Potential of Geospatial Mashups in Promoting Tourism Resources in South East Asia: A Case Study

Abstract

Abstract-Tourism has emerged as a new form of service industry for alternative and sustainable socio-economic development of a country. Geographic Information System (GIS) is gradually becoming an integral part of this service industry. In spite of having diverse culture, environment and heritage, a number of Southeast Asian tourism sites are still not integrated into the global tourism map. Although these unexplored locations are in the process of emerging as popular global tourist destinations, there is lack of available online information. The current research work has been conducted in one of the Southeast Asian nations to analyze the existing geospatial information and the tourist inflow of that particular region. This paper further discusses the basic architecture and the capabilities of Geospatial Mashups in identifying potential tourism resources and assisting in effective decision making. The final section of the study proposes a model for Public Participation Geoportal and its strategic implementation for effective tourism management and promotion not only in the study region but also in other countries in Southeast Asia. QGIS 2.18.12 software has been used to analyze existing tourism data and to design the proposed model.