H. Ferhan Kilical, Ph.D.
Adil A. Kilical, Ph.D.
GIS AS A TOOL FOR TOURISM INFORMATION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
ABSTRACT
Tourism Offices in foreign countries assist prospective travelers in providing information about their countries. Their major other task is to promote tourism for their countries. GIS is an invaluable tool in providing spatial information as well as images, maps, and tax documents. The Tourism Information and Promotion Systems is an on-line computerized system that minimizes the cost of serving potential travelers while maximizing data accuracy and integrity.
INTRODUCTION
Indeed GIS has always been a tool that crosses the boundaries
of disciplines and application areas. As GIS users we are all
familiar with science and technology, and engineering applications.
The power of GIS lies not only in the ability to visualize spatial
relationships, but also beyond the space to a holistic view of
the world with its many interconnected components and complex
relationships. The ability to develop higher level thinking and
problem solving through the use of GIS definitely gives a better
understanding for decision based systems.
Tourism planning involves a wide variety of variables and parameters
involving spatial and non-spatial data which need to be linked,
both for the tourist and the service providers. Before starting
a trip the tourist has to go through all kinds of preparations
and get answers to a lot of unknowns. Especially if the tourism
route is related to the countries that we aren't very familiar
with. These queries can be on the climate, road conditions, cultural
aspects, lodging, health facilities, banking, etc. of the location
to be visited. With the advancements in information technology,
one would like to reach to solutions at that instant, minimizing
or even totally eliminating tourism agents and offices.
Usually tourism related functions of countries are handled through
private travel agencies and/or "Tourism Office" of that
country run by an Attaché. The primary function of tourism
offices is to provide reliable and organized information to prospective
travelers. The questions they receive usually covers a wide spectrum:
TOURISM INFORMATION AND PROMOTION SYSTEM (TIPS)
The on-line computerized Tourism Information and Promotion System
(TIPS) is basically a GIS application that will effectively promote
Turkish tourism using state-of-the-art IT tools and methods.
Similar applications are being performed in Europe and America.
This GIS application is primarily intended to be used by the Tourism
Office of Turkey in Washington, DC. It is anticipated that the
system will be linked to Internet to maximize accessibility to
reliable information while minimizing Tourism Office personnel
time allocated for such services. However, in case the prospective
travel do not have access to Internet, the queries will be run
by the Tourism Office personnel and the results will be provided
to the inquirer.
TIPS will be used by the following entities:
The motive for establishing an on-line computerized tourism information
system that is based on GIS technology can be manifold:
(1) The seed of the "Digital Tourism Information Bank"
will be established with the completion of the first phase of
the project. The establishment of such a data warehouse will
centralize tourism related information enabling up-to-date information
and data integrity.
(2) The tourists traveling to Turkey will have access to up-to-date,
specific and accurate information in real time and in a digital
format. Reliable information will help build confidence and result
in an increase in the number of tourists.
(3) Presentation of tourism related data such as image (map, photograph,
drawing, plan), sound, text, video clips, 3D models and animation
in a digital format with spatial referencing, and providing the
aforesaid via Internet will enable Turkey to compete better with
other countries in the tourism industry.
The short- and long-term goals can be summarized as follows:
(1) to effectively promote Turkish tourism, both in Turkey and
abroad, using state-of-the-art information technology ,
(2) to provide the requested information in the shortest time
possible and in a reliable and inviting format. For example,
a site plan, street map, photographs, list of hotels and restaurants,
and other related graphic and text documents on a historic site
can be provided to the requester in real time,
(3) to establish a Tourism Information Bank in order to provide
data integrity as well as to disseminate detailed information
on tourism.
METHODOLOGY
The preliminary stages of this project was developed as a class
assignment at the Catholic University of America, School of Architecture
and Planning in GIS class under the leadership of the authors.
Developing a prototype and what can be achieved by using GIS
and presentation of information were among the main objectives
of the assignment. It was an exciting and excellent implementation
due to the fact that some of the students had already been to
Turkey and Europe as part of a Foreign Studies Program and were
aware of some of the facts they need to know in advance as architecture
students. Further, their knowledge about the country also helped
to have a better understanding of the layers and variety of information
needs. This assignment gave the students a good sense of the
capabilities of GIS and created new horizons for critical thinking
and development. Although the project did not cover all the aspects
due to time and knowledge base constraints, it definitely helped
them to have a good grasp of the GIS technology.
Maps, graphics, images, text, 3D computer-generated models and
walk-throughs, video clips, sound and music will be incorporated
into the information system. The final application will be extremely
user friendly due to customized user interfaces (GUIs) and running
on Windows (preferably NT) environment. The application will
be designed as an open system to allow new additions, deletions,
revisions, and other modifications to enable up-to-date information
at any time.
The GIS application is planned at various sequential phases due
to the immense scope and scale of work, as well as financing of
the project. The project phases and techniques used are as follows:
Phase 1. This phase includes the creation of thematic
layers and spatial database. Most of the work has already been
performed, and currently being checked for missing or incorrect
items. A detailed map showing all major, secondary roads, and
other roads that provide access to major historic and natural
sites was drawn using AutoCad. Further, political boundaries,
all cities, significant settlements, historical and archaeological
sites, National Parks, spas, tourism centers (sea sports, winter
sports, etc.), ports of entry, and physical boundaries such as
sea, lake, and river are also drawn in AutoCad 13 as separate
layers.
ArcCad is used to create themes, and finally transferred to ArcView
GIS 3.0. The respective information on these geographic entities
are provided by the Turkish Tourism Office and entered into the
spatial database. The spatial database will cover detailed information
such as the name of the National Park, size, specifications, wildlife,
means of transportation, date of establishment, etc. Similarly,
for historical areas the database will cover the name of the site,
its period, architectural styles, important structures, materials
of construction, methods of construction, and references to other
sources on the settlement.
The spatial database will provide information based on the user
queries. If a tourist wants to visit all the antique settlements
along the Aegean coast, all such settlements will be highlighted.
If more information is requested on one of the selected sites,
the user will be able to view text documents, photographs, maps,
and other files via hotlinks. The final project may provide video
clips of the existing site, 3D walk-throughs as it was thousands
of years ago, native music, and narration on the selected site.
Phase 2. This phase will be realized using ArcView GIS
Network Analyst extension. All the road segments will be given
distances in miles and kilometers, with road quality and level
of service. This will enable to query and display the shortest
distance and travel time between the specified origin and destination
points.
For example, a tourist who wants to go to Ephesus from Istanbul
will enter the names of the two locations, either as a text or
by clicking on the map, and the shortest and safest route will
be displayed on the screen. Also , other places of interest and
service areas along that route will be displayed, showing more
possibilities for stopovers. It is also planned to enter the
names, addresses and telephone numbers of the coach services,
airways, and railways.
Phase 3. Turkey is very rich in terms of the quantity
and quality of museums that display artifacts belonging to several
major civilizations such as Hittite, Roman, Greek, Lydian, Ottoman.
These museums will be prepared as a separate theme and its database
will include fields such as the name of the museum, its address,
type of collection, images, floor plan, entrance fee, etc.
Phase 4. Further, site plans of important historic,
touristic or natural sites such as Ephesus and Pergamon, street
maps of major cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir, and Antalya
will be prepared in a digital format as separate ArcView projects
with hotlink accessibility from the main project. These individual
"hotlinked" projects will provide maps showing streets,
location of museums, hotels, restaurants, convention centers,
hospitals, train stations, metro stations, and will allow address
matching and network analysis. The buildings will be hotlinked
to photographs, plans, video clips, animation, and sound files.
Phase 5... After the first two phases are completed, some
frequently asked questions and major tours can be customized with
MapObjects using Visual Basic. These can be Religious Tourism,
Western Cultures, Nature Tours, Adventure Tourism, Archeological
Tourism and the like.
CONCLUSION
ArcView GIS Network Analyst extension gives an opportunity to
put together a full, comprehensive picture of the roads in terms
of distance, time, shortest distance, cost, proximity to certain
areas/points, road conditions, level of service, travel restrictions,
etc.
ArcView GIS provides a holistic view of layers, full information
about the country, and access to wide variety of hotlinks such
as text, image, sound, etc.
MapObjects and Visual Basic customization for the tourism office
use provides quick, GUI interface for frequently asked questions
and certain operations.
It will provide a fully automated tourism information system for
the Tourism Office, and will enable easy and fast data entry,
and update, running efficiently on a network.
The TIPS when fully operational will definitely be an excellent
tool for information communication inside their office and open
system to the outside world.
H. Ferhan Kilical, Ph.D.
The Catholic University of America
DiChroma, Inc
6804 Dillon Avenue
McLean, VA 22101
Telephone: (703) 448 0177
Adil A. Kilical, Ph.D.
Project Director
Project Resources, Inc.
1015 18th Street, NW, Suite 500
Washington, DC 20036
Telephone: (202) 466 9044
Fax: (202) 466 9036