International Journal of Interactive Mobile Technologies (iJIM) - Volume 4, Issue 2, Apriel 2010 THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED MOBILE E-GUIDE SYSTEM FOR TOURISM The Design of an Integrated Mobile e-Guide System for Tourism doi:10.3991/ijim.v4i2.1051 H. Solaiman and E. Abuelrub Zarqa Private University, Zarqa, Jordan Abstract—This paper presents a web-based e-guide system for tourism using offloading and mobile integration. A user can search for new mobile services available on the website to use either remotely on the server where the services re- sides, or locally after downloading them to his/her mobile device and work offline without a mobile connection. The system aims to help the tourist accessing tourism informa- tion directly from his/her smart device, anytime and any- where using offloading. It is a web-based electronic guide that provides the user with appropriate tourism information about Jordan and guides him/her to find the best places to party, eat out, and enjoy culture events. The system archi- tecture and the main components of the proposed services were presented and discussed. The system has been proto- typed and validated in a real-time mobile internet applica- tion scenario. The system also has been evaluated through simulations in a mobile network environment. Both experi- mental and simulation results demonstrated the effective- ness and efficiency of the proposed system. Index Terms—e-services, mobile commerce, mobile technol- ogy, tourism, web-based information system, wireless mo- bile computing. I. INTRODUCTION The last decade witnessed a revolution in information and communication technology, which not only changed the daily behavior of the people but also affected their way of interaction with each other. New forms of services have emerged based on the new booming e-technology that is affecting all matters of our life. Information technology is changing the way of understanding many social and commercial interactions. Many corporations are taking new trends regarding information where people need not to move as far as information can. The integration of computers, internet, and mobile technology has allowed the emergence of new concepts in e-services. Even gov- ernments started utilizing the internet for delivering re- quested governmental information and services to citizens using a wide range of information and communication technologies. Recently, many of these services are becom- ing mobile-based, where the user can request and get in- formation and services via smart mobile devices [1, 2]. Rapid advances in wireless mobile network technolo- gies and mobile devices facilitate ubiquitous infrastructure that can support a range of mobile services and applica- tions. One recent trend is to effectively run desktop PC oriented heavier applications on mobile devices. However, due to their limited capabilities and their mini portable size, mobile devices are resource constrained and there- fore, running these applications directly on a mobile de- vice is not satisfactory for the user expectations. To cope with this problem, offloading services are used to offload some of the tasks of a mobile application from the mobile device to a nearby PC server. New technologies in mobile and wireless applications attracted the attention of many organizations to employ them in their processes to en- hance the quality of their e-services. Mobile services are becoming the future of many businesses as many users are relying on them, that is why many researchers are consid- ering them as the strategy that all corporations must take for the future to be part of their business, regardless of the type of service they offer [3]. Mobile services are becom- ing essential to many sectors, whether it is education, commerce, or government [2, 4]. Many researchers showed that the use of ICT has helped enhancing the quality of the tourism industry in different aspects. In [5], the authors showed the benefits of ICT in tourism and presented models, strategies, and tools to achieve this, which was applied in different experiences in Italy, Morocco, and Jordan. Rayman-Bacchus and Molina [6] assessed the developments among internet- based tourism services, addressed key factors shaping the future of using ICT in tourism, and highlighted a number of implications for the further development of tourism electronic services provision within Europe, where inter- net plays a significant role. Schneider and Sonmez [7] pointed that developing countries like Jordan have few research attention devoted to tourism image despite the fact that image is a key factor in determining travel deci- sions to many tourists. The tourism image can be im- proved by enhancing services and marketing using ICT. Xiang et al. [8] addressed the growing importance of the internet and the significant impact of electronic services in the tourism sector. Kim and Fesenmaier [9] addressed the importance of assessing tourism websites and concluded that a website gives the first impression of a tourist desti- nation. In [10], Kelly studied Jordan's potential tourism development and pointed out some problems that need to be resolved to improve the tourism sector, among them is the inefficient deployment of ICT. This paper presents the design and implementation of a prototype web-based electronic guide system for tourism with mobile technology integration. The system offers a wide range of services and information about the tourism sector in Jordan that can be easily accessed by a smart device at any time and from any place. The rest of the paper is organized as follows. Section 2 presents a back- ground and some basic concepts about electronic and mo- bile technologies. Section 3 presents the analysis and de- sign of the proposed system. Section 4, presents the im- plementation phase of the system and explores the testing model used in the system. Finally, section 5 concludes the paper and addresses some future possible work. 4 http:www.i-jim.org http://dx.doi.org/ijim.v4i2.1051� THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED MOBILE E-GUIDE SYSTEM FOR TOURISM II. BACKGROUND The tourism sector has a direct impact on the economy of many countries like Jordan. Jordan is a young modern country dense with history and a well-traveled bridge be- tween sea and desert, east and west. Jordan is an ideal destination for those seeking cultural knowledge and spiri- tual enrichment. It provides monuments from every age of the humanity, crowned by the rosy rock-carved city of Petra, a World Heritage Site. Petra and other Jordanian cities offer visitors beautiful holly and ancient sites [11, 12]. All of this made Jordan a major world attraction to tourists with a wide range of interests from all over the world. In the last few years, Jordan Ministry of Tourism and Antiques started employing ICT via their web site to market the ancient and religious sites in Jordan. The use of information and communication technology is becoming essential in enhancing the quality of services in many sec- tors including tourism [13]. It is not enough anymore just to publish static information on the website; rather you need to provide much more e-services beyond that [14- 17]. Mobile devices are closing the digital divide in devel- oping countries such as Jordan. These developing coun- tries don't have the money to implement wired networks, but they can afford wireless networks. As a result, people can afford mobile devices, and with declining internet access fees, they can do wireless mobile commerce. Inter- net-based mobile technology and its related applications and services have progressed greatly in the past few years. While for many people, using specific internet applica- tions would be more comfortable with large screen desk- top, the mobility freedom provided by cellular and mobile technologies suggest the development of a closer connec- tions to applications so that users can receive most of their communication needs from their mobile devices. Various wireless mobile network technologies and their synergies are experiencing rapid development and de- ployment. The advancement of this technology enables ubiquitous infrastructure that supports a range of mobile services in addition to mobile internet access [2]. The fur- ther success of these network systems derives from their ability to provide users with cost effective services that have the potential to run anywhere, anytime, and on any device. The new trend for internet-based client/server architec- ture where the mobile device acts as the client is booming in many applications. Fig. 1 depicts the wireless mobile environment, when computation goes mobile and com- munication goes wireless, which results the emergence of wireless mobile computing. Wireless mobile computing refers to a computing paradigm designed for users who travel outside the boundaries of their organizations or for anyone on the move. This new paradigm enables a real- time connection between a mobile device and computing networks anytime and anywhere. It offers a computing environment suitable for persons, who are in the move. A salesman can close a deal at the customers office away from his/her own office, a field service worker can con- duct an inventory check for a faulty part and take actions, an executive person can communicate with his/her office and exchange important information online while away from his/her office, and a tourist can get information about interested places while on move. The innovation of mobile computing is creating a revolution in the manner in which people use computers at work, home, school, entertain- ment, and much more. The mobile infrastructure considered in this paper is web-based with mobile integration. While service provid- ers offer their services through the internet, mobile users are connected to the internet by various wireless access network technologies and mobile internet gateways. Users can search for new mobile services available on the inter- net and then use them, either remotely on servers where the services resides, or locally after downloading them to their mobile devices. Fig. 2 depicts the client/server sys- tem architecture for the proposed system. When services involve a huge amount of data usually local execution is a better choice. This is because it can save wireless network bandwidth by avoiding large data transmission across networks, especially when mobile users are separated from the server by multiple networks. However, mobile devices are resource constrained and therefore, have diffi- culty satisfying a user's expectations when require large amounts of CPU time or memory [18]. That is why a web server might need two versions of the same web page, a normal page with full graphics for desktop computers and a mobile page for PDAs and smart phones, as well as a way to distinguish between desktop and mobile requests. Developing web-based applications for mobile devices is challenging as there are a number of competing stan- dards for application development on various devices. The Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) is a set of network protocols designed to enable different kinds of wireless devices to access web pages on the internet. The central part of the WAP architecture is a WAP gateway server that sits between the mobile device and the internet. The gateway server is responsible for translating information Figure 1. The wireless mobile environment. Figure 2. Internet-based mobile technology architecture. iJIM – Volume 4, Issue 2, April 2010 5 THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED MOBILE E-GUIDE SYSTEM FOR TOURISM requests from the mobile device into an HTTP request that the web server can understand. The server also checks the WAP compatible file from the web server to insure it is correct for the mobile device before forwarding it. An- other important issue is that software applications have to adapt to match the requirements of the device based on its capability. Applications must deal with the technological challenges that are common on most mobile devices such as small display screens, reduced bandwidth, limited input capabilities, and restricted memory. Recently, the applica- tion of offloading mechanisms in the domain of resource constrained mobile internet computing start attracting the attention of many researchers [2]. In [18], the authors con- sidered the offloading mechanism in mobile devices as a form of task distribution between the server and the client, which is in our case the mobile device. The future trend in electronic commerce is Mobile com- merce (m-commerce), which includes any business activ- ity conducted over a wireless telecommunication network. This includes B2C and B2B commercial transactions, as well as the transfer of information and services via wire- less mobile devices. M-commerce is a natural extension of e-commerce and it is the base of a new generation of web- based electronic commerce. Mobile devices create an op- portunity to deliver new services to existing customers and to attract new customers. However, the small screen size and limited bandwidth of most computing devices have limited consumer interest. So, even though the mo- bile computing industry recognizes the potential for B2C in m-commerce applications, the number of existing ap- plications is quite small and uptake has been minimal. A number of corporations are providing their customers with the option of paying their bills via a cell phone. HDFC Bank of India, for example, allows customers to pay their utility bills using SMS. An increasing number of online vendors allow customers to shop from cell phones and PDAs. Customers can use their wireless devices to per- form quick searches, compare prices, use shopping cart, order, and view the status of their order. In Germany, peo- ple can use cell phones to pay for taxi rides. In Hong Kong, people can purchase drinks from vending machines with their mobile phones. In New Zealand, cell phones can be used to pay for time in parking meters [2]. Fig. 3 shows the value-added attributes that are possible only in mobile environment applications. New set of m- commerce applications are booming using this new era of computing, where services are accessed from the internet via a mobile device. The major attributes are ubiquity which means being available anytime anywhere, conven- ience where it is very convenient for users to operate in the wireless computing environment, interactivity where services are immediate and highly interactive, personal- ization where services designed to meet the needs of an individual consumer as mobile devices are truly owned and operated by a single individual, and localization where knowing the place a user is physically in at any particular moment is key to offering relevant services that suit the user at the moment. III. ANALYSIS AND DESIGN The new demand for internet access via mobile tech- nology is driving toward the development of new genera- tion of web-based wireless applications. Mobile devices are becoming the basic tools for such new applications. Figure 3. Value-added attributes in mobile environment applications. Our system is a web-based wireless application that tar- gets the tourism sector in Jordan to enhance and facilitate the tourism e-services. It provides the tourist with the flexibility to access the information needed about Jordan using his/her mobile device, anytime and anywhere. Now, we highlight the analysis and design models of the pro- posed system. But because of the limited space, we show just few sample graphs of the system models. A. Analysis The main functional requirements of the system are as follows: 1. Provide essential information about Jordan, like his- tory, location…etc. 2. Provide information about major cities. 3. Provide information about places a user can go to or deal with. 4. Tourism information that includes: Historical sites. Natural sites. Medical sites. Religious sites. 5. Simple dictionary that contains most common tour- ism vocabulary. 6. Currencies operations that help the user to convert between JD and other major currencies. 7. Emergency telephone directory. The system has several use cases that express its func- tionality for users as follows: 1- Ask for Tourism Services The use case begins when the user requests infor- mation about a service or a place. The user enters a key that satisfy his/her request. The system outputs the requested information to the user. 2- Translate Words The user requests translation. The system requests the word to be translated. The user enters a word. The system validates the word. The system outputs the meaning of the word. If the entered word doesn’t exist, the system in- forms the user to re-enter the word or to add it to the dictionary. The user can update/delete any word from the dic- tionary. 3- Get Emergency Numbers The user enters a request. The system validates the request. The system outputs a telephone number that match the request. 6 http:www.i-jim.org THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED MOBILE E-GUIDE SYSTEM FOR TOURISM 4- Convert Currencies The user enters the amount to be converted, cur- rency type, and targeted currency. The system converts currency based on the official rate. The system returns the equivalent amount. If the entered currency doesn’t have a rate, the system informs the user to set the rate. 5- Add to Favorites The user requests to add an item to favorites. The system verifies the type of the item. The system adds it under the specified type. The user can delete one or all favorites from the database. The user views the items that can be added, before this use case begins. If the use case is successful, the favorite informa- tion is updated. Fig. 4 depicts the relation between the use cases and the actor of the system. The use cases can be described as transition graphs, each stimulus sent between an actor and the system performs a state change in the system [19]. The actor represents any external entity that interacts with the system. In our case, the actor is the tourist or any other possible user. Now, we focus on the most important models produced during the analysis phase, which is essential for the design of the system. Fig. 5 depicts the realization analysis mod- els for the system. The use case realization analysis repre- sents the understandability to the aim of the use case and describes how a specific use case realized and performed in terms of the interacting objects. Because of the limited space, we show only the figures related to the Ask for Tourism Services option as a sample. Fig 6 shows the col- laboration diagram for the Ask for Tourism Services use case, which explains how the focus move from one object to another is performed and the messages that are commu- nicated between the objects [20]. The analysis classes of the Ask for Tourism Services are shown in Fig. 7. B. Design Next, we refine further the actual implementation envi- ronment by explicitly defining the interface of the objects as well as the semantics of the operations required. We first translate the objects in the analysis model into design blocks, then describe how objects are interacting within each use case. Note that system blocks will make up the actual structure of the design model and show how the Figure 4. Use cases diagram of the system. Figure 5. Realization analysis models for the system. Figure 6. Collaboration diagram for Ask for Tourism Services. Figure 7. The analysis classes of the Ask for Tourism Services. system is designed. These blocks will later be imple- mented in the source code. These blocks will abstract the actual implementation. The implementation of the blocks may be one specific class or more in the source code. Each analysis object will become a block in the design model. Objects obtained during the analysis phase are realized and converted to classes in the design phase. Be- cause of the limited space, we show only the figures re- lated to the Ask for Tourism Services option as a sample. Fig. 8 depicts the design classes for the Ask for Tourism Services option. The class diagram shows more detail in- formation that is needed for the adoption of the analysis model to the implementation environment, as illustrated in Fig. 9. The sequence diagram is shown in Fig. 10, which describes how the focus starting at the upper left corner moves from one object to another as the use case is per- formed and how messages are sent between objects. IV. IMPLEMENTATION AND TESTING A. Implementation The core of the system is implemented in a client/server based architecture using C#.NET and ASP.NET integrated with SQL server based on XML technology. C# is a sim- ple object-oriented language derived from C++, Java, and Visual Basic. It aims to combine the high productivity of Visual Basic and the raw power of C++. It provides an easy access to the Microsoft .NET platform, which in- cludes a common execution engine with rich class librar- ies [21]. Today's applications often require much more functionality than web browsing. It is for these applica- tions that we look to the smart client model. The system iJIM – Volume 4, Issue 2, April 2010 7 THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED MOBILE E-GUIDE SYSTEM FOR TOURISM will run on smart devices like the Pocket PC 2000 and windows CE.NET operating system. This operating sys- tem is targeted for mobile devices such as PDAs and Pocket PCs that have small display areas, small storage areas, and run on batteries. The system requires a simple database for sorting and retrieving necessary data, the de- tail of this database is omitted from the paper because of the limited space. The client part of the system is downloaded from the website to the mobile device with minimum functions that suit the minimum capabilities of the smart device. The user can access the system through his/her smart device which consists of the following main options: Tourism Service Interface. Currency Conversion. Telephone Directory. Dictionary. Favorites. Fig. 11 shows the mobile device (client) side GUI of the system, Figs. a-c show sample information forms, while Fig. d shows the dictionary form as an example of service forms. As shown in the figure, for example when selecting historical sites from the information form, a map of Jordan appears that contain the most common historical sites. Finally, the user can pick one of the sites to get de- tail information about it, as shown in Fig. 11-c, where the user picked Petra. Figure 8. Design classes of Ask for Tourism Services. Figure 9. Class diagram of Ask for Tourism Services. Figure 10. Sequence diagram of Ask for Tourism Services. Figure 11. Client application. B. Testing Testing is an activity that aims to verify the correctness of the system that we are building. The testing model in- cludes two activities: Verification: checks if we are building the system correctly. Validation: checks if we are building the correct system. During the test model, we verify that the system cor- rectly implements its specification. We develop a test model that consists of test cases. The test cases is a set of test inputs, execution conditions, and expected results de- veloped for a particular objective, such as to exercise a particular path through a use case or to verify compliance with a specific requirement. We formally describe how to test that the use cases are implemented correctly. Fig. 12 shows a test case in the test model, specifying how to test the use case Add to Favorites in the use case model. The following shows the detail of the input, result, and condi- tions of the Add to Favorites test model: 1- Input The user requests to add an item to favorite. The system verifies the type of the item. The system checks if it is a duplicate item. The system puts it under a specific type. 2- Result The favorites are updated. The user can browse his/her favorites. 8 http:www.i-jim.org THE DESIGN OF AN INTEGRATED MOBILE E-GUIDE SYSTEM FOR TOURISM 3- Conditions No other use cases are allowed to access the data during this test case. Figure 12. Test model for Add to Favorites. V. CONCLUSIONS This paper presents the design of an integrated mobile e-guide system for tourism using offloading service that can be utilized by resource-constrained mobile devices to run heavier mobile applications while enjoying mobility. The application can be downloaded from the internet to the mobile device, which enables the user to work offline without a mobile connection. The system architecture and the main components of the proposed service were pre- sented and discussed. The system has been prototyped and validated in a real-time mobile internet application sce- nario. The system also has been evaluated through simula- tions in mobile network environment. Both experimental and simulation results demonstrated the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed system. Future work will be to extend the system exploring more new offloading tech- niques that suit m-commerce applications. REFERENCES [1] M. 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Molina, "Internet-based Tourism Services: Business Issues and Trends," Future, vol. 33, no. 7, 2001, pp. 589-605. (doi:10.1016/S0016-3287(01)00003-9) [7] I. Schneider and S. Sonmez, "Exploring the Touristic Image of Jordan," Tourism Management, vol. 20, no. 4, 1999, pp. 539-542. (doi:10.1016/S0261-5177(99)00023-0) [8] Z. Xiang, K. Wober, and D. Fesenmair, "Representation of the Online Tourism Domain in Search Engines," Journal of Travel Research, vol. 47, no. 2, 2008, pp. 137-150. (doi:10.1177/ 0047287508321193) [9] H. Kim and D. Fesenmaier, "Persuasive Design of Destination Web Sites: An Analysis of First Impression," Journal of Travel Research, vol. 47, no. 1, 2008, pp. 3-13. (doi:10.1177/ 0047287507312405) [10] M. Kelly, "Jordan's Potential Tourism Development," Annals of Tourism Research, vol. 25, no. 4, 1999, pp. 904-918. (doi:10.1016/S0160-7383(98)00027-9) [11] Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, http://www.tourism.jo, last visited, August 2009. [12] S. Harahsheh, Curative Tourism in Jordan and its Potential Devel- opment, MS Thesis, Bournemouth, UK, 2002. [13] The Jordan Tourism Board, http://www.visitjordan.com, last vis- ited, Agust 2009. [14] D. Buhalis, eTourism: Information Technology for Strategic Tour- ism Management, Prentice Hall, London, UK, 2003. [15] European Commission, ICT and Electronic Business in the Tour- ism Industry, ICT Adoption and e-Business Activity in 2006, Brus- sels, 2006. [16] W. Hazbun, "Globalization, Reterritorialisation and the Political Economy of Tourism Development in the Middle East," Geopoli- tics, vol. 9, no. 2, 2004, pp. 310-341. (doi:10.1080/ 14650040490442881) [17] H. Werthner and S. Klein, Information Technology and Tourism: A Challenging Relationship, Springer-Verlag, New York, USA, 1999. [18] K. Yang and S. Ou, "On Effective Offloading Services for Re- source-Constrained Mobile Devices Running Heavier Mobile Internet Applications," Special Issue on Mobile Internet Tech- nologies and Applications, IEEE Communications Magazine, vol. 46, no. 1, 2008, pp. 56-63. [19] I. Jacobson, C. Booch, and J. Rumbaugh, The Unified Software Development Process, Addison-Wesley, 2003. [20] B. Bruegge and A. Dutoit, Object-Oriented Software Engineering, Alan Publisher, 2000. [21] P. Yao and D. Durant, Programming the .NET Compact Frame- work in C#, Addison Wesley, 2003. AUTHORS H. Solaiman earned her Bachelor degree in computer science in 2007 from the Computer Science Department, Faculty of Science and Information Technology, Zarqa Private University, Jordan. E. Abuelrub is an associate professor and dean of the Faculty of Science and Information Technology at Zarqa Private University, Jordan (email: abuelrub@zpu.edu.jo). He received his Bachelor degrees in computer engineering and computer science from Oklahoma State University, USA, in 1984 and 1985, respectively. He then joined the Alabama A&M University, USA, where he obtained his MSc degree in computer science in 1987. He completed his PhD degree in computer science from Louisiana State University, USA, in 1993. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Arab Journal of Information Technology (IAJIT) and the Secretary General of the Colleges of Computing and Information Society, Association of Arab Universities. He is in the editorial board of many interna- tional journals and involved in the organization of many international conferences in computing and information technology. His areas of interest include parallel and dis- tributed systems, interconnection networks, fault-tolerance computing, parallel algorithms, parallel architectures, e- technology, and quality assurance in higher education. He is a member of the IEEE, ACM, IAENG, and JEA. Submitted August 25th, 2009. Published as resubmitted by the authors March 18th, 2010. iJIM – Volume 4, Issue 2, April 2010 9 http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2008.4427230� http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/MCOM.2008.4427230� http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0016-3287%2801%2900003-9� http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0261-5177%2899%2900023-0� http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047287508321193� http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047287508321193� http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047287507312405� http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0047287507312405� http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0160-7383%2898%2900027-9� http://www.tourism.jo/� http://www.visitjordan.com/� http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14650040490442881� http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14650040490442881�