Smart Cities and Destinations: Enhancing Urban Life and Tourism Experiences
What is a Smart City?
A Smart City is an urban environment that leverages digital technologies to improve the quality of life for its inhabitants and the efficiency of urban services. This includes integrating information and communication systems to manage resources sustainably, promote citizen participation, and enhance mobility, security, and energy management.
Smart Tourism: Enhancing the Visitor Experience
Smart Tourism involves applying innovative technologies to improve the tourism experience and destination management. It utilizes mobile devices, the internet, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented reality to offer personalized services and more interactive experiences for travelers.
Smart Destinations: Optimizing Tourism Resources
A Smart Destination is a tourism destination that employs digital technologies to enhance visitor experiences and efficiently manage its resources. These technologies include data collection and analysis to personalize services, promote sustainability, and facilitate tourist mobility.
Smart Tourists: Embracing Technology for Travel
A Smart Tourist is a traveler who utilizes technology during their stay in a destination to enhance their travel experience. They use mobile devices, apps, and online services to access real-time information, plan activities, and navigate their surroundings.
Smart Management Models: Optimizing Resources and Services
Smart Management Models are frameworks for organizing and using technology and data effectively in cities or organizations. They are used to manage resources, services, and operations more efficiently. These models utilize technologies such as the Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, and AI to make better decisions, improve quality of life, and create more sustainable and livable environments.
Applying Smart Management Models to Tourism
Applying a Smart Management Model to a tourism activity or territory involves using technology and data to improve the management of tourism resources, services, and experiences. For example, in a tourist destination, smart sensors can be installed to monitor traffic and predict congestion, allowing authorities to take proactive measures to improve visitor mobility.
Difference between Smart Cities and Smart Destinations
Smart Cities focus on improving life in general, while Smart Destinations focus specifically on enhancing the tourism experience in a tourist area. Both use technology and data, but they are distinguished by their specific objectives and the people and organizations involved in their development and management.
INVATTUR Self-Diagnosis: Assessing Tourism Destinations
INVATTUR Self-Diagnosis is a computer system that allows tourist destinations to self-diagnose themselves based on indicators associated with the Smart Tourism model. Its purpose is to improve the management of the tourist destination and promote the responsible use of resources.
Smart Management Models Evolution
: Six dimensions model (Giffinger et al.) 2007: Economy, governance, environment, people, mobility, quality of life
Three dimensions model (Nam & Pardo): 2011 Technological, social, community
Smart City Wheel (Cohen) 2012: rueda based on six dimensions de giffinger adding 3 indocators in each one
Reference Model of a Smart City (INVAT·TUR) 2015: five dimensions: Economy, quality of life, citizenship, environment and mobility
Layers Model of a Smart Destination (Carballido & Guevara) 2020: 4pilars: innovation, technology, governance, sustainability d abajo a arriba: Territory and environment tangible and intangible resources visitors , local community business fabric, public entities basic services and complementary services
“A city developed with a long-term vision in all its dimensions, based on the combination of different factors that promote the self-determination, autonomy, and awareness of its citizens, providing them with specific activities and resources.” Giffinger et al. (2007)
“The city must be structured based on technological, human and institutional factors that give rise to an interconnected system that supplies all the fields of action and the needs of the community that inhabits it.” Nam and Pardo (2011)