Smart tourism practice in the scope of sustainable tourism in emerging markets: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 outbreak has put tourism sustainability in question, especially in emerging markets. Since smart tourism has been widely applied in emerging markets and can support sustainability efforts, it is essential to identify the concern and motivation for sustainability and smart tourism in emerging markets. This literature study explores the concept, implementation, and technology utilization of sustainability and smart concepts in tourism. The PRISMA method was used to systematically review the literature by assessing sustainability and smart tourism in emerging markets in the context of methodologies, themes, research locations, and research settings. The results show that the previous researchers’ concern and interest in sustainable tourism and smart tourism research in developing markets are still focused on smartness, big data use, technology, and digital platforms related to the accessibility of tourism destinations. Meanwhile, the use of technology to achieve sustainable conditions is still not widely practiced in emerging markets. Future research on the smart sustainable tourism locus is prioritized. The usefulness of this approach lies in the smart sustainable tourism concept that can increase competitiveness in emerging markets, especially for rural and urban areas.

IMPACT STATEMENT

This research highlights the concern and motivation for sustainability and smart tourism in emerging markets. Because smart tourism has been widely applied in emerging markets and can support sustainability efforts. We report research on sustainable tourism and smart tourism in emerging market period 2012–January, 2022 to highlight research themes, research approaches, research methods, region of studies, and research settings. Current research is still limited to implemented sustainability and smartness concept in tourism area, especially in emerging market, there is still a gap that needs to be researched in the future by further examining the relationship between sustainable tourism and smart tourism in emerging market.

The findings show the previous researchers’ concern and interest in sustainable tourism and smart tourism research in developing markets are still focused on smartness, big data use, technology, and digital platforms related to the accessibility of tourism destinations. Meanwhile, the use of technology to achieve sustainable conditions is still not widely practiced in emerging markets. Future research on the smart sustainable tourism locus is prioritized. The usefulness of this approach lies in the smart sustainable tourism concept that can increase competitiveness in emerging markets, especially for rural and urban areas.

Keywords:

• Sustainable tourism
• smart tourism
• technology use
• systematic literature review

SUBJECTS:

• Tourism
• Tourism and the Environment
• Tourism Development/Impacts

1. Introduction

Tourism provides abundant opportunities to improve a country’s economy, contributing an average of around 10% to the GDP (UNWTO, 2019). It also significantly impacts tourism in emerging markets, which dominates the global market (Abou & Soliman, 2021). Practitioners and policymakers can use tourism strategies to transform natural resources into economic capital. An empirical study was performed on the relationship between economic growth and tourism growth in Organization for Economic Cooperation (OECD) and non-OECD countries (C. C. Lee & Chang, 2008). That study found a unidirectional causality relationship between tourism growth to economic development in OECD countries. However, surprisingly, they found a bidirectional relationship between tourism growth and economic development in non-OECD countries. It can be considered supporting evidence for a prediction by the World Tourism Organization (WTO) that 1.8 billion people will become tourists by 2030 (UNWTO, 2019). As a result, various countries competitively develop destination management strategies to display a positive image (Suman et al., 2012).

Tourism is always interesting to discuss because it comes from the human need to have fun. It can also become a business increasing the economic growth of a country. Tourism, in conducting its business, constantly interacts with stakeholders. These interactions are influenced by information and communication technology (ICT) (Buhalis & Law, 2008). Some allow actors in the tourism industry to create markets, carry out management practices, and create new competitive strategies. Technology transforms the static and practical aspects of tourism management and marketing into a dynamic process that allows market actors and tourism providers to shape and be affected by technology (Sigala, 2018). Technology and information are pivotal in creating innovation in tourism services, known as smart tourism (Boes et al., 2016). In the last few decades, smartness has become a trend worldwide. Smartness was first used as a smart planet concept, which then developed into smart cities (Hollands, 2008) and is currently further used in smart tourism destinations (Boes et al., 2015).

Smart cities and smart tourism have led to a paradigm shift in the tourism industry. Smart tourism is an evolutionary concept derived from traditional tourism, while e-tourism is a technology-based innovation. Moreover, smart tourism is inspired by smart cities, where smart tourism is an innovative tourist destination built on modern technological infrastructure to promote sustainable tourism development and designed to be accessible. Smart tourism also means effectively managing tourism resources and integrating all tourism service providers at micro and macro levels with sustainable tourism development (Lamsfus et al., 2015). The main goal of implementing smart tourism is to increase tourism competitiveness by creating memorable experiences, providing practical and convenient services through smart services, and improving the tourism business (Gretzel, Sigala, et al., 2015).

Tourism researchers have become interested in the concept of smart tourism. So, in the last few decades, research has emerged in this field, including discussions of information and data analysis, smart destinations, smart hospitality, technology adoption, technology and marketing, technology and tourism development, technology and tourist behavior, technology and tourist perception, technology, and tourist experience, and conceptual studies of smart tourism (Ye et al., 2020). Smart tourism has also been implemented in several developing countries such as China, Thailand, Hong Kong, Korea, and Japan, which have utilized big data, digital platforms, and technology for tourist accessibility (Adeola & Evans, 2019; Chai-Arayalert, 2020; Cheunkamon et al., 2020; Cimbaljević et al., 2021; Ghaderi et al., 2019; Kotoua & Ilkan, 2017; Lim et al., 2017; Lou et al., 2017; S. Park, Xu, et al., 2020; Tavitiyaman et al., 2021). However, the existing research on smart tourism is still insufficient to provide an in-depth understanding of the relationship between smart tourism and sustainability. Sustainability is crucial for tourism, and the smart tourism concept can contribute to this sustainable tourism ecosystem (Gretzel, Werthner, et al., 2015; Vargas-Sánchez, 2016). Thus, smart tourism should not be separated from sustainable tourism because smart tourism has a crucial role in environmental and economic sustainability (Gretzel, Sigala, et al., 2015).

The concept of sustainable tourism has been around for a long time and first appeared in the context of sustainable development. Sustainability is crucial and needed by the tourism sector to maintain the sustainability of resources as tourism capital. A new tourism model that is environmentally friendly appeared at the end of the twentieth century. Traditional tourist destinations must be restructured and diversified through sustainability to create tourism quality and competitiveness. Thus, based on the above phenomenon, tourism activities must consider sustainability.

Based on existing research, knowing more about how smart tourism can implement sustainability in the tourism industry is essential. Sustainability is the ability to survive through development by taking into account the appropriate environmental, economic, socio-cultural, and moral relations between humans and nature to ensure the long term while meeting the needs of the present and maintaining the integrity of heritage, ecology, biodiversity, and life support systems in the future (Ko, 2005). Since the publication of the Brundtland Report in 1987, sustainable development has become a reference for scientific research on the environment and a paradigm for the character of development (Alvarado-Herrera et al., 2017; Gore, 2015). Research on sustainability has been conducted in various fields, such as business (Amran et al., 2015; Dangelico & Pontrandolfo, 2015), agricultural production (Gouda et al., 2018; Lathuillière et al., 2018), industry (A. J. D. Lambert & Boons, 2002; Mayyas et al., 2012), urban development (Ahern, 2013; Shcherbina et al., 2017), the conceptual foundation of theoretical approaches such as the green economy (Bina, 2013; T. Wanner, 2015), and the circular economy (Schroeder et al., 2019; Suárez-Eiroa et al., 2019).

Researchers’ attention is now starting to focus on the area of sustainable tourism. The United States has been the leader in conducting research in this area. Australia followed it, and finally, Asian countries, such as China, Malaysia, and Taiwan, began to appear to research this area (Niñerola et al., 2019). Sustainable tourism research is also conducted in several countries in emerging markets. Several research topics related to sustainable tourism in emerging markets include identifying sustainability indicators and criteria in the context of tourism (Cernat & Gourdon, 2012; T. H. Lee et al., 2021; Thimm, 2017); the implementation of green marketing on the behavior of tourists visiting rural tourism (Chin et al., 2018), and how tourism affects its stakeholders is the key to success in implementing sustainability in tourism (Birendra et al., 2021). The research area of sustainability is fascinating and essential for academics because it can be viewed from various disciplines, including smart tourism.

Research in these two areas in emerging markets is fundamental and needed because smart tourism and sustainability can solve social problems (Boes et al., 2015), especially in emerging markets. Tourism in emerging markets is still characterized by mass tourism and over-tourism. The quantity of tourists is still the main priority compared to the quality of tourists. Uncontrolled tourism development makes destinations fragile and eventually lose their identity and original resources (Markose et al., 2022). Over-exploitation of nature in the context of tourism development causes damage to the local tourism industry (Markose et al., 2022). Considering the many negative impacts of mass tourism and over-tourism, it is necessary to push tourism towards sustainability (Markose et al., 2022) and smart tourism to facilitate the implementation of sustainability in developing markets.

Previous researchers have conducted many studies on sustainable and smart tourism separately. Seeing the importance of this research being conducted simultaneously to see and analyze the extent of sustainability and smart tourism research that has been conducted in emerging markets, this current study provides a new perspective on smart sustainable tourism in emerging markets as a new phenomenon while illustrating an old phenomenon that has existed in previous literature studies. Sources from different research fields may allow researchers to find solutions for their studies. This research is essential in supporting future research to encourage sustainable development through smart tourism.

2. Research question

A systematic review needs to be done to determine to what extent research on sustainable tourism, smart tourism, and the intersection of the two has been carried out. In addition, this systematic review study is conducted to find a conceptual model of smart, sustainable tourism with a comprehensive understanding of sustainability and smart tourism. Gaps in this study are also identified for future research. Specifically, the following research questions are addressed in this study:

• RQ1: What research has been done in sustainable tourism, smart tourism, and sustainable and smart tourism in emerging markets regarding research themes, research approaches, research methods, region of studies, and research settings?

• RQ2: What is the future research agenda in smart sustainable tourism?

3. Literature review

Sustainability offers a concept of development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the needs of future generations. This concept has become a reference for scientific research on environment and development character paradigms (Alvarado-Herrera et al., 2017; Gore, 2015). Based on this idea, the relationship between tourism and sustainable development became increasingly central and initiated sustainable tourism as a new conceptual framework. Traditional tourism is forced to restructure and diversify, making sustainability the cornerstone of quality tourism and tourism competitiveness. Sustainable tourism is defined as tourism that can meet the current needs of tourists and tourist destinations while protecting and managing resources in the future so that economic, social, cultural, and aesthetic needs can be met (Ribes et al., 2018).

Tourism businesses often exploit natural resources intensively with negative impacts (Rebollo & Baidal, 2003) on ecosystems, the environment, society, culture, and the economy. Therefore, a holistic balance is required among the four aspects, which must be considered to ensure short and long-term sustainable development for the tourism sector in the face of changes and unforeseen situations. The principles of sustainable tourism development include four aspects: environmental, economic, social, and cultural.

Sustainable tourism development has been used theoretically and practically (Bramwell, 1994). However, with the tourism development that has been achieved, the application of sustainability for tourism is still weak (Rebollo & Baidal, 2003). Sustainable tourism is still a desire rather than a reality, reflected in the low success of sustainable tourism implementation (Ribes et al., 2018). Additionally, previous studies related to sustainable tourism have used several theoretical approaches, such as stakeholder theory to describe sustainable tourism development and their roles based on stakeholder perspectives (Byrd, 2007), theory of planned behavior to analyze tourist behavior in the sustainability of green tourism (Ibnou-Laaroussi et al., 2020), componential theory and the interactionist perspective to see fostering creativity and sustainability in organizations (Allahar, 2018), and fuzzy set theory to measure sustainable ecotourism indicators. A previous literature review study describes several approaches often used in sustainable tourism studies, including planning, behavioral, perception, tourism research theory/methods, indicators and measurement, policy, stakeholders, impact studies, visitor management, marketing, climate change studies, and economics (Ruhanen et al., 2015).

Systematic literature studies on sustainable tourism have also been carried out and experienced significant developments, focusing on the theory, method, subject, perspective/approach, and geography of sustainable tourism (Ruhanen et al., 2015). Carter et al. (2015) illustrate sustainable tourism issues in developing countries by emphasizing themes and challenges related to ecotourism, community involvement, stakeholder perceptions and values, cultural heritage, and foreign investment in Cambodian tourism. Yoopetch and Nimsai (2019) map climate change knowledge, tourist behavior and impacts, empowerment, policymaking, and the role of cultural heritage on sustainable tourism development from 1990 to 2018. Furthermore, Niñerola et al. (2019) describe how sustainability was used in strategies for companies and tourist destinations from 1987 to 2018. Garrigos-Simon et al. (2018) describe the development status and the leading trends in impact, main journals, papers, topics, authors, institutions, and countries. Shafiee et al. (2019) created a model based on existing literature related to sustainability and smart tourism destination to attract policymakers to increase their awareness and as a strategy to develop smart tourism destinations. An and Alarcón (2020) describe how tourism villages can achieve sustainable tourism based on literature from 2009 to 2019. Meanwhile, L. Zhang and Zhang (2019) look at energy consumption behavior in sustainable tourism and tourism development. On the other hand, Streimikiene et al. (2021) analyze the scientific literature and attempt to find the primary forms and factors to strengthen tourism competitiveness by implementing economic, social, and environmental targets for tourism destination development.

However, limited literature systematically discusses how articles contribute to sustainable tourism and how they relate to technological advancements. Current technological advancements should be utilized to implement sustainability in tourism successfully. Moreover, in sustainable tourism development, technology has not received much attention in academia (Gössling, 2017). Therefore, the role of technology in implementing sustainable tourism needs to be further researched.

Technology currently has a role in tourism development, better known as the concept of smart tourism. Smart tourism adopts the concept of a smart city (Gretzel, Sigala, et al., 2015), where a smart tourist destination incorporates technology in tourism’s development and production process (D. Wang et al., 2013). The concept of smart tourism utilizes available technologies and techniques to create demand and supply so that it has value, pleasure, and experience for tourists that provide benefits for stakeholders and tourist destinations (Guo, 2014; D. Wang et al., 2013; Zhu et al., 2014). Smart tourism is an innovative tourism destination through advanced technological infrastructure that ensures sustainable tourism development, is accessible to everyone, facilitates tourist interaction and integration with the surrounding environment, improves the quality of experience in tourist destinations, and improves the quality of life of the surrounding community (Ribes et al., 2018).

The smart city concept offers information and communication technology fundamental in designing innovative urban spaces to support sustainability and improve the residents’ quality of life (Boes et al., 2015; Ribes et al., 2018). Smart city differs from smart tourism since the geographical boundaries are not yet clear and tourist-oriented rather than resident-oriented. Besides, the shared governance system is conducted through public-private bodies where all stakeholder interests are represented, and the scope of activities is more about tourist motivation and loyalty. There is also a strong emphasis on tourism competitiveness and improving the tourist experience (Ribes et al., 2018).

The management system requirements applied to smart tourism are based on four aspects: innovation, technology, universal accessibility, and sustainability (Ribes et al., 2018). The main objective of smart tourism is to combine the economic dimension with a competitiveness component, the social aspect related to people’s quality of life, and the environmental dimension related to the efficient management of natural resources. Therefore, without sustainability, tourism cannot be conceptualized as smart tourism.

The elements contained in the concepts of sustainability and smartness have many similarities. Tourism cannot be considered smart if there is no concept of sustainability in it. Perles Ribes and Ivars Baidal (2018) illustrate that incorporating sustainability elements into tourism will give it smartness. Within the concept of sustainability, the pillars of sustainability are highlighted as a function of governance, part of the elements that belong to the concept of smart tourism. Therefore, the concept of smart tourism is closely related to sustainability because if sustainability, an element of smart tourism, has not been achieved, it is difficult to achieve the concept of smart tourism (Ribes et al., 2018). The explanation of this concept is illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Shared elements between sustainability and smart tourism destinations.

Source: Adapted from a study by Perles Ribes and Ivars Baidal (2018).

Several researchers have analyzed the role of sustainability in smart cities from various perspectives and concluded that sustainability is still underdeveloped. There is still little research on the smart city framework, which should be better integrated into the conceptual smart city (Haarstad, 2020; Simon et al., 2017). Perles Ribes and Ivars Baidal (2018) recommend smart sustainability for cities and tourism to focus on the sustainability dimension. To date, the literature on smart tourism focuses on technological infrastructure (public transport networks, power grids, infrastructure related to the water cycle, telecommunications networks, and smart buildings) (Ribes et al., 2018) and technological applications (Guo, 2014; D. Wang et al., 2013; Zhu et al., 2014). Meanwhile, Boes et al. (2015) have touched upon the idea of building smart tourism as a framework that combines competitiveness, sustainability, and inclusiveness based on the concept of Smart Cities. Therefore, this article discusses the concept of smart tourism, aiming to provide a holistic framework emphasizing sustainability. Smart tourism is committed to integrating technology into the ecosystem, but there is little discussion on the synergy between sustainable and smart tourism. Therefore, this research analyzes the role of technology in achieving sustainable tourism and thus creates a different tourism model.

4. Materials and methods

A systematic review is employed in this study to answer the research questions and attain the specified objectives. This review follows previous research for identification in the literature search (Siangchokyoo et al., 2020). The systematic review followed the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines (Moher et al., 2009). The review protocol describes the article selection criteria, search strategy, data extraction, and data analysis procedures (Figure 2).

4.1. Data source and search strategy

The first step in this study is to search for articles with topics relevant to the purpose of this review. This study employs Publish or Perish (PoP) software version 8 and Google Scholar to collect data for accessibility reasons. The PoP software comes from Tarma Software Research Pty Ltd., Melbourne (Bensman, 2011). A Scopus database search was prepared to retrieve peer-reviewed and published articles. The databases used were various scientific databases, such as Elsevier, Emerald, MDPI, Taylor, Francais, and Harzing’s Publish or Perish. We identified peer-reviewed studies with articles written in English. This study uses five keywords and two search processes for search strategy, with the first search using the terms ‘sustainable tourism’ and ‘smart tourism’ in the title and abstract. Then the second search uses the terms ‘emerging market’ and ‘developing country’ in the title with five combinations (see Table 1). That was conducted to ensure that the selected articles discuss the relevant themes and topics, namely sustainable tourism and smart tourism in emerging markets. Another aspect to note is the year of publication, which is limited to 2012 to January 2022. These periods are determined based on the emergence of ‘smart tourism’ in early 2012.

Table 1. Keyword search.

No	Keywords combination	Search fields
1	‘Smart tourism and sustainable tourism’	In: Topic (Title, Abstract, and Keywords)
2	‘Smart tourism and developing country’	In: Topic (Title, Abstract, and Keywords)
3	‘Smart tourism and emerging market’	In: Topic (Title, Abstract, and Keywords)
4	‘Sustainability tourism and developing country’	In: Topic (Title, Abstract, and Keywords)
5	‘Sustainability tourism and emerging market’	In: Topic (Title, Abstract, and Keywords)

4.2. Selection of studies

Titles and abstracts were independently reviewed using the above criteria to decide on the eligibility of articles to be reviewed in this study. Potentially relevant full texts were reviewed for final inclusion. The consensus was sought to resolve discrepancies and was conducted by one of the researchers (Y.K. or S.W.).

4.3. Data collection and extraction process

Data extraction and article analyses were conducted by two researchers independently. The data extracted from each study were recorded in the evidence table. Four authors of this article (Y.K., H.L., Y.A., S.W.) collected data from primary studies. A consensus was reached among the reviewers to resolve differences.

4.4. Eligibility criteria

The eligibility criteria relate to the inclusion and exclusion criteria of the systematic review study. The quality of a review is considered high if it only includes articles published in peer-reviewed journals (Mustak et al., 2013). Therefore, this study did not include conference articles, review articles, books, book chapters, and research notes.

Inclusion criteria formulated in this study include (1) articles in the scope of sustainable tourism, smart tourism, and both sustainable and smart tourism, (2) only journals in English and published in reputable journals with Scopus index ranking of Q1–Q3, and (3) abstract and title containing keywords ‘Smart tourism and sustainable tourism,’ ‘Smart tourism and developing country,’ ‘Smart tourism and emerging market,’ ‘Sustainability tourism and developing country,’ and ‘Sustainability tourism and emerging market.’

Meanwhile, exclusion criteria include (1) all articles published before 2012, (2) journals ranked below Q3, and (3) abstracts not containing keywords ‘Smart tourism and sustainable tourism,’ ‘Smart tourism and developing country,’ ‘Smart tourism and emerging market,’ ‘Sustainability tourism and developing country,’ and ‘Sustainability tourism and emerging market.’

4.5. Screening

Based on the search criteria, 1615 articles were collected, but 1467 are out of context, so there are 148 articles left. Based on the inclusion criteria, 148 articles were identified using the Scopus database. In the abstract screening process, based on exclusion criteria such the abstracts not containing keywords ‘Smart tourism and sustainable tourism’; ‘Smart tourism and developing country’; ‘Smart tourism and emerging market’; ‘Sustainability tourism and developing country’; and ‘Sustainability tourism and emerging market’ were excluded, because studies unrelated to sustainable and smart tourism. In this screening, 121 articles left for further in-depth review. Then, a further screening process was carried out so that only articles in Q1–Q3 ranking journals (based on the Scimago Journal and Country Rank websites) would be reviewed, leaving 115 articles to be reviewed. Four articles were omitted based on an in-depth review of full-text articles because based on exclusion criteria, they are outside the context of sustainable and smart tourism. The screening process results in 111 articles meeting the eligibility criteria to be reviewed in the next step of this study.

4.6. Data extraction and analysis

The listed studies were organized by year of publication, and the articles were coded by number. A search based on the inclusion criteria yielded a total of 121 articles. After applying the exclusion criteria, the number of relevant articles was narrowed to 111. Content analysis was used to analyze the articles based on the strategies and procedures developed in a previous study (Albeha et al., 2020). Content analysis is a research technique that systematically analyses and describes the content of writings, such as newspapers, books, and journal articles, to draw valid conclusions in a defined context (Dami, 2021; Vogt, 2005). This content analysis relates to the critical and reflective study of sustainable tourism and smart tourism. This research seeks an in-depth understanding of related research that carries the concept of sustainable tourism and smart tourism in emerging markets. The primary purpose of content analysis is to find answers to the questions: how research has been conducted in smart sustainable tourism, especially in emerging markets? What future research could be related to smart sustainable tourism?

The content analysis method is used to select the documents relevant to the research objectives. We obtained representative texts on sustainable tourism and smart tourism in emerging markets. Publications related to the research topic were determined based on keywords and phrases and document search results in 111 key articles related to the research topic. The rigorously selected articles were then analyzed on research themes, research approaches, research methods, regions of study, and research settings to be further grouped based on the field of study. We also identify the words that can be coded: the number of articles discussing sustainable and smart tourism in emerging markets. Therefore, this study can focus on sustainable and smart tourism studies in emerging markets and unveil the dominant and underexplored topics, thus providing opportunities for future research.

5. Results

5.1. Descriptive analysis

The tourism literature on sustainability and smartness concepts sharply increased in 2019–2021. Articles generated during these periods accounted for 76% of the search results (see Figure 3). Based on the results of the search results, the journals publishing most of the articles related to ‘sustainable tourism’ and ‘smart tourism’ are Sustainability journal, with 32 articles (29%), followed by Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, with seven articles (6%), Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, Current Issues in Tourism, and Journal of Sustainable Tourism, each of which amounted to 6 articles (5%) (see Figure 4).

Figure 2. PRISMA flowchart.

Figure 3. Article published on sustainable tourism and smart tourism by year (2012–2022).

The final sample of this study consisted of 111 articles collected from 35 different journals. Table 2 summarizes the distribution of journals, focusing on the journal’s disciplinary area as defined by the Scimago Journal and Rank (SJR). The research finding shows that 83% of publications appeared in top journals (Q1), 14% in Q2 journals, and 3% in Q3 journals. The articles discovered were scattered from various research journals in varying quantities. The journal with the most articles is the Sustainability journal having an impact factor of 0.66, a Q1 rating on SJR, and an H-index of 109 (Table 2).

The sustainability concept has been around for decades since Malthus, in 1798, was concerned about land availability in England due to the population explosion. Then, Meadows’ The Limit to Growth in 1972 described economic growth limited by the availability of natural resources. Limited resources make goods and services unable to be produced continuously. This concept became a challenge for neo-classical economic development at that time because sustainable development was a development that could meet the needs of the present without compromising the right to fulfill the needs of future generations. Sustainability is an initiative that contributes positively to four dimensions: economic, environmental, ethical, and social (Storey, 2016). Research on sustainability is also carried out in various fields, such as in the business sector (Amran et al., 2015; Dangelico & Pontrandolfo, 2015), agricultural production (Lathuillière et al., 2018; Mohamed & Gouda, 2018), industrial sector (L. Lambert, 2003; Mayyas et al., 2012), and urban development (Ahern, 2013). Besides, it serves as the conceptual basis for theoretical approaches such as the green economy (Bina, 2013; T. Wanner, 2015)

The concept of sustainable tourism first emerged in the context of sustainable development. It reflects the condition of the environment at the end of the twentieth century and the needs of the tourism sector in the socio-economic context as a new tourism model. Traditional tourist destinations are forced to focus on restructuring and diversification to make sustainability the cornerstone of quality and competitiveness in the tourism sector. In 1993, this focus was instituted by the Fifth European Community Policy and Action Program about the Environment and Sustainable Development (1993–2000), entitled ‘Towards Sustainability’ (Delgado & Palomeque, 2012).

This program aims to change the growth model and promote sustainable development, especially in the tourism sector. Since then, the relationship between tourism and sustainable development has become increasingly central and has initiated sustainable tourism as a new conceptual framework. The tourism industry is dynamic, unstable, and unpredictable, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus, the sustainability of the tourism industry is being questioned, and it must adapt immediately. The pandemic has forced the use of technology in many aspects to keep social activities and functions running. The concept of ‘smartness,’ widely used today, implies that it can improve sustainability through the efficient use of technology (González-Reverté, 2019).

Figure 4. Article distribution from 2012–2022.

In the last few decades, there has been a dramatic rise in the concept of smart tourism as a form of smart city development. Tourism is at the forefront of digitizing tourism services because it integrates technology into the physical environment of a tourist destination by utilizing technology. The application of the smart tourism concept aims to solve the problem of sustaining tourism after COVID-19 through technology, creating a tourism governance mechanism, increasing the tourism experience, transparency in information management, and reducing energy costs resulting from tourism activities. The concepts of sustainability and smartness are inseparable because the concept of smartness can make a clear contribution to increasing sustainability (Ribes et al., 2018).

Table 2. Distribution of journals.

Journal	SJR (2022)	IF (SJR)
Tourism Management	3.38	Q1
Journal of Destination Marketing & Management	1.75	Q1
Journal of Sustainable Tourism	2.48	Q1
International Journal of Information Management	4.58	Q1
Sustainable Development	1.32	Q1
Sustainability	0.66	Q1
Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management	2	Q1
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management	2.29	Q1
Current Issues in Tourism	1.84	Q1
Habitat International	1.25	Q1
Annals of Tourism Research	3.15	Q1
Information Technology & Tourism	1.04	Q1
Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research	0.89	Q1
Tourism Review	1.48	Q1
Journal of Travel Research	3.29	Q1
Tourism Recreation Research	0.88	Q1
Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing	2.05	Q1
Science of the Total Environment	1.81	Q1
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology	1.21	Q1
Journal of Innovation & Knowledge	2.17	Q1
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management	2.29	Q1
Tourism Geographies	2.27	Q1
Tourism Planning & Development	0.84	Q1
Tourism Management Perspectives	1.76	Q1
Journal of Urban Technology	1.4	Q1
Journal of Business Research	2.32	Q1
Ecological Indicators	1.28	Q1
International Journal of Tourism Cities	0.71	Q1
Journal of Tourism Futures	0.81	Q1
International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research	0.6	Q2
Microprocessors and Microsystems	0.54	Q2
Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes	0.39	Q2
Journal of Outdoor Recreation and Tourism	0.69	Q2
Cogent Social Sciences	0.36	Q2
Scientific and Technical Information Processing	0.26	Q3

Based on our study results, sustainability research from 2012 to early 2022 in the tourism sector amounted to 23% (see Figure 5). Meanwhile, it was surprising that the proportion of smart tourism studies was 59%. It proves that many researchers and practitioners use smart tourism concepts to develop tourism. However, research that discusses sustainability and smart tourism simultaneously in the context of tourism is only 18%, so based on this, research opportunities in sustainability and smart tourism are open for further study.

Figure 5. Research area distributions.

5.2. Research method

The dataset of this study reveals that the qualitative method is the most used research method, which is 51%. It is because there are more conceptual articles than empirical ones. The conceptual papers consist of a bibliometric analysis (19 articles), framework building (11 articles), case studies (7 articles), exploratory research (4 articles), and others. Meanwhile, articles using quantitative research methods are 31%, and those with Structural Equation Modeling-Partial Least Square (SEM-PLS) method have the most articles, namely 19. Then, the rank is followed by articles with the econometric modeling approach, analytic hierarchy process (AHP), IPA, and others. The remaining 18% are articles that use the mixed method (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Research methods.

5.3. Research themes

The current study finds various research fields grouped into three major themes: sustainability, smart tourism, and a combination of sustainable tourism and smart tourism. The sub-themes of each major theme are summarized in Table 3. The sub-theme extensively researched from 2012 to January 2022 within the scope of sustainable tourism is sustainable development and its concepts (16 articles), while the smart tourism sub-theme is the application, ICT, Big data, and mobile technology use in tourism (30 articles). In the combined theme of sustainable tourism and smart tourism, the sub-theme relates to innovation and big data for sustainability in tourism (7 articles). The sub-theme of sustainable development and concept research in the context of tourism has attracted the attention of many researchers to find the right concepts and frameworks for tourism because tourism has unique and different characteristics.

Table 3. Research themes and sub-themes.

Sustainability	Author	Method	Smart tourism	Author	Method	Sustainability & Smart Tourism	Author	Method
Sustainable indicator & criteria	Alfaro Navarro et al. (2020); Cernat & Gourdon (2012); T. H. Lee et al. (2021); Thimm (2017)	Principal Component Analysis (PCA); Systematic Literature Review; AHP; Description & Conceptual Framework	Smart tourism framework, planning, development, & implementation	Cavalheiro et al. (2020); Chen et al. (2021); Johnson & Samakovlis (2019); M. S. Khan et al. (2017); Lee et al. (2020); Samora-Arvela et al. (2020); D. Wang et al. (2013); Weaver & Moyle (2019); Weidenfeld (2018)	Theoretical triangulation; Systematic Literature Review; Key Performance Indicator; Description & Conceptual Framework; Multicriteria evaluation	Smart tourism from a sustainable tourism perspective	Dickinson et al. (2017)	Exploratory
Stakeholders in sustainable tourism	Birendra et al. (2021); de Lange & Dodds (2017); Szromek et al. (2021)	Case Study Approach; Circle of conflicts tools	Smart tourism destination & attraction	Boes et al. (2016); Cimbaljević et al. (2019); Fabry & Blanchet (2019); Gelter et al. (2021); Jovicic (2019); Rucci et al. (2021); Santos et al. (2021); Sigalat-Signes et al. (2020); J. Wang et al. (2020); X. Wang et al. (2016)	Case Study Approach; Description & Conceptual Framework; Exploratory; Systematic Literature Review; SEM-PLS; Factor analysis	Smart tourism and sustainable tourism combine for tourism application	Dalia Perkumiene et al. (2021); Lerario et al. (2017)	Mixed method;
Sustainable development & concept	Dávid et al. (2020); Fennell & Bowyer (2020); Hall (2019); He et al. (2018); Hua & Wondirad (2021); M. R. Khan et al. (2021); Kropinova (2021); Liburd et al. (2020); Marko Koščak et al. (2021); Nguyen et al. (2019); Orîndaru et al. (2021); Pan et al. (2018); S. Park, Chung, et al. (2020); Vicente et al. (2021); Villanueva-álvaro et al. (2017); A. Wanner et al. (2020)	Correspondence analysis & Multivariate graphical technique; Systematic Literature Review; Heterogeneous constructionism approach; Evolutionary Stable Strategy (ESS); mixed method; Co-design; Quasi-experimental research design; Description & Conceptual Framework; Univariate analysis & bivariate analysis; The Contingent Valuation Method (CVM); Simple panel data model; SEM-PLS; Assessment Tool and Reporting for National Tourism Development Strategies	Smart tourism indicator	Boes et al. (2015); Femenia-Serra et al. (2019); Foronda-Robles et al. (2020); Ivars-Baidal et al. (2021)	Case Study Approach; mixed method; The comparative territorial analysis; Holistic model	The concepts of sustainable development and smart tourism	González-Reverté (2019); Loaiza et al. (2019); Romão & Neuts (2017)	Content Analysis; mixed method; SEM-PLS
Green marketing in rural tourism	Chin et al. (2018)	SEM-PLS	Smart tourism ecosystem	J. H. Park et al. (2016)	Content analysis	Innovation and Big Data for Sustainability in tourism	Del Vecchio et al. (2018); Guilarte & Quintáns (2019); Lalicic & Weber-Sabil (2020); Mandal (2018); Souza et al. (2020); Tham & Sigala (2020); Xu et al. (2020)	Case Study Approach; Systematic Literature Review; Adopted serious gaming; SEM-PLS; Exploratory; Grounded theory method
Innovation in sustainable tourism	Della Corte et al. (2019); Santos et al. (2021)	Systematic Literature Review	Consumer behavior in smart tourism	Escandon-Barbosa & Salas-Paramo (2021); Kim et al. (2016)	Wordstat software & Regression analysis	Sustainable smart tourism destinations	Bhaduri & Pandey (2020); Shafiee et al. (2019)	SEM-PLS; Grounded theory method
			Application, ICT, Big data, & mobile technology use in tourism	Abou & Soliman (2021); Adeola & Evans (2019); Azis et al. (2020); Cai et al. (2019); Chai-Arayalert (2020); Cimbaljević et al. (2019); Gao (2021); Garcia-Madariaga et al. (2019); Ghaderi et al. (2019); Höpken et al. (2021); Hughes & Moscardo (2019); Kotoua & Ilkan (2017); Lalicic & Weismayer (2021); Law et al. (2018); T. Li et al. (2021); Lim et al. (2017); Lou et al. (2017); Mandić & Garbin Praničević (2019); Mazanec (2020); J. Park et al. (2021); S. Park, Xu, et al. (2020); Ramos-Soler et al. (2019); Safaeimanesh et al. (2021); Smirnov et al. (2018); Subawa et al. (2021); Tavitiyaman et al. (2021); Tribe & Mkono (2017); Tussyadiah (2020); Um & Chung (2021); Zhou & Sotiriadis (2021)	SEM-PLS; Regression analysis; Systematic Literature Review; Case Study Approach; Description & Conceptual Framework; The Neural Network; Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) & Artificial Neural Networks (ANN); Elements of futures and design thinking; Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses; SEM-PLS; Content analysis; mixed method; Design Science Research; Ethnographic & synthesized framework; Trajectory data mining approach; Exploratory factor analysis (EFA); Netnography; Econometric modeling methods	Sustainability index & smart tourism	H. Li et al. (2020)	An entropy method
			Systematic literature review of smart tourism	Dorcic et al. (2019)	Content Analysis	Social media & sustainable tourism	Shen et al. (2020)	Exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
			Innovation & smartness in tourism	Gomez-Oliva et al. (2019); Liu & Nijkamp (2019); Pawłowska-Legwand & Matoga (2021); Trinchini et al. (2019)	Mixed method; Econometric modeling methods; Description & Conceptual Framework; Logical Deductive approach	Tourism & sustainability digitalization	M. R. Khan et al. (2021); Menon et al. (2021)	SEM-PLS; mixed method
			The dark side of digital technology in tourism	Bourliataux-Lajoinie et al. (2019)	Systematic Literature Review
			Social media use	Cheunkamon et al. (2020); Nusair (2020)	SEM-PLS

The development of factors affecting sustainability in tourism also occurs, such as economic, socio-cultural, and ecological factors, acting as an assessment aspect of sustainable tourism with several predetermined criteria (Thimm, 2017). Besides, the implementation strategy to achieve sustainable tourism incorporates aspects of policy, institutions, finance, technology, and culture (Pan et al., 2018).

Meanwhile, as mentioned earlier, the sub-themes of the smart tourism theme that have been widely researched deal with applications, ICT, big data, and mobile technology use in tourism. That is why smart tourism is inseparable from technology and digitization; thus, many researchers are developing the concept of smart tourism through applications, big data, ICT, and others (Lim et al., 2017). Innovation is conducted by creating tourism applications by optimizing technical, social, and environmental subsystems into applications that can facilitate service processes and create multi-dimensional value experiences. In addition, the big data method was used to analyze information on travel patterns and tourist behavior through tourism data and scenic spot analysis, to reduce traffic pressure on tourist routes and facilitate tourist routes to reduce tourist traffic density in the future (Gao, 2021).

A comprehensive description is given of the research themes in the fields of sustainable tourism and smart tourism, which are summarized in the IPO (input, process, outcome) framework (see Figure 7). The IPO approach is part of a system thinking model describing the theme’s position in sustainable and smart tourism. The IPO approach uses three main components, input, process, and output, plus an additional conceptual component. The input components are based on internal factors that fuel the smart sustainable tourism process.

Figure 7. Research themes on sustainable tourism and smart tourism.

5.4. Region of study

Figure 8 shows the location or region of research on sustainability and smartness in tourism in emerging markets (based on the International Monetary Fund criteria). Most of the research is carried out in China (23%) because it dominates the developing market through the tourism sector. The concept of smart tourism has developed in China such as in the implementation of smart tourism based on the perspective of tourists (D. Wang et al., 2013), priority for the effectiveness of smart tourism (X. Wang et al., 2016), creation of smart tourism destination experiences (J. Wang et al., 2020), smart tourism planning (S. Zhang et al., 2020), and the impact of ICTs on culture and tourism industries’ convergence (Zhou & Sotiriadis, 2021).

Figure 8. Region of study in emerging markets.

However, research on sustainability concepts in China tourism has not been done sufficiently. Research on sustainability and smart tourism has also been carried out in various developing countries such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Serbia, with a percentage of 6% each, and India, Romania, Croatia, Poland, and Turkey, with a percentage of 4% each. The rest are conducted in Albania, Ghana, Monaco, 40 African countries, Ecuador, The Bahamas Island, Hungary, Bulgaria, Nepal, Mexico, Baltic Sea Region, Egypt, and Taiwan by 2% each. However, most sustainability and soft tourism research are based in Europe, with a percentage of 53%. It is because Europe is still the center of world tourism studies. The research conducted in Asia was 34%. The rest of the studies were conducted globally (6%), in Africa (4%), America (2%), and Canada (1%). Several countries in developing markets have begun to focus on economic development through tourism, so research in the context of tourism has developed, especially related to sustainability and smart tourism.

5.5. Research settings

The research that discusses sustainable and smart tourism in this article is reviewed based on where the research was conducted. Research settings on sustainable and smart tourism are conducted in several countries, with research settings in rural or urban areas. Figure 9 presents the research settings, where 56% of sustainable and smart tourism studies are conducted in urban areas. Meanwhile, research conducted in rural areas is only 19%. The studies conducted in both urban and rural areas are 18%. The remaining 7% of research was conducted elsewhere, apart from those two areas, such as taking data from the internet, reviewing tourist attractions, and other available big data. Research in urban areas has a large number because research on smart tourism is still focused on smart cities. The concept of smart tourism is the development of smart cities. Research in rural and combination research between the city and rural settings is still rare, thus opening up opportunities for further research.

Figure 9. Research settings.

6. Conclusion

The results of this study show that a qualitative approach is widely used in research on sustainable and smart tourism to describe the sustainability framework and the concept of smartness in the tourism area. The concept of smartness in tourism incorporates the concept of sustainability to support the concept of smartness from social, economic, and environmental aspects. This study found that the research themes of sustainability tourism and smart tourism are still being conducted partially. Meanwhile, research themes that combine these two into one separate framework concept are still minimal. Based on these findings, it is necessary to conduct research that combines the two concepts into one unit because, in the concept of smart tourism, there are also values embraced by the concept of sustainability. So, the values in these two concepts have the potential to synergize to achieve the same goal, namely smart sustainable tourism.

Finally, research on sustainable tourism and smart tourism has been conducted in developed countries such as Spain and other European countries, with historical tourist destinations as the primary study subjects. Meanwhile, research in Asian countries was conducted in China, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. The sustainability and smart tourism framework used in developed countries with tourism potential and similar geographical conditions can be applied to developing countries, especially in rural areas with environmental aspects as the research focus. Research in these two areas is still limited, especially in rural areas. So it would be excellent to research smart sustainable tourism in rural areas of emerging markets because it can increase GDP through local income improvement.

7. Discussion and implication

This study examines the existing literature on sustainable and smart tourism by reviewing 111 articles to identify and review the research methods used, research themes, regions of study, and research settings. Based on the objectives of this study, most studies used qualitative research methods because the concept of sustainability in tourism has not been clearly described. So most previous researchers attempted to explain the concept with various frameworks related to sustainable tourism (Dávid et al., 2020; Fennell & Bowyer, 2020; Hall, 2019; He et al., 2018; Hua & Wondirad, 2021; M. R. Khan et al., 2021).

Currently, the concept of sustainability in tourism is rising in developed countries; however, the opposite is happening in developing countries. The concept of sustainable smart tourism destinations was promoted in a previous study (Bhaduri & Pandey, 2020). Sustainability is a concept that is needed in the tourism sector. Sustainability requires a smart concept to provide convenience in implementing sustainability in the tourism sector. This study systematically reviews studies related to these two research areas to develop and explore knowledge resulting in a new terminology, namely smart sustainable tourism. The study defines smart sustainable tourism as the ability to survive through smart development that takes into account the right environmental, economic, socio-cultural, and moral relationship between people and nature to ensure smart long-term sustainability while meeting the needs of the present and maintaining the integrity of heritage, ecology, biodiversity, and life support systems in the future. This terminology helps to make the concept of smart sustainable tourism more easily understood. In addition, the findings of this study provide an overview of the topics of sustainable tourism and smart tourism, which are underexplored by researchers, thus filling the gap in the literature.

First, regarding the research method, the most sustainable and smart tourism research is analyzed using a qualitative approach. A qualitative approach describes how sustainable tourism and smart tourism frameworks are utilized (González-Reverté, 2019; Loaiza et al., 2019; Romão & Neuts, 2017). Considering this funding, future researchers can focus on particular themes by using a quantitative or mixed-method approach to measure the validity of sustainability and smart tourism variables in the tourism context. Besides, future studies may measure how the variables in the conceptual framework influence each other to support sustainability and smart tourism, thus providing diversity in sustainability and smart tourism research.

Second, in terms of research themes, many previous researchers studied sustainability in relation to tourism. In 2012, the concept of smart tourism began to emerge (Buhalis & Law, 2008), which was the development of the smart city concept. Since then, studies on sustainable tourism and smart tourism have been carried out separately. The COVID-19 pandemic has made researchers and practitioners compete to research to re-promote the tourism sector (Boes et al., 2015, 2016). This study presents research questions to be explored further on various subtopics of tourism research related to sustainability and smart tourism. This research also contributes to the theoretical perspective. The main contribution of this research is to offer a new sustainable tourism model by leveraging the concept of smart tourism in emerging markets. This research posits a pivotal contribution to smart sustainable tourism. Another contribution relates to understanding contextual, intervention, moderation, and other factors influencing the development of smart sustainable tourism in emerging markets.

This study proposes a smart sustainable tourism model by applying the concept of sustainability in emerging markets as one of the fundamental concerns. This model may interest policymakers and fill the research area to create and enhance sustainable tourism using smart tourism. The identified conditions can provide a better understanding of the factors that influence the development of smart sustainable tourism and competitiveness. Each factor is essential, and through this factor, we can examine the impact of each component to develop sustainable smart tourism. Therefore, these findings are a solid basis for designing quantitative studies to describe the relationship between components in developing smart sustainable tourism. In addition, this conceptual model makes a practical contribution to stakeholders, including academics, destination managers, and policymakers, as it provides insight into the factors that influence the development of smart sustainable tourism in an emerging market.

Policymakers and political leaders are usually interested in exploiting economic and tourism potential with a framework for developing tourist destinations (Shafiee et al., 2019). To achieve that, decision-makers can employ the smart sustainable tourism model or framework proposed in this study. Besides, policymakers can gain insight into various environmental, economic, social, and technological factors and managerial levels at the individual, group, and organizational levels, leading to smart sustainable tourism development. Figure 10 shows the framework of a smart sustainable tourism model proposed in this study.

Figure 10. An organizing framework for existing and future research on smart sustainable tourism.

Third, this study finds that most sustainability and smart tourism studies were conducted in developed countries, such as Spain and other European countries, with historical tourist destinations as the primary study subjects. Meanwhile, research in Asian countries was conducted in China, Korea, Malaysia, and Thailand. China, for example, undoubtedly has a better and more developed tourism sector than other developing Asian nations. China was ranked 12^th in the Travel & Tourism Development Index 2021. Research in the context of sustainability and smart tourism in the future is very much needed in other developing countries because many problems are still found in achieving sustainable tourism and the creation of smart tourism, so more detailed and in-depth research is needed.

Fourth, based on the results in the research settings, most research was carried out at the urban level because urban usually has more tourist destinations than rural areas, thus stimulating researchers to conduct research in urban areas. In addition, researching sustainability in urban areas is more challenging, especially in the environmental dimension. Thus, it makes it easier for researchers to adopt sustainability in tourism in urban than rural areas. However, there is a need for future research on sustainability and smart tourism in rural areas, especially in developing countries, so that rural tourism can progress rapidly and be used as an economic development tool, contributing to an equitable distribution of social welfare. In addition, understanding sustainability and smart tourism in rural tourism can contribute to tourism theory or knowledge.

8. Limitation and future research

This study has several limitations. First, this systematic review uses only Google Scholar data as an electronic database via Publish or Perish, so some databases not part of Google Scholar may not be included. Second, the systematic review results only include articles in keywords that have been determined and peer-reviewed so that other publications are not included, thus providing less relevant insights regarding sustainability and smart tourism literature in today’s emerging markets.

This study provides directions for future research themes based on the review results. These research themes are essential to provide innovative transformations to overcome the chaos. The research themes that can be used for future research agendas are shown in Table 4. This section sets an agenda for future research based on existing literature gaps in sustainability and smart tourism. Future research should include other databases and other types of publications to broaden the scope and depth of the review. The initial step of the data collection process in the future research should have been to search for a comprehensive literature review focused on ‘Smart Tourism.’ This was particularly important for identifying relevant research through keyword-based searches in indexing databases. This research is theoretical, so it will likely have a minimal impact on practice. However, this systematic review can be the basis for future research with practical implications as empirical evidence that can intervene in the tourism sector to implement sustainability with smart tourism.

Table 4. Future research.

Themes	Sub-themes	Research question
Sustainability	Green marketing in rural tourism	What is the impact of green marketing on environmentally friendly buying behavior, especially for products that promote sustainable consumption? What are green marketing dimensions in industries with different markets from tourism villages?
	Innovation in sustainable tourism	How can social structures (cooperation networks, world maps, and geographic locations) explore innovations in the conceptual structure of sustainability? To what extent can businesses (hotels, tour operators, travel agents) in the tourism sector explore sustainability innovations? How can the sustainable tourism experience be improved?
Smart tourism	Social media use in tourism	Does gender affect the planning for travel patterns based on social media use?
Smart sustainable tourism	Sustainability index & smart tourism	How to build a dynamic evaluation database for the sustainability of sustainable tourism and describe the evolution of the long-term sustainability of sustainable tourism?
	Sustainable smart tourism destinations	What is the development of ICT indicators that can support the sustainability model in the tourism sector? How is the growth of sustainable smart specialization in oil producers or high-income economies (included in OECD)? What is the impact of ICT development on sustainable thematic tourism?

Future researchers can focus on specific themes using quantitative or mixed methods approaches to measure the validity of sustainability and smart tourism variables. In addition, they can measure how the variables in the conceptual framework influence each other to support sustainability and smart tourism, thus providing diversity to research on sustainability and smart tourism. This study found that the theme of sustainable tourism research with the sub-themes of green marketing in rural tourism and innovation in sustainable tourism is also still limited, so the opportunities with the research questions in Table 4 in these two sub-themes can be used as a guide to conduct future research. The smart tourism theme with the sub-theme of social media use in tourism also still has opportunities for future research. Besides, research combining the two research areas of sustainable tourism and smart tourism is still limited, opening opportunities for future studies on the theme of smart sustainable tourism with the sub-theme of sustainability index and smart tourism and sustainable smart tourism destination. Table 4 provides research questions in this sub-theme area that can guide where research in this sub-theme will be done in the future. Finally, smart sustainable tourism research will be more interesting and targeted for future research if it is conducted in countries in emerging markets because tourism in emerging markets is still experiencing obstacles in implementing smart sustainable tourism. Smart sustainable tourism in emerging market countries can be a solution, especially to environmental problems that often occur in rural tourism.

Authors’ contributions

All the authors contributed to this work. The first author designed the study, collected and analyzed the data, interpreted the results and drafted the manuscript. The second, third, and fourth author contributed to the design the study interpreted of the data and drafting the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Indonesia Ministry of Research and Technology and Pajajaran University.

Notes on contributors

Yuviani Kusumawardhani

Yuviani Kusumawardhani is Doctoral’s candidate in Management Science at Faculty of Economic and Business, Universitas Pajajaran, Indonesia. Her research interests are human resource and marketing in tourism.

Hilmiana Hilmiana

Hilmiana is a lecture in Departement of Management Science, Faculty of Economic and Business, Universitas Pajajaran, Indonesia. Her research interest are human resource, leadership, organizational, and tourism.

Sunu Widianto

Sunu Widianto is a lecture in Departement of Management Science, Faculty of Economic and Business, Univeritas Padjajaran, Indonesia. His research interest are leadership, human resource, and digital marketing.

Yudi Azis

Yudi Azis is a professor in Departement of Management Science, Faculty of Economic and Business, Universitas Padjajaran, Indonesia. His research interest are operational management, innovation, and business management.