Web Data Geostatistics and Analytics to Evaluate the Impact of a Cultural Event

This work proposes a methodological approach that analyses and interprets data resulting from cultural events fruition, in order to obtain information useful to improve cultural events management and encourage the cooperation between the different stakeholders involved. The methodology, based on geostatistics and text analytics techniques, has been proposed and applied to a real case study: the Italian folk music festival ‘La Notte della Taranta’. In particular, text analytics techniques, like semantic and sentiment analysis, integrated with spatial analysis techniques, allowed identifying sentiment score spatial variation and locating geographical area characterised by negative or positive average sentiment score, in order to understand the impact of a cultural event on the local territory. The particular structure of the event (itinerant) and the Salento territory where it is rooted, an area rich in traditions and folklore, make this festival an appropriate use case for the approach proposed.