# A Sentiment Analysis Model Based on User Experiences of Dubrovnik on the Tripadvisor Platform
###### Abstract  
Emerging research indicates that sentiment analyses of Dubrovnik focus mainly on hotel accommodations and restaurants. However, little attention has been paid to attractions, even though they are an important aspect of destinations and require more care and investment than amenities. This study examines how visitors experience Dubrovnik based on the reviews published on the Tripadvisor platform. Data were collected by implementing a web-scraping script to retrieve reviews of the tourist attraction \"Old Town\" from Tripadvisor, while data augmentation and random oversampling techniques were applied to address class imbalances. A sentiment analysis model, based on the pre-trained RoBERTa, was also developed and evaluated. In particular, a sentiment analysis was performed to compare reviews from 2022 and 2023. Overall, the results of this study are promising and demonstrate the effectiveness of this model and its potential applicability to other attractions. These findings provide valuable insights for decision makers to improve services and to increase visitor engagement. sentiment analysis; NLP; large language model (LLM); RoBERTa; transfer learning; tourism 2024 14 83  
sentiment analysis can be examined on multiple levels. Accordingly, in this study, we examine a sentiment analysis at the document level, which determines the sentiment of each Tripadvisor review. Recent research shows that sentiment analyses of Dubrovnik focus mainly on hotel accommodations [8; 9] and restaurants [10], while there is little research on tourist attractions in this region. Certainly, attractions are an important aspect of tourist destinations, and they require more attention and investment than amenities [11]. According to [PERSON] et al. [12], the choice of a destination is not the same as the choice of restaurants and hotels. In addition, prices can influence the choice of attractions, as some are free while others require an entrance ticket. Choosing a bad restaurant or hotel is less of a loss for travelers than choosing a poor destination, which can ruin the entire vacation. Dubrovnik, an important historical and tourist center in southern Croatia, recorded 1,244,159 arrivals in 2023, an increase of 20% compared to the previous year (Dubrovnik Tourist Board, [[https://tzdubrovnik.hr/get/vijesti/81633/turistick_promet_u_2022_go](https://tzdubrovnik.hr/get/vijesti/81633/turistick_promet_u_2022_go)]([https://tzdubrovnik.hr/get/vijesti/81633/turistick_promet_u_2022_go](https://tzdubrovnik.hr/get/vijesti/81633/turistick_promet_u_2022_go)) dini_u_dubrovnik.html, accessed on 1 September 2023). Tourism is crucial to the Croatian economy and contributes around 20% to its GDP--one of the highest rates in Europe. Dubrovnik's popularity has soared, partly due to its role as a filming location for \"Game of Thrones\". However, this has led to challenges with excessive tourism and prompted UNESCO to warn of the inability of Dubrovnik's Old Town to cope with the influx of its visitors. With 36 visitors per inhabitant (Statista Infographic: The Most 'Over-Touristed' Cities in Europe, [[https://www.statista.com/chart/30115/annual-number-of-tourists-p](https://www.statista.com/chart/30115/annual-number-of-tourists-p)]([https://www.statista.com/chart/30115/annual-number-of-tourists-p](https://www.statista.com/chart/30115/annual-number-of-tourists-p)) er-inhabitant, accessed on 1 September 2023), Dubrovnik is under considerable pressure. To counteract this, the city has launched the \"Respect the City\" (Dubrovnik Tourist Board, Respect the City, [[https://tzdubrovnik.hr/lang/en/get/kultura_i_povijest/75283/respect_the_city.html](https://tzdubrovnik.hr/lang/en/get/kultura_i_povijest/75283/respect_the_city.html)]([https://tzdubrovnik.hr/lang/en/get/kultura_i_povijest/75283/respect_the_city.html](https://tzdubrovnik.hr/lang/en/get/kultura_i_povijest/75283/respect_the_city.html)), accessed on 1 September 2023) initiative, which promotes responsible and sustainable tourism in the Mediterranean [13; 14; 15].