INTRODUCTION
Mobile phone and internet have revolutionized the communication and lifestyle of the people across the world since the internet has become more and more widely adopted in various fields, it has also opened the door for the distribution of Geographic information system(GIS).
With this revolution there are many people who want to access data through mobile phone and personal digital assistant (PDA’s) wherever they are.The field of location based services (LBS) emerged a few years ago, but the technology got boost really in late 1990’s when GPS capabilities started to appear in mobile devices such as cell phones. The wide adoption of mobile devices along with United States federal enhanced emergency services requirements and the ubiquity of GPS capabilities in mobile devices have spurred the development of mobile location technologies known as location based services (LBS). (Junglas & Watson, 2008).
Location based services can be seen as an intersection of three technologies; New information and communication technologies (NICTS) and geographic information system (GIS) as shown in figure I.I, (xiaofeng, M. et al 2006). Teliasonera is Sweden and EMT in Estonia launched first LBS services; however the first commercial LBS services were in Japan launched by DOCOMO. In these applications, the location information is part of the system. Location information describes a physical position or attributes of a place and privacy status that is provided to the end users. These applications are referred to as location based services (LBS). (Faying, L. et al, 2009).
When location information is combined with content, a broad range of location based services are made possible. Hence, the use of Database Management System (DBMS) is also commonly seen, as they enable an administrator to more easily manage data. These systems also enable quick data retrieval and data searches through database queries. The implementation of databases and Database Management Systems is a good foundation for different fields to overlap because it is easier to have an overview of what data actually exist and what can be used.
As for GIS, the Global Positioning System (GPS) technology has grown a great deal, from being suited only for military purposes to being a part of regular people’s everyday life as navigations systems come with built- in GPS receivers. Since the GPS has been made available to everyone who wants to use it, it has been embraced by people at sea, in their cars, and generally people on the move with the newly developed mobile phones incorporating GPS receivers. Especially these new phones set the ground for incorporating a large amount of location based information as most of them can connect to the internet wirelessly as well. The world has become a smaller place, in the sense that we people, no longer leave long distances and geographic borders limit us. We can go almost any place we want to and when we do, we want information about our current location. Being a business man on business trip, where can I find a nearby hotel? Or if having difficulties finding the way, this so-called Location Based Services (LBS) comes in very handy. The development of these services is really starting to takes off in a whole new sense, because the demand for location based information is growing and GPS is being integrated in mobile devices more and more. This means that a huge amount of potential users will be at hand very soon.
Moreover, due to the rapid presence of hotels/hoteliers randomly sprouting up in Enugu metropolis, it has attracted and continued to attract many people, organization/companies both locally and internationally based to Enugu for either business trip or vacation that has brought a whole lot of development.
On this background, this project would look at LBS application in finding nearby hotels and ascertaining on-the-go-valued Hotel services like enquiries and booking etc based on the user’s current location within independence layout and New Haven of Enugu Metropolis.