Intelligent Tourist Destinations and Their Application to Public Policies

The chapter is divided into two differentiated parts. The first includes a brief technical review of the concepts of Territorial Intelligence and Intelligent Tourist Destination, situating them in the context of the new tourist destination planning paradigms. This part ends with a first approach to the Spanish case and the progress of its public tourism policies towards these concepts. The second part goes deeper into the Intelligent Tourist Destination model applied in Spain, driven by the public administration, paying special attention to its official standardisation process, and the indicators adopted to that end. Finally, the chapter ends with some brief conclusions.

Customer Experience in the Restaurant Industry

One of the most important points of consideration that will ensure the sustainability and profitability of businesses in the digitized world market is the experience offered to customers. Experience in business preferences, especially of the digitized customers, is quite specific. This chapter discussed the contribution of smart technologies to customer experience for restaurants, and emphasized its significance. Moreover, the subjects of artificial intelligence, smart technology, and QR code were addressed based on customer experience. The contribution offered to customers was emphasized by giving examples of smart technology applications used in restaurant businesses to improve customer experience. The chapter will contribute theoretically to the subject which has not been adequately studied in the literature.

Blockchain Technology and Its Uses in the Tourism Industry

The public and private sectors will undergo a significant transformation with the use of blockchain technology, and this potential of blockchain technology will be influential in all areas of life. In addition, blockchain technology can help ease the integration of the Internet of Things, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence applications. The question of how such a technology that is in the process of development will be applied in areas such as taxation, notary operations, and banking, arises simultaneously. Studies related to blockchain technology have mainly been carried out in the fields of finance, logistics, banking, and education. However, there is a paucity of studies on blockchain technology in the tourism industry which has an important role in the global economy. Therefore, the potential of using blockchain technology in the tourism industry is evaluated in this chapter. For this purpose, the features, advantages, and disadvantages of blockchain technology are explained. The potential uses of blockchain technology in the tourism industry are then discussed.

Progress and Development of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies in Tourism

Progress and development of tourism technologies and applications available through smart devices provide an increasing diversity in tourism marketing. Augmented reality, virtual reality applications with the smart technologies, which are considered as new marketing communication instruments, increase awareness and help in terms of getting information about tourists and giving information to the tourist. Thus, this chapter provides an assessment regarding the progress of AR and VR researches published in hospitality and tourism journals. In particular, the chapter determines the current fields, topics, and research methods of AR and VR articles published in 32 hospitality and tourism research journals between 2000-2018, comparing the subjects and research methods of 32 journals and discussing the changes in topic areas throughout the years, to offer suggestions for further research on AR and VR for hospitality and tourism journals.

Smart Tourism Planning

This chapter discusses geographical context of smart tourism planning through the analysis of relations between spatial planning, tourism development, and technology. The main question addressed in this enquiry is whether development of technology and tourism respects sustainable spatial planning. Thus, geographical influence of tourism and ICT on spatial planning was investigated. Research is carried out in Poland as tourist destinations in the country are substantially different regarding their tourist attractions, infrastructure, and development. Geographically weighted regression (GWR) was applied to identify regions where spatial planning is significantly influenced by tourism, and technology development as well. Both mentioned phenomena were recognized as competing in terms of spatial planning. Tourism and technology development did not support spatial planning parallely. Hence, establishing and developing smart tourism planning was confirmed as challenging from the geographical perspective.

Smart Tourism, Smart Cities, and Smart Destinations as Knowledge Management Tools

The rapid increase in the population has caused problems in the correct use and management of resources in cities. Solutions to these problems have been sought based on knowledge management. In today's digital age, the concept of smartness of cities has been put forward together with the web-based applications. It has changed the expectations and needs of tourists and residents, especially in the tourism sector in the service sector. Smart tourism destinations, which are seen as a solution to the expectations and needs of the changing tourists and local people, bring holistic innovations covering all the stakeholders in the tourism ecosystem. In this direction, it is thought that knowledge management makes the right use of resources obligatory and contributes to sustainable tourism understanding. For this purpose, in the chapter, suggestions were made to provide maximum benefit from web-based projects that are carried out in qualitative direction of knowledge management and smart tourism destinations.

Electronic Customer Relationship Management in Tourism

Tourism companies, like other companies producing goods and/or services, practice different strategies to achieve competitive advantage and satisfy the needs and wants of customers/guests. The most important recent strategy is electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM). In today's competitive environment, a successfully implemented e-CRM enhances a customer centric culture that is key to tourism growth and competitive advantage. For tourism companies, e-CRM succeeds only if it is totally integrated strategically and operationally in the business and in the information system of the company. This chapter focuses on e-CRM concept, its importance in tourism, dimensions of e-CRM, major challenges of e-CRM and its opportunities for companies, its implementation in tourism, e-CRM Technologies used in tourism, e-CRM success factors, and the reasons of e-CRM failures.

Digital Gamification in the Tourism Industry

In today's world where digital technology has become an indispensable part of human life, the use of digital platforms allows people to play various types of games to not only meet their personal needs, but also to keep people's minds away from the strenuous work tempo of daily life. The game is an action that allows people to socialize and gain different experiences and to have a pleasant time. It is limited by certain fixed rules for a purpose, including the outcome of winning and losing as a result of these rules. This action led to the emergence of a concept called gamification along with digitalizing technology. Gamification is the use of game elements, game design, and mechanics in the game environment that enable users to socialize and have fun in non-game environments. This chapter defines the concepts of game, gamification, and gamification in tourism, and examines the digital gamification applications in the tourism industry with certain parameters. Authors emphasize the relationship between tourism and gamification.

Tourist Experience in Smart City Destination of Jaipur (Rajasthan)

Smart city concept is emerging as a new venture in the tourism sector especially in a country like India. This chapter analyzes the tourist experience in Jaipur city of Rajasthan which is emerging as a popular tourist destination taken over for development under smart city mission. The chapter adopted empirical approach, but to some extent it also used secondary data sources. The authors analyzed tourist experience by using smart attraction, smart mobility, smart amenities, smart ancillary, smart safety, and smart available packages as important dimensions of smart tourism destination. Regarding tourist experience, the chapter noticed smart available packages, smart safety, and smart attractions are providing a pleasant experience to tourists in contrast with remaining aspects of smart tourism destination. The result of the study provides implication for tourism marketer and policy maker to take appropriate steps to enhance the tourist experience by improving smart facilities & services.

Smart Municipalities in Tourism

Tourism is a fragmented and information-oriented sector covering tour operators, travel agencies, hotel sales representatives, associations, meeting offices, transportation, car rental, airlines, cruise, souvenirs, restaurants, hotels/motels, and entertainment. In the tourism sector, technology is an important requirement for the interconnection of all these fragmented organizations, activities, and elements, and for the satisfaction of tourists. However, the effective use of technology in a destination requires the leadership of a leader. This chapter approaches the smart municipality applications oriented to tourism sector with the example of Turkey, a well-known destination around the world, from the perspective of municipalities, which is regarded as a democratic leader at local level and provides a general framework regarding the studies on an innovative, environment-friendly, solution-oriented, and more livable urban life. Suggestions are provided for smart technologies to improve the quality of life of local citizens and to the satisfaction of tourists.