Cruise Tourist Management : A Mixed Integer Linear Programming Model for Allocating Cruise Tourists in Bergen City Centre

Abstract

As Norway’s largest cruise port, Bergen allows up to 8,000 cruise tourists to visit per day. Effectively allocating these tourists is crucial to prevent queues and congestion while simultaneously maximizing the tourists’ satisfaction. The purpose of this master’s thesis is therefore to develop an optimization model which aims to achieve these objectives. This master thesis utilizes a model based on the Travelling Salesman Problem to generate a set of visiting routes composed of a selection of locations to visit within the city centre. These locations are based on recommendations by Visit Bergen and Tripadvisor, and information regarding them is retrieved through API calls. Further, a mixed integer linear programming model is developed to assign tourist groups to routes maximizing satisfaction while simultaneously preventing congestion. By gathering information from the tourists, the model aims to account for individual preferences and time limits when assigning tourist groups to routes. The result of this thesis is a simplified mixed integer linear programming model utilizing a set of predefined routes for the tourist groups to be assigned to. The proposed model successfully allocates a test population, consisting of a set of tourist groups. It ensures an optimal allocation of each tourist group by maximizing overall satisfaction and preventing congestion. However, analysis shows that a real-life application of the model, aiming to assign potentially 8,000 tourists divided into groups to predefined routes, is computationally challenging despite the implemented simplifications. A balanced trade-off between computational time and the objective is therefore required.