Pages: 9

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 7

Tourism destinations in the 21st century are exposed to complex pressures arising from sociodemographic, political, economic, environmental and technological challenges. These dynamics have significantly altered the requirements and expectations placed upon destination managers, necessitating innovative responses in both strategic planning and operational practice. Within this evolving context, the concept of smart tourism has emerged as a relatively recent yet rapidly expanding phenomenon. It has gained scholarly and policy attention primarily within the last decade, and its trajectory indicates growing relevance and adoption across tourism destinations all over the world.

Pages: 56

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 17

The integration of smart technologies into tourism has significantly reshaped how destinations are managed, marketed and experienced. This study presents a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of scholarly output at the intersection of smart tourism and destination marketing, based on Scopus-indexed publications from 2013 to 2024. Through performance analysis and science mapping techniques, the study identifies key publication trends, influential sources, prolific authors, leading institutions and dominant thematic clusters. Results reveal a marked growth in academic interest since 2016, with a notable acceleration in 2024, highlighting central themes such as tourist behaviour, technology adoption and smart destination development. Co-word and thematic analyses further uncover both consolidated and emerging research areas, including artificial intelligence, immersive technologies and stakeholder engagement. The study offers theoretical contributions by clarifying the conceptual evolution of the field and practical insights for destination management organisations seeking to align innovation with competitiveness and sustainability. It concludes with a forward-looking research agenda that calls for greater theoretical integration, ethical scrutiny and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Pages: 22

Smart tourism has emerged as a global phenomenon of tourism development; however, its interpretation and implementation vary across world regions. This chapter analyses regional differences in smart tourism development using a qualitative content analysis of strategic documents, policy reports and media sources. It identifies the key drivers, barriers and regional specificities of smart tourism development. The findings reveal a diverse landscape. Europe exhibits strong institutional backing and balanced smartness, Asia leads in technological innovation, Middle East and North Africa emphasise new visitor experiences, Sub-Saharan Africa shows isolated successes constrained by systemic challenges, North America applies data-driven strategies with uneven support, some Latin American countries are adopting and/or adapting the Spanish smart destination model and Australia integrates smart governance through data infrastructure. These insights contribute to a more contextualised understanding of smart tourism and underscore the need for comparative and regionally grounded research.

Pages: 15

This chapter explores how digital technologies are gradually reshaping the tourism landscape in developing tourism destinations, focusing on promoting sustainability and community participation. Although advanced tools such as the Internet of Things and artificial intelligence are still at an early stage in the destinations, basic platforms exist such as the tourism portal that have started improving access to travel information and booking support. The chapter highlights how technology is being adapted to suit the needs and realities of mountain communities in a developing destination. It also highlights barriers such as limited infrastructure, digital illiteracy and financial limits. Though small barriers, small innovations are building towards a more inclusive and responsible tourism sector. Finally, implications are offered to promote digital readiness while safeguarding the culture and environment of destinations and aspiring the balance between tradition, sustainability and future innovation.

Pages: 71

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 21

This chapter examines the role of tourism data spaces as a transformative tool for enhancing tourists’ experiences in the present digital era. These spaces are presented as federated, secure and interoperable environments that enable ethical data-sharing among tourism stakeholders, such as public institutions, private companies and local communities. The chapter provides a conceptual foundation for understanding how tourism data spaces contribute to enhancing tourists’ experiences while ensuring smart, inclusive and sustainable tourism. The main contribution of the chapter lies in demonstrating how tourism data spaces enhance tourists’ experiences through the integration of heterogeneous data sources as well as real-time data, artificial intelligence solutions, the Internet of Things and collaborative governance. The chapter identifies key domains in which tourism data spaces add value: hyper-personalisation, visitor flow management, unbalanced tourism, crisis prevention and anticipation, inclusive service design and environmental sustainability.

Pages: 22

This chapter aims to identify and analyse distinct segments of tourists based on their use of smart technologies during trip planning and in-destination experiences. A latent class analysis was employed to classify tourists according to their use of information sources and smart technologies. Data were collected through surveys of tourists who had visited smart cities, yielding a total of 1,051 valid responses, 526 from European cities and 525 from USA cities. The analysis revealed four distinct tourist segments: ‘receivers’, ‘technophobes’, ‘experience co-creators’ and ‘smart tourists’. This research introduces a novel segmentation framework within the tourism literature, offering empirical insights into the differentiated impact of smart technologies on tourist behaviour and preferences.

Pages: 26

This chapter introduces the problem of algorithmic bias in Artificial Intelligence applications from the perspective of the tourism and hospitality domain and smart tourism. It uses typical scenarios of tourist experience to examine different manifestations of AI bias in tourism and hospitality, and proposes a framework to understand its global implications, with specific reference to smart tourism. Adopting a narrative literature review approach, the chapter synthesises a wide array of studies on AI bias and consumer experiences, particularly in smart destination contexts. The chapter anticipates bias influence on typical tourist experiences, from incidences during pre-travel, during travel/on-site and post-travel phases, from the perspective of tourists and tourism providers. It reveals that most biases originate from AI use in online platforms, impacting tourists’ information searches and decision making, and also affecting the marketing operations of tourism providers. The chapter conceptualises the overall effect of AI on tourist experiences and outlines broader social impacts, managerial implications and effects on technology. This study is the first to address bias in AI applications and their implications in the tourism and hospitality context with a specific reference to smart destinations.

Pages: 90

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 17

This chapter analyses how destination marketing can move beyond its traditional commercial focus and be redefined as a data-driven public policy tool that supports adaptive governance in high-pressure tourism destinations. Using the case study of La Albufera Natural Park in València, one of the main protected natural areas in the metropolitan region, and the technological platform Connecta-Dival, this chapter examines how real-time monitoring of tourist flows through wi-fi sensor networks enables public administrations to manage tourist demand dynamically, in line with the economic, social and environmental sustainability principles promoted by the internationally recognised smart tourism destination model. Through a mixed-methods approach that combines strategic policy analysis with big data analytics of anonymised connectivity records, the study provides applied evidence illustrating the potential of real-time data to strengthen destination marketing policies and reposition them as tools for supporting more sustainable and inclusive public management.

Pages: 21

New insights from neuroscience and technology are required to enhance smart tourism destination marketing in a transformative world. Therefore, the role of wearable technology – such as smartwatches, smart glasses and other devices – is highly relevant to progress in the 21st century. In fact, these technologies can connect body and mind through integrated technological approaches, combining hardware and software with embodied performance. However, scientific literature is scarce regarding the analytical perspective applied to advance knowledge in smart tourism destination marketing. The main goal of this chapter is to identify how wearable technologies contribute to enhancing smart tourism destination marketing. The research is exploratory and descriptive, adopting both qualitative and quantitative methods. We employed a systematic literature review, supported by artificial intelligence through the Rayyan platform and textual analysis using the Iramuteq software, to deliver new insights from neuroscience and technology. These findings aim to guide and inspire those interested in innovative solutions within the smart tourism context.

Pages: 18

The chapter analyses the possibilities of the use of smart data in the context of destination management and marketing within the network science. Smart data are the combination of traditional data with big data, adding layers of veracity and value, facilitating real-time usage and the appropriate dissemination of trends. Traditional methods of collecting data in tourism destinations (e.g. surveys, archival records, accommodation statistics) provide past static data and their collection is often time-consuming and misleading (e.g. high non-response rate in surveys, counting only overnight stays). Therefore, there is a challenge in destination management and marketing of shifting attention to smart data and their analysis. As tourism destinations are complex systems, the network science is a powerful approach for investigating the structural characteristics and dynamics of destinations. Therefore, social network analysis based on smart data is used to examine the cooperation, leadership and knowledge transfer among destination stakeholders. Further, tourist behaviour is analysed by time series mapped into complex networks, while the analysis of their mobility using centrality measures of network analysis provides recommendations on the dynamic construct of a destination based on strategic visitor flows. The chapter fills the gap in the destination management and marketing research by providing recommendations for smarter data collection and analysis, which will be profitable for destination managers and marketers.

Pages: 18

Today, physical and virtual spaces are increasingly intertwined, transforming how tourists perceive, interact with and ultimately choose their travel destinations. This evolution significantly influences tourist behaviour across all stages of the customer journey. Virtual reality emerges as a powerful tool in an experiential destination’s marketing, offering immersive pre-visit experiences that allow potential tourists to explore a destination’s atmosphere and anticipate emotional responses before arrival. By integrating VR into marketing strategies, destinations can influence both the information search and decision-making phases of the tourist journey, effectively bridging the gap between real and virtual perceptions. This chapter explores how virtual reality can enhance the tourist experience by serving as a strategic instrument in destination marketing. To achieve this, a non-systematic literature review was conducted. This method allowed a flexible yet objective and rigorous analysis of existing research on key topics including tourist experience, the tourist customer journey, virtual reality and virtual experiential marketing. The chapter proposes a holistic model integrating virtual reality into the tourist experience and customer journey. Based on the findings, the chapter offers informed recommendations for tourism marketers and stakeholders seeking to leverage immersive technologies to better engage with prospective travellers and enrich their overall experience.

Pages: 14

This chapter examines how a destination can use smart tourism technologies to reshape its destination image and project cultural soft power. The chapter uses a case study methodology highlighting the rich cultural heritage in Iran and its tourism potential, which is limited by sanctions and negative media portrayals. Using a qualitative hermeneutic approach, it explores how tools such as social media, virtual reality and user-generated content can amplify cultural narratives, foster emotional engagement and challenge dominant perceptions. The findings highlight both the opportunities and constraints of digital diplomacy in politically sensitive contexts. By conceptualising destination image in relation to soft power and positioning smart tourism as the operational link between them, this chapter proposes a strategic framework enabling destinations with unfavourable reputations to reconstruct their image through the integration of culture, technology and narrative-driven approaches.

Pages: 6

No chapter abstract available.

Pages: 4

The edited volume offers a comprehensive and interdisciplinary examination of smart tourism and destination marketing, capturing the dynamic evolution of the field through theoretical advancements, methodological innovations and empirical case studies. It aimed to provide a platform for critical discussion on smart tourism and destination marketing, offering both theoretical perspectives and practical insights. Across its chapters, the book reveals how smart tourism is reshaping the tourism landscape, not merely through technological adoption, but also through the redefinition of governance, data analytics, stakeholder engagement and sustainability. The presented findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the smart tourism paradigm, its regional characteristics and its implications for sustainable and resilient tourism development and destination marketing.