Tourists often encounter situations where they must make mobility decisions without accurate information on risks, political and ground situations, and potentials of target places (points of interest). On the other hand, caterers and providers (destination management organizations, DMOs) require data on tourist movements to plan their offerings.

The authors contend that both tourists and caterers would benefit if technological tools such as geographic information systems (GIS) were used along with knowledge-based decision systems, implemented using a cloud computing platform. This is called the cloud (human-computer) interactive environment for decision support (CIDSS) in tourism. CIDSS would help tourists prepare, implement, and evaluate their trips by maintaining a list of personalized trip intentions and objectives; providing factual information such as data on accommodations, attractions, features, package tours, and so on interactively; and providing tools and platforms for objective evaluations. For DMOs, CIDSS would help track situations, measure motivators, gather intelligence, and recognize marketing opportunities and monitor their performance.

The paper’s discussion is too broad and generic. Forty-three references are given. It suggests a conceptual three-layer CIDSS architecture, which is too broad to be of much help to a serious reader. This paper might help readers seeking a general overview of issues in this area.