Harvesting geospatial data from mobile phones: practical applications for managing investments in tourism infrastructure

The paper explores the different methods of harvesting geospatial data related to mobile phone technology and investigates the applicability of these methods to the Ontario context. The three methods investigated include: data harvesting; and, mining existing social media applications for applicable datasets. Researchers Dr. Deborah Edwards at the University of Technology Sydney and Dr. Rein Ahas at the University of Tartu were interviewed on their respective methods of data collection. These were followed by and interview with Eli Perrell, Senior Policy Advisor to the Tourism Policy & Research Branch at the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport, to determine whether the Ministry would be interested in this type of research as well as its viability in Ontario context. The paper concludes that two of these three methods are applicable in the Ontario Context and provides the Ministry with recommendations to begin implementation.