Keywords

1 Introduction

From a holistic perspective, Smart Tourism Destinations (DTI) are associated with the destination planning and management model of the new smart tourism scenario. This scenario is defined as a distinct stage in the joint development of tourism and information and communication technologies (ICT), based on the intensive use of technology and data for the integration of the physical and digital world, with the aim of improving efficiency, sustainability, and the tourism experience (Gretzel et al., 2015). However, although the concept of Smart Tourism Destinations is a topic with significant research output (Bastidas-Manzano et al., 2021; Carballido & Guevara-Plaza, 2021), its meaning and scope is still vague and imprecise (Gelter et al., 2020), and it is far from being generalized as a model applied internationally in destination management. Apart from the initiatives carried out in China and South Korea for the development of Smart Tourism Destinations, Spain is the main focus for the creation, application, and international dissemination of the model, mainly to Latin American countries. This Spanish Model, the model of the Spanish Secretariat of State for Tourism, developed by SEGITTUR, has become an international benchmark, firstly, in smart tourism research, cited in pioneering work on the subject, and, subsequently, as an innovative approach to planning and management, recognized by international organizations such as the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Three Spanish cities (Malaga, Valencia, and Seville) have been selected as European Capitals of Smart Tourism.

This recognition is paradoxical when compared to the loss of relevance of the smart city in the urban policy agenda, despite the fact that the smart city concept initially inspired the DTI Model. This loss of relevance can be observed at the national and international levels in the face of criticism of, for example, the technocratic approach to the smart city, the dependence on public aid for the viability of projects and the lack of renewal of smart city plans and strategies (Ivars-Baidal et al., 2023a, 2023b). A study sponsored by the World Economic Forum (Merritt et al., 2021) warns of the increasing lack of explicit and comprehensive strategies in the development of the most advanced smart cities and the implementation of projects without an overall strategy or compartmentalized in different urban policies. In the face of this progressive dissolution of the smart city concept, the DTI is a solid and viable model for the planning and management of destinations.

2 Consolidation of DTI as a Planning and Management Model

The DTI Model arises at a time of crossroads in tourism planning in Spain for different reasons (Ivars-Baidal & Vera-Rebollo, 2019): The crisis of traditional tourism management models at the local level (FEMP, 2008); the progressive wear and tear of strategic planning, both from the urban and tourism point of view; and the challenge of adapting to the digitalization processes of the tourism system and its impact on destinations. Smart Tourism Destinations are considered as an institutional project (Mínguez & Ruiz, 2014) that take on these challenges and responds to new needs in destination management. These challenges and needs are addressed both by SEGITTUR and by different regional initiatives, notably the one carried out by the Valencian Institute of Tourism Technologies (INVAT·TUR), in parallel and coordinated with SEGITTUR initiatives.

The DTI Model is originally part of the positive perception of buzzwords such as smart city or smart tourism, but it is progressively taking root as an approach to destination planning and management, with the contributions, weaknesses, and limitations that will be analyzed in the following sections. From a research perspective, it constitutes an emerging approach to planning (Soares et al., 2021) insofar as, following the interpretative framework of Hall (2008), it raises new assumptions on which to act (the digitalization of tourism or the emergence of the smart tourist) and specific planning problems (the interpretation and management of new digital business models, the need to avoid digital divides or the new forms of involvement of local society in planning). It also incorporates new working methods (Big Data, predictive analytics, etc.) and generates differentiated models both from a theoretical and applied point of view with different orientations, such as systemic (Ivars-Baidal et al., 2019) and ecosystemic perspectives (Perfetto & Vargas-Sánchez, 2018), those linked to competitiveness (Koo et al., 2016) and the creation of public value (Brandao-Cavalheiro et al., 2020).

Since the incorporation of the Smart Tourism Destinations as a program of the Comprehensive National Tourism Plan (PNIT, 2012–2015), SEGITTUR’s DTI Model has progressed in various phases. Key milestones include the creation of an indicator system, its application to the pilot destinations, the development of various UNE standards in collaboration with AENOR and the establishment of the Spanish Smart Tourism Destinations Network in 2019. This is, therefore, a complex process, in constant development, which is not easy to assess given the difficulty of evaluating policies and initiatives that are still underway and which require a relatively long maturity period. From a more global perspective, the smart approach to planning and management in Spain is not limited to tourism policy. Smart city initiatives and their relationship with tourism need to be incorporated, as well as the technological policy on Smart Tourism Destinations developed by Red.es, and the measures with this orientation within the Sustainable and Integrated Urban Development Strategies (EDUSI), within the European 2020 Strategic Framework. These policies and programs, with different orientations and results, have not always been well coordinated, despite the interest of their complementarity (Ivars-Baidal et al., 2023b, 2023c).

All in all, the consolidation of the DTI Model is evident in the 635 members of the Spanish Network (according to data from the SEGITTUR website in June 2023), of which 454 are destinations, 91 collaborating companies, 87 institutional members, and 3 international observers. Interest in SEGITTUR’s DTI Model is also growing in Latin American countries such as Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, and Paraguay, and training and technical assistance activities are multiplying in these countries in collaboration with the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID).

3 The Contribution of the DTI Model to More Ambitious and Innovative Destination Planning and Management

The definition of the Smart Tourism Destinations and the five pillars for its development (Governance, Technology, Innovation, Accessibility, and Sustainability) are very ambitious in their approach if we take into account the limited powers of the tourism administration at the local level. An integral perspective is adopted, which is necessary given the cross-cutting nature of tourism, but which, from an operational point of view, offers doubts as to its realization, as has happened previously with other planning schemes such as those related to sustainable tourism destinations. Hence, from its inception, the approach raises doubts about its real scope, although subsequent developments show improvements in traditional tourism planning and management. Smart Tourism Destinations do not focus exclusively on the use of technology and data but offer a broader management framework where these uses can be integrated in a way that is theoretically more efficient and adapted to the needs of each destination.

In fact, even more than progress in the application of technological solutions, the implementation of the DTI Model is characterized by improved governance, undoubtedly benefiting from a more intensive and intelligent use of technology and data. Ivars-Baidal and Femenia-Serra (2020) describe three key areas in which the DTI Model restructures traditional tourism management. Resulting advancements can be seen in destinations with more progressive and proactive tourism management (Femenia-Serra & Ivars-Baidal, 2021), although they cannot be considered widespread throughout the entire DTI Network: This progress includes the extension of tourism management to address issues such as sustainability and accessibility, which require greater administrative coordination; the greater demand for data collection and exploitation, which requires more technical and economic resources; and the incorporation of innovation as a strategic activity, which strengthens collaboration with tourism, technology and consultancy companies, other government administrations and research centers.

The DTI Model is an embodiment of the concept of destinations that learn, of knowledge-based management (Cooper & Sheldon, 2010), thanks to two key initiatives: the indicator system as a reference for evidence-based management, which guides the Smart Tourism Destination action plans, and the work of SEGITTUR, in collaboration with the members of the DTI Network, in generating, disseminating and sharing knowledge through documents on a wide range of topics (best practices in digitalization of destinations, cultural heritage, sustainability, response to adverse futures, circular economy, and data spaces). The generation and dissemination of knowledge have facilitated identification, monitoring, and implementation of technological solutions in destinations and the exchange of experiences between them. Such activities have encouraged the development of companies specializing in the needs of smart destinations, mainly in the application of technologies and in the generation and analysis of data, which are currently a benchmark in the international arena.

In this regard, particularly noteworthy are the advances in digital marketing and business intelligence (Femenia-Serra & Ivars-Baidal, 2021), especially in the improvement of tourism intelligence systems and the ability to influence the entire travel cycle and develop more agile, flexible, and efficient actions. Likewise, the development of Smart Tourism Destinations has enabled a more effective response to the COVID-19 crisis (establishing protocols for action in tourism companies and services, communicating updated information to tourism agents, generating new sources of data, protocols for action in public spaces, etc.) and has provided destinations with useful tools for better management of various types of crises.

4 Limitations and Weaknesses of the DTI Model

Recognizing the ambitious nature of the DTI Model, it is easier to point out its limitations. The incorporation of sustainability, accessibility, technology, and innovation into the model implies a new look at tourism planning and management beyond a strictly sectoral vision and favors the need to strengthen the governance of destinations based on more innovative approaches. However, the transformative power of the DTI Model is limited. The DTI Model provides useful management tools for destinations but does not, in general, question the local tourism strategy, so the possibility of promoting structural changes of the scale required by many destinations when faced with the pressure of urbanization or the threat of climate change is limited. The DTI Model does not propose a vast process of social participation, nor does it encourage sufficient business involvement to rethink the tourism development model on a local scale. Consequently, it can produce significant incremental improvements in management, but it can also create inertia that is not adapted to the current aspirations of local society or to the changing tourism market. In view of this dynamic, it would be desirable to foster a closer and more direct relationship between Smart Tourism Destinations and the strategic instruments of the municipality, as well as a clearer integration with other binding policies such as urban planning or environmental policy.

This consideration is related to the difficulties for the DTI Model to cause a substantial change in the sustainability of destinations. González-Reverté (2019) highlights that the adoption of the DTI model in Spain does not entail a strategic consideration to progress toward higher levels of sustainability, while the Smart Tourism Destination indicator systems are insufficient to measure the environmental and social dimensions of sustainability (Ivars-Baidal et al., 2022). However, the possibilities of measurement and collaboration at the local scale offered by the DTI Model are considered positive and a good starting point for tourism sustainability policies with a greater scope (Aguirre et al., 2022; Molina Azorín et al., 2022).

The debate around the relationship between intelligence and sustainability has also taken place in the field of the smart city to show that a smart city strategy does not lead linearly to a sustainable city through the use of technological solutions (Ahvenniemi et al., 2017). The relationship between the development of the smart city and tourism governance, both in European and Spanish cities, shows a relatively low degree of coordination (Ivars-Baidal et al., 2023a, 2023b), implying a waste of the synergies between urban and tourism management. Moreover, the DTI Model has a strong urban bias, which hinders its development in rural environments or in the framework of inter-municipal cooperation. This weakness has not been an obstacle to integrating rural municipalities into the DTI Network. For this reason, it is necessary to work on adapting the model to these specific local environments, fundamentally in the development of the indicator systems and in the definition of supra-municipal cooperation formulas along the lines of the work recently undertaken by INVAT·TUR.

The DTI Model is fundamentally focused on public management, although it supports innovation processes at the local level in an interesting three-way collaboration framework (government, private companies, and research centers) for specific projects, often experimental and with public financial support. However, the integration of the tourism business sector in the development of Smart Tourism Destinations and in the different pillars that comprise this model is still weak, especially in the case of small and medium-sized enterprises. This is clearly evident in the lack of interoperability of technological systems at destination level, a problem that both the UNE 178504:2022 standard (Digital, smart hotel connected to smart destination/smart city platforms—Requirements and recommendations) and especially the future Intelligent Destination Platform promoted by the Ministry of Industry, Trade, and Tourism through SEGITTUR are attempting to address.

There has been a notable improvement in tourism intelligence systems in certain destinations such as the Costa del Sol or the city of Valencia. However, the advances are not universal and fall short of the expectations generated by the possibilities of technology and data generation and analysis. There is much room for improvement in the integration of smart city and smart destination systems, where both exist, and in the sharing of data between agents in the destination as a way to avoid excessive dependence on information provided by large tourism and technology operators (Booking, Google, etc.). In this context, the new concept of data spaces arises, sponsored by the European Union in different sectors, including tourism, which represents an opportunity to advance the sharing and reuse of data between different actors and types of users of the European tourism ecosystem, within a process that converges with the DTI Model’s own approaches.

Finally, the continuity and future development of the DTI Model depend on minimizing or correcting some institutional aspects and practices, such as the use of the DTI Model as propaganda, the imitative adoption of intelligent solutions that do not adapt to local problems, the complexity of the administrative management of technology-based innovation projects, or excessive dependence on public funding for the development of smart projects and initiatives.

5 In Conclusion: A Proposal for Future Lines of Work

The assessment of the DTI model offers both advantages and disadvantages, but forms an interesting framework for the future progress of destination planning and management. Up to now, the DTI Model has been characterized by a fundamentally technical orientation and an instrumental value. However, its future contribution to the planning and management of destinations requires a strengthening of its strategic component and its ethical commitment. This would imply a change of mentality as proposed by Gretzel (2021a) from utopian thinking, which makes long-term smart tourism a reality, with systemic changes based on specific values and characteristics such as a sense of responsibility, a commitment to participation, inclusiveness, and a holistic vision. This progressive reformulation of Smart Tourism Destinations makes it a suitable model to guide the ecological and digital transition of tourism destinations that the European Union demands, which recommends a greater interrelation between the Smart Tourism Destinations program and the Tourism Destination Sustainability Plans promoted by the General Secretariat of Tourism, in collaboration with regional and local administrations. To the same end, the development of the DTI Model should be better integrated with local planning instruments (urban, environmental, sustainable mobility, etc.) to the extent that these processes share objectives and financial resources, as well as social participation initiatives or indicator systems with similar orientations.

This approach would mean resizing the role of Smart Tourism Destinations in municipal management by promoting a more cross-cutting management of tourism activity, aligned with the reinforcement of administrative coordination that the DTI Model has brought about in destinations that have received the SEGITTUR award for their high degree of compliance with the indicators or for the application of the AENOR standard. However, although the DTI Model’s concept and pillars are considered ambitious, this type of administrative coordination for a non-regulatory instrument such as the DTI Model is unrealistic and only has a benchmark value for destinations with a more advanced level of governance.

Without renouncing this more strategic vision with a broader transformative scope, the development of the DTI Model must continue to play a vital role in the task of rethinking and/or reinventing local tourism planning and management based on the following lines of work:

  • Greater integration of the DTI Model in the definition of the local tourism strategy. This pillar involves going beyond the technical-instrumental role of the DTI Model to reinforce the processes of social participation and a four-way approach, integrating civil society in the innovation processes associated with the development of Smart Tourism Destinations with greater esteem for social innovation that is compatible with and complementary to technology-based innovation. Similar to the role played by the City Labs as a tool for collaborative planning and co-creation in urban areas, it is undoubtedly interesting to promote the creation of Smart Tourism Laboratories as the spearhead of innovation processes in the DTI Network. Local tourism strategy must undertake an unequivocal commitment to sustainability in all its dimensions and various scenarios, including those that involve adjustments in the growth of supply and/or demand or degrowth measures.

  • The holistic vision of the DTI Model is a good starting point to strengthen the cross-cutting nature of tourism management as opposed to purely sectoral approaches. Gretzel’s (2021b) proposal on Smart DMOs is in line with this, emphasizing the need to strengthen the role of DMOs in destination governance. This can be achieved through a broad representation of local interests and the capacity to mobilize and coordinate destination stakeholders through agile management that strengthens the connection between the tourism and technology sectors. This will make it possible to take advantage of the opportunities and mitigate the risks and impacts that may arise from the smart tourism ecosystem. On a more practical level, as part of a collaborative research project, the NAO Group (2023) advocates for the concept of DMOcracy, understood as a shift from destination promotion or management as an isolated economic activity, to tourism seen as an activity with cross-cutting implications that requires a stronger governance approach through greater citizen participation and accountability in accordance with governance principles.

  • Adaptation of the DTI Model to the local context. With regard to the previous line of work, the DTI Model cannot be limited to the application of a standardized management model and requires an in-depth study of the singularity of each destination. It is essential to advance in proposals adapted to spaces with lower population density and fewer resources and capacities in local administrations, generating efficient collaboration mechanisms at a supra-municipal level.

  • The constant progress of the indicator systems linked to DTI has improved the application of the model and led to a change in the culture of local tourism management. However, it is worth addressing a series of aspects that require further consideration: the improvement in the quality and reliability of the data; the level of disaggregation of information; the incorporation of new environmental indicators, with special attention to those related to climate change, and new social indicators; and a better integration of procedural indicators with other status and/or results indicators (of a tourism, environmental or socio-economic nature), which really define the state of the destination’s progress and provide valuable information for decision-making. It is advisable to prioritize the most relevant indicators, coordinate local information systems, and make better use of the comparative analysis of relevant indicators within the DTI Model.

  • Digital transition and adaptation to the global tourism ecosystem. The digitalization of tourism activity implies the need for agents in the destination to adapt proactively. Firstly, adaptation must occur in local management and, where appropriate, in the managing body of the destination, taking into account the added value they can provide in the current tourism scenario. Traditional activities are losing relevance (such as face-to-face service in tourist offices), and the risk of redundancy of public services with those provided by tourism and technology operators is very high (Dredge, 2016), such as the creation of mobile apps for tourists, which requires redefining the functions of tourism management to focus on the activities that provide the destination with the greatest return. Secondly, smart tourism management requires consolidating collaborative processes at the local level that generate competitive advantages for companies in key activities such as digital marketing, sales, co-creation of experiences, and the development of smart systems. The creation and development of the Smart Destination Platform represents an opportunity to provide technological solutions to municipalities that are moving toward becoming Smart Tourism Destinations, forming two processes that feed back into each other.

  • The DTI Model has contributed to the generation of new smart tourism systems whose application should be extended to a greater number of destinations while addressing aspects that are insufficiently developed: data sharing at the destination as opposed to the mere purchase of information; the incorporation of data from national, regional or sub-regional operations; the cross-cutting integration of data on a local scale that allows for cross-referencing information from different areas (urban planning, environmental, tourism, etc.); the achievement of greater information detail, both in terms of time (specific events) and space (areas or points of interest in the destinations); and the development of an effective open data strategy.

  • The prominent positioning of the DTI Model in the international scope constitutes an opportunity for its dissemination and for the export of tourism knowledge of companies and destinations, as occurs in different Latin American countries. This way of working should be reinforced and extended to other regions in order to support greater synergies between the tourism and technology sectors and the R + D + i systems, thus increasing their capacity for innovation.

These lines of work have both a theoretical and a practical dimension and can be worked on locally and within the framework of the DTI Network, as a collaboration platform that represents added value for the future development of the DTI Model. After more than a decade of implementation, the future of the DTI Model seems more linked to strengthening governance and innovation processes than to the use of technology and data, a necessary but not sufficient condition for the transition to Smart Tourism Destinations.