Definition of tourism itineraries in a Brazilian conservation unit using artificial intelligence

The Pandeiros River Environmental Protection Area is an important Brazilian conservation unit used for ecotourism. However, there is a lack of research guiding decision-making regarding tourist movements. The objective of this study is to evaluate the use of a simplified version of the clonal selection metaheuristic for optimizing tourist itineraries. Thirty-one tourist sites were considered, with routes starting from three origins. A mathematical model based on the vehicle routing problem is proposed. This problem was solved using the branch and bound, clonal selection, and simulated annealing algorithms, and the proposed simplification for the clonal selection metaheuristic. Random solutions were evaluated to simulate tourist behaviour. Random solutions yield the worst results. The proposed simplification produced better results for itineraries starting from two origins. It provided an average reduction of 42% in the total distance of tourist itineraries and a 17% reduction in the use of available road networks.