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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.

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.

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.

A post-smart approach to tourism city management and marketing calls for rethinking of existing tourism and urban policies that address wider sustainability issues exemplified by the urban transitions debate as well as adopting a more holistic networked approach to smartness involving entire regions. This also calls for the development of a new research agenda in urban tourism through a new prism – the post-smart “wise” tourism destination.

A new tourism futures construct – the “wise” tourism destination – is posited. This is done within the context of a new (“post-smart”) generation of tourism cities. It is argued that “wise” tourism cities will require novel attributes and adopt a visionary strategic positioning well beyond today’s smart tourism destination paradigms. Additionally, a tentative research agenda for “wise” tourism cities is discussed.

This paper aims to investigate the influence of socially- responsible human resource management (SRHRM) on employee fears of external threats during the COVID-19 outbreak, based on social support and event system theories. COVID-19 caused sharp profit declines and bankruptcies of hotels, restaurants and travel agencies. In addition, employees faced threats to their health and job security. How to overcome employee anxieties and fears about the negative impacts of this crisis and promote psychological recovery is worthy of attention from researchers and practitioners. This research investigated the impacts of SRHRM on employee fears through organizational trust, with the COVID-19 pandemic playing a moderating role between SRHRM and employee fears.

The hypotheses were tested through multiple linear regression analysis based on a survey of 408 employees in hospitality and tourism firms in China. Qualitative data were also gathered through interviews with selected managers.

The results showed that SRHRM had a negative influence on employee fears of external threats by enhancing trust in their organizations. In addition, the strength of the COVID-19 pandemic positively moderated the effect of SRHRM on employee fears. When the pandemic strength was more robust, the negative effects of SRHRM on employee fears were more significant.

This research illustrated the contribution of SRHRM in overcoming employee fears of external threats in the context of COVID-19. It shed light on the organizational contribution of SRHRM to hospitality and tourism employee psychological recovery during the crisis.

This research explored strategic HRM by examining the effects of SRHRM on employee fears in the midst of a severe crisis, specifically COVID-19. The moderation effect of event strength and mediation effect of organizational trust were tested. It is of great value for hospitality and tourism firms to foster employee psychological recovery during a crisis such as COVID-19.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of hotel safety leadership on employee safety behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the mediation role of belief restoration and the moderation role of perceived risk between safety leadership and behavior were also investigated.

The COVID-19 outbreak served as the background for a questionnaire survey of 23 hotels in China with 1,594 valid responses being received. The statistical analysis techniques used were exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis, correlation analysis, structural equation modeling and hierarchical regression.

The results showed that: hotel safety leadership positively affected employee safety behavior (compliance, participation and adaptation); belief restoration partially mediated the influence of safety leadership on safety behavior; and perceived risk negatively moderated the direct effect and the mediation effect of “safety leadership – belief restoration – safety behavior.”

The main limitation was that the questionnaires were collected with the same measurement system within a certain period of time (cross-sectional design). Then, future research should test and expand this conceptual model in different crises, business fields, theoretical orientation and cultural backgrounds.

Hotels should develop management strategies based on safety leadership and motivate and promote employee safety behavior from the four aspects of safety coaching, care, motivation and control.

This investigation expanded the research on the effectiveness of safety leadership and especially with respect to safety in the hospitality industry during a major global crisis. Also, the research conceptual model and variables contained therein are original contributions to the hospitality research literature.

Globalisation as a competitive marketing strategy can only offer a limited explanation for the behaviour of organisations. This is particularly applicable in the case of business and marketing strategies for small and medium‐sized organisations in the retail sector. Terms such as “localisation” have been coined by researchers but the concept is yet to receive a valid interpretation as a marketing strategy from the perspective of the small retailer. This paper seeks first, to understand how “localisation” impacts on the business practices and marketing strategy of small retailers in Spain and Scotland. Second, the results should help lessen the gap between the concepts of globalisation and the localisation.

This explorative, comparative qualitative paper explores business practices and marketing strategies by small retail business owners in Seville (Spain) and Perth (UK) and the role of localisation, using three key themes – place, people and promotion.

This paper suggests that place attractiveness, word‐of‐mouth customer‐to‐customer marketing, customer service beyond simple product advice, community embeddedness and informal but meaningful interpersonal relations between shop owner and customers are some of the key pillars of the “localisation” strategic marketing approach pursued by small retailers in Perth and Seville. This indicates a counterbalance to globalisation.

The pursuit of a deliberate localisation approach by small retailers may be key to their sustainable competitiveness in the knowledge that these elements would not be easily replicated by larger or global retailers.

Il Cuore di Novi is an example of an innovative way of regenerating and revitalising a town centre in Italy in the face of intense competition from large out‐of‐town retail and residential developements. This has been achieved through a combination of research surveys linked to an organic approach to marketing strategy and effective engagement with the town's local authority and small‐ and medium‐sized retailers. The paper's aim is to discuss this development.

This case study provides an example of retailer‐led town centre management in the Novi Ligure (Italy) and builds on previous work by Molinillo Jiménez, Sánchez del Río, Vilariño et al. and Coca‐Stefaniak et al.

Southern European models of retailer‐led town centre management, known in Italy as centro commerciale naturale and discussed by Valente, Zanderighi, Moras et al. and Codato et al. can be effective in competing with large out‐of‐town shopping centres through innovative place management and marketing techniques in town centres based on local know‐how, differentiation and customer service.

The case of Novi Ligure's successful retailer‐led town centre management scheme is unique in Italy in terms of its ability to integrate retail revitalisation with urban regeneration in a town centre. This scheme is ground‐breaking in Italy and provides further evidence of the success of Southern European bottom‐up retailer‐led place management models. This study is of value to practitioners and policy makers in place management, town centre management, local authority planning officers, urban regeneration consultants, academics, small‐ and medium‐sized independent retailers, community leaders and town centre residents.

Dark tourism and, more specifically, visitor experiences at Nazi concentration camp memorials are emerging fields of research in tourism studies and destination management. The purpose of this paper is to build on this growing body of knowledge and it aims to focus on the Second World War Nazi concentration camp at Dachau in Germany to explore the psychological impact of the site on its visitors as well as critical self-reflection processes triggered by this experience.

This micro-netnography resulted in 15 online semi-structured interviews carried out with people who visited Dachau between 2003 and 2015. The interviews involved participants from 11 different nationalities and a range of age groups.

This study has shown that emotions that surface during a tourist’s visit to a concentration camp destination can linger well after they have left the site. In fact, feelings of sadness, depression, anger and existential questions can haunt visitors for a considerable amount of time after their visit. Further reflections by visitors also included a more critical appreciation of world affairs. This is of particular significance when considering the behaviour of tourists in an urban setting.

This research builds on previous dark tourism studies related to the on-site emotions experienced by visitors to concentration camp memorial sites and their travel motivation but takes this knowledge further by exploring the hitherto uncharted longer-term post-experience impacts of these sites on their visitors. Recommendations for dark tourism destination practitioners and academics are also provided based in a critical discussion of the research.

The Light Night initiative currently under development in the UK offers an innovative approach to revitalising town and city centres by involving residents and visitors through culture and the arts. This initiative is based on the successful Nuit Blanche (White Night) culture‐led urban revitalisation model tested in cities like Brussels, Madrid, Montreal, Rome, São Paulo, Skopje and Toronto, where the Nuit Blanche programme alone resulted in an estimated $4.9 million economic impact on the city and attracted 800,000 people (Toronto). This paper aims to review elements of good practice internationally in the implementation of this concept and suggest a way forward for its realisation in the UK.

This case study builds on the 24‐hour city concept and provides a practical example of how culture‐led urban revitalisation through the Light Night programme can be implemented in Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham and Sheffield based on successful international experiences.

Evidence gathered through a review of the literature provided in this case study would suggest that community involvement through creative culture‐led urban revitalisation initiatives can be instrumental in developing sustainable places and communities. Furthermore, it may provide a pathway towards overcoming some of the negative perceptions associated with the night‐time economy in many British town and city centres. The Light Night programme provides an opportunity for key social stakeholders to implement this through its focus on shared culture, history and identity.

This paper reviews the evolution of the European Nuit Blanche initiative using a case study approach, and its interpretation in the UK through the Light Night programme. It further explores the economic, cultural and social benefits of Light Nights and Nuit Blanche on community cohesion, tourism and regeneration. This paper is of value to practitioners and policy‐makers in place marketing, town centre management, local authority economic development officers, business managers, urban regeneration consultants, academics, tourism officers, community leaders and town centre residents.

Town centre management (TCM) schemes in Spain have generally evolved primarily from a retail perspective, led by small and medium sized (SME) retailers. However, their development has often focused on business goals (e.g. profit, increase in footfall, etc). In doing so, they have often overlooked the very social issues that have embedded retail historically in the socio‐economic matrix of our towns and cities. This paper, adopting a case‐study approach, seeks to re‐address this imbalance by exploring some of the key success factors of Gran Centre Granollers (GCG) – one of Spain's most advanced retailer‐led TCM schemes located in Granollers (near Barcelona).

This paper, adopting a case‐study approach, explores some of the key success factors ofGCC..

GCG's visionary motto of “city, culture and commerce” and its inclusive approach to the management of the area's stakeholders have captured the imagination of the town's independent retailers (75 per cent of them are members of the scheme). It has also proved pivotal in engaging the town's residents with the scheme's vision, purpose and ethical values. This is reflected in the success of their customer loyalty credit card initiative and the steady growth of the scheme's membership from ten to three hundred businesses in the last ten years.

This case study should be of interest to town centre managers, SME retailers, researchers in the social sciences and students of urban regeneration and retail management.