Smart Tourism Destinations: (Mis)Aligning Touristic Destinations and Smart City Initiatives.
| Autor | Cavalheiro, Mariana Brandao |
| Cargo | Research Article |
INTRODUCTION
Over the past six decades, travel and tourism (T&T) has become one of the largest and fastest-growing economic sectors in the world, currently accounting for 10.4% of global GDP and 6.5% of world exports (World Travel & Tourism Council [WTTC], 2018). Accordingly, as argued by the World Tourism Organization, "every tourist means more jobs and business opportunities in tourism but also in related sectors" (World Tourism Organization [UNWTO], 2015, p. 1). As a consequence, the economic relevance of the T&T sector has been increasingly characterized by fierce competition between tourism destinations, involving touristic sustainability and improving positions in tourism rankings (Kiral'ova, 2019; Koo, Shin, Gretzel, Hunter, & Chung, 2016; Oye, Okafor, & Kinjir, 2013).
Alongside the growing importance of the T&T sector, another trend is the ever-increasing dependence of the society on information and communication technologies (ICT). For instance, in the T&T arena, travel agencies are organizations increasingly dependent on ICT, as their operations require complex networks of collaboration among participants related to their value chains (Madalozzo & Fernandes, 2016).
However, with the widespread adoption of ICT for personal and business use, the term 'smart' has become a new buzzword to describe all things that are embedded or enhanced by technology (Ramaprasad, Sanchez-Ortiz, & Syn, 2017; Werthner, Koo, Gretzel, & Lamsfus, 2015). According to Schaffers et al. (2011), when applied to cities the term 'smart' refers to an urban environment able to offer advanced and innovative services to citizens supported by pervasive ICT systems.
Smart city projects are becoming increasingly commonplace in the arena of T&T, as various touristic destinations have started to implement their specific smart destination projects, which has led to the recent emergence of the concept of smart tourism destination (STD). In short, the concept of STD lays on specific cases of smart cities that have taken advantage of their technological infrastructures to promote an efficient and sustainable tourism development (Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2013; Jasrotia & Gangotia, 2018; Jovicic, 2019).
Despite the growing number of smart tourism destination projects, several scholars argue that 'smart,' especially in the case of tourism destinations, has become a very fuzzy concept often used to drive specific political agendas and to sell technological solutions (Gretzel, Sigala, Xiang, & Koo, 2015; Michelotto, 2019). In fact, as far as STD is concerned, theory seems to have lagged behind the many government and industry-led projects (Gretzel et al., 2015; Jasrotia & Gangotia, 2018), which reveals a real research gap. Due to that, the work of better conceptualize and define smart destination is underway, having gained considerable attention as a topic that urgently deserves both theoretical and empirical investigation (Werthner et al., 2015).
That way, this article addresses the abovementioned research gap by examining the specific topic of transforming a tourism destination into a smart one. Fundamentally, this study presents a case study of a smart city project implemented from 2011 to 2016 at the Municipality of Armacao dos Buzios, Brazil (1). More specifically, one applied the smart tourism destination development model (STDDM) proposed by Cavalheiro, Joia, and Cavalheiro (2020) as the theoretical lens to assess to which extent the implementation of a smart city initiative in Armacao dos Buzios helped the city become a STD. In essence, the STDDM is a conceptual framework designed to describe the path a touristic destination must follow to become a smart one.
Therefore, the objective of this article is to provide a better understanding of the STD phenomenon, by examining the transformation process of an international touristic destination (Armacao dos Buzios) into a smart city. In addition, by adopting a case study approach, one intends to analyze and discuss a real STD implementation process, focusing not only on the technological issues of the process but also including the contextual, structural, and political difficulties faced by tourism destinations, as suggested by Shafiee, Ghatari, Hasanzadeh, and Jahanyan (2019). Indeed, technology itself is not able to transform a destination into a STD--tourism strategy and governance as well as human and political issues must also be taken into account (Ivars-Baidal, Celdran-Bernabeu, Mazon, & Perles-Ivars, 2019; Stephenson & Dobson, 2020). Thus, by means of a case study, this research aims to reveal the potential obstacles to deploy a STD via smart city initiatives, thereby challenging the 'rose view' of some STD advocates.
In sum, this article purports to answer the following research question: How did the implementation of a smart city project in Armacao dos Buzios impact the city to become a smart tourism destination?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Smart city
In the past few decades, the world has seen an increasing concentration of people in urban areas of both developed and developing countries (United Nations, 2015). Such rapid and unplanned urban growth has raised a variety of technical, social, and economic problems that have the potential to jeopardize the economic and environmental sustainability of cities (Global Agenda Council on the Future of Cities, 2015).
In the early 1990s, when the term 'smart city' was first used, one intended to highlight the importance of new ICT to overcome the challenges of cities within a global knowledge economy (Schaffers et al., 2011). More recently, the smart city concept was broadened, as scholars have acknowledged that factors such as human capital, education, and environmental issues are also drivers of a city's improvement (Ramaprasad et al., 2017).
In sum, smart city initiatives should start by assessing the characteristics of the respective city rather than blindly believing that ICT can automatically create a smart city (Zygiaris, 2013). Likewise, the implementation of a smart city initiative does not only mean to reach technological success but also to use technology to create public value, which can be classified into four types (Benington, 2011): (a) economic value; (b) social and cultural value; (c) political value; and (d) ecological value.
Smart tourism destination (STD)
With the growing recognition of the importance of tourism to an ever-increasing number of national and regional economies, achieving destination competitiveness is a central feature of the tourism policy debate (UNWTO, 2015). As such, while places and regions are being planned and transformed to attract more tourists and nonlocal investors (Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2013), rivalry and competition between incumbent and promising touristic destinations increases (Oye, Okafor, & Kinjir, 2013).
In general, STDs have been defined as special cases of smart cities that take advantage of the smart city technological infrastructure to enhance tourists' experience (Khan, Woo, Nam, & Chathoth, 2017; Koo et al., 2016). Grounded on the concepts of sustainability, knowledge sharing, and technological innovation, a STD enables demands and supplies to co-create value for the tourist, as well as wealth, profit, and benefits for organizations and the destination itself (Munoz & Sanchez, 2013). From the managerial and governance perspectives, STD infrastructure must be able to support close interaction and cooperation between the various stakeholders involved in the tourism industry (Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2013). In this sense, Massukado-Nakatani and Teixeira (2009) highlight the importance of the knowledge of local authorities about the resources available in their tourist destinations, in order to promote an effective management and governance of local tourism.
Regarding ICT, previous studies show that STD competitiveness is associated not only with hardware capabilities but also software ones, such as companies' and individuals' capabilities to use ICT (Ham, Koo, & Chung, 2020; Jovicic, 2019). In this regard, Dursun and Caber (2016) described the possibilities of applying data mining techniques for identifying the profile of hotel customers who create the most value. Additionally, Madalozzo and Fernandes (2016) reported that travel agencies are increasingly dependent on ICT, as their operations require complex networks of collaboration between participants in their value chains.
In order to create a management model to STD, practitioners in Spain, driven by the State Secretary of Tourism, have published a standard (UNE 178501) that specifies the requirements for considering a tourism destination as smart. According to such standard, innovation, technology, universal accessibility, and sustainability are the four pillars that sustain smart tourism destinations (SEGITTUR, 2015).
On the other hand, academic theoretical studies have consistently addressed the challenge of building a STD framework. Buhalis and Amaranggana (2013) proposed a generic systematic framework to examine the role of ICT in successful tourism destinations. Shafiee et al. (2019), in turn, developed a conceptual model for promoting sustainability in smart tourism destinations. Moreover, Cavalheiro et al. (2020) have proposed the Smart Tourism Destination Development Model (STDDM), which can be characterized as a comprehensive framework to conceptualize different components of a STD and explain the strategic path to convert a tourism destination into a smart one. Due to its high comprehensiveness, the latter model is applied in this study, being explained in the section below.
Smart tourism destination development model (STDDM)
Based on the review, interpretation, and synthesis of a wide range of relevant literature on smart cities and tourism destinations, as well as aiming to fill a research gap, Cavalheiro et al. (2020) have proposed the STDDM, with the objective of improving the competitiveness of touristic destinations...
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