(Hain?) Opinion Mining Techniques for Tourism in Oman

Abstract

There are numerous technological devices available in the world that people use and that they have become a part of our daily lives. In the Sultanate of Oman, many smartphone applications that have been developed by Omanis to serve the people of Oman. Oman's tourism sector is one of the largest contributors to its economy and plays a major role in it. In this sense, supporting the tourism sector is important. For the purpose of supporting this sector and to make it easier for residents in Oman to access information about events, we proposed to develop a new mobile application that would enable them to access information easily. Our proposal in this project is to develop a mobile application titled Hain. With the Hain platform, it is possible to display events in Oman, such as conferences by detecting their location on a map and finding the current and upcoming events. Hain, the chosen name of our application, is commonly used by Omani residents as a slang term for “Where”. The proposed application will enable companies and organizations to post their events. Through the application, users will be able to view a map interface that displays the information that these organizations and companies have uploaded regarding their locations, dates, and other details of the events. Visitors have trouble navigating their way inside the buildings. The solution to this problem is coming in the form of the Hain. A feature that makes this mobile application unique is the fact that tourists are able to join in the conversation on the App and through the use of opinion mining, they will be able to find the information that they are looking for. It was decided that we did not want to design a website for residents, visitors and tourists in Oman since there are already a lot of pages available for that purpose. Moreover, users like to use their smartphones while travelling, therefore, a mobile app will be more convenient for them. As a final note, this mobile application will be very helpful to the authorities, such as the Ministry of Tourism, in promoting tourism in Oman.