This project aims to study mountain running in the Canary Islands from a tourism perspective. Mountain running, or trail running (as this sport is known in English), has become increasingly popular in recent years. The Canary Islands boast a network of trails with significant elevation changes and, above all, ideal landscapes for this sport. So much so that the main competitions held in the islands have become a major tourist attraction. The most prominent races offer various distances and levels of difficulty. The following are some of the most important races on each island:
The Transvulcania, Tenerife Bluetrail, and Transgrancanaria have attracted over 4,000 participants in their most recent editions. These races have a significant economic impact in the areas where they are held. This impact directly influences the spending of runners and their accompanying families, such as on accommodation, food, sports equipment, etc. For example, in the Transgrancanaria, 31% of the runners across the different categories were foreign, while 13% were from mainland Spain or the Balearic Islands. The percentage of foreign runners is even higher in the flagship race, with 63% (linkBut, in addition to the direct benefits, the benefits of the media impact can also be measured. In La Palma, for several years now they have tried to make an economic assessment of the media impact of the event, valuing the publicity it generates for the island at more than two million euros (linkThis project aims to provide a descriptive analysis of these races and to assess potential measures that could enhance their value. One of the measures to be implemented is the evaluation and design of routes based on scenic value. The goal is to study sites of scenic interest so that different mountain races can be organized and receive greater international recognition for their magnificent routes. These landscapes can be categorized on a scale of 0 to 10 (from least to most interesting), and the route design would consist of maximizing the number of the most interesting sites visited. Safety considerations can also be incorporated, such as the evacuation distance for a participant that a land vehicle can reach. This type of problem falls under the category of vehicle routing problems and is very similar to the simple cycle problem with profits. In addition to surveys, this can be done by analyzing data found online. For example, there are websites (or social media platforms) such as Wikiloc where some users upload routes to share with others. This information would allow us to automatically map a network of trails and evaluate them. To do this, we need to apply Big Data procedures. Once all this information is collected, we will develop a tool to help us create race routes. In this case, we will address a route problem where one of the objectives to optimize is the "quality" of the trails, and several restrictions will be imposed, such as distance, start and finish (which can be located in the same place), not passing through the same trail twice (or restricting it), elevation gain, emergency criteria, etc. In short, a project would be developed to promote mountain running tourism in the Canary Islands. The design of these races would depend on the most "beautiful" or most eye-catching route for greater national and international publicity. This application will also be accessible to any user and can be used to design a training route.