ENHANCING TOURIST ENGAGEMENT THROUGH MOBILE ITINERARY MANAGEMENT AND LOCATION-BASED SERVICES: DESIGN AND DEPLOYMENT EXPERIENCE IN IPOH, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Tourism in Ipoh still faces challenges due to the lack of personalized digital guidance and itinerary support. The main problem encountered by tourists is the difficulty in planning their trips, the absence of tailored recommendations, and inefficient navigation within the city. The objective of this study is to develop the iGuide Ipoh mobile application to assist tourists in planning itineraries, receiving real-time navigation, and exploring recommended attractions. The methodology adopted was Agile development, using Android Studio, Java, Firebase, and Google Maps API. The application was tested through functional and integration testing, followed by surveys with two stakeholder groups (Tourism Perak officers and the public). The results show that most respondents found the application easy to use, beneficial for trip planning, and potentially supportive of local tourism promotion (e.g., 87% of public users indicated they would recommend the app to others). The conclusion highlights that mobile applications with location-based services have strong potential to enhance tourist satisfaction, although further improvements such as offline functionality, multilingual support, and deeper integration with local businesses are recommended.