Developing a model for smart tourism destinations: an interpretive structural modelling approach

The smart tourism concept emerged from smart city development and is a particular application area within smart city initiatives. Smart tourism is broadly applied as a strategic tool to enhance the competitiveness of tourism destinations. This study creates a framework to identify, explore, and rate the effective factors of developing smart tourism destinations. The effective factors were identified through a review of the research literature and by surveying experts. The identified factors were rated using an interpretative-structural modelling approach. A Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis was used to determine the power and dependence of these factors. The findings show 20 indexes at ten levels. Financial resources, government support, and smart tourism policies were identified as the most important factors in modelling smart tourism development. By identifying effective factors for developing smart tourism destinations, the policymakers can encourage innovation of smart destinations, support smart tourism and highlight the multi-faceted contribution of smart destinations to sustainable development.