Geographic Relevance for Travel Search

Expedia, Inc. Computer Science, 2014-15

Liaison(s): Brooke Cowan, Jean-Cedric Desrochers, Yanick Duchesne, Hervé Hacot, Ondrej Linda, Michael Mai
Advisor(s): Robert Keller
Students(s): Chris Brown, Benjamin Leader, Hannah Long (PM), Nabil Zaman

The online travel industry faces challenges in providing relevant information to travelers searching in an exploratory manner. Many travelers would like to explore possible destinations based on qualitative features such as interesting history or great museums. The purpose of this project is to help Expedia respond to these qualitative search queries by designing a demonstrably effective method to associate hotels and regions around the world with the higher-level attributes that describe them, such as family-friendly, cultural, or romantic.