Josep Ivars-Baidal

Smart destinations and the evolution of ICTs: a new scenario for destination management?

The impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on tourism and their foreseeable future evolution seem to be shaping a new scenario for destination management. This new context has given rise to the need for new management models. One of these models is the emerging smart tourism destination (STD), although it requires greater conceptual precision in order to become a new paradigm for destination management. This paper proposes a systemic model for STDs which facilitates the interpretation of the role of ICTs in the management of tourism destinations. Accordingly, the Delphi technique has been applied so as to determine the opinion of experts regarding the feasibility of the STD approach, its advantages and limitations and also the size of the impact of ICTs on the management and marketing of tourism destinations. This prospective exercise highlights the intensification of the impact of ICTs over the coming years which will shape a new scenario for management characterised by technology and data management. However, the efficiency of the STD approach will not depend exclusively only on technology but also on an appropriate governance of the destination that systematically incorporates the three levels of the STD, namely the strategic–relational, instrumental and applied levels.

The end of growth in residential tourism destinations: steady state or sustainable development? The case of Calpe

This article discusses how the slowdown in the real estate market during the most recent economic and financial crisis has affected residential tourism destinations on the Spanish coast. The afore-mentioned crisis, which gave rise to a standstill in residential activity, coincided with the turbulences experienced in the competing destinations of Northern Africa, which brought about a record number of international tourist arrivals to Spain. The resulting situation enables us to explore the future scenario of all the Spanish destinations that, due to the depletion of available land, are reaching their maximum levels of urban growth. Examining the case of Calpe, a destination which is representative of the Spanish Mediterranean, the study analyses whether the foreseeable dynamics for the future are conceptualized in the favourable terms that characterize “sustainable development” or, on the contrary, exhibit negative implications which the classic economists refer to as the “steady state”.

Smart destinations and tech-savvy millennial tourists: hype versus reality

This paper aims to contrast the expectations placed on the smart destination as a theoretical management approach with the reality of emergent tech-savvy tourism demand by examining the response of this segment to three critical dimensions of technology use in the context of smart destinations. Tech-savvy tourists are here represented by highly educated Spanish millennial tourists.,Data were obtained through an online survey and analysed through descriptive techniques and exploratory factor analysis using SPSS. Literature review was critical for setting the foundations of the research in this novel context.,Results suggest the existence of a gap between the smart destination theoretical expectations and created hype and the real response of the examined demand in the three main scopes for this tourist-smart destination technology-based relationship, namely, mobile technology use, data sharing for personalised experiences and smart technologies for enhanced experiences.,Convenience sampling was used, and the results of the study cannot be generalised to all millennial tourists. The research is a first approximation to the interrelationship between tourists and smart destinations.,Tourists’ role and experiences mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) are decisive in smart destinations. Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), through their policies and actions, ought to take into account the limited predisposition of tourists in using mobile devices, sharing data and using smart technologies for their experiences. Privacy concerns appear to have special relevance for tourists and, therefore, for the future of smart destinations.,The findings offer relevant insights for smart destinations from a neglected angle hitherto, as they introduce several interesting nuances which do not match entirely the fast track taken by institutions, media and academia. This is critical for better understanding tourists in the current panorama, for DMOs and for the theoretical foundations of smart tourism. Besides, the exploratory data analysis reveals potential dimensions of millennials’ behaviour, which can be useful for further investigations.

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.

The use of private vehicles in residential and holiday tourism destinations: the case of Spain

ABSTRACT Different tourism development models have different implications in terms of their economic, social and environmental impact. This article analyses the sustainability of tourism development models and, specifically, the extent to which private vehicles are used in view of the urban configuration arising from the implementation of either a more intensive model (holiday) or a more extensive one (residential). To do this, the degree of motorization has been analysed in a sample of tourist destinations on the Spanish Mediterranean coast, the Balearic Islands and the Canary Islands. The results obtained indicate that residential destinations uses more intensively the private vehicles than holiday ones.

Actas del Seminario Internacional Destinos Turísticos Inteligentes: nuevos horizontes en la investigación y gestión del turismo

Estas Actas recogen las comunicaciones presentadas al Seminario Internacional Destinos Turisticos Inteligentes: nuevos horizontes en la investigacion y gestion del turismo, celebrado en la Universidad de Alicante del 26 al 27 de octubre de 2017, en el marco del Proyecto de Investigacion «Nuevos enfoques para la planificacion y gestion del territorio turistico: conceptualizacion, analisis de experiencias y problemas. Definicion de modelos operativos para destinos turisticos inteligentes» (Proyecto CSO2014-59193-R) del Programa Estatal de I+D+I del Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad