DESIGN
AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE TOURISM MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
(CASE
STUDY OF FEDEAL UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY) MINNA
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Tourism is the travel for
recreation, leisure, religious, family business purposes, usually of a limited
duration. Tourism is considered an activity essential to Nations because of its
direct effects on social, cultural, educational and economic sectors of
National societies and their International relations.
According to the third edition of
the Oxford English dictionary, tourism is defined as the commercial
organization and operation of holidays and visits to place of interest.
Tourism can be defined as a
short-term movement of people to places some distance away from their normal
place of residence to indulge in pleasurable activities. (Swarbrook and Horner,
2007).
When a person leaves his home
town for another location in the same country, he is termed a Domestic tourist.
But if he crosses the frontiers of his country, he then becomes an
International tourist. The people who visit Minna in December to attend the
Akpazuma festival are domestic tourists while those who come from other
countries to visit the Gurara water falls, are International tourists.
However, tourism is fast becoming
one of the most functional industries in the world. It makes great impact in
Nations by helping to create employment opportunities, by developing
infrastructures, and a very rich source of income and revenue.
It plays an important role by
offering employment to a good number of a Nation’s population that could be
doctors, dancers, engineers, labourers, entertainers etc. For instance, in
places like Britain over three million people are engaged in tourism, also in
Spain and Italy, the figures are higher than seventy percent respectively. This
explains why both countries are world leaders in the tourism industry. Nigeria
has a huge number of parks, holiday resorts, and hotels. It is estimated that
the Nigerian tourism industry can employ a hundred thousand people. By doing
this, the large number of unemployed people would be removed from idleness and
joblessness.
Tourism helps improve a nation’s
infrastructural development. It provides amenities such as good transport and
communication network, cheap and comfortable accommodations, essential
infrastructures and super structures. As a result of this, tourism has been
integrated into the national plans of many countries to raise the economic
standard of physical of their environments and improve the people’s social
interaction. Tourism also creates a considerable
impact on the improvement of the general features of the environment, the
establishment of hotels and allied industries. It also provides benefits that
come in the form of provision of necessary infrastructure, provision of
electricity, the construction of roads, and portable water supply and sewage
disposal system.
As a rich source of income and
revenue; tourism has become one of the most integral source of foreign exchange
and balance of payments to many tourism inclined countries. This can be
exemplified by Britain whose greatest exports includes tourism which is one of the
fastest growing items of International trade.
Besides
being a source of foreign exchange earnings, tourism could also assist in
promoting national unity and mutual understanding through domestic and
international travels. If tourism is properly groomed in Nigeria, it will breed
peace and unity and many Nigerians will have the opportunity to visit different
other states and tribes. This will eliminate conflicts, and reduce tribalism
and religious tensions.
Thus,
promotes the spirit of oneness and love among citizens of various nations,
creates and build a good relationship and united society.
Very
importantly, it draws our minds back to our origin from the rapid western
civilization and helps preserve the culture and heritage of people.
The
preservation and enhancement of the tradition, and native handcraft helps to
create distinct local tourism products and this in turn gives way for promotion
and awareness of the Nation’s heritage.
Nigeria
has great tourism potentials. The awareness and understanding of tourism in the
private sector shows that with a well-organized tourism private sector
participation, and government realizations of tourism, tourism activities could
generate employment, upliftment of social life in rural areas and the
government will see reasons to provide the much needed tourist infrastructures
for the growth of tourism in our country.
Nigeria is truly endowed with
beautiful natural resources relative to other Nations in Africa and even on a
global level. These natural resources include; peculiar geomorphologic
features, water bodies, wild life and game reserves.
The application and use of
computers in various facets of human activities cannot be over emphasized. Since
the introduction of the microcomputers in the 1970’s and 1980’s, the world of
office automation has continued to evolve with modernization made to the
present ones.
Some may wonder why there is a
need for a computerized tourism information system. This is because;
o
The
world has become a global street. Day by day people engage in more activities
on the internet, it is only fair to use the internet facility to make tourism
activities more accessible and informative.
o
If
properly designed and implemented, an online tourism system would be more
organized, and efficient than a manual filing system.
o
It
can also be used to complement the manual system; it can serve as a backup for
all information in the files, thereby keeping them safer in the cloud.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
This project is embarked on to
solve the following problems:
1.
Delay
in handling enquiries and making bookings, poor customer service and feedback.
2.
Unauthorized
access to vital documents and files of the corporation, and displacements of
records.
3.
Certain
tourist locations and accommodations may be unavailable at certain times and
the existing system may fail to communicate these to a customer as a result of
unorganized information which may put customers in cases of unplanned expenses
or an uncomfortable tour.
The major problems experienced is
the poor information flow, delay in handling enquiries, making bookings, and poor
customer service and feedback.
These problems make it difficult
for customers to book their tour because the current system is inefficient.
Hence, an efficient system is
required to eliminate such problems after a structural analysis of the existing
system.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this study is to
develop an interactive website that helps potential visitors get enough
information about the various destinations in Niger state that may ease their
tour. It has the following objectives:
o
To
explore the problems encountered in the management of the existing manual
tourism system
o
To
design a web based system that will make information more detailed, effective,
and accurate, and ease the delay hitherto encountered with the existing manual
system.
o
To
implement a web based tourism system that will help people appreciate the
state’s natural endowment and also serve as a complementary tool for tourism
management.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This study would to a large
extent, provide very useful output for a more effective operation of the
tourism destinations in Niger state as a whole, it will also complement the
efforts of the managers of these tourist centres by, helping them make more accurate
judgments and also by providing detailed information accurately to the public
for strategic and profitable achievements of the centres.
This research provides an
awareness of the problem and prospects of tourism in Niger state to the general
public, which will broaden their knowledge, understanding and help them
understand the importance of tourism.
The government also has its
benefits as the study appraises various governmental guidelines and offers some
suggestions for more efficient operations of these resorts.
In summary, this project work
will provide a solution to the subject of tourism management, an alternative to
the existing manual system and will be readily available to anyone with a
device that has a functional browser and access to the internet.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The scope of this research,
design and development dwells only on Minna metropolis and a few prominent
tourist destinations surrounding it. This is because, tourism is a broad topic
and due to research time restriction, lack of needed research materials and
resources, the scope of the study is limited.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
In the cause of accomplishing
these tasks, obstacles were encountered. Due to the wide scope and discovery of
new tourist destinations in the state, it makes it intricate to have the
background knowledge of these destinations and most importantly, areas needed
for data collection of this study were inaccessible either for security reasons
or otherwise. As a result of that, limited source of information was gathered.
Hence this study focuses only on
six (8) tourist destinations for this project.
Even with the above constraints,
I endeavoured to gather adequate information within my capability to carry out
this study accurately so as to ensure objective and meaningful deductions.
1.7 OPERATION DEFINITION OF TERMS
1.
Tourism:
The business of providing places for people to visit and activities for them to
do.
2.
Tour:
Touring process means to visit different environments,
3.
Tourist:
A person who travels or visits different places for pleasure or other reasons.
4.
Domestic
tourist: A person who leaves his home for another town in the same country
5.
International
tourist: A person who leaves his country to visit another country
6.
Systems:
A set of things working together as a whole to achieve the same sole objective.
7.
Design:
A plan made to show the function of a particular project before it is made. It
can be referred to as a prototype of a product or system.
8.
Program:
A set of instructions that directs a computer on how to perform particular
tasks.
9.
Database:
A set of data or information stored in a computer system that is accessible in
many ways.
10. File: A collection of related
records.
11. Information system: A system
composed of different components that processes or interprets tourism
information.
12. Booking system: The process of
making arrangement so that a space in a hotel, or a particular period which you
want to use for touring, is reserved for you.
13. Booking form: The form which user
inputs details needed to make a reservation
14. Booking receipt: The document
which shows that user has successfully made a reservation.
15. Web browser: It is a software
application for retrieving, presenting information resources on the World Wide
Web.
16. URI: The uniform resource
identifier, identifies an information resource.
17. URL: The uniform resource locator
is also known as the web address.
18. Web based information system: It
is an information system that uses Internet web technologies to deliver
information and services to users or other information systems.
19. Check IN: This is the process of
reporting one’s arrival at a place.
20. Check OUT: This process depicts
one’s departure from a place.