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This study aims to describe the concept of smart tourism, placing emphasis on the smart tourism ecosystem and value co-creation concept within the system at a destination level. The work also summarizes the key challenges associated with smart tourism implementation and development.

The study was conducted as a critical literature review, discussing the outcomes of a wide range and scope of relevant academic literature on the chosen concepts.

Smart tourism can be described as the use of information and communication technology (ICT) technologies to facilitate and enrich tourism products, services and experiences. Within the smart tourism ecosystem, all stakeholders – customers, suppliers, intermediates, the public sector, service providers, destination management organizations and others –participate in the synergies and value co-creation, also share the benefits from it. The ultimate aim of a smart tourism ecosystem is to create sustainable economic, social and environmental benefits for all and promote destination competitiveness. Smart tourism implementation is also associated with several challenges, of which the most important are participation, an overwhelming amount of data, data privacy and technology adoption.

The paper provides a critical review of the recent and relevant literature in order to define and discuss the mechanisms of value co-creation in a smart tourism ecosystem and the challenges associated with it.

Globalization, along with its technological developments, has brought important changes and developments in all sectors and led to innovation and modernization. In the tourism industry, the concept of smart destination, derived from the concept of smart city, has become widespread to meet the changing needs of tourists. In this context, smart technologies have started to be used in destinations, but more than technology in destinations is needed in terms of sustainability. To ensure sustainability in tourism, these smart technologies must also be eco-friendly. Smart destinations and eco-friendly practices are important for the sustainable development of the tourism industry. The use of technology in destinations can increase sustainability and efficiency, while using eco-friendly practices can protect and preserve the natural environment. In this study, first of all, smart destinations and the characteristics of smart destinations are discussed. Then, smart tourism and related eco-friendly practices are argued. Following this, information about the future of smart destinations is given, and assumptions are mentioned. Afterward, problems and solutions are discussed. Finally, the study has been completed with the conclusion part. The findings of the study revealed that the concept of green especially comes to the fore in smart destinations, that there are studies to prevent all kinds of pollution (air, noise, etc.), and applications such as smart parking systems, smart lighting systems, augmented reality (AR), and virtual reality (VR) are given importance.

The smart destination can be defined as a destination that deploys information communications technologies (ICTs) and other technological tools for interactive/participative engagement with prospective visitors. The rationale is to enhance the residents' quality of life as well as the tourists' experiences of the destinations they visit. This chapter discusses about digitization strategies and on marketing superstructures affecting destinations. It advances a conceptual framework through the development of an Attracting, Stay, and Return (ASR) Model that is suitable for smart destinations. It relies on descriptive case studies to conceptualize smart tourism destinations. This contribution reiterates the importance of having a well-designed website that presents appropriate content to entice the prospective travelers' curiosity about destinations. It offers valuable insights and advances new knowledge on smart marketing approaches that are intended to increase the destination management organizations' outreach with tourists at each stage of the ASR Model.

The aim of the study is to determine the benefits of transforming a destination into smart destination (SD) to restart tourism after the COVID-19 outbreak, to match the dimensions of SD with restarting strategies, and to make conceptual inferences to serve this. For this purpose, two reports published by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) in 2020 were examined: Priorities for Tourism Recovery and Global Guidelines to Restart Tourism. Then, the contents of these reports and the dimensions of SDs were matched and a guiding model for tourism decision-makers was developed.

This study aims to unveil the pivotal components and implementation pathways in the digital innovation of smart tourism destinations, while constructing a theoretical framework from a holistic perspective.

The research focuses on 31 significant urban smart tourism destinations in China. Secondary data was collected through manual search supplemented by big data scraping, whereas primary data was obtained from interviews with municipal tourism authorities. Grounded theory was used to theoretically construct the phenomenon of digital innovation in smart tourism destinations.

This research has formulated a data-driven knowledge framework for digital innovation in smart tourism destinations. Core components include digital organizational innovation, smart data platforms, multi-stakeholder digital collaborative ecosystem and smart tourism scenario systems. Destinations can achieve smart tourism scene innovation through closed innovation driven by smart data platforms or open innovation propelled by a multi-stakeholder digital collaborative ecosystem.

Based on insights from digital innovation practices, this study proposes a series of concrete recommendations aimed at assisting Destination Management Organizations in formulating and implementing more effective digital innovation strategies to enhance the sustainable digital competitiveness of destinations.

This study advances smart tourism destination innovation research from localized thinking to systemic thinking; extends digital innovation theory into the realm of smart tourism destination innovation; repositions the significance of knowledge in smart tourism destination innovation; and constructs a comprehensive framework for digital innovation in smart tourism destinations.

本研究致力于揭示智能旅游目的地数字创新中的核心组件及实施路径, 并创建一个整体视角下的理论框架。

研究选定中国31座重要城市型智能旅游目的地为研究对象。通过人工检索结合大数据抓取的方式收集二手资料, 以各市旅游主管部门为访谈对象收集一手资料。运用扎根理论对智能旅游目的地的数字创新现象进行理论构建。

本研究构建了一个数据型知识驱动的智能旅游目的地数字创新框架。其中, 核心组件包括数字组织创新、智慧数据平台、多主体数字协同生态和智慧旅游场景体系。目的地可通过智慧数据平台驱动的内生型创新或多主体数字协同生态推动的开放式创新, 实现智能旅游场景创新。

本研究将智能旅游目的地创新相关研究由局部思考推向系统思考; 将数字创新理论扩展到智能旅游目的地创新的研究中; 重新定位知识在智能旅游目的地创新中的重要地位; 以及构建了一个智能旅游目的地数字创新整体框架。

本研究基于数字创新实践洞察, 提出了一系列具体建议。旨在帮助目的地管理组织更有效地制定和实施数字创新策略, 以增强旅游目的地可持竞争力。

La investigación se centra en 31 destacados destinos turísticos urbanos inteligentes de China. Los datos secundarios se recopilaron mediante una búsqueda manual complementada con técnicas de big data, mientras que los datos primarios se obtuvieron a partir de entrevistas con las autoridades turísticas municipales. Se empleó la teoría fundamentada para construir teóricamente el fenómeno de la innovación digital en los destinos turísticos inteligentes.

Esta investigación tiene como objetivo identificar los componentes esenciales y las rutas de implementación de la innovación digital en destinos turísticos inteligentes, y construir un marco teórico desde una perspectiva holística.

Este estudio ha desarrollado un marco de conocimiento basado en datos para la innovación digital en destinos turísticos inteligentes. Los componentes centrales incluyen la innovación organizativa digital, la plataforma de datos inteligentes, el ecosistema digital colaborativo de múltiples actores y el sistema de escenarios turísticos inteligentes. Además, tanto la innovación endógena impulsada por la plataforma de datos inteligentes como la innovación abierta impulsada por el ecosistema digital colaborativo de múltiples actores contribuyen a la innovación por escenarios en destinos turísticos inteligentes.

A partir de las prácticas de innovación digital, este estudio ofrece una serie de recomendaciones dirigidas a las Organizaciones de Gestión de Destinos (DMOs) para la formulación e implementación de estrategias de innovación digital de manera más efectiva, y mejorar la competitividad digital sostenible de los destinos turísticos.

Este estudio avanza la investigación sobre innovación en destinos turísticos inteligentes desde el pensamiento localizado hasta el pensamiento sistémico; extiende la teoría de la innovación digital al ámbito de la innovación en destinos turísticos inteligentes; reposiciona la importancia del conocimiento en la innovación de destinos turísticos inteligentes; y construye un marco integral para la innovación digital en destinos turísticos inteligentes.

The conceptualization of smart emerged by technological advancements penetrated the tourism industry with the pace of globalization transformed the destinations providing digitalized products. Even though smart tourism destinations are initiated by advanced technologies, the notion evolved in embracing Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) project economic, social, and environmental proliferation. A tourism destination is counted as “smart” which provides advanced technologies to improve the quality of tourists' experiences and enhance the residents' quality of life. The structure of a smart tourism destination is established on four basic pillars that cover technology, innovation, accessibility, and sustainability issues. Designating the notion of smart into tourism destinations is extremely vital since the shifting paradigm of tourists’ demands concern sustainability. The development of smart in a tourism destination is a crucial concern for destination management organizations (DMOs) integrating key destination components with the dimensions of a smart city to enhance the tourists' satisfaction and competitiveness of the destination. Therefore, one aim of this chapter is to elucidate the association between key destination components with the dimensions of a smart city to reveal the related smart tourism destination applications. Moreover, cultural heritage in smart tourism destinations forms an important part of tourism both with its tangible and intangible resources which have been involved in the emergent era of digitalization inevitably with all parties and processes. Hence, another aim of this chapter is to examine the dimensional shift in cultural heritage tourism within the framework of digitalization. Sharing cases of digitization of cultural heritage from different parts of the world, this chapter also reflects that it is inevitable to benefit from digitization and ICTs in order to reach the SDGs on the scale of smart tourism destinations. Analysis of academic publications and the national and international reports of the related authorities sums the methodology used to conclude the study with suggestions of future research paths to develop the field.

This study assesses the impact of smart destination implementations in Malaga. Thus, this study aims to guide the transformation of destinations into smart destinations as well as the introduction of smart destination concept in the literature.

Malaga was selected because it was one of the two winners of 2020 European Capital of Smart Tourism competition as well as the winner in the accessibility category of the 2019. The research population lives in Malaga and has been professionally involved in smart destination implementations. Data were collected through a semi-structured interview of 14 smart-tourism experts in different career fields. Content analysis was applied to the findings.

Malaga has become a successful smart destination while it has had a great success in improving its attractiveness and competitiveness due to the developments in the past 20 years. Now, its citizens and tourists are very satisfied and have a higher and more attractive quality of life. Moreover, Malaga has become a leading destination, especially in accessibility and mobility.

Although smart destination is becoming popular topic day by day, almost all the studies are created to introduce the approach with secondary data. There are still only limited research studies conducted by primary data on a real smart destination case. Furthermore, Malaga is a quite good example to understand the importance of smart destination approach since the city has achieved to become an attractive and popular destination for both tourists and local residents.

The purpose of this study is to analyse Benidorm, San Sebastián, Gijón, Málaga, Tenerife Island and Santander smart tourist destinations (STDs) as a touristic model and example to follow by other destinations in Spain and all over the world.

To fulfil the stated objective, this study follows several phases that introduce and classify a set of measures implemented by the six Spanish smart destinations to be designed as a STD.

Findings suggest that being a STD requires a high cost, and this is only accessible to big destinations with enough resources. Of the 50 Spanish provinces, eight are STDs, and these are localised in coastal areas. Obviously, this challenge is not within the reach of any Spanish city. Moreover, findings of the current study prove that the six Spanish smart destinations have a good air accessibility through their six airports, but the accessibility in a STD is not just physical; this must provide digital accessibility to tourists through destination marketing organisation’s website and app that will supply them with information on a wide range of services, including accommodations, tourist attractions, restaurants, public transport, museums and monuments’ locations, amongst many others.

From a resident point of view, a STD cannot be only focused on a technological and tourism context; a STD also requires knowing and meeting the needs of local residents and having a voice in decision-making processes. Hence, this study shows a new perspective on STDs that will benefit the literature on STDs.

The current study is designed to investigate the factors that foster the framing of destination competitiveness and establish the factors that drive the contribution of tourism innovations to economic growth in smart tourism destinations.

A four-year panel data were extracted from the World Economic Forum's travel and tourism competitiveness index and data were analysed using Poisson Pseudo Maximum Likelihood regression model.

The findings demonstrate that both the enabling environment and airport infrastructure significantly affect tourism's impact on the economy of the selected smart European tourism destinations. Conversely, human resources and general infrastructure display a negative correlation with tourism's contribution to the economy. However, no data in the sample support the idea that tourism policies, government prioritization or readiness of tourism information and communication technologies impact tourism's contribution to the economy. Additionally, the marginal effects indicate that improving the enabling environment and airport infrastructure can generate additional benefits for the economy through tourism.

The uniqueness of this study is the integration of smart tourism destinations with the measure of destination competitiveness to provide an empirical bridge that links tourism competitiveness to economic growth.

The aim is to analyse a regional cultural tourism object in Latvia, focusing on the elements of smart tourism as an indication of opportunities provided by digital technologies and its practical application.

The research employed data from the Central Statistical Office of the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter CSB), publicly available reports by ministries of the Republic of Latvia (hereinafter RoL), the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (hereinafter OECD) etc., as well as summarized scientific findings on the research problem. Data on the use of smart technology elements at the Rundale Palace Museum were obtained in two ways: from public reports on the museum in 2016–2021 and additionally an expert interview was conducted with the deputy director of the museum. The expert interview questions were semi-structured.

The characteristics of cultural tourism indicate the use of ICT in destination management, marketing, planning, process organization and changes in organizational culture. The recognizable elements of smart cultural tourism are the smart travel destination, smart experiences and smart business. 4.0 G technologies are required to ensure the functioning of the elements: artificial intelligence, big data analytics, the Internet of things, blockchain, cloud computing, virtual and augmented reality. Smart cultural tourism is a unified system involving several levels of national and municipal institutions, organizations, entrepreneurs and NGOs. The implementation of smart cultural tourism requires centralized funding to implement and manage digital connectivity between the stakeholders. In the Latvian and Baltic context, the Rundale Palace Museum has been established as a cultural tourism object – a Renaissance palace museum, which is the second most visited museum in Latvia. The Rundale Palace Museum digitizes the services it provides within its financial possibilities, e.g. cloud data for remote purchase of visitor tickets, self-registration of visitors in the single visitor system, augmented reality and mobile applications. The Internet of things is not used, while artificial intelligence is partially used by the museum. At the Rundale Palace Museum as a smart tourist destination, the research did not identify the following features: a technological platform, a smart destination strategy and use of big data. Further, public-private consumer cooperation is not in place. The Rundale Palace Museum was not identified as an element of smart business, as a single smart business ecosystem for cultural tourism has not been created in the entirety of Latvia as yet nor in the Zemgale region in particular. Communication between cooperation partners occurred via telephone.

Few research studies on digital solutions for cultural tourism in Latvia and in the region of Zemgale, where the largest Renaissance pearl in Latvia and the Baltic States – the Rundale Palace Museum – is located, have been conducted; hence, this study contributes to addressing the research gap.