Interactive spatial web-based system for eco-tourism in Royal Belum state park, Perak

Abstract

Royal Belum State Park (RBSP) is one of the main global destinations for nature-based tourism activities and locations of eco-tourism in national eco-tourism plan. However, due to the limitations of outdated promotion, lack of visible infrastructure and unavailability of an interactive web-based map provided for tourists, RBSP is yet to be recognized as one of the attractions for tourism activities. To address these problems, the research developed an interactive web-based system of eco-tourism for RBSP. In this research, geographic information system (GIS), an auxiliary tool in developing eco-tourism system was distributed across a network computer to integrate, disseminate, and communicate geographic information visually on the existing World Wide Web. Several phases were involved in this research, namely User Requirement Analysis (URA), design database system, data collection, web-based development and system validation. The URA was distributed online via Google document to 46 respondents and manually distributed to 4 staffs of Perak State Park Corporation (PSPC). Feedbacks from the respondents were included in the interactive web-based system. Next, a database system was created using ArcGIS 10 software to produce geospatial data and digital maps, while data of the attractive places were collected in RBSP to be input in the web-based system. Following that, a web-based system was developed using HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL Workbench and JavaScript. Complete information such as facilities, price, activities and an interactive map with functioning tools such as database system, network analysis and cross section were included to help tourists pre-plan their vacations. Finally, the web-based system was validated by distributing another questionnaire to fifty respondents. The results revealed that 60% (n=30) respondents stated that the web–based was an excellent interactive system followed by 38% (n=19) saying it was good and 2% (n=1) gave moderate results. As a conclusion, this interactive tourism web-based system for RBSP provide users easy access of the characteristics of the earth surface, accessibility of the infrastructure and activity-based information.