Combinatorial Optimization for trip Planning

Abstract

This paper sketches why trip planning is important but also why it is a difficult enterprise for which tourists usually resort to intermediaries’ expertise. As a result, it is suggested to use operations research, and especially combinatorial optimization, to design a tool aimed at providing assistance in the trip planning process. Based on the traveling salesman problem, new problems can be defined that are useful with regards to trip planning. The so called trip planning problem appears to play a central part in this respect. The first results show very interesting and promising possibilities for the design of a decision support system for trip planning.