Solving the orienteering problem with time windows in big event management with a matheuristic approach.

In this work we address, from a user perspective, the problem to define optimal itineraries for visiting scheduled events in an urban environment. The problem is modeled as an orienteering problem with time windows. Real-case instances are difficult to solve by means of commercial solvers. We propose a matheuristic approach which is compared against the exact solver by using a real-case instance derived by a big Italian furniture fair. Test results show clear effectiveness of the proposed approach.