Radhika Dubey radhikadubey@infobase infobase.co

1. Applicability of Internet GIS Application in Tourism Industry Radhika Dubey radhikadubey@infobase.in http://www.infobase.co.in

2. Index • Internet GIS – Tourism Industry • Applications for Tourism Industry • Open Source Technology in Internet GIS • UMN MapServer – Architecture, Features • Cyprus Tourism – Technology and Features, Design Methodology • Shortest Path Finder - Technology and Features, Design Methodology • Conclusion

3. Internet GIS – Tourism Industry • Internet GIS is a mechanism to deliver maps and GIS services on the Internet. • It’s a cost effective way to share or provide public access to data worldwide on the Internet . • GIS is a powerful set of tools for collecting, storing, retrieving, managing, analyzing and displaying spatial data. The integration of these technologies will help improve the services offered to the tourism industry. • Making Better Decisions – Data Analysis. • Update and manage tourism data easily .

4. Tourism Industry-Applications • Location Locator Service-Which enables user to zoom in the map around that location. • Pathfinder or directions to a map Helps you find the route from the start location to the destination. • Electronic atlas in Internet GIS application can display maps of various continents, countries, state and city. • Interactive Maps –Helps in determining important and necessary places of tourism e.g historical places , finding best suitable hotel, determining optimum plan for sightseeing places.

5. Open Source Technology in Internet GIS • Freely available software and source code- No licensing fees. • Open source programs allow user to modify source code according to his requirement. • Better Interoperability – software development process is community based. • The code can be redistributed .

6. UMN MapServer • MapServer is an open source development environment, which enables you to draw customized, professional maps in the web application on the fly. • Open source MapServer software is completely free of cost; there is no software maintenance cost. • Toolkit grows taking contributions from user community. • MapServer is faster than other IMS, it's easy to install. MapServer has great community support.

7. MapServer Architecture

8. MapServer- Features • MapServer supports both raster and vector data format. Vector data formats Raster data formats • ESRI shapefile GeoTiff • PostGIS EPPL7 • MySQL BITMAP • Census tiger files JPEG and many more. GIF • MapServer can operate in two different modes: CGI and MapScript. CGI mode- MapServer functions in a web server environment as CGI script. MapScript mode- The MapServer API can be accessed using PHP, Python, Perl, Java and C#. The MapScript interface provides feature-rich application.  • MapServer supports scaling of layers and labels.

9. MapServer- Features • It supports both bitmap and true type fonts. • Thematic mapping can be performed with the help of regular expression based classes. • It supports thousands of projections using proj4 library. • MapServer supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Solaris and more. • MapServer supports OGC (Open Geospatial Consortium) specifications (WMS, WFS, WCS).

10. Cyprus Tourism http://www.ecotourismcy.com/cyprus/map_cyprus.phtml?config=cyprus An Internet GIS application developed for Cyprus Tourism.

11. Cyprus Tourism- Features • The Internet GIS application of Cyprus captures 350 villages. • Zoom/Pan can be performed via keyboard keys, mouse wheel, reference map and slider. • The mouse roll over information of villages and landmarks can be viewed over map. • User can add his own point of interest through user interface into the database. Map can be printed and downloaded in various resolutions and formats. • User can customize application according to his requirement by switching on/off layers. • A backend interface is provided to the user from where pop-up information can be modified or point data can be added or deleted.

12. Cyprus Tourism - Features

13. Cyprus Tourism - Features • Photo slideshow , a link to PDF description of tourist places and information inside the pop up give visitors a taste of tourist destination.

14. Shortest Path Finder

15. Shortest path Finder – Technology and Features • Technology • GIS Server – MapServer • Web Server - Apache • Database – Shapefile, PostgreSQL • Scripting Language – PHP, JavaScript • Features • Calculates shortest path between any two cities or towns in India. • The application would show the distance between the two points selected, • as well as the break up route of towns lying in between the source and the destination. • Route Planning – Make it easier for visitors to find their way around tourist destinations. Visitors can take print outs of the route to the destination along with the distance between underlying places.

16. Conclusion • Since tourism contribute a lot to the economy of the country, the GIS componenent can be added to complement the statistical data. • Internet GIS helps in Optimum Planning of tourism – with the help of query of places of tourist importance ,getting visual and detailed information of places and route planning. • It helps the local tourism authorities to update the data easily, efficiently and with low cost. • Possible Extension to Internet GIS - The data that is created for Internet GIS application can be used to power Mobile GIS application and GPS based GIS application. Mobile GIS can be used in location-based services and route finding, for example, using Mobile GIS, a visitor can locate his place of interest at different locations, and can trace the direction from one place to the other. • .

17. Thank You