Chapter 1.

INTRODUCTION

Travel and tourism are major components of the global economy, so it’s no surprise that
businesses in the industry are looking for new and improved ways to connect with customers.
As such, many have turned to the internet for help. Web interfaces and apps are at the
forefront of this digital transformation, allowing travel and tourism businesses to reach a
larger customer base and create more immersive experiences. With the right strategies and
techniques, businesses can develop web interfaces and apps that attract the right customers
and keep them engaged.

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), tourism entails
the movement of people to countries or places outside their usual environment for personal or
business/professional purposes. These people are called visitors. Tourism is travel for
pleasure; also, the theory and practice of touring, the business of attracting, accommodating,
and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tours. Tourism may be international or
within the traveler’s country.

Tourism was mainly been traditional in its early form. With the evolution of cultures,
economies, and knowledge, tourism took a different form called sustainable tourism with the
aspect of the well-planned tour, well-studied destinations, and conservation of destination

Factors that Motivate People to Travel

The most common reasons for people to travel away from home are −

1. To spend holidays leisurely

2. To visit friends and relatives
3. To attend business and professional engagements
4. To get health treatment
5. To undertake religious pilgrimages
6. Any other personal motives

Types of tourism

There are three basic forms of tourism: domestic, inbound, and outbound.
Domestic tourism refers to activities of a visitor within their country of residence and
outside of their home (e.g., Visiting other parts of India).

Inbound tourism refers to a visitor’s activities outside the country of residence (e.g., a
person from the U.S.A. visiting India).

Outbound tourism refers to a resident visitor’s activities outside their country of residence
(e.g., an Indian visiting an overseas country).

The tourism industry in India is primarily a private sector industry, consisting of around
2,000,000 businesses, some very large including international hotel groups and airlines, as
well as small and medium-sized businesses, industry groups, and bodies.

Domestic tourism is the core of businesses’ revenue (generally at least 80%), with demand
peaking during the school holidays, particularly Spring and Summer. Dealing with the
demands of international visitors requires specialist knowledge, cultural understanding, and
investment.

Objective

The travel and tourism system that is to be developed provides the members with information
about the location with photos videos and review available by the other tourist and the locals,
fair prices, and hotels available in the area with their pricing. This system also provides
service to the locals by directly hosting their accommodations to search for work
opportunities. It allows the user to understand the pricing of the local market. This Portal will
primarily focus on the posting and management of travel locations and tourism details. To
understand the main objective of the project we need to understand what is a tourism website.

What is a tourism and travel website?

The tourism and travel industry has become more accessible than ever. The internet has made
it easier to research, plan and book trips, all with just a few clicks. You can find everything
from flights, hotels, and restaurants to car rentals and local experiences online.

A tourism or travel website serves as an information hub for prospective travelers planning a
getaway. Today, people travel for a range of experiences—babymoons, staycations,
voluntourism, or leisure—you name it. So, provide as much relevant information as possible
to help users plan their trips.

What to include in a tourism and travel website?

Every tourism or travel website will vary depending on the destination and target visitor.
However, most travel websites should include the following:

• Easy-to-use scheduling software

• High-quality photography and images
• Relevant information about nearby attractions—including museums, arts, cultural
events, restaurants, and shopping
• Packing advice
• Maps and directions
• Public transportation information (note if users need to download apps in advance)
• Air travel and airport information
• Language guidelines and local slang
• Clear links to social media channels
• Contact information
• Reviews or testimonials
• An online store to buy branded or local merchandise.

Tourism Products

Tourism Product refers to the number of categories required to promote tourism among its
citizens and harbor tourist from other countries 'Tourism product' covers several different
categories including:

1. Accommodation, i.e., hotels, bed & breakfasts, guest houses, self-catering/serviced

apartments, camping, caravanning, and homestay
2. Hospitality, i.e., food and beverage serving services, e.g., pubs, restaurants, cafes,
private dining for groups/conferences
3. Transport services, e.g., rail, road, water, air networks, and rental
4. Guided tours and tourist guides
 5. Travel agencies and other reservation services, including tour operators and
destination management companies (see travel trade section)
6. Cultural services, e.g., museums, attractions
7. Sports and recreational activities e.g., a major sports event held in India
8. Retail

The Travel Trades

It is useful to distinguish between trips that are booked directly and those which are booked
via third parties such as the travel trade. The travel trade acts as an intermediary between
visitors and tourism products. The travel trade has multiple purchasing power. One tour
operator can make arrangements on behalf of hundreds of other people.

The growth of the internet means that more people are now booking their trips directly, either
online or by phone after researching on the internet. However, the travel trade still plays a
major role, particularly in longer-haul markets or where visitors have more complex travel
arrangements.
 1.1 BACKGROUND

A helpful, engaging travel site builds a desire to travel and provides the user with information
to do so. Creating a travel and tourism site that is mobile responsive ensures that users have
an optimal experience, no matter what their device. Every tourism or travel site will be
different depending on the destination and targeted visitors. A tourism or travel site serves as
a hub of information for potential travelers planning their trip. An official tourist website for
a town will have a different purpose than that of a travel blogger or a tour company.
Regardless if a website is for a hotel, resort, travel agency, or tour company, a site needs to
look and work well to attract visitors. For a travel website, that means design may be a
crucial element of whether or not visitors will trust recommendations and information.
Whatever your travel sites, it is crucial that you adapt features based on the needs of visitors.
Design quality is extremely important to travel & tourism websites. Photos and typography
are some of the main elements which make this website looks beautiful. Photos and videos
are far more powerful than text, so it makes sense for a travel and tourism site to showcase
destinations and locations with lots of gorgeous photos. A well-designed travel site, complete
with vibrant images, offers, and destination details, will trigger travel mode in users viewing
the site.

There already exist several Travel and Tourism Websites. A few examples of current Travel
and Tourism Websites available in the market are discussed in this section along with the
tasks they can provide and their drawbacks

01. Inward Travels

Creator Noå runs Inward Travel to “take the opportunity of lifelong learning, to improve
quality of life and performance by consciousness and exercise.” The company curates
unique cold-water experiences, sweat-dripping exercises, and leadership trails in
destinations like The Netherlands. Inward Travel’s minimal one-page website highlights
the relevant information clearly and concisely. The enticing video strip in the first fold of
the website instantly paints a picture of the experiences offered. The simple color palette
aligns with the brand messaging and the site effectively uses his logo, including the
favicon.

Supported Tasks
 • Accessible 24/7
• Allows you to offer add-ons
• Gives you a clear overview
• Don’t pay abusive commissions

Drawbacks

• Not Mobile Responsive

• Inactive Google Analytics
01. Bella Vista
Ciao Bella—arriving at Bella Vista’s vacation website offers an instant escape into the
Sicilian countryside. Parallax scrolling brings the hotel to life; from a close-up shot of a
mouth-watering cannolo to the gorgeous view their property boasts, visitors will want to book
a vacation and sign up for Italian lessons, too. This is one of the best hotel websites we've
come across, as the captivating photos take you on a beautiful Italian getaway. Bella Vistas
travel site also offers visitors a video experience via drone, providing an aerial
perspective and an immersive view of each exotic vacation. In addition, All Inclusive
Vacations includes photos of its crew, giving potential travelers an idea of whom
they are talking to when planning a trip. Airbnb also offers a promo email and
content on the site, depending on the next travel destination, to get a little more up-
to-date on what is typically desired in the place you are headed.

Supported Tasks

• Accessible 24/7
• Allows you to offer add-ons
• Gives you a clear overview
• Don’t pay abusive commissions

Drawbacks

• Not Mobile Responsive

• Inactive Google Analytics
• Direct bookings are too complicated for a taxi or rent-a-vehicle service
02. Telluride, Colorado
This travel site is the official tourism guide to the city of Telluride in Colorado. This
website uses stunning images to grab attention. It maintains a good balance between
images and text. The prime focus is on the views and activities available. Visitors can
book reservations on the home page which allows them to act as soon as possible.

Supported Tasks

• Accessible 24/7
• Allows you to offer add-ons
• Gives you a clear overview
• Don’t pay abusive commissions

Drawbacks

• Not Mobile Responsive

• Inactive Google Analytics
• The online booking software might be the right one has some issues

Figure 1 chart showing the contribution in GDP by tourism in India

 Figure 2. Percentage of tourists from different countries

Requirements

Hardware

• The system requires the following hardware:

• RAM: 2 GB (further increase that as per requirement.)
• Hard Disk: 80 GB (further increase that as per requirement.)
• Display: 1024 * 768, True Type Color-32 Bit
• Mouse: Any Normal Mouse. Keyboard: Any window Supported Keyboard.

Software

• Database Server: Microsoft SQL Server

• Web Server: Internet Information Server
• Technologies: HTML, CSS, ASP.NET, JavaScript, jQuery

Technologies used in developing the web-based interface

• HTML
• CSS
• ASP.NET
• JavaScript, jQuery
• SQL

HTML – The Hypertext Markup Language or HTML is the standard markup language
for documents designed to be displayed in a web browser. It can be assisted by
technologies such as Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and scripting languages such as
JavaScript.

Web browsers receive HTML documents from a web server or local storage and render
the documents into multimedia web pages. HTML describes the structure of a web page
semantically and originally included cues for the appearance of the document.

HTML elements are the building blocks of HTML pages. With HTML constructs, images
and other objects such as interactive forms may be embedded into the rendered page.
HTML provides a means to create structured documents by denoting structural semantics
for text such as headings, paragraphs, lists, links, quotes, and other items. HTML
elements are delineated by tags, written using angle brackets. Tags such as <img /> and
<input /> directly introduce content to the page. Other tags such as <p> surround and
provide information about document text and may include other tags as sub-elements.
Browsers do not display the HTML tags but use them to interpret the content of the page.

HTML can embed programs written in a scripting language such as JavaScript, which
affects the behavior and content of web pages. The inclusion of CSS defines the look and
layout of content. The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), the former maintainer of the
HTML and current maintainer of the CSS standards, has encouraged the use of CSS over
explicit presentational HTML since 1997. A form of HTML, known as HTML5, is used
to display video and audio, primarily using the <canvas> element, in collaboration with
JavaScript.

• HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup Language

• HTML is the standard markup language for creating Web pages
• HTML describes the structure of a Web page
• HTML consists of a series of elements
• HTML elements tell the browser how to display the content
 • HTML elements label pieces of content such as "this is a heading", "this is a
paragraph", "this is a link", etc.

HTML History

In 1980, physicist Tim Berners-Lee, a contractor at CERN, proposed and prototyped

ENQUIRE, a system for CERN researchers to use and share documents. In 1989, Berners-
Lee wrote a memo proposing an Internet-based hypertext system. Berners-Lee specified
HTML and wrote the browser and server software in late 1990. That year, Berners-Lee and
CERN data systems engineer Robert Cailliau collaborated on a joint request for funding, but
the project was not formally adopted by CERN. In his notes from 1990, he listed "some of the
many areas in which hypertext is used" and put an encyclopedia first.

The first publicly available description of HTML was a document called "HTML Tags", first
mentioned on the Internet by Tim Berners-Lee in late 1991. It describes 18 elements
comprising the initial, relatively simple design of HTML. Except for the hyperlink tag, these
were strongly influenced by SGMLguid, an in-house Standard Generalized Markup
Language (SGML)-based documentation format at CERN. Eleven of these elements still exist
in HTML 4.

HTML Timeline

Since the early days of the World Wide Web, there have been many versions of HTML:

Year Version
• 1989 Tim Berners-Lee invented www
• 1991 Tim Berners-Lee invented HTML
• 1993 Dave Raggett drafted HTML+
• 1995 HTML Working Group defined HTML 2.0
• 1997 W3C Recommendation: HTML 3.2
• 1999 W3C Recommendation: HTML 4.01
• 2000 W3C Recommendation: XHTML 1.0
• 2008 WHATWG HTML5 First Public Draft
• 2012 WHATWG HTML5 Living Standard
• 2014 W3C Recommendation: HTML5
 • 2016 W3C Candidate Recommendation: HTML 5.1
• 2017 W3C Recommendation: HTML5.1 2nd Edition
• 2017 W3C Recommendation: HTML5.2

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the
presentation of a document written in a markup language such as HTML or XML (including
XML dialects such as SVG, MathML, or XHTML). CSS is a cornerstone technology of the
World Wide Web, alongside HTML and JavaScript. With CSS, you can control the color,
font, size of text, spacing between elements, how elements are positioned and laid out, what
background images or background colors are to be used, different displays for different
devices and screen sizes, and much more.

CSS is designed to enable the separation of content and presentation, including layout, colors,
and fonts.[3] This separation can improve content accessibility; provide more flexibility and
control in the specification of presentation characteristics; enable multiple web pages to share
formatting by specifying the relevant CSS in a separate CSS file, which reduces complexity
and repetition in the structural content; and enable the CSS file to be cached to improve the
page load speed between the pages that share the file and its formatting.

Separation of formatting and content also makes it feasible to present the same markup page
in different styles for different rendering methods, such as on-screen, in print, by voice (via
speech-based browser or screen reader), and on Braille-based tactile devices. CSS also has
rules for alternate formatting if the content is accessed on a mobile device.

The name cascading comes from the specified priority scheme to determine which style rule
applies if more than one rule matches a particular element. This cascading priority scheme is
predictable.

The CSS specifications are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). Internet
media type (MIME type) text/CSS is registered for use with CSS by RFC 2318 (March
1998). The W3C operates a free CSS validation service for CSS documents.

In addition to HTML, other markup languages support the use of CSS including XHTML,
plain XML, SVG, and XUL.
Using CSS

CSS can be added to HTML documents in 3 ways:

• Inline - by using the style attribute inside HTML elements

• Internal - by using a <style> element in the <head> section
• External - by using a <link> element to link to an external CSS file

(The most common way to add CSS, is to keep the styles in external CSS files.)

ASP.NET - is an open-source, server-side web-application framework designed for web

development to produce dynamic web pages. It was developed by Microsoft to allow
programmers to build dynamic websites, applications, and services. The name stands for
Active Server Pages Network Enabled Technologies.

It was first released in January 2002 with version 1.0 of the .NET Framework and is the
successor to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology. ASP.NET is built on the
Common Language Runtime (CLR), allowing programmers to write ASP.NET code using
any supported .NET language. The ASP.NET SOAP extension framework allows ASP.NET
components to process SOAP messages.

ASP.NET's successor is ASP.NET Core. It is a re-implementation of ASP.NET as a modular

web framework, together with other frameworks like Entity Framework. The new framework
uses the new open-source .NET Compiler Platform (codename "Roslyn") and is cross-
platform. ASP.NET MVC, ASP.NET Web API, and ASP.NET Web Pages (a platform using
only Razor pages) have merged into a unified MVC 6.

JavaScript/ jQuery -

JavaScript is a programming language that is one of the core technologies of the World Wide
Web, alongside HTML and CSS. As of 2022, 98% of websites use JavaScript on the client
side for webpage behavior, often incorporating third-party libraries. All major web browsers
have a dedicated JavaScript engine to execute the code on users' devices.

JavaScript is a high-level, often just-in-time compiled language that conforms to the

ECMAScript standard.[10] It has dynamic typing, prototype-based object orientation, and
first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm, supporting event-driven, functional, and
imperative programming styles. It has application programming interfaces (APIs) for
working with text, dates, regular expressions, standard data structures, and the Document
Object Model (DOM). The ECMAScript standard does not include any input/output (I/O),
such as networking, storage, or graphics facilities. In practice, the web browser or other
runtime system provides JavaScript APIs for I/JavaScript engines that were originally used
only in web browsers, but are now core components of some servers and a variety of
applications. The most popular runtime system for this usage is Node.js. Although Java and
JavaScript are similar in name, syntax, and respective standard libraries, the two languages
are distinct and differ greatly in design.

Features of JavaScript

• JavaScript Can Change HTML Content

• JavaScript Can Change HTML Attribute Values
• JavaScript Can Change HTML Styles (CSS)
• JavaScript Can Hide HTML Elements
• JavaScript Can Show HTML Elements
 1.2 objective
The travel and tourism system that is to be developed provides the members with information
about the location with photos videos and review available by the other tourist and the locals,
fair prices, and hotels available in the area with their pricing. This website also provides
service to the locals by directly hosting their accommodations to search for work
opportunities. It allows the user to understand the pricing of the local market. This website
will primarily focus on the posting and management of travel locations and tourism details.
The website is designed and developed to reflect the products and services on offer. These
products and services are identified and defined and considered in the design process.

Some examples of Products and Services that are to be included with the website design
complementing the products or services are:

• Safari lodge – earth tones, wildlife photo galleries

• Family hotel – Fun, interactive site with images of children and families
• Holiday apartments – Accommodation and location photos and information,
testimonials from former guests
• Restaurants – Food images, updated menus, specials information, maps

Other Important Considerations our website is

• The website should be designed to be search-engine friendly

• The website should be designed to encourage repeat traffic
• The website should encourage visitors to spread the word and recommend your
property, products, and destination to other people
• The website should include permission marketing so that you can communicate with
them regularly
• The website should encourage customer loyalty
• The website should be ‘sticky’, that is encouraging visitors to stay with the website
and visit multiple areas and pages
 1.3 SCOPE AND APPLICABILITY
As for the Indian market, there are ample opportunities for the travel and tourism website, as
a greater number of people are coming out every year in search of a relaxed, enjoyable and
affordable trip. Also, as the growth rate of India is zooming to be at a healthy rate of over 7%,
so it is boom time for tourism also. So, a greater number of lucrative audiences are available
and looking for the opportunity to explore. So, it is now the right period for the travel and
tourism website to think out of the box, and to make the most of the opportunities available.

The World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC) is an industrial group that undertakes the
main tourism services in the world. As part of their work, they have expected the size and
scope of the tourism industry to use sophisticated profitable techniques. They state that travel
and tourism are: ‘One of the largest and most dynamic industries of today’s global economy,
travel, and tourism …it accounts for US£6 trillion, or 9%,’ of global gross domestic product
(GDP) and it supports 260 million jobs worldwide, either directly or indirectly. That’s almost
1 in 12 of all jobs on the planet’ (WTTC 2012: 3). The Scope and Operation of Travel and
Tourism are as follows:

• The tourism industry is extremely diverse – from the size of the organization;
business type; sector; organization; and process. It can be taken as the collection of
various industries.
• Tourism is a diverse range of products than a single product.
• It comprises tangible and non-tangible elements.
• It is produced where it is consumed. To exacerbate this, the tourism industry is both
misunderstood and underexplored (Debbage & Daniels 1998). This is because it is
amorphous and complex, shrouded in conceptual fuzziness and imprecise terminology
(is it tourism or travel?).