New data sources in tourism: research on opinions from social media platforms in administrative-legal, economic, and social perspectives
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.61016/TZAP-2956-8048-19Keywords:
big data, web scraping, tourism, JEL K21, JEL K23Abstract
The article analyzes new data sources in tourism, concentrating on opinions from social networking sites, examining them from administrative-legal, economic, and social perspectives. Growing big data sets have evolved from the classic 3V model (volume, variety, velocity) to expanded concepts, emphasizing the importance of data reliability (veracity, validity) and value. Although big data analysis yields benefits, it simultaneously poses serious threats to privacy and the risk of re-identification of individuals, necessitating cohesive and ethical regulations.
In the legal context, the GDPR (RODO) is the paramount EU act concerning data protection. In Poland, the basis is the Act on Public Statistics, permitting the processing of personal data for the statistical purpose of monitoring tourism. At the EU level, Regulation (WE) No 223/2009 allows national statistical offices to obtain absolutely necessary data free of charge from private data holders if its use significantly reduces the burden on businesses.
Furthermore, Regulation (UE) 2024/1028 (effective May 2026) imposes an obligation on short-term rental platform providers to transmit data concerning their activity monthly. Web scraping may prove to be the key method for acquiring big data for public statistics. This technique automates the collection of information from websites, accelerates data gathering, and allows for near real-time analysis. Scraping is a valuable resource supplementing official statistics, allowing for the assessment of the quality of the offering and the forecasting of tourist behavior. The empirical part of the article utilized web scraping to download 4,480 reviews from Google Maps for the Wawel Royal Castle. The experiment confirmed that extending the waiting time for a visit significantly lowers the rating provided. These results emphasize the crucial importance of efficient management of tourist traffic for visitor satisfaction. Future research should aim to integrate public data with scraped data, which has been termed the “Tourism Demand Horizon”.
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