface module, and (3) interactive genetic algorithms: making up the travel itinerary planning.

3.1 Geographic information systems module

A Geographic database is embedded in this module; we provide the following diverse information to users
through the module:
1. Spatial information. E.g. related activities or events on each scenic spot; distances between any two
scenic spots.
2. Temp oral information. E.g. traffic time required between any two scenic spots, time interval
recommended for each recreation activities.
3. General information. E.g. general descriptions and pictures of the scenic spots
4. And more

3.2 An interactive interface module

Primarily, the interactive interface module is a map interface for helping tourists: (1) to view travel information,
(2) to choice recreation activities he is interested on each scenic spot, and (3) to evaluate itinerary plans
generated by IGA -based planning module.
With the map interface, a tourist can acquire descriptions and pictures of a scenic spot they are interested
by clicking the spot on a map, find out related recreation activities on each scenic spot and choose some of it as
a part of his trip, read spatial relationships between scenic spots, and so on. After browsing each kind of diverse
information, we expect that tourists have built their initial criteria for judging travel itineraries.

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 Before end of this step, tourists are asked to input following messages through the map interface to define
his specific itinerary problem.
1. A set of scenic spots to be visited.
2. Recreation activities he is interested on each scenic spot.
3. Start off time.

3.3 IGA-based planning module

In the IGA -based module, interactive genetic algorithms are used to synthesize tourists’ inputs to generate a set
of itineraries, which served as an initial population; the initial itineraries are present to tourists for evaluating.
Based on tourists’ evaluations, IGA generates new generation of itineraries with crossover or mutation and ask
the tourist to evaluate new set of itineraries again. This process continues until tourists discover any itinerary
that is acceptable.
One specific feature of IGA is using tourist’s preference as its fitness function, so that the tourist needs not
to define clear, unchangeable criteria at the beginning of the planning process. In practice, a tourist can learn to
understand his preference and then change his criteria in travel itinerary planning through interacting with IGA.
It is clear that IGA -based itinerary planning might matches with the essentials of a good decision process.
The chromosome structure of the travel itinerary is coded as a string array (Figure. 1) represents a sequence
of the scenic spots (e.g. 00000: Akasaka, 00001: Ginza ). The phenotype of the travel itinerary is a visual route
(or path) displayed on a map. Except the phenotype of travel itineraries, total travel cost associated with each
itinerary, total time-consuming in each itinerary and arrival/leaving time at each travel node also displayed on
the screen.
Scenic spot 1 Scenic spot 2 … Scenic spot n
5 bits 5 bits … 5 bits
Figure 1. The chromosome structure of the travel itinerary

4. Subject Experiment

Based on the proposed model, a prototype of Tokyo travel itinerary planning system was developed to test the
convergence of the model and degree of user’s satisfactory in using the proposed IGA -based system. The initial
test results shown that the model performs as we expected.
Three users are invited to join the experiment. To begin with, all users were asked to browse the scenic
spots through a map interface (Figure 2); and choose scenic spots and related recreation activities they are
interested (Figure 3). The population size of the experiments was 10. Users were requested to carefully design 3
to 5 itineraries with their favorite approach as parts of initial population; other parts of the initial population
were randomly generated by the system.
At each generation, 10 chromosomes in the population were divided into two pages. System displayed a
rating interface (Figure. 4) one page at a time. Users were asked to rate each itinerary on a ten-point satisfactory
scale according to his preference, i.e. a mix of total travel cost associated with the itinerary, total
time-consuming in the itinerary, degrees of possibility to participate the recreation activities he like.
We have designed a user-friendly evaluating interface for the user’s convenience. When user clicks any
itinerary button on the top, not only a colored path (visual route) of the itinerary will be displayed on the map,
but also total costs of the itinerary, total time -consuming in the itinerary, arrival/departure time on each scenic
spot, the recreation activities he is interested but cannot participate in the itinerary will be provided. It is not
necessary to leave the path be rated a lower fitness value on the map, for easy comparison, we leave 3 paths at
most on the map. In other words, we always leave three paths, with relatively high fitness value, on the map.
Every user repeated the same experiment three times; the average fitness values of the most satisfactory
itinerary on each generation were used to monitor the convergence of proposed model. Values of the
experimental GA parameters are listed in Table 1 and the experiment results are shown in Figure 5.
Results show that three users got average fitness value raised of 2.0, 3.0, 1.67 points respectively in 20
generations. It means the proposed model is good for itinerary planning indeed.

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Figure. 2 A map interface for browsing descriptions and pictures of a scenic spot

Figure 3 A snapshot of choosing recreation activities on each scenic spot

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Figure 4 A snapshot of choosing recreation activities on each scenic spot

Figure. 5 experiment results

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 Table 1. Values of the experiment GA parameters
Population size 10
Crossover method Partially matched crossover (PMX)
Crossover rate 0.8
Mutation rate .01
Simple elitism strategy One chromosome of the population is retained

5. Conclusions

In this study, we propose an IGA -based model to solve the itinerary planning problems. The development of the
IGA-based itinerary planning model represents an ambitious effort to incorporate many novel features in a
system. From the view of a good decision making process, the tourist’s preferences are expected well reflected
in designing a travel itinerary when using the proposed model. A prototype of the proposed model is applied to a
Tokyo travel itinerary planning problem. With the prototype, we tested the convergence of the model and user’s
satisfactory. Initial results show that the proposed model is effective on satisfaction convergence, but it is still
need some further tests to assure the effectiveness of the model
The IGA -based system is believed helpful for tourists simultaneously to find out several different itinerary
plans with equal effectiveness. This distinguishing job is almost impossible for other models. Besides, the
proposed IGA -based model points out a new direction for supporting travel itinerary planning.

6. Reference

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