Tourist group itinerary design: when the firefly algorithm meets the n-person Battle of SexesTourist group itinerary design: when the firefly algorithm meets the n-person Battle of Sexes Peer-Reviewed Journal Publication Δημοσίευση σε Περιοδικό με Κριτές 2022-11-012021enThis research is co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Social Fund- ESF) through the Operational Programme: Human Resources Development, Education and Lifelong Learning, in the context of the project, Strengthening Human Resources Research Potential via Doctorate Research (MIS-5000432), implemented by the State Scholarships Foundation (IKY).The presented research focuses on generating tourist trip itineraries for a group with different individual preferences on various points of interest. A set of walking routes among selected points of interest is provided by the Prize-Collecting Vehicle Routing Problem solution, considering several imposed constraints. However, the members of a tourist group request to stay together during their trip, despite their different preferences. Thus, to accommodate preferential heterogeneity in group itinerary design, the -person Prize-Collecting Vehicle Routing Problem is proposed in this research, along with a novel, combined game theory and metaheuristic approach to solve it. Notably, the -person Battle of Sexes game is utilized to configure a priori the set of locations to be visited, which results in three distinctive sets, depending on whether their visit is prohibited, mandatory, or optional. Consecutively, the metaheuristic firefly algorithm is employed to determine the tourist routes, enhanced with the coordinates-related encoding/decoding process. This process enables the original algorithm to solve discrete optimization problems without altering or hybridizing the original algorithmic framework. Compared with other metaheuristic algorithms, the proposed approach generates efficient and satisfactory tourist trip itineraries for heterogeneous groups.http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Knowledge-Based Systems228 Rigakis Manousos Ρηγακης Μανουσος Trachanatzi Dimitra Τραχανατζη Δημητρα Marinaki Magdalini Μαρινακη Μαγδαληνη Marinakis Ioannis Μαρινακης Ιωαννης Elsevier Firefly algorithm Battle of Sexes Tourist trip design Prize-Collecting Vehicle Routing Problem