Smart tourism: foundations and developments
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POSITION PAPER
Smart tourism: foundations and developments Ulrike Gretzel 1 & Marianna Sigala 2 & Zheng Xiang 3 & Chulmo Koo 4
Received: 1 June 2015 / Accepted: 9 July 2015 # Institute of Information Management, University of St. Gallen 2015
Abstract Smart tourism is a new buzzword applied to describe the increasing reliance of tourism destinations, their industries and their tourists on emerging forms of ICT that allow for massive amounts of data to be transformed into value propositions. However, it remains ill-defined as a concept, which hinders its theoretical development. The paper defines smart tourism, sheds light on current smart tourism trends, and then lays out its technological and business foundations. This is followed by a brief discussion on the prospects and drawbacks of smart tourism. The paper further draws attention to the great need for research to inform smart tourism development and management.
Responsible Editor: Rainer Alt * Chulmo Koo [email protected] Ulrike Gretzel [email protected] Marianna Sigala [email protected] Zheng Xiang [email protected] 1
UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Sir Fred Schonell Dr., St.Lucia, QLD 4072, Queensland, Australia
2
University of South Australia, 101 Currie Street, Adelaide 5000, South Australia, Australia
3
Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, VA 24061, USA
4
College of Hotel & Tourism Management, Kyung Hee University, Kyunheedaero 26, Heogi-dong, Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul 130-701, South Korea
Keywords Smart tourism . Smart technology . Smart business ecosystems . Business models . Open innovation . Big data . Internet of things
BSmart^ has become a new buzzword to describe technological, economic and social developments fuelled by technologies that rely on sensors, big data, open data, new ways of connectivity and exchange of information (e.g., Internet of Things, RFID, and NFC) as well as abilities to infer and reason. Höjer and Wangel (2015) argue that it is not so much the individual technological advances but rather the interconnection, synchronization and concerted use of different technologies that constitutes smartness. Harrison et al. (2010) conceptualize smart as exploiting operational, near-real-time real-world data, integrating and sharing data, and using complex analytics, modelling, optimization and visualization to make better operational decisions. The term has been added to cities (smart city) to describe efforts aimed at using technologies innovatively to achieve resource optimization, effective and fair governance, sustainability and quality of life. In connection with physical infrastructure (e.g., smart home, smart factory), the focus is on blurring the lines between the physical and the digital and on fostering technology integration. Added to technologies (smart phone, smart card, smart TV, etc.), it describes multifunctionality and high levels of connectivity. In the context of markets/economies (smart economy), it refers to tech
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