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and for which it is possible to retrieve or infer a description of the structure of the
data, that is, its schema. We have identified various tourism data sources that need
to be considered when integrating tourism information systems: flat files; HTML
Web pages; XML and RDF data sources; and relational databases.
Flat.Files
A tourism data source can be a flat file that is accessible via the file system application
program interface (API). A flat file is a generic term for text file formats such
as comma separated value (CSV), tab delimited, fixed width, and so forth. Flat file
formats are supported by a wide collection of tourism information systems because
they can be used as an interoperable format for exchanging information between
different applications. In practice, flat files have proven to be very useful for allowing
users to share information.
However, though they are supported by many applications, flat files generally require
additional processing to be integrated seamlessly with common data formats.
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