Web Based GIS for Tourism Development Using Effective Free and Open Source Software Case Study: Gondor Town and Its Surrounding Area, Ethiopia

Abstract

Tourism in developing countries are some means of solving their economic problems and improving live standards of people and creates job opportunity for the host people in getting additional income and improve the developments of the country. The result of tourism in terms of environmental, cultural, economic and social aspects has a greater effect for Ethiopia. Gondar, the center of Ethiopian art and culture, is famous in its many Imperial castles and the design and decoration of its churches. This land of castles and churches was founded by Emperor Fasiladas in 1930s and served as tourist attraction sites all over the world. The main challenge to attract international tourists in the study area is Scarce and insufficient promotion of the tourist attraction sites, Lack of broad information based on the internet about tourism information, and lack of organized information about tourism facilities & destinations. This study tries to identify tourist attraction elements of Gondor town and its surrounding area & to identify non spatial data’s essential for touristic activities to develop & propose a web based GIS portal for the improvement of tourism activity in the town. The main target of developing a web based GIS interactive map is to promote and improve tourism industry of the area. It has been produced using free and open source software’s for fast processing, displaying, sharing, and distribution of tourism information using world wide web. For the web services PHP, HTML script language and QGIS2leaflet plugins are used in the development of web GIS portal.