Walking tourism in urban destinations: some preliminary results from a survey in Malaga with gps-based technologies

Walking tourism in urban destinations can be defined as a sequence of day visits and/or asequence of walking tours.In this work, GPS tracking data on spatio-temporal behaviour of walking tourists in Malagaare reported as case study. Malaga is a booming tourist destination characterized by a citycentre, particularly suitable for a pedestrian visit. From 22nd January to 19th March 2018 for atotal period of 41 days, a survey was carried out with a specific protocol: 103 interviews wereconducted and 101 GPS valid tracks were collected. Walking tourists were systematicallysampled, starting from the population of all tourists staying in the surveying day at someselected hotels in the city centre. The approach was based on the use of GPS technology as asupplementary tool used in conjunction with the traditional questionnaire-based survey.The survey has achieved three specific objectives; the analysis of:- the most visited attractions and the characteristics of mobility of walking tourists inMalaga;- the main routes taken by walking tourists during the visit of the city and thecorresponding movement patterns;- the factors that have significantly influenced the spatio-temporal behaviours ofwalking tourists within the city.