malaysia tour package website using rule-based expert system

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Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System NG YEE SHIAN A thesis submitted in fulfillment of the requirement for the award of the degree of Bachelor of Computer Sciences (Graphics & Multimedia Technology) Faculty of Computer Systems & Software Engineering University Malaysia Pahang December, 2012

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Page 1: Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System

Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System

NG YEE SHIAN

A thesis submitted in fulfillment

of the requirement for the award of the degree of

Bachelor of Computer Sciences

(Graphics & Multimedia Technology)

Faculty of Computer Systems & Software Engineering

University Malaysia Pahang

December, 2012

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ABSTRACT

Currently, there have been many tourism websites that offered holiday package booking

services. However, not many did offered holiday package recommendation. “Malaysia Tour

Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System” is a web-based application purposely to

provide customers with valuable recommendations based on their preferences. Thus, these

recommendations are provided by an artificial intelligence (AI) based engine which will use the

rule-based system. The tour package rule-based recommender system is a flexible rule-based.

This is because the rule-based is depend on user criteria to recommender tour package for user

and it is a way to help tourist to make decision when they go for a holiday. Besides that, this

“Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System” also allow tourist to book

tour packages. The website consists of three users; they are customer, administrator and office

staff. A customer will able to use the tour package recommender system to choose their

preferred holiday package and book a tour package is also included. Administrator can promote

their holiday packages and maintain the website, while office staff can view customer

information for payment approvement. The methodology is based on the Software Development

Life Cycle (SDLC) used as a guide to develop the software stage by stage. The ASP.NET, C#

Language and MYSQL Server also help to construct the prototype “Malaysia Tour Package

Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”.

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Abstrak

Pada masa ini, terdapat banyak pelancingan laman web yang menawarkan

perkhidmatan tempahan pakej percutian. Walau bagaimanapun, tidak banyak web yang

menawarkan dan mensyorkan pakej percutian. Malaysia Tour Pakej Laman Web yang

menggunakan Sistem Pakar Berasaskan Peraturan" adalah sebuah aplikasi berasaskan

web disengajakan untuk menyediakan pelanggan dengan cadangan berharga

berdasarkan pilihan mereka. Oleh itu, saranan-saranan ini disediakan oleh risikan tiruan

yang dipanggilkan sebagai AI enjin yang berasaskan akan menggunakan sistem

berasaskan peraturan. Pakej pelancongan berasaskan peraturan penentu system yang

fleksibel berasaskan peraturan. Ini adalah kerana berasaskan peraturan bergantung

kepada kriteria pengguna penentu pakej pelancingan untuk pengguna dan merupakan

salah satu cara untuk membantu pelancong untuk membuat keputusan apabila mereka

pergi untuk bercuti. Selain daripada itu, Malaysia Tour Pakej Laman Web menggunakan

Sistem Pakar Berasaskan Peraturan yang juga membenarkan pelancong untuk

menempah pakej pelancongan. Laman web ini terdiri daripada tiga pengguna; mereka

adalah pelanggan, pentadbir dan kakitangan pejabat. Seorang pelanggan akan dapat

menggunakan sistem Penentu pakej pelancongan untuk memilih pakej percutian pilihan

mereka dan menempah pakej pelancongan juga dimasukkan. Pentadbir boleh

mempromosikan pakej percutian mereka dan menjaga laman web, manakala kakitangan

pejabat boleh melihat maklumat pelanggan untuk meluluskan pembayaran. Metodologi

adalah berdasarkan Perisian Kitaran Hayat Pembangunan Sistem (SDLC) digunakan

sebagai panduan untuk membangunkan peringkat perisian oleh pentas. ASP.NET, C #

Bahasa dan MYSQL Server juga membantu untuk membina prototaip "Malaysia Tour

Pakej Laman Web Menggunakan Peraturan Berasaskan Sistem Pakar".

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER TITLE PAGE

SUPERVISOR’S DECLARATION i

STUDENT’S DECLARATION ii

DEDICATION iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENT iv

ABSTRACT v

TABLE OF CONTENTS vii

LIST OF TABLES xi

LIST OF FIGURES xiii

LIST OF APPENDICES xv

1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

1.2 Problem Statement

1.3 Objective

1.4 Scope of Study

1.5 Assumption and Constraint

1.6 Thesis Organization

1

2

3

4

6

6

2 LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

2.1.1 Tourism Information System

2.2 Features of the Tourism Information System

2.3 Case Studies on Existing Tourism System

2.3.1 Case Study on Online Trip Advisory System

2.3.2 Case Study on www.cuti.com.my

2.3.3 Case Study on www.virtualmalaysia.com

2.4 Tourism Recommender System

8

8

9

10

11

13

18

21

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2.5 Rule-Based Expert System

2.5.1 Definition

2.5.2 Rules

2.5.2.1 Components of a rule

2.5.2.2 Compound Rules

2.5.3 Architecture of Expert System

2.5.4 Inference mechanisms

2.5.4.1 Forward Chaining

2.5.4.2 Backward Chaining

2.6 Development Tools and Support

2.6.1 Methodology Model

2.6.2 Scripting Language

2.6.2.1 Java

2.6.2.2 C Sharp (C#)

2.6.2.3 Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP)

2.6.3 Database

2.6.3.1 Oracle

2.6.3.2 Microsoft SQL Server

22

22

22

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24

26

30

33

33

35

36

37

38

39

39

40

3 METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Proposed Solution

3.2.1 Planning Phase

3.2.2 Analysis Phase

3.2.2.1 Data Collection

3.2.2.2 User Requirements

3.2.2.2.1 Criteria of the Recommender System

3.2.2.2.2 Flow Chart for the Package Recommender

3.2.3 Design Phase

3.2.3.1 System Requirement

3.2.3.1.1 Use Case Diagram for Proposed System

3.2.3.1.2 Modules Design

3.2.3.2 Interface Design

3.2.3.3 Database Design

42

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3.2.3.3.1 Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD)

3.2.3.3.2 Data Dictionary

3.2.4 Implementation Phase

3.2.5 Testing Phase

3.2.6 Delivery Phase

3.3 Project Requirement

3.3.1 Software Requirements

3.3.1.1 Software Requirements for Developer

3.3.1.2 Software Requirements for User

3.3.2 Hardware Requirements

3.3.2.1 Hardware Requirements for Developer

3.3.2.2 Hardware Requirements for User

52

53

55

55

55

55

55

55

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57

57

58

4 IMPLEMENTATION

1.1 Introduction

1.2 General Coding and Functions

4.2.1 Database Connector

4.2.2 Delete Functions

4.2.3 Update Functions

4.3 Result of the ‘Malaysia Tour Package Website Using

Rule-Based Expert System’

4.3.1 Home Module

4.3.2 About Us Module

4.3.3 Register module

4.3.4 Package module

4.3.4.1 Book Tour Package module

4.3.4.2 View Booking module

4.3.4.3 Package Recommender module

4.3.5 Office Staff module

4.3.5.1 Customer Booking module

4.3.5.2 Customer Information module

4.3.6 Admin module

4.3.6.1 Register User Setup

4.3.6.2 Package Category Setup

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4.3.6.3 Package Setup 80

5 RESULT AND DISCUSSION

5.1 Introduction

5.2 Result Testing

5.2.1 Test Plan for Rule-Based on Tour Package

5.3 Discussion

5.3.1 Result Discussion

5.4 Advantages and Disadvantages

5.5 Future Work

82

82

82

91

91

92

92

6 CONCLUSION 93

REFERENCES 94

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE NO TABLE PAGE

1.1 Criteria of Each Rule of Data Package 5

2.1 Travel Ontology 9

2.2 Recommended Destination Display 12

2.3 Estimated Expenses Display 13

2.4 Advantages and Disadvantages of 3 Existing Systems 19

2.5 First Pass Forward Chaining 27

2.6 Second Pass Forward Chaining 28

2.7 Third Pass Foward Chaining 29

2.8 Strengths and Weaknesses of SDLC 35

2.9 Advantages and Disadvantages of Java 36

2.10 Advantages and Disadvantages of C# 37

2.11 Advantages and Disadvantages of PHP 39

2.12 Advantages and Disadvantages of Oracle Database 40

2.13 Advantages and Disadvantaged of Microsoft SQL

Server

40

3.1 Reason of the Criteria 45

3.2 Criteria of the Three Tourism Recommender System 46

3.3 Functions in the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using

Rule-Based Expert System”

49

3.4 Modules & Sub-Modules for “Malaysia Tour Package

Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”

51

3.5 Software Requirments for Developer 56

3.6 Minimum Software Requirements for the User 57

3.7 Hardware Requirements for Developer 57

3.8 Minimum Hardware Requirements for User 58

5.1 Eights Testing Examples on Different Criteria 83

5.2 Test One Criteria 83

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5.3 Test Two Criteria 84

5.4 Test Three Criteria 85

5.5 Test Four Criteria 86

5.6 Test Five Criteria 87

5.7 Test Six Criteria 88

5.8 Test Seven Criteria 89

5.9 Test Eight Criteria 90

5.10 The Eight Expected Result 91

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE NO TABLE PAGE

1.1 The Sector of Group Package Tour 2

2.1 Cuti Home Page 14

2.2 Tour Package in Different Country 14

2.3 Four Types of Criteria 15

2.4 Select the Country, State & Location 15

2.5 Rule 2 Description 16

2.6 Select the Days of Package 16

2.7 Select the Types of Package 17

2.8 Sort Keyword Field 17

2.9 Final Result of Cuti Recommendation 18

2.10 Four Types of Criteria of Virtualmalaysia System 18

2.11 Final Result of VirtualMalaysia Recommendation 19

2.12 Architecture of Simple Expert System 23

2.13 Simple Rules 25

2.14 Complex Rules 25

2.15 First Pass of Forward Chaining 27

2.16 Second Pass of Forward Chaining 29

2.17 Third Pass of Forward Chaining 30

2.18 Pass 1 Backward Chaining 31

2.19 Pass 2 Backward Chaining 31

2.20 Pass 3 Backward Chaining 32

2.21 Pass 4 Backward Chaining 32

2.22 Pass 5 Backward Chaining 33

2.23 Pass 6 Backward Chaining 33

2.24 The Waterfall Model (System Development Life Cycle) 35

3.1 Framework of “ Malaysia Tour Package Website Using

Rule-Based Expert System”

43

3.2 Flow Chart for Select Criteria in Recommender System 47

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3.3 Use Case Diagram for “Malaysia Tour Package Website

Using Rule-Based Expert System”

48

3.4 Entity Relationship Diagram, ERD 52

3.5 Login Detail Database 53

3.6 Booking Database 53

3.7 Package Category Database 54

3.8 Package Type Requirement Setup Database 54

3.9 Package Setup Database 54

4.1 Delete Button Function 60

4.2 Image Delete 61

4.3 Edit Button Function 61

4.4 User Login 63

4.5 Link Text 64

4.6 Result for Kuala Lumpur Tour Package Information 65

4.7 Special Links 65

4.8 Air Asia Website 66

4.9 Register Button Function 66

4.10 List of Package in Book Tour Module 67

4.11 Package Holiday Information 68

4.12 Tour Package Information 69

4.13 Review Booking 70

4.14 Package Recommender Module 71

4.15 Result of Package Recommender System 75

4.16 Result of Customer Booking 77

4.17 Result of Customer Information 78

4.18 Create Type of Package 80

4.19 Result of Package Setup 81

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LIST OF APPENDICES

APPENDIX TITLE PAGE

A GANTT CHART 97

B USER INTERFACE DESIGN 100

C LIST OF TOUR PACKAGE MTPW 110

D PLAGIARISM DETECTED BY TURNITIN 116

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CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Malaysia is a country divided into two parts, Peninsular Malaysia and The Borneo

Island which consists of the states of Sabah and Sarawak. Peninsular Malaysia is sometimes

referred as East Malaysia while for the The Borneo Island is called as West Malaysia.

Malaysia is full of various interesting destinations, thus a tour package is needed to

allow tourists to find information, compare, plan and book their chosen tour package based on

their requirement. A tour package can allow tourists to explore the unmatched beauty of the

finest beach destination, inspiriting natural beauty and fascinating man made tourist attraction.

A tour package includes organizing different services in a manner that is affordable for

the tourist as well as profitable for the tourism agency. A tour package usually consists of

transportation and accommodation, which are advertised and sold a long side with a tourism

agency. Other services may be provided such as a rent a car service, activities or excursions

during holiday. The actual elements of a tour package will vary depending on the type of

holiday package the tourist has chosen and how much he wants to pay for the tour package.

A tour guide’s behavior will be the predominant factor influencing the customer’s

perception of travel service quality. But so far, the exact service features of a tour guide in the

Asian group package tour remains unknown [1]. The group package tour itinerary was then

divided into nine sectors; pre-tour briefing, airport or plane, hotel, restaurant, coach, scenic-spot,

shopping, optional tour and others [1].

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Figure 1.1: The Sector of Group Package Tour [1]

The reasons for having tour package is because travelers expect package tours to be one

of the best method to achieve several goals. The goals are, in budget, saves time, security and

having personal tour guide. Package tour is a rational and effective way for travelers to visit a

largest number of sites in a trip in a given period, to travel in a relatively safe way to faraway

countries with foreign cultures, to avoid unreliable transportation and doubtful standards of

hygine, while being usually less expensive than taking an individual trip to the same

destination.[2]

1.2 Problem Statement

Currently, there are several problems encountered by most of the tourists while selecting

a tour package. Firstly, tourists have no idea where to go as there are too many attractive tourist

destinations available in Malaysia. Due to a large amount data in Malaysia’s tourist information,

it has become a difficulty for the inexperienced tourists to choose a tour package among the

large set of available options from the internet. Thus, a tourist needs a system where they can be

guided step by step for what they will expect in the tour packages and how to purchase it from

the web-based tourism system.

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Another challenge is the problem faced by the tourism agency to recommend a tour

package for new customers. It is very difficult to know the preferences and tastes of the

customer without asking too many questions [3]. Besides, in many times, the customers do not

have a clear idea of what they are looking for [3]. Thus, it was projected to be used in tourism

agency where tourism agents have to deal with specific customer’s needs and to have a broad

knowledge about tour package options.

Therefore, the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System” is

designed to help tourist and tourism agency to find the best tour packages according to the

preferences provided by them. This system is based on the collaboration of tourism agent that is

stored in the tour package information within their local knowledge bases with the use of the

rule-based technique approach.

Lastly, most of the existing tour recommendation web-based usually suggests specific

needs according to the different criteria service features which are divided into (a) hotel, (b)

coach, (c) restaurant, (d) airport, (e) scenic-sport, (f) shopping, (g) optional tour and others can

be referred to Figure 1.1 [1]. Hence, this “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based

Expert System” is proposed to do the research and development of a tour package recommender

system in Malaysia. This system recommends an appropriate tour packages according to the

combination of all the entire criteria from the research of the existing web-based recommender

system. The criteria consist of type of packages, number of people, duration, location, category,

travel period, budget, transportation and accommodation.

1.3 Objective

The main objectives for the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”

are:

i. To develop a web-based expert system of Malaysia tour package.

ii. To implement rule-based techniques for package recommender.

iii. To verified the package recommender for selecting the right package based on input by the

user.

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1.4 Scope of Study

The scope of this project “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert

System” is to develop a web-based system for Malaysia in the sector of tourism.

There are three users in the system which are tourist, office staff and administrator. The

user will involve themselves in same or difference modules in the system. The “Malaysia Tour

Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System” consists of six modules which are (a) home

module, (b) about us module, (c) register module, (d) package module, (e) office staff module

and (f) administrator module.

a) Homepage module

The system will briefly introduce the information about the tourism Malaysia and the

function of the recommender system in the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-

Based Expert System”.

b) About Use module

About us module is to purposely explain the purpose of the development of the project

which can suggest suitable tour package for tourist and also to provide them with

information of the tour package in Malaysia.

c) Register module

Register module allows tourist to register as a new member of the “Malaysia Tour Package

Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”.

d) Package module

The module will emphasize the package module; which involves the recommender tour

package system, book and purchase procedures. The recommender tour package system will

used rule-based expert system approach.

e) Office staff module

Office staff module allows office staff and administrator to view the tourist tour package

they had booked and also the details and personal information of the tourist.

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f) Administrator module

Administrator module only allows the administrator to determine the level of status for users

to login for the purpose to view some certain menu. Besides that, the administrator can also

create categories for advanced usage in the package setup.

The recommender system of the package module in this project covers eight criteria.

These are (a) type of packages, (b) number of people, (c) holiday duration, (d) location, (e)

package category, (f) budget, (g) transport and (h) accommodation to suggest a recommended

tour package for user.

Table 1.1: Criteria of Each Rule of Data Package

Criteria Rule of data package

1. Type of package Group Package and Individual Package

1. Number of people 1-10, 10-20, 10-20, 20-30, 30-40, 40-50, 50-60, 60-70, 70-80, 80-90

and 90-100 people

2. Holiday duration 1-3 days, 4-7 days, 8-14 days, 2-3 weeks and more than 3 weeks

3. Location Perlis, Perak, Pulau Pinang, Kedah, Terengganu, Pahang, Kuala

Lumpur, Selangor, Putrajaya, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Johor

4. Package Category Adventure, Festival and Events, Shopping and Dining, Wedding and

Honeymoon, Beach and Coast, Cultural and Historical and Diving

and Theme Parks

5. Budget Less than RM100, Between RM100 and RM500, Between RM 500

and RM1000, Between RM1500 and RM2000 and more than

RM2000

6. Transport Ferry, Bus, Car, Train, Van

7. Accommodation Hotel, Hostel, Motel, Private home, Camping, Chalet

The size of the scope of study has been reduced to only cover the travel information

particularly in West Malaysia, due to the limitation of time and incapability to retrieve some of

the information from East Malaysia, which are Sabah and Sarawak.

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1.5 Assumption and Constraint

During the development process, there are a few constraints faced by the developer. The

constraints of the system are listed below.

1. There is no actual expertise opinions and in-depth knowledge in developing the system, as

there is no co-operation from the tourism company because they have no time to give in and

to help by giving information. Everything is based on internet searching, travel books, flyer

and brochures.

2. The payment process for the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert

System” is handled by an office staff is done manually, meaning when office staff receives

the billing, cheque and credit card payment number from the customers. The office staffs

need to key in payment type numbers manually to confirm the payment had been made by

the customer. This happens because in this system, it does not have an online transaction.

3. For the tour package in “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”,

package purchasing for customer is unlimited.

1.6 Thesis Organization

This thesis consists of six chapters.

Chapter one is the introduction which describes the overview of the “Malaysia Tour

Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”. Problem statements, objectives, scope of

study, assumption and constraint and thesis organization are included within chapter one. The

purpose is to give readers a clear conceptual view of the development of the system.

Chapter two is the literature review to study all the relevant journals, technical papers,

books and reports from other researchers. Besides that, there will be an analysis and discussion

of the existing web-based system’s advantages and disadvantages. Research of critical points of

the techniques, methodology model and programming language by other researchers are studied.

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Chapter three is the methodology which explains the tasks that have been done and

based on the methodology model. This has been chosen to be as a reference to obtain ideas for

the development of this project. Software and hardware requirements will also be discussed.

Chapter four is about the implementation of the project. It will describe each of the

major and general functions in the system’s modules with the aid of screen snapshot. Besides

that, chapter four will also discuss the techniques used.

Chapter five is result and discussion. Testing is done to check each of the criteria’s

based on the rule-based technique approach. The expected outcome of the test result will be

checked for any errors and error rate that might occur. The system’s advantages and

disadvantages will be explained in this chapter and will be the ideas for future work to advance

the system.

Chapter six is the conclusion of the project, giving a brief conclusion to the entire

system development project.

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CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1 Introduction

This chapter discusses the research that has been done in the literature review which is

related to the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System”. The first part

is the features of the tourism information system. The second part is about several existing web-

based tourism which have some similar criteria with current system. The third part of this study

is about the main part of the system which relates to the system’s objective which is about the

rule-based technique and the framework structures. Lastly, the chapter will also discuss about

the development tools and support used to develop the system in the aspect of methodology

model, scripting language and database.

2.1.1 Tourism Information System

Information System (IS) is the connection between the business world and computer

science. Information System includes people, procedures, data, software, and hardware that are

used to gather and analyze information.

Tourism Information System is used to provide these certain elements that are, to

provide customers with information about the various tourist destinations, measure the

customer’s requirement and needs, advertise tourism, provide customer support and service.

Tourism Information System (TIS) can provide the system with speed and great

efficiency. This is done by collecting data from the customer’s feedback and thus analyzing the

data and giving a good recommendation [4].

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2.2 Features of the Tourism Information System

Features of tourism information system requires tourism information, also known as

travel ontology. Ontology represents knowledge as a set of concepts within a domain, and the

relationships between each pairs of concept. It can also be used to model a domain and support

reasoning about entities.

This section presents details of the following important classes in the travel ontology.

These are (a) Traveller’s Preference, (b) Traveller’s Requirement, (c) Tourism Related Event, (d)

Traveller’s Plan, (e) Actor, (f) Activity, (g) Contact Point and, (h) Destination and (i)

Geographic Place [5].

Table 2.1: Travel Ontology [5]

Preferences Explanation Sub Items

Traveller’s Preference To store the linking of the traveller

with regards to accommodation,

transport etc. For example the tourist

might prefer three star

accommodations or a luxurious

travel.

Accommodation

Preference

Activity Preference

Brand Preference

Guest Room Preference

Transport Preference

Tourism Event Preference

Tourism Related Event Stores events that interest the

travellers. These additions will take

place in response to the information

provided by the various operators.

Conference Event

Entertainment Event

Exhibition Event

Sporting Event

Traveller Requirement To store the traveller’s requirements

for a given trip. These requirements

are used to search for suitable options

as to satisfy the user requirements.

Accommodation

Requirement

Activity Requirement

Event Requirement

Transport Requirement

Traveller Plan Represents the activity plan of a

traveller, and is the basis of a more

Itinerary

Personal Plan

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detailed travel itinerary.

Traveller To store the details of an individual

who is travelling.

Individual Traveller

Travel Group

Actor Represent an individual who

maintains the ontology or uses the

system.

Administrator

User

Activity A process or involvement which is of

relevance for a journey or business

trip.

Administrative Activity

Enterprise Activity

Immunisation

Appointment

Tourism Activity

Cinema

Formal Visiting

Informal Visiting

Shopping

Contact Point Represent a point of contact,

typically with a person.

Email Address

Phone No

Physical Address

Web Address

Destination Represent a place designated as the

goal, typically a travel target, such as

hotel, park, attraction or organised

activity.

Elementary Destination

Composite Destination

Geographic Place Represent a physical place with a

geographic address.

Country

Region

State

2.3 Case Studies on Existing Tourism System

This study presents a proposed web-based system “Malaysia Tour Package Website

Using Rule-Based Expert System” as a knowledge-based system. The proposed system mimics

a human tourism guide by building a relationship between knowledge based-system with the

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role of a tourist-guide, as a mean to provide a recommendation for tourists to best meet their

needs and desire of gaining sufficient information and better understanding of the places visited

together with a better value and satisfaction of their tour packages.

There are three existing systems that research and study have been conducted that has

similar requirements, concepts and functions as the “Malaysia Tour Package Website Using

Rule-Based Expert System”. The development of the system uses these existing systems as

reference to guide and provide ideas. These can then be used to create an enhanced system by

comparing with the current existing system and studying the weaknesses of these three system.

The following below are the three existing system:

i. Thesis: Online Trip Advisory System, OTAS [6]

ii. Website Asian: www.cuti.com.my [7]

iii. Website Malaysia: www.virtualmalaysia.com [8]

2.3.1 Case Study on Online Trip Advisory System, OTAS

The OTAS is a thesis from a senior, Yip Sook Chian who is an ex-student of University

Malaysia Pahang in the year 2010. The OTAS system uses a rule-based decision support

technique which is recognized as one of the best solution for the system. The rule-based

techniques will be used in the part of estimating the expenseses and recommending interesting

for the users, based on their preferences.

The development tools she used inside the OTAS are Peripheral Hypertext

Preprocessing (PHP) and Adobe Dreamweaver CS4. Besides that, phpMyAdmin is also used for

the purpose of storing and managing the database of the OTAS system.

The production rules is about 336 rules for the development of the system. For the

database design, there are three data dictionaries created in the OTAS system. First is the

database for admin login, second is the database to store the rules which recommends tourist

destinations for users and the last database is to store the rules to estimate the expenses for the

users. The OTAS system consits of four modules which are home, destination recommendation,

trip expenses estimation and administration.

Page 24: Malaysia Tour Package Website Using Rule-Based Expert System

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First module (Home page)

The OTAS system has a brief introduction and function of the system.

Second module (Desctination recommendation page)

Questionnaire will be provided to ask the users by determining the preference of their choices.

The questions in the OTAS system are list at the following:-

1. What is your preferred type of holiday?

2. What is your preferred accommodation?

3. What would you like to do there?

After a user chooses his preferences, the system will recommend some suitable places for the

user to visit. The Table 2.2 is the outcome of recommended destinations.

Table 2.2: Recommended Destination Display

Type of holiday Accommodation Preferences DestinationRecommended

Highlands Hotels and Resorts Outdoors and Adventures Genting HighlandCameron HighlandFraser HillsBukit Tinggi

If click on the following hyperlinks of the destination recommended which are the Genting

Highland, Cameron Highland, Fraser Hills and Bukit Tinggi. User will be navigated into the

next page to read the information of the destination place which the system has displayed.

Third module (Trip expenses estimation)

Questionnaires are provided to ask the user to determine the preferences of the users and then

estimate the expenses of the trip for users. The Table 2.3 is the outcome of estimated expenses

displayed. The questions in the OTAS system is listed in the following:-

1. What destinations do you want to go?

2. What is your preferred accommodation?

3. How many people are going on the trip?

4. How many nights do you plan to stay?

5. What is your preferred food and beverage?