This chapter retraces the joint history of operations research and the traveling salesman problem after presenting the problem it proposes first exact then approximation algorithms for various versions of the problem minimization or maximization metric instances binary distances etc. This chapter retraces the joint history of operations research and the traveling salesman problem after presenting the problem it proposes first exact then approximation algorithms for various versions of the problem minimization or maximization metric instances binary distances etc. 2 the traveling salesman problem and its variations 11 introduction the purpose of this chapter is to introduce the reader to recently de veloped concepts and results on exponential size neighborhoods and approaches successful for the tsp to other combinatorial optimization co problems. The traveling salesman problem and its variations editors view affiliations gregory gutin abraham p punnen book 269 citations 1 mentions 87k downloads part of the combinatorial optimization book series coop volume 12 log in to check access buy ebook usd 16900 provides the state of the art in theory and algorithms for the . The traveling salesman problem and its variations is a complex combinatorial optimization problem which is a variance of the traveling salesman problemwhere a lot of salesmen are utilized in