Comparison of the areas of interest in central Tokyo among visitors by country of residence using geotagged photographs

Abstract

New information and communication technologies make it possible to conduct detailed analyses of the use of space by visitors at different scales. For example, geotagged social media records can be used to capture the digital footprint of human spatial behavior within a city. This study demonstrates the potential of these data using information from photo-sharing services to compare the distribution of visitors according to their country of residence among three major tourism sites of central Tokyo, namely. Shinjuku, Asakusa, and Ginza. We classified geotagged photographs from Flickr according to country of residence using information from user profiles and analyzing the distribution with geographical information systems (GIS). We then compared the varying spatial patterns of three groups of visitors by country of residence: Japan, Asia, and Europe. The results showed that both domestic and foreign visitors tended to visit places close to railroad stations. However, the distribution of the areas of interest (AOI) for foreign visitors showed higher spatial concentrations than those for domestic visitors. In Shinjuku and Ginza, differences were seen between Asians and Europeans in AOI, but no such differences were observed in Asakusa. These distinctions may be attributable to the spatial structures of tourism sites and the mode of visitors’ activities.