Using a Genetic Algorithm for Planning Interesting Tourist Routes in the City on the Basis of Open Street Map Data

Walking is a good way to get to know a new district or city. However, it may be difficult for a tourist not familiar with the area to choose a route for a walk because they do not know, what places of interest there are nearby. This is especially true for areas unpopular with tourists and not mentioned in guidebooks. But even if attractions are listed there, it can be challenging to think of the best route to see them all. In this case, a special navigation service can help, which is able to build more interesting walking routes rather than shorter ones (as existing popular navigation services do). Such routes may be longer but they include local places of interest, green areas and embankments. The article proposes an algorithm that uses data on places of interest from Open Street Map and applies a modernized A* algorithm as well as a genetic algorithm to build such routes. Creation of two route options is considered: a route between two different points (if the tourist wants to reach a specific destination while seeing some places of interest along the way) and a circular route returning to the starting point in a specified time (e.g., if the tourist wants to walk around the hotel or a train station).