Methodological proposal for the identification of tourist routes in a particular region through clustering techniques

The tourism sector has an essential role in the sustainable development of a country. Therefore, in this research we propose a methodology to identify tourist routes that integrate the most important Points Of Interest in a region taking up as criteria profile characteristics in common between the sites evaluated using clustering techniques. To attain this goal, firstly, a literature review focused on compiled information used for location selection and evaluation in attraction potential sites. Then, clustering techniques are applied to identify similarities between sites, and finally, a layout of tourist routes is presented. We applied this methodology using data from a Region in Colombia. As a result, eight factors are proposed: Natural, Cultural, Tourist Plant, Infrastructure, Superstructure, Accessibility, Human and Tourist Capital and Security. From the second phase, three tourist groups were identified with three tourism factors for each of them; and then, two examples of tourist routes are proposed.