Ibn Battuta: Predicting tourism needs in Oman

Sultanate of Oman is characterized by its unique geography and architecture which is remarkably distinctive. In this way, it has become one of the most beautiful countries in the world with a captivating atmosphere. Among the splendid natural wonders of the Sultanate of Oman are excellent beaches, impressive mountain ranges, nature reserves including plants and animals as well as castles, forts and great towers and a rich history of ancient civilization which can be witnessed in the Sultanate of Oman, located approximately 1,700 kilometres from the Gulf of Oman and including all its natural resources. Furthermore, Oman's tourism industry is diverse and fascinating. Several areas in Oman attract tourists. Among these are markets, old houses, and sites registered as World Heritage Sites (UNESCO). Oman offers tourists the chance to view rare turtles, dolphins, and swim with them. Although the Sultanate of Oman has a number of scenic attractions, tourism is still plagued by many problems and challenges, the most significant of which is poor infrastructure in many places, a lack of recreational facilities, as well as a perception that tourism is seasonal and an unwillingness to promote tourism projects due to the lack of funding sources. Furthermore, many unknown and attractive tourist spots must be exploited, developed, and introduced into the field of tourism so that the country becomes a destination for tourists and benefits from them, raising the country's economic standing. The development of the tourism industry in the Sultanate of Oman has led to the emergence of many tourism-related applications. Several tourism applications have been developed, including the "Shams" application, which is a smart application that enables the user to share with relevant authorities, such as the Ministry of Tourism, the amount of interaction with a particular tourism destination. The application allows the user to write about the place they have visited, and then this can be used to add investment opportunities to improve services in that location. Moreover, the application makes it easier for visitors to learn about the historical and geopolitical background of the tourist destinations they visit. In addition, this application features a photo service for the site and allows visitors to upload the photographs they have taken from the site. The application is available both in Arabic and English, which allows the greatest number of people to utilize it. An additional application serving tourism and camping in the Sultanate of Oman is Biolcom, which is the first socially oriented application, designed to share information regarding tourist sites in the Sultanate of Oman. In addition to adding comments on tourist sites, users can also rate the sites and live chat with their friends and other members in the application. According to the information we have collected above, we noticed that there is no smart service that recommends tour packages to users. Due to this, the user will be left with an unsatisfying experience when they use applications of this kind. As a solution to this problem, the present project proposes the development of a novel intelligent tourist recommendation system that relies on a hybrid recommendation filtering technique coupled with real-time information, which we entitled Ibn Battuta. The primary objective of the project is to improve the supply chain of tourism and to improve the quality of customer service. This is done by improving advice and providing better tour packages to clients. One of the most significant objectives of the proposal is to recommend to potential client's tour packages that are attractive and acceptable to them. We regard this as one of our most significant goals. Using this application, clients will be able to view recommendations based on their previous reviews or the history of places they have visited in the past. We are also planning on using keywords to describe places, and a user profile will be built to indicate what kind of places a user prefers. A smart guide service allows a customer to receive assistance at any time, as well as throughout the day, on the application's website, to answer any questions they may have. Tourists will be able to easily and seamlessly be able to access information about a place, comments, complaints, and inquiries from other tourists at anytime and anywhere. As part of this project, we proposed creating a new tourism application entitled Ibn Battuta. In fact, the application provides users with an innovative tourism recommendation service, enabling them to ask questions about destinations that are unknown to them or that are unreachable. The application will respond to the user depending on their preferences. Additionally, users also have the option to submit their opinions and suggestions. Depending on the information entered by the user, a profile will be created. This profile will be used to recommend locations and solutions to the user based on the information supplied by the users. In addition, the proposed application provides solutions and recommendations based on the information provided by tourists traveling to tourist destinations. These solutions and recommendations will improve the facilities at these places and, in turn, contribute to improving the Omani economy through the development of the tourism sector. We believe that by conducting this study, we will be able to upgrade and improve the current software in the tourism ecosystem. This will enable us to begin implementing the infrastructure that is necessary to develop an industry that is truly smart in terms of tourism. The Ibn Battuta application will be developed using the Azure platform.