Dalili: Smart Tourism Mobile application for tourists to explore the Sultanate of Oman

Abstract

The Omani tourism sector is considered a promising sector in the local economy. The Omani Ministry of Tourism is encouraging to provide more tourism facilities to tourists through modern technological platforms, in line with the Sultanate’s drive for digital transformation. Mobile applications will contribute to drawing a new scene for the tourism and travel industry by facilitating the tourist's access to all information related to tourist sites and travel reservations. This research paper aims to reveal the possibility of launching tourism smartphone applications in the Sultanate of Oman, and to what extent these applications can contribute to the development of the modern tourism industry in Oman.  An integrated application "Dalili" will be developed to serve the tourists, for the Android system, and it will be available on Google Play Store so that users can download it on their devices. As it is expected that the application will give the tourist a lot of facilities: app-users will be able to obtain information about the tourist sites easily, then search for it in the application with the ability to review some pictures of the site, and reviewing the location on Google Maps, the tourist will be able to book the appropriate hotel easily by selecting him for the governorate, then searching for him in the application to complete the reservation process, the ability to view the important contact numbers that the tourist might need. This will also aid in the smart city initiative of the government of Sultanate of Oman.