Multi-Modality at Tourism Destination: An Overview of the Transportation Network at The UNESCO Heritage Site Melaka, Malaysia

Antecedents of a tourism destination’s sustainability and competitiveness rely on its transportation networks to facilitate the movement of traffic for locals and tourist alike. Multi-modality is vital to support the local economies, which garner its revenue from tourism activities. Modality plays a vital role to facilitate the mobility of tourists, inter destinations and within the destinations and relates to the accessibility aspects at a tourism destination. An observational study, paired with a comprehensive analysis of literature, is conducted to explore the gamut of the transportation networks in Melaka and its relation and contribution to the tourism industry. The investigation shows that the Melaka’s tourism industry is dependent on the transportation networks. Public transportations are found to be inadequate. Issues such as seasonal congestion and public transportation inadequacy need to be addressed immediately to ensure that smooth flow and dispersal of traffic, entering and exiting Melaka

Internet of things-based framework for public transportation fleet management in the Free State

Thesis (Masters: Information Technology) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2019The poor service delivery by the Free State public transportation system inspired us to design a framework solution to improve the current system. This qualitative study focuses on improving the management of the public transportation fleet. One of the most recently developed technologies in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), namely the Internet of Things (IoT), was utilised to develop this framework. Existing problems were identified through research observations, analyses of the current system, analyses of the current problem areas, as well as participants’ questionnaire answers and recommendations, the participants being the passengers, drivers and vehicle owners. The framework was developed in two phases, namely a hardware phase that makes use of ICT sensors (e.g. RFID, GPS, GPRS, IR, Zigbee, WiFi), and a software phase that uses an internet connection to communicate with the different ICT devices. The software utilised a Graphic User Interface (GUI) to ensure that the software is user-friendly and addresses possible problems and barriers such as multiple language interfaces and different ICT skills levels. The newly designed framework offers different services and solutions to meet the participants’ needs, such as real-time tracking for public transport vehicles to help passengers manage their departure and arrival times, as well as for vehicle owners to monitor their own vehicles. In turn, vehicle arrival notifications will encourage passengers to be on time so that vehicles will not be delayed unnecessarily. Another feature is counting devices that can be installed inside the vehicles, which will inform vehicle owners how many passengers are being transported by a vehicle. The passenger pre-booking system will support the drivers when planning their trips/routes. Finally, the framework was designed to fulfil all the participants’ needs that were indicated in the questionnaires in order to achieve the goal of the research study

Provision of Ubiquitous Tourist Information in Public Transport Networks

This paper outlines an information system for tourists using collective public transport based on mobile devices with limited computation and wireless connection capacities. In this system, the mobile device collaborates with the vehicle infrastructure in order to provide the user with multimedia (visual and audio) information about his/her trip. The information delivered, adapted to the user preferences, is synchronized with the passage of vehicles through points of interest along the route, for example: bus stops, tourist sights, public service centres, etc