Towards a new governance of tourist destinations: a focus on the management of smart tourism destinations

The evolution of ICTs and the internet has a clear influence on all areas of tourist destination development, both directly and indirectly, and in both internal and external tasks. Destinations face a new cycle of growth, one in which they must take advantage – to varying degrees – of the use of new technological developments as well as new formulae and strategies for management and planning. Essentially, the challenge is to tackle with assurance the need for reorientation towards a model that is more efficient, one that is adapted to changes in demand, and is based on an integration of all the elements making up the destination, the tourists and the local population.

In this context there emerges a new framework for management, a basic feature of which is the governance of tourism, and in which ICTs and the internet are key factors in the transition to the new model of smart tourism destinations. An important part of the basis for this framework will be knowledge and the active participation of all agents.