Analysis of Points of Interests Recommended for Leisure Walk Descriptions

Abstract

Leisure walking is a physical activity where locomotion through a natural or even urban environment is the goal in itself, e.g., in pursuit of health and wellbeing. In contrast to destination-oriented walks that are focused on navigation efficiency (i.e., shortest or simplest walk from source to destination), leisure walks emphasize experiencing the environment, engaging in activities, and discovering places that may be off route, or intermediate destinations en-route, summarily called points of interest (POIs). POIs are key for recommending leisure walks, yet a detailed analysis of POIs in the context of leisure walking is missing in the literature. This study extracts and annotates POIs of leisure walking recommendations available in WalkingMaps.com.au, creating an annotated dataset to address this research gap and provide a first analysis of leisure walking descriptions. We classify POIs using the verbal description provided in the dataset, match them with data available in OpenStreetMap (OSM), and compare the POIs with nearby alternatives in OSM. Our analysis reveals thematic and spatial patterns in POI selection, offering a machine learning approach to model POI choices for leisure walks. We further evaluate the availability of rich data in OSM for future automated leisure walking recommendation. This study contributes to automated systems for recommending leisure walks, tailoring suggestions based on available information in the spatial open data, and presents an annotated dataset to facilitate future research in this field.

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