**Village Stay Reservation and Management System for Tourism Industry in Malaysia** Abidah Mat Taib 1\*, Nur Athirah Zainuddin2, Noorazalia Izha Haron3, Nurul Hidayah Ahmad Zukri4 1,2,4 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia 3 Academy of Language Studies, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, Arau, Perlis, Malaysia Corresponding author: \*abidah@uitm.edu.my Received Date: \*date Accepted Date: \*date ABSTRACT *Tourism industry in Malaysia is being developed to be better thus, making Malaysia as one of the most attractive countries to visit. Many Village Stays in Malaysia are owned and managed by inexperienced personnel and have inefficient system. This makes local products and nearby tourist attractions not able to be advertised properly or are not made known to the public. So, the objectives of this project are to develop Village Stay Reservation and Management System that caters for the information of the local tourist attraction products and to evaluate Village Stay Reservation and Management System in terms of perceived ease of use. In order to achieve the objectives, this project develops the system using PHP programming language and tests the system of its functionality, usability and user acceptance. There are fifteen respondents who tested the system. A set of questionnaires was used to collect the data. The mean for user acceptance test is 3.77 while for user reaction in usability testing is 3.74. The respondents are satisfied with the system in terms of its functionality. In conclusion, this research has achieved the objectives. It is shown that the users can deal more effectively and efficiently when using this system. This system will reduce the workload of staffs when using an online system to monitor the reservation as well as attending to other chores.* *Keywords: Village Stay, reservation system, Tourism Industry, Web-based Application* # INTRODUCTION Nowadays, tourism industry in Malaysia is being developed to be better thus, making Malaysia as one of the most attractive countries to visit. According to Anowar Hossain Bhuiyan, Siwar, and Mohamad Ismail (2013), tourism is a potential matter in environmental, social, and economic levels under the government agendas. For the government, tourism is one of the tools of development that gives the right to protect the environment and traditions. From January to December 2015, Malaysia welcomed a total of 25.7 million (25, 721, 251) tourists and RM69.1 billion tourism receipts (Hanafiah & Ramli, 2016). According to the World Travel and Tourism Council’s economic forecast in 2016, tourism and travel directly contributed RM58 billion to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) equalling to 4.7% of total GDP (Bernhard, Teo, & Hok Yean, 2017). Hence, the growth of tourism industry can achieve the Malaysia Plan which is to make Malaysia a better country to visit. Tourism industry also helps to increase the income of a country. It suits the 11th Malaysia Plan that has the theme of “*anchoring growth on people*”. Hence, it emphasizes the capital economy and people economy. The definition of capital economy is referring to GDP growth, big businesses, financial markets and investment of projects while the people economy is defined as jobs for people, cost of living, well-being of the family and social inclusion (Leong & Kasmuri, 2015). Hence, tourism operators who run tourism business tend to have difficulties in accessing the site that they want to visit and publish their products. Having a great data storage of customers can increase the performance of the tour operator’s business. Malaysia has many interesting places but the development of the place is not well-known by many people. Similarly, it makes it harder for the managers to improve the management of the place. Hence, this project uses online database for storing the data of the customers. It will systematically arrange the schedule of customers’ booking, the renting of the facilities and additionally, improve the management of the place. It also helps to secure the data that have been placed on this site. Therefore, this project proposes a village stay reservation and management system for tourism industry in Malaysia that can be beneficial to many small medium industries or village industry like village stay. **Literature Review** **Web-based Application** Web-based application is widely used by many people as it can ease their work and help them in streamlining many of the tasks in their daily lives. According to Jazayeri (2007), web-based application is defined as an application that is invoked with a browser over the Internet. Web-based application implements business logic and its use changes the state of the business. The basic architecture of web-based application includes browsers (client), a database server and a web application server. The browser will request a web page from the server. Each of the web page is a mixed content and formatted instructions expressed using HTML. Some of it include client side scripts that are interpreted by the browser. The customer or any user can also interact with the system by navigating to different web pages in the system via hyperlinks (Conallen, 1999). **Web Server** Web server is a computer system that hosts or delivers the web-based application. It will ease the user as the browser will connect to the server and fetch the requested page and respond to the browser. It is essential to have a server that is connected to a fast network as the user does not have to wait for a long time when surfing the Internet. This project uses Apache as the web server. The Apache web server has been widely used and has become popular among web developers (Ljubuncic, 2011). **Definition of Tourism** According to Geneva (2010), the definition of tourism is an economic activity of immense global significance, while based on Wan (2013), he states that tourism is the temporary of short term movement of people to destinations outside the places where they normally live and work, as well as their activities during their stay at these destinations. Village stay is one of the tourism attractions for tourists to experience living in the village and involve in local activities or enjoy the service provided (Mapjabil, 2015). The increased desire for nature-based and agro-tourism has improved the rural areas (Mohd Salleh, Othman, Nordin, Mohd Idris, & Shukor, 2014). The expansion of tourism in the suburbs and rural areas is a result of the growing interest in eco-and agro-tourism. Participation from community is a designed process to create conditions that can generate social and economic progress for the whole community. A sustainable community can help the residents to enhance and protect the environment so that the tourists feel comfortable staying in Malaysia (Nor & Awang, 2017). Village stay also helps Malaysians to enrich their culture and at the same time can show it to the tourists. **Related Work** According to Bemile, Achampong, and Danquah (2014), they have developed their web system using PHP scripting language. PHP was used for the server side scripting language which is basically the queries used to link the website to the database. In contrast, Delizo and Esguerra (2013), created web sites, web applications and web services using ASP.NET as their server side scripting language. Hence, the system was deployed via the Internet. They used Microsoft Web Developer 2008 as a platform for programming language. Not only Microsoft Visual Web Developer but Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 can also be used to develop powerful ASP.NET web applications as it has various tools for developing web applications. MySQL Server 2005 was used by the researchers. Furthermore, Ping and Dongxiao (2013) proposed to develop a system by using ASP as a server side scripting language. Moreover, the author used IIS5.0 as web application server and Dreamweaver 2004 MX as the application software development platform. This project developed a web system using PHP scripting language. The web page was built using Notepad++ as it is user friendly and easy to use. In addition, Google Chrome was the browser used for this project in order to view the web application. Hence, the coding was being implemented on the XAMPP. **Comparison table of related works is shown in Table 1.** Table 1: Comparison Table
Author Tool and Technology Used to Develop Online Reservation System Function of the Proposed System
Bemile, Achampong, and Danquah (2014)

Server side scripting: PHP

Platforms to develop the system: Macromedia Dreamweaver and Adobe Flash

Implementation of web application: WAMP

Deployment of web application: Microsoft Internet Explorer

- Allow customers to get all the necessary information about the hotel and its facilities.

- Customers can make their own reservation at their places rather than going to the resort.

- Customers can send emails to the company.
Delizo and Esguerra (2013)

Server side scripting: ASP.NET

Platform to develop the system: Microsoft Web Developer 2008

Implementation of web application: Windows

Deployment of web application: Microsoft Internet Explorer

- Provide skill and additional knowledge to students on how to operate an online hotel reservation system.

- The delivery of instructions service that is provided by the college will be better as faculty members can access the system and do not have to purchase the same system for the students.

- A system administrator can monitor and supervise the accounts that have been created by the students and clients.
Ping and Dongxiao (2013)

Server side scripting: ASP

Platform to develop the system: Dreamweaver 2004 MX

Web server: IIS 5.0

- The system can give detailed information of the rooms to the customers.

- The system can record in one complete check-in course and whole consumption that are made by the customers.
Ogirima and Omuya (2014) Web server: IIS - The system can manage and structure the data in an organised manner.
Hasan (2014)

Server side scripting: .NET Framework

Platforms to develop the system: Adobe Dreamweaver and Visual Studio 2010

Deployment of web application: Microsoft Internet Explorer, Google Chrome

- Customers can modify their booking.

- Customers can use their email addresses or phone numbers to login into mobile application.

- Customers can get the latest information about the company.
Athirah (2017)

Server side scripting: PHP

Platform to develop the system: Notepad++

Implementation of web application: XAMPP

Deployment of web application: Google Chrome

Web server : Apache Web Server

- Manager can monitor the booking of the customers.

- Customers can obtain the details about the company.

- Customers can get information, promotion and announcement from the staff through email.
**METHODOLOGY** The methodology applied in this project in order to accomplish the objectives thus, getting a better result and performance is System Development Life Cycle (SDLC) which covers planning, analysis, design, development, testing and deployment phases. **Design Phase** Design phase is important as it will affect the development of the project. The activities that were done in this phase are designing the Design Flow Diagram (DFD) and Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) for the village stay web-based application. Figure 1 shows the ERD for the web application. The ERD which was built using Microsoft Visio 2016, consists of nine tables which are Staff, Customer, Facility, FacilityBook, Booking, Room, RomBook, Service and ServiceBook. ![ERD\_TRAHH.jpg](146-1-374-1-2-20200831_media/media/image1.jpeg) **Figure 1:** Entity Relationship Diagram Figure 2 shows the DFD for the web application. The DFD that was built using Microsoft Visio explains the customer’s flow of activity. **SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION** The use of suitable hardware and software is vital in order to develop the system to be successful. The development of this project was done via HP laptop which uses Intel® Core™ i5-5200U CPU as its processor, its installed Random Access Memory (RAM) is 4.00 GB and it has 64-bit operating system. A suitable software ensures a smooth process of the system development. In this project, the software that were used include Notepad++ and XAMPP. This project involves three main functions which are booking of the rooms, facilities and services. This project also used 000webhost as a storage space for the system to be accessed on the network. The homepage interface design is shown in Figure 3 while the interface design of the system is shown in Figure 4. This interface shows the system to check the availability of the room. The system will inform the users if they do not fill up the form. Hence, the users cannot proceed with the room booking. The system will inform the users if they do not fill in the form and if they fill in the form using the wrong format of data. Once complete, the system will send a confirmation email to the users. Guests can also use the system to reserve the services and facilities provided by the Village Stay. Figure 5 shows the preferable services for the customers to choose. The management can refer to the related reports to see the list of bookings. ![DFD\_ALL\_TRAH.jpg](146-1-374-1-2-20200831_media/media/image2.jpeg) Figure 2: Data Flow Diagram (DFD) | ![](146-1-374-1-2-20200831_media/media/image3.png) | ![](146-1-374-1-2-20200831_media/media/image4.png) | | -------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------- | | Figure 3: Homepage Interface Design | Figure 4: System Interface Design | | | ![](146-1-374-1-2-20200831_media/media/image5.png) | | | Figure 5: Preferable Service**s** | **RESULT** This project uses a set of questionnaires that was distributed online to the users in order to evaluate the system in terms of its usability and user acceptance. The users must test the system first in order to provide their feedback about the system. There are fifteen questions asked in the testing part in order to achieve the objectives of this project. Additionally, the performance testing of the web application was tested using JMeter. **Usability Testing** Usability testing is a testing approach that is used to identify the areas where people normally struggle with a product and can make a recommendation for improvement. The line graph in Figure 6 illustrates the reaction of the users about the system. The figure shows the percentage of ‘disagree’, ‘average’, ‘agree’ and ‘totally agree’ for usability testing. Below are the questions in the questionnaires used for the usability testing. | Q1: | The organization of information on the Village Stay Reservation and Management System is clear. | | --- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Q2: | The Village System Reservation and Management System gives error message that clearly tells me to fix the problem. | | Q3: | The mistake that I make on the Village Stay Reservation and Management System can be fixed easily. | | Q4: | The site of Village Stay Reservation and Management System is easy to use and the information needed can be easily navigated. | | Q5: | Overall, I am satisfied with the Village Stay Reservation and Management System. | \[CHART\] Figure 6: User Reaction about the System The result of usability testing shows that the respondents agree that the system gives them a better system for them to use. **User Acceptance Testing** *Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU)* Figure 7 depicts the user acceptance test in perceived ease of use. Below are the questions asked in perceived ease of use section. | Q1: | I think it is easy for me to use the Village Stay Reservation and Management System. | | --- | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Q2: | I think it is easy for me to interact with the Village Stay Reservation and Management System. | | Q3: | I think it would be easy for me to become skilful at using the Village Stay Reservation and Management System. | \[CHART\] Figure 7: Perceived Ease of Use The above result shows that the respondents agree that the system is easy to use, and it is easy to interact with the Village Stay Reservation and Management System. *Perceived Usefulness (PU)* Figure 8 depicts the perceived usefulness. Below are the questions asked in the perceived usefulness section. | Q1: | The Village Stay Reservation and Management System is useful to me. | | --- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Q2: | The Village Stay Reservation and Management System improves the efficiency of my life. | | Q3: | The Village Stay Reservation and Management System enables me to accomplish tasks more quickly. | \[CHART\] Figure 8: Perceived Usefulness The respondents agree that the Village Stay Reservation and Management System is useful to use, improves the efficiency of their life, and can accomplish their tasks quickly. **Performance Testing** The performance testing of this research uses the Apache JMeter to examine the performance of the web server. There are two parameters that were analysed in this research which are throughput and deviations. Having a higher throughput and smaller deviations can have a better performance of the server. The analysis of performance testing is shown in Figure 9. ![](146-1-374-1-2-20200831_media/media/image6.png) Figure 9: Performance Testing The throughput line is shown in green while the deviation line is shown in red. In this test, throughput of 000webhost server is 354.176 per minutes which means that 000webhost server can handle 354.176 requests per minute. Meanwhile, the deviation of 000webhost is 2114. The line deviation shown in Figure 9 is below than the throughput line, which means 000webhost server has a better performance. **Analysis and Discussion** Table 2 shows the overall result for the testing. The mean for user acceptance test is 3.83 while for user reaction in usability testing is 3.76. This means that the system should be extended with more features so that the users will be at ease when using the system. Given these points, the users of the system are satisfied as they have given positive feedback. **Table 2**: Overall Result | **Criteria** | **Min** | **Max** | **Mean** | | --------------------------- | ------- | ------- | -------- | | **Usability Testing** | 3.6 | 3.93 | 3.76 | | **User Acceptance Testing** | 3.73 | 4.07 | 3.83 | The findings have shown that many of the respondents prefer to use an online system in order to book for rooms and other facilities and services. The users can accomplish their tasks using online system quickly. Hence, they do not have to go to the targeted places in order to obtain information or any details of the places as these information or details are already available on the Internet. 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