Special session 2: Smart tourism destination: advancing theory and practice

In recent years, both academics and practitioners are turning increasing attention to the notion of Smart Tourism Destination (STD). This phenomenon can be explained as the result of two converging trends: the development and diffusion of ICT in boosting a strategic sector of the economy, namely tourism and the recognition of the significant opportunities arising from the adoption of the smart city paradigm for optimizing the use of touristic resources, enhancing tourism experiences, increasing destination competitiveness and improving residents' quality of life. In addressing the issue of STD, both from a theoretical perspective and in empirical applications, some research emphasized the intensive use of technology, by means of a shared platform that: integrates information on tourism businesses, consumption and use of resources; interconnects dynamically all the stakeholders to share relevant knowledge; manages effectively big data and data analytics tools for decision-making and tourism experience cocreation design. State-of-art research have also pointed to the importance of embracing a more holistic approach that takes into account complementary dimensions to technology, i.e. human and social capital, leadership, innovation and sustainable development. The STD has been viewed as a part of a wider smart tourism ecosystem, characterized by the integration of different tourism businesses and actors, sharedgoals, interconnected technologies used to overcome the divide between the physical and digital spheres, b). Despite the issue on STD is becoming increasing relevant, more research is required to stimulate the scientific debate among tourism academia, policy makers and destination managers and identify new perspectives of analysis, relevant concepts and practices along with opportunities for future research.