Conceptualising Smart Tourism Destination Dimensions (original) (raw)
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Boes, K., Buhalis, D., Inversini, A., 2016, Smart tourism destinations: ecosystems for tourism destination competitiveness", International Journal of Tourism Cities, Vol. 2(2), pp.108 – 124 Purpose – Grounded in service-dominant (S-D) logic, the purpose of this paper is to explore the core components of smartness to present a framework for the development of the smart tourism destination. Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the core components of smartness through case study analysis of well-established smart cities. Findings – The paper conceptualises smartness and argues ICT, leadership, innovation and social capital supported by human capital are core components of smartness. Although ICT is a critical enabler for smart tourism destinations, it is insufficient on its own to introduce smartness. The combination of hard and soft smartness components within a S-D logic ecosystem structure holds the potential for sustained competitive advantage and enhancement of quality of life of both residents and tourists in smart tourism destinations. Originality/value – The paper extends the application of S-D logic to the context of smart tourism destinations, specifically to examine the smartness concept as a means for competitiveness in tourism destinations.
Conceptualising Smart Tourism Destination Dimensions Boes, K., Buhalis, D., and Inversini, A., 2015, Conceptualising Smart Tourism Destination Dimensions, in Tussyadiah, I., and Inversini, A., (eds), ENTER 2015 Proceedings, Lugano, Springer-Verlag, Wien, ISBN:9783319143422, pp. 391-404. Kim Boes, Dimitrios Buhalis, and Alessandro Inversini Abstract The term ‘smart’ represents a marketing word for all things that are embedded or enhanced by technology. One smart concept, which has gained momentum in recent years, is Smart City. It mainly focuses on how to increase the quality of life of citizens by using Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). This paper aims to explore which dimensions except technology are critical for the development of a Smart City and a Smart Tourism Destination. Following a multiple case study approach, this paper develops a framework for smartness in cities and tourism destinations. This exploratory research argues that leadership, innovation, and social capital supported by human capital are the fundamental constructs of smartness. Technology applications and ICTs are enablers, which support the core constructs of smart destinations. Results open the ground for discussing how to transpose ‘smartness’ to tourism and destination levels. Keywords Smart city • ICT • Smart tourism destinations • Technology
Beyond smart tourism cities – towards a new generation of “wise” tourism destinations
Journal of Tourism Futures, 2020
Purpose The purpose of this trends paper is to offer insights into the technological changes affecting our cities and urban tourism destinations, and to explore avenues for further research and practice in the context of smart tourism destinations. Design/methodology/approach The literature on smart cities and smart tourism destinations is analysed in view of delivering a research agenda for a new generation of “post-smart” tourism destinations, beyond existing paradigms in this field. Findings Smart tourism research to date is found to be lacking in terms of addressing emerging (“post-smart”) social issues increasingly faced by global tourism cities, such as growing inequalities between host communities and visitors, wellness (e.g. slow tourism and slow cities) and resilience and mental health (e.g. digital detox), among others. Practical implications A post-smart approach to tourism city management and marketing calls for rethinking of existing tourism and urban policies that addr...
Smart Cities and Destination Management: Impacts and Opportunities for Tourism Competitiveness
European Journal of Tourism Research, 2017
In the latest years, the smart city theme has been widely discussed in both city planning and academic studies from various perspectives, i.e. technology, sustainability, management and tourism. This is mainly due to the urgency of rethinking the city because of the rapid population growth and the urbanization increase. These challenges are triggering many cities to find smarter management ways. Nonetheless, only a limited number of studies investigated systematically the smart cities phenomenon and its impact on tourism. In this research, we try to understand the smart city concept considering the strategic role of technologies as opportunities in the smart tourist destination, trying to fill the literature research gaps by identifying how cities have to manage urban planning to be labelled as “smart”, what can be the applications of smart strategies to tourism, what resources/capabilities smart cities need to possess to catch opportunities and face challenges coming from the touri...
Dimensions of smart tourism and its levels: an integrative literature review
Journal of Smart Tourism, 2022
Smart tourism is seen as a revolution in the tourism industry, involving innovative and transformative theoretical-practical approaches for the sector. As a result of its application in the tourist context, benefits can be seen such as more sustainable practices, greater mobility and better accessibility in destinations, evolution of processes and experiences of tourists. Much of this is achieved through the support of technological solutions. However, despite the immense expectations, and the many researches carried out on it, a literature summary regarding the dimensions that can be observed in each application of this smart tourism has not yet been proposed. Therefore, supported by the PRISMA recommendation, this research proposed to carry out an integrative review of the literature on smart tourism (in its different levels of application, such as the city, the destination and the smart tourism region), with the objective of mapping the dimensions that underlie it. Thus, from an initial scope of 833 intellectual productions obtained, inputs were found for the dimensions in 363 of them after a thorough analysis. The compilation of data obtained from these productions supported the proposition of 14 operational dimensions of smart tourism, namely: collaboration, technology, sustainability, experience, accessibility, knowledge management, innovation management, human capital, marketing, customized services, transparency, safety, governance and mobility. With this set of dimensions, it is envisaged that the implementation of smart tourism projects can present more comprehensive and assertive results. In addition, shortcomings and opportunities for new research that support the evolution of the theory and practice of smart tourism are highlighted.
Smart Destinations: towards a more sustainable tourism industry
"Management and sustainability: Creating shared value in the digital era". Proceedings of Sinergie - Sima Management Conference (Full Papers). Sapienza University of Rome, 2019
Objectives. In general, the smart approach allows strengthening the ability to solve problems (e.g. those related to sustainability) through an efficacious use of knowledge. Smart management of tourism rests on an information-driven logic, becoming critical the capacity of organizations to capturing data from diverse sources and makes them available to managers. It is recognized that smart tourism destinations are built around a number of areas, within which sustainability is one of them. The paper intends: to present how the literature has addressed the intersection between the smart and sustainability concepts and to display diverse cases in that intersection. Methodology. The study presents a review of the literature of smart tourism and sustainability, trying to unravel the link between both concepts. Then, it performs a collection of experiences on the components of smartness, implemented with satisfactory results and aligned to the management of sustainability issues. Findings. The analysis reveals several gaps that should be bridged for a full exploitation of the intersection between smartness and sustainability. Firstly, the need to move from a focus based on technology, to a more global and long-term perspective on how the data-driven logic of smartness can help to tackle sustainability issues in destinations. Secondly, the smart tourism approach has a potential for the preservation of local heritage, way of living and culture, connecting its capabilities with the social components of smart people, smart mobility and smart living. Finally, the insertion of tourism into the emergent paradigm of circular economy. Research limits. Although the completeness in the collection of experiences in a so vast and dynamic field is a utopia, it is honest to recognize that the speed of technological evolution prevents to present a set of initiatives fully updated, together with their outputs. Practical implications. The design of tourism destinations should not be based on harnessing the ICTs proliferation only, but, more importantly, on the need for balancing all the beneficiaries -from internal publics (residents, local people) and external ones (visitors in one single word, both excursionists and tourists)- through the paradigm of “smartness”, that, in the search for a more sustainable tourism industry, guides people’s living conditions. Originality of the study. The study promotes to moving forward in this area through a cross-fertilization between theory and practice, with the outline of a number of recommendations together with some suggestions for further research in a still under explored field of study.
Smart Urban Tourism Destinations at a Crossroads
2020
Concepts such as smart or smartness have evolved over time from rather narrow technological interpretations in the form of mobile devices to more nuanced applications involving geographical locations (e.g. smart cities, smart tourism destinations). As a result of this, smart places have arisen partly as a result of the widening impact of new and disruptive technologies on the spaces we live in, including cities, regions and countries (Hedlund, 2012; Zygiaris, 2013; Vanolo, 2014). Urban tourism destinations are not immune to these global trends, particularly as regards their strategic positioning (Buhalis and Amaranggana, 2014) to compete for a larger and/or higher value share of the tourism market, regardless of whether their priority is leisure or business. In line with this, the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has developed substantially over the last two decades to deliver new experiences for tourists and visitors, while supporting wider automatisation pr...
Collaborative Networks of Cognitive Systems. IFIP AICT, 2018
Recent developments of ICTs enable new ways to experience tourism and conducted to the concept of smart tourism. The adoption of cutting-edge technologies and its combination with innovative organizational models fosters cooperation, knowledge sharing, and open innovation among service providers in tourism destination. Moreover, it offers innovative services to visitors. In few words, they become smart tourism destinations. In this paper, we report first results of the SMARTCAL project aimed at conceiving a digital platform assisting Destination Management Organizations (DMOs) in providing smart tourism services. A DMO is the organization charged with managing the tourism offer of a collaborative network, made up of service providers acting in a destination. In this paper, we adopted a multiple case studies approach to analyze five Italian DMOs. Our aims were to investigate 1) if, and how, successful DMOs were able to offer smart tourism services to visitors; 2) if the ICTs adoption level was related to the collaboration level among DMO partners. First results highlighted that use of smart technologies was still in an embryonic stage of development, and it did not depend from collaboration levels.
The potential offered by smart cities to promote smart tourist destinations
Technium Social Sciences Journal, 2021
Abstract. The digital revolution has radically changed the world, as new digital technologies have introduced important innovations in factories, hospitals and schools, especially cities, improving the efficiency of city operations and life quality of its citizens and visitors. This study is a demonstration of the capabilities provided by smart cities to promote smart tourism through global experiences, where the study concluded that the inclusion of smart city determinants will make it a smart tourism destination and thus realize the concept of smart tourism as part of smart city, and improve the Provided tourism services quality and tourism experiences, since the innovation and sustainability are the only way to improve life quality and social value of both local residents and tourists.