Current trends in luxury rail tourism: a sentiment analysis of global routes and regional development potential

Purpose This study aims to examine the historical development of luxury train tourism and to reveal the strategic dynamics of the sector by measuring customer experiences on the five luxury train routes with the most online reviews globally, using sentiment analysis methods. Design/methodology/approach Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used in the study. In addition to a literature review, 4,718 customer reviews collected from TripAdvisor were subjected to sentiment analysis and TF-IDF-based text mining using Orange data mining software and the VADER lexicon. Findings The findings show that luxury trains offer high prestige thanks to elements that combine nostalgia with modern comfort (gastronomy, authenticity). The market dominance of operators like the Belmond group and the regional development success of the Turistik Dogu Ekspresi in Turkey demonstrate the strategic importance of luxury trains. Sentiment analysis results indicate overall satisfaction on luxury train routes exceeds 90%, but operational disruptions can reduce sentiment scores to around 20%. The concepts of “experience”, “service”, and “staff” were found to be the strongest brand associations in the customer mind. Originality/value This article contributes to the literature by evaluating luxury train tourism not only as an economic activity but also as an environmentally friendly alternative and a strategic tourism product that can reduce regional inequalities. The study is one of the pioneering works that evaluates luxury train tourism not only theoretically but also through consumer perception using big data analysis methods.