GIS and the Tourism Industry Dan Ake GIS Specialist SEDA - Council of Governments 201 Furnace Rd Lewisburg, PA 17837 www.seda-cog.org
What are we going to talk about? The tourism industry GIS use in the tourism industry Valleys of the Susquehanna GIS project Property database Use of Local GIS datasets Routing considerations Observations
Sectors of Tourism Industry Accommodations hotels, motels, b&b, etc. Attractions theme parks, museums, national parks, heritage sites, etc. Transport Systems airlines, railways, bus/coach operators, car rental; ferries, etc. Travel Organizers tour operators, travel agents, conference organizers, etc. Destination Organizations visitors bureaus, tourism offices, tourism associations, etc.
Economic Importance of Travel and Tourism to PA Economy 2001 Sales Jobs Direct $20.5 Billion 419,680 Indirect $16.7 Billion 197,910 Total $37.2 Billion 617,590 Tourism is everybody's business Sources: PACVB, D K Shifflet and Assoc., PA Office of Tourism
Market Share of US Leisure Travel Top 10 States 1 10 9 7 6 5 4 8 2 3 Source: 2001 Pennsylvania Year End Report D.K. Shifflet & Assoc.
Where do PA leisure travelers come from? 2001 non-resident tourists 51.4 million 11% 5% 42% 4% 9% 12% Source: 2001 Pennsylvania Year End Report D.K. Shifflet & Assoc.
Where do leisure travelers go in Pennsylvania? 7.4% 4.1% 13.7% 14.5% 5.4% 7.3% 27.0% 20.7% Source: 2001 Pennsylvania Year End Report D.K. Shifflet & Assoc.
In the Tourism Industry, GIS is used to provide: A digital basemap for printed maps Digital files for internet mapping Digital files for mobile mapping
The Valleys of the Susquehanna GIS Project Attractions Map Website with Interactive Mapping
Valleys project options/considerations Develop a Customized Application Partner with Commercial firm to license existing application
Mapeze - Newedge Technologies Designed by the owners of Inn on the Lake, Nova Scotia, Canada 2001 ESRI (Canada) Award for innovation in the field of Geographic Information Systems
Mapeze Installations Canadian Commercial Nova Scotia New Brunswick Labrador Newfoundland Provincial Nova Scotia Saskatchewan County-City Essex-Windsor USA Valleys of the Susquehanna, (Pennsylvania)
Development Steps Property database Mapping layers Routing
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Local Data Advantages Data is Current Spatial Accuracy Disadvantages Not in common database format Not edge-matched Missing some key information
Using Local data 1. Request data from Local sources (i.e. counties) 2. Unify the databases for the merge 3. Merge the Data in to one file 4. Edge-match the data 5. Make database consistent\fill in missing gaps
Unifying the database Converted the local database into the Pennsylvania Geospatial Data Sharing Standard This also assigns a unique identifier for future updates
Merging data\edge-matching After the databases meshed, we merged the shapefiles Edge-matched the county datasets to each other Edge-matched the unified dataset to the surrounding counties where we used a PennDOT dataset
Making database consistent and Filling in missing gaps Fix the spelling making attributes consistent (i.e. Road vs. RD) Classify the roads (i.e. Interstates, US Routes, Primary and Secondary State Routes, and Local Roads) Delete unnecessary fields to reduce the file size
Routing Considerations Affordable initial costs, ongoing costs Accurate road data correct directions for oneway streets Compatible with SEDA-COG server Work with local datasets for mapping accurate and current
Routing Options Use routing software and data (pay for licensing) Use routing service (pay for each map impression) Hybrid Use local data for mapping and a routing service for routing and addressing (pay for each route calculation)
Routing Comparisons Tested with the cooperation of Mapeze ESRI RouteMap IMS with North American Datasets (GDT) ESRI RouteMap IMS with compressed and edited local data (would be developed in cooperation with ESRI) ESRI ArcWeb with GDT data (pay per impression) Maptuit with NavTec data (pay per impression)
Test of routing on one-way streets One Way One Way
Selected Option ESRI RouteMap IMS with North American Datasets (GDT) ESRI RouteMap IMS with compressed and edited local data (would be developed in cooperation with ESRI) ESRI ArcWeb with GDT data (pay per impression) Maptuit with NavTec data (pay per impression) Maptuit with NavTec data
Demonstration of functionality of Mapeze Application Proximity Searches using database and map
Future Additions to the Valleys of the Susquehanna GIS Project Genealogical Resources Historical societies and library locations Cemeteries Eco-tourism Heritage Walking tours of Historic Districts Hiking and Biking Trails Water Trails
Observations Working with consortiums such as the Valleys takes patience and lots of time Project can only move at the pace of the slowest member. Mapeze has been a very cooperative partner Similar tourism portals with interactive mapping will become common
The Launch! WWW.PAVALLEYS.COM Soft Launch is slated for Mid November Hard Launch is slated for Janurary