Digital Footprinting: Uncovering Tourists with User-Generated Content

A study was conducted to investigate the user-generated electronic trails to determine the presence and movement of a visitor from a remote location. The research was conducted by the Massachusetts of Institute of Technology in association with Universitat Pompeu Fabra. The study used many data collection techniques, analytical methods, and visualization tools to investigate urban dynamics. The digital footprinting technique can trace the movement of a tourists from cell phone network. The types of footprint are active prints include data from the users by their photos, messages, and sensor measurements, while passive prints can be done by interaction with an infrastructure including a mobile phone network. Mapping and visualization are significant factors that can interpret digital footprints.