Empowering Sustainable Tourism Development and Management using GIS

Tourism has been one of the fastest-growing industries on the globe. Tourism is also a significant social feature of contemporary society, with substantial economic, social, and environmental consequences. This is a well-accepted fact that tourism-related initiatives always play a vital role in the economy of any state or nation, and have internal and external connections with other sectoral events. GIS applications in the tourism sector can be effective for investigating environmental conditions, determining the suitability of locations for proposed development sites, assessing the impact of tourism activities, managing visitor flow, and limited to recreational facility inventory, tourism-based land management, and recreation-wildlife conflict, and have been hampered by a lack of funding and unorganized procedures. The basic approach to planning tourism needs an Integrated Decision Support System (IDSS).

 

Spatial Decision Support System (SDSS)

A spatial decision support system (SDSS) is a computer-based interactive system that aids in decision-making even as solving a semi-structured spatial problem. An SDSS, also known as a policy support system, consists of a decision support system (DSS) and a geographic information system (GIS). GIS can integrate geographical data from different sources to provide information for proper tourism planning, designing, and decision making.

 

How to design a tourism database

Identify the geometric and attribute data of the tourism destination spots.

• To create a tourism database for sustainable tourism
• To create attribute tables for the tourism destinations and link these tables to

geographic locations.

• Carry out a spatial analysis of possible routes from hotel to tourism site and from tourist site to facilities of need to the tourist.
• Data analysis.

GIS-Based Tourism Decision Support System (TDSS)

• Tourism Decision Support System (TDSS)is a 3-tier architecture consisting of Tourism Database, GIS Server, Web Client, and Desktop GIS Application.

 

The database component stores data that is needed by either the Web Client or the server to create a web document or the GIS Server to generate a map. This database component is responsible for data retrieval, addition, updating, and deletion. In a three-tier architecture, the web client can also allow changes to the database component, which is administered by users. Once the GIS Server receives a request from the Web Server, it accesses the database to retrieve the necessary data. The outcomes are then sent to the Web Server in the appropriate format. The Web Server now sets up a web document as well as sends it to the Web Client.

The integrated tourism information system will be implemented using ArcGIS Server and PostgreSQL with PostGIS extension as the database management software. The ArcGIS Server can be used to support GIS operations such as attribute and location-based queries, as well as network analysis. This Tourism Information System is built on a three-tiered Web GIS-based system architecture.

Conceptual Design

For this study, the reality is defined as the spatial arrangement of tourism sites to examine their spatial relationship with other factors that interact with tourism, such as roads, hotels, hospitals, recreation, police stations, and so on. Tourism sites, hotels, recreation parks, hospitals, police stations, arts and culture centers, and roads were all considered in this research project. In this study, the vector data model was used to represent the complex reality.

Applications of Remote Sensing and GIS in Tourism

RS and GIS technologies are being used in tourism studies, including ecotourism planning, visual resource assessment and management, recreation and park management, facility surveillance, and appropriate site identification. GIS is a database of geographical conditions, transportation, accommodation, ethnic communities of the population, and other information, in addition to tourist destinations. GIS creates thematic maps that can help tourists know their destination more thoroughly.

Tourism Planning

•  GIS technology is being used in planning for environmental sustainability.
• Site selection is an essential feature of GIS in tourism planning. For example, utilizing appropriate location identification tools and topology helps identify potential areas for more tourism development.
• GIS can identify the main tourist activity spaces within a destination as well as the flows between destinations, allowing authorities to implement strategic plans for better infrastructure.

 Ecotourism Development

• In terms of a complex ecosystem and native population habitats, ecotourism development is a very sensitive issue in a specific destination.

• GIS is being used to map inventory, buffering (identifying areas of human intrusion), and overlay mapping. It is useful to trace complex areas within the deep forest or mountain region using satellite images.
• GIS can be used to examine the potential impact of tourism development on the natural environment

Tourism Service Management

• In tourism service management GIS has the potential to improve, particularly in tourism business-related shopping centers. It can be used to display large amounts of data from various sources.
• GIS has been providing useful and accurate location-based information to visitors, for example, through web-based applications. GIS spatial and attribute data can be posted on the web. Web-based GIS has to deliver tourism-related information through the internet.

 

Tourism Resource Inventories

• Tourism resource inventories were created to provide organized, structured data about variables of interest to tourism planners and designers.

•  It may include natural resources, especially natural forests, mines, mountains, rivers and channels, waterfalls, national parks, safari parks, historical places, demographics, natural and cultural heritage sites, etc.
• Resource inventories are beneficial for tourism planning, determining site suitability, assessing the impact of natural resource uses.
• By analyzing the spatial and attribute data types, it is possible to make a prediction for a destination hypothetically and examine its future from the lab before tourism development.

 Location Suitability Under Conflicting Demands

5. The interest of local people in tourism development is a significant element for long-term tourism planning and development.

• GIS can be used to assess the suitability of potential development sites, identify competing interests, and model relationships.
• To manage and control tourism development while taking into account competing or comparable land uses and activities, available infrastructure, natural resources, and thus defining an area's capabilities and capacities.

 Monitor and Control Tourism Activities

• GIS can be used to monitor and control tourism activities over time and space.
• Carrying capacity is an important element in a tourist destination because overcrowding is not a good sign for a tourist zone.
• Tourism needs to be properly developed in a planned manner, and GIS can aid with the planning process because GIS has integration capabilities.

Tourism Marketing

• The demand for marketing in the tourism sector has grown, and geographic information systems (GIS) can play an important role in tourism marketing.
• Tourist movement is heavily influenced by geographic and demographic characteristics, experience, cultural similarities, and even time and space factors.
• It is possible to create a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for a specific landscape using GIS software, and it is also possible to integrate digital maps on the internet to 3D models using hotlink tools.

 Tourism Research in Visual Impact Analysis

• Visual impact analysis is important in tourism research due to sustainable development.
• It can help guide newly proposed tourism destination advancement and predict the impact of proposed structures in the planning stage.

GIS is capable of analyzing the visibility of a proposed destination by using visual impact analysis tools. This technology has also 3D tools which are very effective to analyze the visual impact on the earth virtually.

Summary

Geographic information systems (GIS) have been used in a variety of fields, such as geography, forestry, urban planning, and environmental studies. Likewise, geographers, economists, businesses, environmentalists, planners, anthropologists, and archaeologists are all involved in tourism. As a result, the possibility for GIS applications in tourism is substantial. Its application in environmental planning is rapidly expanding. Tourism is an activity that is heavily reliant on natural resources. Ecotourism has now become more effective than conventional tourism.