Applying multi-agent technique in cooperation: Case of tourism supply chain

Abstract

Information and logistics are two main problems in Tourism Supply Chain. Tourism Supply chain cooperation has become a critical success factor. Cooperation refers to the integration of different parts of an organization or different organizations in supply chain to accomplish a collective set of tasks and to achieve mutual benefits. Several researches focus on applying artificial intelligence to solving the problem. Semantic web services and Multi- Agent are two technologies with great potential. However, semantic web services need for an upper software entity able to deal with them and, on the other hand agent technology has historically suffered from a number of drawbacks that must be addressed. Integrating these two technologies in a joint environment can overcome their problems while strengthening their advantages. In this paper, the necessity for integrating these technologies and the potential benefits of their combination are analyzed. Based in this study we present our intelligent framework, provided a support of collaborative decision making in the context of Tourism Supply Chain.