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Design and Implementation of a Web-based Tourism Information System.

Conference Paper · November 2008

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 Design and Implementation of a Web-Based Tourism
Information System

Adekoya Aa., Akinwale A.b, Arogundade T.e, Ojo O.d

Department of Computer Science, University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Nigeria.
www.ullaab.edu.llg
aadekoyaaf@unaab.edu.ng, sheila w@yahoo.com, catakinwale@yahoo.com

Abstract. This paper focused on the use of information technology (IT) towards
facilitating the achievement of an overall national development through tourism.
Tourism is vital for many countries, due to the income generated by the consumption of
goods and services by tourists, the taxes levied 0/1 businesses in the tourism industry, and
the opportunity for employment in the service industries associated with tourism. The
various service industries associated with tourism would therefore derive immense
benefits from the application of IT in tourism. In this paper, we proposed the design and
implementation of a Web-Based Tourism Information System which would serve as
information portal for tourists interested in visiting Nigeria. The proposed system would
enable potential tourist to obtain relevant information 0/1 the various tourist sites in
Nigeria. It brings together extensive information which will enable tourists decide on the
tourist site to visit, plan such visit and thus derive maximum satisfaction from their
money. Thus, the proposed system is targeted at implementing a web-based interactive
query interface on tourism and tourist sites in Nigeria and making the retrieval of
information easier and faster, MySQL (back-end) was used to .store the captured
information about the Nigerian Tourism industry and an index of users' queries was
created and stored in the database. The front-end application was developed using
HTML (hypertext Markup Language) and PHP (Php hypertext Preprocessor) while
WAMP5 server provides the web implementation environment. The proposed web-based
tourism information system enables information to be retrieved at real-time.
Keywords, tourism, information technology, national development

bdroduction l ",
international tourist arrivals (The Ministry of
Tourism is the vehicle through which the culture, tourism, Te Manato Topoi).
1IIDlreand history of a given society or location is Tourism is vital for many countries, due to the
appreciated by people of diverse nations. Tourism income generated by the consumption of goods
is traveling for predominantly recreational or and services by tourists, the taxes levied on
bsure purposes or the provision of services to businesses in the tourism industry, and the
IIIppOrt this leisure travel (Wikipedia, 2008). It is opportunity for employment in the service
DD:OgIlizedas a diverse multi-sectoral activity. industries associated with tourism. Therefore, the
While driven by visitor choice and expenditure important contribution which tourism plays in the
~ of the visitor experience rests on the computation of the national gross domestic
~nmental attributes, amenities and services product can not be over emphasized judging from
•• a destination provides. Tourism has become a available data. According to the World Travel &
popular global leisure activity and is now probably Tourism Council data provided on Nigeria
De largest industry in the world, with more than Tourism Industry, an estimated 1,855 jobs were
,-.:;,0 million people traveling globally on holiday created while tourism was credited to have
ea:h )'ear and increasing by 3% annually. In 2001 contributed $5,816in to the GDP (6.6%) in the
'Ii",OOId Tourism Organization estimates put year 2006. The council gave a projected annual
.~.dwide receipts for tourism at US$462 billion growth rate of 4.2% for the period between 2007
me in 2006 there were over 842 million
 and 2016 (World Travel & Tourism Council, TSA done is to established information centre at the
Research 2006). .r Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport to provide
basic information to tourists, strangers and other
In coml' 'Ihon, Nigeria did not feature in the visitors to Abuja (NTDC, 2007).' Among other
Africa Iq.:!on performance sheet as countries of facilities, the information centre is equipped with
the sub-Sahara witnessed a stronger growth with computer sets containing information about'
Kenya having a remarkable result of +26% locations, addresses, star-status of each of the
followed by Mozambique, South Africa, the hotels in the F.C.T. registered with the Nigerian
Seychelles and Mauritius, Tunisia and Morocco. Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC).
Other regional standing shows the Asia and the
Pacific averaging growth rate of 7% with North In the light of the recommendation of the World
East Asia recording + 10% to emerge as the most Tourism Organisation (Frangialli, 2006) on
dynamic sub-region. The Americas growth rate Tourism Management Information System, this
went up by 6%; the Middle East region also faired paper focused on the use of information
better with growth rate estimated at 7% and that of technology (IT) towards facilitating the
Europe estimated at 4% UNWTO World Tourism achievement of an overa)] national development
Barometer (Frangialli, 2006). through tourism. We therefore proposed the design
and implementation of a Web-Based Tourism
Information Technology and Tourism Information System which would serve as
Information Technology (IT) has been deployed in information portal for tourists interested in visiting
, virtually all known human fields of endeavour. Nigeria.
. The global system for mobile communication
(GSM) and the internet are two IT technologies Materials and Methods
that have not only made the, concept of global The proposed system would enable potential
village realizable but have transformed the way we tourist to obtain relevant information· on the
live and interact especially in business various tourist sites in Nigeria. Such information
, 'relationships. IT is fast influencing major business include costs and means of transpOltation to the
discussions and proposals and thus a major tourist sites, hotel or lodging accommodations in
'determinant to the success' or otherwise of a and around the tourist sites arid their costs, history
business venture. The various service industries and culture of the people, important date and fact
associated with tourism would therefore derive about the tourist sites. It brings together extensive
immense benefits from the application of IT in information which will enable tourists decide on
tourism. Some areas wbere IT can be deployed in the tourist site to visit, plan such visit and thus
tourism' . include reservations, (hotels, derive maximum satisfaction from their money.
airlroadlraillwater transportation), accounting,
Thus, the proposed system is targeted at
administration and provision of information to
implementing a web-based interactive query
potential tourists.
interface on tourism and tourist sites in Nigeria
Electronic tourism is one of the activities that have
and making the retrieval of information easier and
enjoyed an important success in the Internet, not
faster. Figure 1 below i)]ustrates the architecture
only from the commercial point of view but also
of the web-based tourism information system. The
from a social perspective. However, this is not 'the
input to this system is a query in form of text. The
case for Nigeria's ICT infrastructure with a rank of
text is entered into the application through the text
102/124 and 1.8 on a scale of 7, according tol'the
area of the search engine page. The information
World Travel & Tourism Council report. It further
need is represented as a query, and the potential
categorized ICT into sub-sectors with Telephone
information (i.e. the documents) is represented as a
lines obtaining a rank of 110/124, Internet users
collection of index terms which can be matched
104/124 and extent of business internet usage
against query. Those document whose index
having a rank of 81/124. It therefore placed ICT
representation most closely match the query are
among the list of Competitive Disadvantages in
then assumed to be relevant and their citations are
the Nigeria's Travel and Tourism Competitiveness
passed to the user (Kahaner (2000), Sherman
Index. The implication of this report shows that
(2000), Voorhees, E.M (2000) and Ricardo
the Nigerian tourism industry is yet to tap into the
(2006». The search engine compute a numeric
many opportunities which the Information and
score on how we)] each object in the database
Communication Technologies offers. What the
match the query, and rank the objects according to
Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation has
 this computed value. The top ranking objects are a) The title of the search result and,
then shown to the user. b) The content of the search, which is
The program output is indexed. The output is displayed besides the title.
divided into two parts

.• ~'·'·'·"-'·.{· ••
··A·~.·--m·'--I-n~.·.'
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·.-.·.-.~.-_:.·:·
..•.•...••
-~---.~•.;~.I.:.:.~(:s·._.·.:.)._
,•. ..~·.-· -.L~·.• I.-_
.•.....
_
-_
-
.......•.
)~.]
.•.•..
.• ~~ .• ,'C't .~ ~'I' -"~u~~~- ~~~.::].. Qi:::;;~£J-:=-l
".:4.(
-:
....• ..-
uSQr
.- - .
~-------~- E~9j
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• .'~ i~ ••.

..·_·....".."·_·Ti:i'·ii;!ll~;:tfo;·:i·"c:i:f',..rt[tr.·;,··..,,.._..·····.
De$cri'pth .. :;Jo" .ancJ
~

dJ
u loa;.u:::J >ietunEllI i",.,t,() DaMS

MySQL (back-end) was used to store the captured Using the Tourism Search Engine
information about the Nigerian Tourism industry
A click on the Search Page tab on the Home Page
and an index of users' queries was created and
takes user to the Search Page (see figure 3 below).
stored in the database. The front-end application
This page that contains the text area (Search Item)
was developed using HTML (hypertext Markup
that the user input his query. The results are
Language) and PHP (Php hypertext Preprocessor)
presented in column wise with name (web link) of
while WAMP5 server provides the web
each potential tourist sites matching the user query
implementation environment. The results are
and description of the tourist'sites in the. other
displayed in an indexed form and little description
column.
of the content is displayed beside the index. Once fjU,!UWi*,ll!yUI
~t.d<:.!O~ ••~~todl~~
the possibleoutputsthat match the user query, have ~~:~"<_:_s~ :n~!;i.~~~~~~~_~_~.F~,~~i;_~:~:~ :::!)"

been displayed, the user can now click on the title

that really matches his query. The proposed web- '.
based tourism information system enables"
information to be retrieved at real-time.
Description of the Web-Based Tourism
Information System (Tis)
The TIS (see figure 2 below) shows the home
page. This page contains the links to the Search
Page and also to the Administration Page. It
provides a brief introduction on the tourism
industry.

The results are displayed in an indexed form and

title description of the content is displayed beside
the index. On clicking the index by the left side
the full description or content will be displayed as
illustrated in figure 4.

Fig. 2: The Home page

"

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