A Practical Approach to Big Data in Tourism: A Low Cost Raspberry Pi Cluster

A flexible solution, devised for small and medium sized organisations based on the Raspberry Pi hardware and open source software which can be employed with relatively little effort by companies and organisations for their specific objectives is presented.

Abstract

Big Data is the contemporary hype. However, not many companies or organisations have the resources or the capabilities to collect the huge amounts of data needed for a significant and reliable analysis. The recent introduction of the Raspberry Pi, a low-cost, low-power single-board computer gives an affordable alternative to traditional workstations for a task that requires little computing power but immobilises a machine for long elapsed times. Here we present a flexible solution, devised for small and medium sized organisations based on the Raspberry Pi hardware and open source software which can be employed with relatively little effort by companies and organisations for their specific objectives. A cluster of six machines has been put together and successfully used for accessing and downloading the data available on a number of social media platforms.