The development of tourism indicators through the use of social media data: the case of Minas Gerais, Brazil

Introduction. This research aims to study the development of tourism indicators in the Minas Gerais state (Brazil) by using social media data. Method. To this end, we used a scraper to collect data from TripAdvisor, searching for key information about Minas Gerais tourist attractions and turning them into a structured database. Analysis. Information was collected from a total of 1,384 attractions of 253 registered municipalities. However, these numbers were shortened to 235 attractions of forty-six municipalities considered for the analysis of the results because some of the attractions had a very small number of reviews, which would make it difficult to analyse quantitative information. Results. It was possible to develop three indicators to monitor data inside TripAdvisor: number of reviews of Minas Gerais tourist attractions, average satisfaction in Minas Gerais tourist destinations and percentage of evaluations at less-evaluated destinations. Conclusion. The results show that data from the platform can be used to develop and monitor indicators that aim to assist governmental decision-making processes.