Towards a conceptualisation of smart tourists and their role within the smart destination scenario

ABSTRACT

‘Smart tourism’ and ‘smart destinations’ have been gaining attention as new frameworks within which to understand the impact the latest information and communication technologies (ICTs) have on the relationship between businesses, destinations and tourists. However, there is a crucial element of the smart tourism ecosystem that has been rather neglected in research hitherto: the tourists themselves. By acknowledging a shift in tourists’ behaviour due to the advent of disruptive factors, this paper conceptualises the recently emerged notion of ‘the smart tourist’. This new type of tourist is profiled through a description of their attitudes and behaviours, and their role within the smart destination scenario is depicted. By taking a consumer-centric perspective and framing the conceptualisation within the relevant theories, this paper contributes to the current body of knowledge on tourism in a highly technological context and facilitates bridging smart tourism theoretical foundations with empirical research. The observed transformation in tourists’ behaviour and its encapsulation in the smart tourist conceptualisation reveal critical managerial implications for both destination management organisations and businesses in the rapidly changing smart tourism ecosystem.

摘要

‘智慧旅游’和‘智慧目的地’作为一个可以了解最新信息和通信技术(ICT) 对企业，目的地和旅游者之间的关系影响的新框架越来越受到人们的关注。然而，智慧旅游生态系统的一个关键因素一直以来都被忽视：旅游者自身。通过承认由于破坏性因素的出现导致游客行为的转变，本文对最近出现的‘智慧型旅游者’观念进行了概念化。通过对其的态度和行为的描述，本文描绘了这种新型旅游者及他们在智慧目的地情景中的角色。本文以消费者为中心的观点，在相关理论的框架下为当前的旅游知识体系做出了贡献，并为智慧旅游的理论基础与实证研究打下了坚实的基础。观察到的游客行为转变及其在智慧旅游概念化中的封装揭示了在快速变化的智慧旅游生态系统中目的地管理组织和企业的重要管理意义。

KEYWORDS:

• Smart tourism
• smart tourism destination
• ICTs
• tourist behaviour
• smart tourist

关键词:

• 智慧旅游
• 智慧目的地
• 信息通信技术
• 旅游行为
• 智慧型旅游者

Acknowledgments

Research carried out within the project ‘Analysis of planning processes applied to smart cities and smart tourism destinations. Balance and methodological proposal for tourist spaces: Smart Tourism Planning’ (CSO2017-82592-R) under the Spanish National R&D&I Plan and Grant no. BES-2015-073909, funded by the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Francisco Femenia-Serra http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3829-6196

Barbara Neuhofer http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7871-5060

Josep A. Ivars-Baidal http://orcid.org/0000-0002-9238-2792

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish State Secretariat for Research, Development and Innovation, Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness. Grant: BES-2015-073909 & project: CSO2017-82592-R.