Studying the information seeking preferences of participants to a large event

This paper presents a research study that investigated the usage of different information services related to a large event. Overall we considered the logs generated by approximately 145,000 users in the five weeks preceding the event. We focused in particular on aspects of user interaction and behavior that are normally neglected by standard analytics for web sites and mobile applications (like for example differences across alternative information sources, advance of access, impact of the context), but that shed light on different user preferences about technology usage, information needs and travel planning for attending a large event. The research is an example of the contribution that CHI empirical studies can provide to the field of electronic tourism management and marketing.