Ontology-based Decision Support System with Analytic Hierarchy Process for Tour Package Selection

Abstract

The popularity of Internet and growing B2C electronic commerce nowadays make product or service information easy to be acquired. However, making an optimal choice from the various alternative products becomes a laborious process. In this paper, an ontology-based Decision Support System (DSS) with Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) was proposed for the specific application of tour package selection. The system is composed of two subsystems, the product gatherer and the decision maker, which are used to find out right products and make an expected choice respectively. In the product gatherer subsystem, an ontology-based web service architecture with Web Ontology Language (OWL) was established for the semantic content processing of product information. The Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) is utilized to establish the communication interface and gather XML-based contents through Remote Procedure Calls (RPC) between the system and the database servers of travel agencies. In the decision maker subsystem, the Analytic Hierarchy Process is utilized to make an optimal decision for satisfying the requirement given by the consumer. The system aims to help consumers to avoid falling into decision-making hesitation and get an expected choice from various and similar products.