JOHOR BAHRU, Oct 31 – A team of four undergraduate students from the Faculty of Computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), secured third place in the Public and Private Higher Education Institutions (IPTA/IPTS) category of the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) Datathon 2026 through Tourisma, a data-driven platform designed to support smarter and more sustainable tourism planning in Malaysia.

Competing as Team Trail Never Ends, the students are in their third year of the Bachelor of Computer Science (Data Engineering) programme. The team comprises Evelyn Ang, Angela Ngu Xin Yi, Chun Yao Ting and Teoh Xin Yee. Their project brings together tourism-related data to help decision-makers assess tourism demand, evaluate infrastructure readiness and monitor environmental sustainability across Malaysian states.

At the centre of Tourisma is a Tourism Intelligence Dashboard that turns fragmented data into visual insights. It presents key indicators, including domestic visitor numbers and expenditure, average length of stay and accommodation occupancy rates. The platform reports 290.1 million domestic visitors, an increase of 11.5 per cent from 2024, and tourism expenditure of RM121.3 billion, up 13.6 per cent.

The platform also maps more than 60,700 tourism-related assets to assess infrastructure accessibility. Its analysis indicates that 52.1 per cent of the mapped assets have direct road access, while 51.5 per cent have transit access. These findings help identify accessibility gaps that may require further investment.

In addition, Tourisma includes an environmental monitoring feature that highlights tourism assets located near terrestrial and marine protected areas. The dashboard indicates that 8.5 per cent of tourism assets are exposed to terrestrial protected zones and 2.3 per cent to marine protected areas, bringing the reported overall eco-exposure to 10.6 per cent.

A national tourism readiness map provides state-level Readiness Index scores alongside tourism receipts and destination readiness profiles. These features help identify states with high tourism demand but relatively low readiness. The platform also offers interactive insights on tourism demand, assets, accommodation, accessibility, healthcare and sustainability to support evidence-based planning.

Team mentor Dr. Seah Choon Sen commended the students for translating raw data into a functional platform with practical applications.

“We are immensely proud of Team Trail Never Ends. Their ability to synthesize raw data into a functional, forward-looking platform showcases the exact kind of innovative problem-solving we strive to cultivate,” said Dr. Seah.

“This success is a true testament to the exceptional foundational knowledge and unwavering support provided by UTM’s Faculty of Computing. The faculty’s rigorous curriculum continuously equips our students with the cutting-edge data analytics and artificial intelligence skills necessary to tackle complex, real-world industry challenges.”

The team received a cash prize of RM1,500 for securing third place, adding to UTM’s achievements in applying data engineering and artificial intelligence to address real-world challenges.