Journal of Geomatics Vol 8 No. 1 April 2014

© Indian Society of Geomatics

Web GIS application for customized tourist information system for Eastern U. P., India

Nutan TyagiDepartment of Geography, D.D.U. Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur, U.P. - 273009

Email: nutan_tyagi@yahoo.com

(Received: Nov 17, 2013; in final form Feb 28, 2014)

Abstract: Tourism planning involves a wide variety of variables and parameters involving spatial and non-spatial datawhich ought to be available to both, tourists as well as tourist service providers. It needs accurate, updated and rapidinformation about destinations for satisfaction of the consumers (tourists). Tourist satisfaction is the prime criteria tomake their visit a pleasant experience. The rapid growth in information technology, particularly of internet, enablesavailability of highly customized, accessible and interactive source of information. The internet caters to informationabout travel activities of all kinds, ranging from virtual sightseeing and detailed information on travel sights, allowingusers to plan their own itinerary. GIS (Geographical Information System) is an invaluable tool that provides spatial andnon spatial information as well as images, maps and text documents because of its integrating capabilities. Web GIShas added the capabilities of GIS to internet. The study is an attempt to create a web GIS based database for the tourismindustry of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and for this purpose open source Map Guide (Autodesk) – a web based platform hasbeen used to customize and display GIS layers (prepared using Arc GIS 9.2) on web under the namewww.easternuptourism.com. GPS technology has also been used for the generation of the spatial data.

Keywords: Web GIS, Map Guide Open Source, Customization, Tourist Information System,www.easternuptourism.com

1. Introduction

GIS (Geographical Information System) has clearlydistinguished itself as a very special kind ofinformation system, as it stores spatially reference dataand makes provisions for the same to be displayedgraphically. GIS has the capability to integrate spatialas well as non-spatial data and also has the ability touse different formats of data. GIS is a valuable tool inproviding spatial information in the form of images,maps and other documents. The power of GIS lies notonly in the ability to visualize spatial relationships butbeyond the space to provide holistic view of the worldwith its many interconnected components andrelationships.

In the field of tourism, communication plays very vitalrole because through communication, a potentialcustomer (tourists) obtains information about thedestination one proposes to visit. Travel and tourismbeing a service industry needs not only to be accuratebut providing rapid information about the destinationsbecomes paramount for the satisfaction of thecustomers. The most important aspect of tourism is theinformation about destinations and various facilitiesavailable there, to be used by tourists. Informationabout these facilities and services is required by thetourist prior to his departure until he reaches backhome, which makes the entire experience pleasant andworthwhile. With the recent advances of technologyone would like to reach to solutions instantly.

With the tremendous growth of Web, today, all typesof tourism information providers already havehomepage on the Web for storing the comprehensivedescription of the tourist destinations and for

presenting the tourism products. Almost all homepages support static HTML page. Existing touristinformation or Tourist Information System built onHTML lacks dynamic, scalable, extensible andinteractive functionalities. They are also unable tointegrate geographic data and tourism information.They fail in accessing and exchanging the dataavailable in heterogeneous Tourist InformationSystems (TISs). These limitations have necessitateddevelopment of sophisticated information systembased on Web GIS standards. Web GIS basedinformation system will provide flexible datainterchange facilities as well as allowing dynamic andinteractive presentation of tourist information. Webbased GIS can be expected to meet these types ofchallenges. This type of customized informationsystem will be very useful for the service providers andof course for the tourists.

Web based GIS have enabled the functionality of GISon the Web page. There has been a remarkable growthin the field of open source GIS software and manyapplications have been developed. It can be used as apowerful tool to disseminate information and authenticfacts about tourist infrastructure. This study is anattempt to provide Web based customized informationsystem for Eastern Uttar Pradesh and display dynamicand interactive tourism information that willeffectively help in promotion of tourism in this region.

2. Study area

Eastern Uttar Pradesh lies between 23051’ N to 28030’N and 81031’ E to 84039’ E covering an area of about85,298 km2 and segmented into 27 districts (Fig.1),stretching about 550 km in north to south and 375 km

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in east to west direction. The region borders Nepal(International boundary) in the north, Bihar andJharkhand in the east, Chhattisgarh, M.P. in the southand western boundary of Bahriach, Gonda, Faizabad,Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, and Kaushambi districts of U.P.form the western boundary of Eastern U.P.

Figure 1: Location map of study area

Eastern U.P., the religious seat of Uttar Pradesh, hasbeen endowed with many historical monuments,heritage sites, spiritual and traditional religious shrinesof different religions and sects, wide spectrum ofnatural beauty, waterfalls, wildlife and birdsanctuaries, entertainment (water sports, fairs andfestivals), shopping of ethnic goods, art, craft and hasmuch more to offer, which add to the itinerary of thedomestic as well as foreign tourists. A good number ofrivers (river Ganges, Ghaghra, Rapti, Yamuna, Son,Gomti) and their tributaries traverse this region,ensuring the prosperity and their banks provided theright platforms for the development ofreligious/historical and cultural centres at differentpoints of time.

This is the land of Lord Ram, Gautam Buddha,Mahaveer and other Jain Thirthankars. Many importantreligions have been associated with this region andtheir shrines, sacred pilgrim centres and monumentsdot this entire area. As per Hindu mythology, LordRam was born here at Ayodhya and ruled over a greatpart of it in the ancient times. Allahabad (Prayag) andVaranasi (Kashi), which are supposed to be the oldestliving cities in the world, are now the two biggestplaces of this region and are also among the mostsacred pilgrim centres of Hindu religion. It is a matterof great pride for Eastern U.P. that this region has beenthe seat of Buddhism and could also be called the‘Cradle of Buddhism’. The entire region is dotted withmonuments, relics, legends and history of Buddhism,which emerged here as a religion and spread across theworld. Other than religious attractions and monuments,the region is lined up with many structures ofarchitectural grandeur in the form of forts and palacesof medieval period. Cathedrals, churches and manybuildings of British period show the influence ofcolonial architecture. Religious shrines located in

Eastern U.P. also have the representation from Sikhsand Sufi saints. The region has been the epicenter ofdifferent religions and spirituality, preaching peacefulco- existence and spreading the message of peace andnon- violence to the entire world. That is why theregion draws tourists from all over the worldirrespective of their religion, caste and creed. In factthe existence of some of the tourist places is totallydependent on the incoming tourists and tourism relatedactivities, viz., Sravasti, Kapilvastu, Kushinagar(Buddhist centres ) etc.

There are 10 historical and religious centres, 8 wildlifesanctuaries (6 wildlife and 2 bird sanctuaries) and 206excursion points which are covered in the study.

3. Web GIS

Web GIS provides a web based platform for thedistribution of spatial data, data sharing between GISusers and also a platform for management of spatialdata in fast and effective manner. It has extended thefunctionality, capability and applicability of GIS on theWeb.

WMS (Web Map Service), is a means of displayinginteractive maps on the web. They facilitatesdistribution of generated maps [usually in JPEG, PNGor GIF or even vector based geospatial element in SVG(Scalable Vector Graphic) format] through webbrowsers using various implementations of web basedapplication programming interface (AJAX, Java, Fleshetc.). This interactive information can be provided tostakeholders, organizations, public etc., with its easyaccess to information via the internet (i.e., web GIS).

4. Open source GIS

Many open source GIS servers are available now and itis possible to develop Web application using thesesoftwares with ease. The trend towards open systemshas facilitated information sharing by removing manyincompatibilities in hardware interfaces,communication protocols, operating systems, querysystems, query languages and graphical userenvironments (Croswell and Ahner, 1990). There aremany advantages of Web GIS, like low cost, easy touse, data sharing through common database etc.

MapGuide Open Source, introduced by Autodesk, is aweb-based platform that enables users to develop anddeploy web mapping applications and geospatial webservices. MapGuide features an interactive viewer thatincludes support for feature selection, propertyinspection, map tips, and operations such as buffer,select within, and measure. MapGuide includes anXML database for managing content, and supportsmost popular geospatial file formats, databases, andstandards. MapGuide can be deployed on Linux orWindows, supports Apache and IIS web servers, andoffers extensive PHP, .NET, Java, and JavaScript APIsfor application development. MapGuide Open Sourceis licensed under the LGPL.

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5. Methodology

The methodology followed in the present study for thedevelopment of Web GIS based customized TouristInformation System for Eastern Uttar Pradesh is givenin Fig.2 and is briefly described here.

The study is based on primary as well as onsecondary data. Information about touristdestinations, excursion points around thesedestinations, available infrastructure (coveringinformation on every aspect a tourist might beinterested) have been collected through primarysurvey using GPS. Historical background ofdestinations, fair and festivals, tourist statisticsand existing maps (Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers forPratapgarh 1980; Gazipur and Sultanpur 1982;Allahabad and Balia 1986; Gorakhpur 1987;Bahraich, Basti, Deoria and Mirzapur 1988;Azamgarh, Gonda and Jaunpur 1989), guidemaps of the region and destinations have beencollected from various published (Anon. 1989;Kundu 1989) and unpublished sources.

Spatial and non-spatial database has been createdusing Arc-GIS 9.2. After preparing the base mapsfor the tourist centres of the Eastern U.P., datacollected through GPS was transferred ontransport network layers to develop variousthematic layers. These layers were verifiedthrough second field survey to know the accuracyof the data plotted and changes have been madewherever necessary.

This GIS based database is made web enabledusing open source GIS from Autodesk- MapGuide. Text (in HTML), photographs, videoclippings with commentary (for virtualsightseeing) of the destinations as well asexcursions and infrastructure details were linkedwith the point data plotted on the tourist maps ofEastern U.P. and tourist centres located in theregion.

A workshop, which was also a part of the study,was organized after completion of the website tocreate awareness about the work to the concerneddepartments and application of GIS in touristindustry.

The study also looked into the problems andprospects of tourist industry to utilize the potentialtourism resources of the region. Data related tothis aspect has been collected throughquestionnaires, covering the problems of tourists,entrepreneurs and locals during field survey.

6. Analysis and results

The present study aimed to provide a Web basedcustomized Tourism Information System (TIS) forEastern U.P., built on GIS platform to facilitate

tourists, tourism department and other serviceproviders to attain comprehensive, accurate,customized, updated and organized information in theform of maps, photographs, text, video clips withcommentary for virtual sightseeing. This customizedinformation system has been formulated on GISplatform to make it interactive and also linked toInternet to maximize the accessibility of reliableinformation.

6.1. Structure of web based database

Database and dynamic interactive maps available onthis site were created on GIS platform and made webenabled through Map Guide open source. Informationavailable on this web site has been divided into threesegments:-

6.1.1. Eastern U.P. maps

Eastern U.P. maps show the location of tourist centres,wildlife sanctuaries, fairs and festivals sites withtransport network in Eastern U.P. Detailed information(HTML document) about that particular centre isattached with the each point and can be accessed byclicking that particular centre.

6.1.2. Tourist centres’ maps

This information is in the form of collection of detailedmaps of tourists centres located in the Eastern U.P.,viz., Allahabad, Ayodhya and Faizabad, Gorakhpur,Kushinagar, Mirzapur and Vindhyachal, Robertsganj,Sravasti and Varanasi (Fig.3).

Figure 3: Map of Eastern U.P.

These maps show the location of tourist destinations(with embedded HTML document with detailedinformation, photographs and videos with runningcommentary), as well as location of infrastructure, viz.,accommodation with types, restaurants, travel agents,hospitals/nursing homes, security, passport office,tourist office/information bureau, foreigner’sregistration office, banks, ATMs, cyber café, cinemahalls, playground/ parks/ golf course/ clubs, postoffice, shopping area/malls, petrol pumps, mobileservices.

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Information about tourist destinations and the facilitiesplotted on the maps, can be accessed by clicking thatparticular point located on the map (Fig.4).Destination’s information can also be accessed eitherdirectly through home page by using drop down menusor by clicking the information displayed at the lowerside of the home page.

Figure 4: Tourist centre map

6.1.3. Excursions

The tourist attraction points are located aroundAllahabad, Ayodhya and Faizabad, Gorakhpur,Kushinagar, Mirzapur and Vindhyachal, Robertsganj,Sravasti and Varanasi, which are also shown on themaps. Excursion maps showing the important touristattraction points located around the above said touristcentres are created in image form (jpeg) by exportingthe shape files and information about them is linked inHTML with photograph format. Detailed informationin the form of text, photographs and videos of thesecentres is available in two ways- first by selecting thecentre from the excursion list from the page andsecond by clicking the particular point shown on themap, as well as selecting the centre from the listlocated downside of the excursion map of theparticular centre.

6.1.4. Home page design

This page provides links to all types of informationcompiled under this web site. Upper side of the homepage has a tool bar with drop down menus. This toolbar includes- general information about the region andtourist centres, excursions, fairs and festivals, wildlifesanctuaries and even a picture gallery with contact taband feedback form. Same information can also beaccessed from the links provided at the bottom of thehome page (Fig.5).

Maps of the region and major tourist centres areavailable from the scrolling window on the right sideof the page. This window provides links to the maps ofEastern U.P. and major tourist destinations. Byselecting any map user will go directly to the map,prepared using Arc GIS and published using opensource GIS- Map Guide and distributed over internet.In the middle part of the home page some photographsand map of Eastern U.P. are displayed.

Figure 5: View of home page

6.2. Page design of maps

Rolling window on the right side of the home pageprovide access to the maps of the region as well astourist destinations. User can click any map and thewindow of that particular map opens. Top side of thispage is occupied by a GUI based tool bar having iconsfor different operations, which can be performed by theuser (details in tool bar and functions) on each map.The left side of the window has a Table of Content(TOC), where all the layers of that centre aredisplayed. Here, user can check and uncheck any layerby clicking the layer. Lower side of the TOC alsoshows the properties as heading - under which detailsof the selected features on the maps are available. Mapof the tourist centre is displayed in the middle part ofthe page with the slider to zoom in/out and tool tonavigate the map. Panel located on the right side of themap shows the command list, which givesspecification and details of each command. So that anon-GIS user can go through these details and canperform these functions. All the maps compiled on thisweb site have all these characteristics.

6.2.1. Tool bars

On the top side of each map there is a tool bar which isa GUI (Graphical User Interface) based menu bar andprovides many easy to use tools to the user, viz., print,zoom in, zoom out, zoom rectangle, identify, pan,search based on attribute as well as spatial,measurement tool, buffer tool, initial map view,previous map view, select-polygon, radius, selectwithin, clear selection, refresh, and search (Fig.-6).

6.2.2. Search feature

It is a very important tool, which can be used to searchspatial and non-spatial information as well. Thisfeature helps the user to find out any information inquick and easy way from this large database. User can

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get information about tourist destinations and availableinfrastructure by using this tool in two ways. Thisfeature is available on the top right corner of the homepage (from where all HTML documents can besearched) and also with all the maps displayed on thesite. There is search icon on the tool bar of every mapand user can select the layer in which he/she wants tosearch. After selecting a particular layer user has totype a query and searched features list of that particularquery will be displayed. Here, user can select anyfeature from the displayed searched list and it will takehim direct to the spatial location of the same on themap. User can also access linked information with thatparticular feature by clicking at that particular point.Same information is also being displayed in the lowerpanel of the TOC under the heading properties.

6.3. Facilities mapping

Maps show all the infrastructure, a tourist might needwhile travelling in an unknown area. These facilities,along with the spatial information about the touristdestinations, are shown on the maps of the touristcentres and have linked information with details of theparticular facility like- Accommodation with types,Restaurants, Travel Agents, Hospitals/Nursing Homes,Security, Passport Office, Tourist Office/InformationBureau, Foreigner’s Registration Office, Banks,ATMs, Cyber Cafés, Cinema Halls, Playgrounds/Parks/Golf Course/ Clubs, Post Offices, ShoppingAreas/Malls, Petrol Pumps, Mobile Services. Thesefacilities are grouped in four layers for big touristcentres and in two layers for middle size centres, whileonly in one layer for small tourist centre.

6.4. Functions/activities

Functions available with all the maps of tourist centresto the users are- print (any part of the map can bezoomed in/out and can be printed), zoom in, zoom out,zoom rectangle, (user can use these three tools to seethe maps at different level) identify, pan, search basedon attribute as well as spatial, measurement tool tomeasure distance between the places/facilities on themap (in km., metres and miles), buffer tool- forknowing the different facilities available within thespecified limit or in the vicinity of present location oftourist, initial map view, previous map view, select-polygon, radius, select within, clear selection, refresh,search, go to Google-which will connect the map withthe Google map (Fig.4). All these functions areavailable for all the maps and for the convenience ofthe user all these functions have been clarified on thepanel located at the right side of the map.

It is anticipated that this information system will helpin attracting more and more tourists and entrepreneursinto this region. Thus, maximum utilization of thepotential resources of the region will be ensured.Multiplier effect of tourism will create employmentopportunities in transport, hotel, marketing anddifferent services and there will be overallimprovement in the economy of the region. This work

can be treated as a pilot project for the other parts ofUttar Pradesh and rest of the country as well.

7. Conclusions

In the present study, a web based customized TourismInformation System (TIS) for Eastern U.P. isdeveloped. This is formulated on GIS platform to makeit interactive and also linked to internet to maximizethe accessibility of reliable information. Such a systemis very useful to know the present status of tourism andcarryout future tourism development programmes forEastern U.P..

Acknowledgement

The study was carried out as a part of the project,funded by Natural Resources Data ManagementSystem (NRDMS) division of Department of Scienceand Technology (DST), New Delhi.

References

Allahabad, (1986). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.Anonymous (2009). Paryag Bhraman, Prayagraj SewaSamiti, Allahabad

Azamgarh (1989). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Bahraich (1988), Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Ballia (1986). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. of IndiaPublication.

Basti (1988). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. of IndiaPublication.

Colwell, P.L. and A. Ahner (1990). Computingstandards and GIS: A tutorial. Proc. From URISAconf., Vol. 2, Edmonton, Alberta, 1990.

Deoria (1988). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Gonda (1989). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. of IndiaPublication.

Ghazipur (1982). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Gorakhpur (1987). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Jaunpur (1989). Urban Studies, NATMO Publication,Kolkata.

Kundu, A. K. (Ed.) (1989). Mirzapur: Urban Studies,NATMO Publication, Kolkata.

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Mirzapur (1988). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Pratapgarh (1980). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Sultanpur (1982). Uttar Pradesh Gazetteers, Govt. ofIndia Publication.

Anonymous (2009). Paryag Bhraman, Prayagraj SewaSamiti, Allahabad

METHODLOGY

Field Survey-Data Collection

Labora tory Work

Primary Secondary

Secondary data collection-Physio- Cultural data:Topography, Climate,Historical Background,Fairs & Festivals &Destinations da ta: ExistingM aps & Data from differentSources) Tourist Statistics-

Primary da ta collection- Tourist Destina tions, Excursions Inrastructure: Accommodation,

Restaurant, Travel Agents, Hospitals/Nursing Homes, Security, Passport Office,Tourist Office/ Information Bureau,Foreigner’s Registration Office , Banks,ATMs, Cyber Café, Cinema Halls,Playground/Parks/ Golf Course/Clubs,Post Office, Shopping Area/ Malls, PetrolPumps, Mobile Services data, using GPSaccording to the format.

• Collection of photographs, Video Clips.• Potential points of tourist interest.

• Questionnaires: to know the problems &Prospects

Personal observation: Collection ofphotographs, Video ClipsPotential points of tour ist interestProblemsQuestionnaire:Available infrastructureTourist characteristics

M anual WorkData arrangement

Computer Work

Spatial Database- Creationof thematic layers, Basemap, Mapping of TouristCentres, Excursions,Infrastructure, Fairs &Festiva ls

AttributeDatabasefor thecollecteddata

Customization & generation ofWeb enabled database using opensource GIS- Map-Guide

Creation of Spatial & Non-Spatial Database

Creation of web site &publica tion of data

Figure 2: Flow chart of methodology

Figure 6: Features of the tool bar

All these function are available to all the layers

Print

MeasuringTool

Buffercreation

Zoomview

Zoom tobox

Zoom in& out

Selection Pan

Search

Show onGoogle

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