A state-of-the-art review of smart tourism research

ABSTRACT

Using a mixed-method approach combining qualitative and quantitative review techniques, this study analyzed 86 articles to identify state-of-the-art thematic research trends and articulate knowledge domains in the smart tourism research. In particular, the thematic analysis identified 11 themes from the current smart tourism research. Results of the co-citation analysis identified and visualized four knowledge domains as the theoretical underpinning of existing smart tourism literature, thereby supplementing, and complementing the findings of the thematic analysis. The constituents of each theme and knowledge domain were discussed to reveal critical gaps and suggest future research directions.

KEYWORDS:

• Smart tourism
• smart hospitality
• literature review
• qualitative review
• co-citation analysis

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank the Institute of International Business and Governance, established with the substantial support of a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (UGC/IDS 16/17), for its support. We would also like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments to improve an early version of this paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.