iTour: The Future of Smart Tourism

Smart tourism is an important component of smart cities. However, in many cities, insecurity, safety, fraud, and the lack of availability of proper information about resources are the biggest hurdles toward independent mobility. These issues can be overcome via proactive participation of local citizens to help tourists as well as by cooperation between citizens, city administration, and tourists. As a result, a number of components of smart cities can be strengthened, from sustainable mobility in tourism development to economic development. This is very challenging, as it requires a combination of societal inputs and advanced smart and effective tools. This article presents a viable Internet of Things (IoT)-based solution called iTour that is a framework for independent tourist mobility. In the process, we analyze the difficulties in initiatives and lessons, exploring possible roles of the IoT. © 2012 IEEE.