Abstract
Studies have drawn on single theoretical perspectives to examine smart experiences; however, this chapter proposes a multi-theoretical perspective for understanding the development of smart experiences. This is an alternate perspective to exploring the planning and management processes that precede the formation of smart initiatives. Different theoretical perspectives, focused on stakeholder involvement, are drawn upon to understand the engagement in developing smart experiences. This development has created various smart experiences, which was possible due to core collaboration components and varying factors. The chapter calls for empirical investigations into smart tourism through the lens of tourism collaboration to deepen understanding of this development. Practitioners can also benefit from using this perspective, as it provides insights useful for developing smart experiences at the destination level, which is currently lacking in public discourse.
TopBackground
There remains a lack of clear understanding regarding the meaning of smart tourism despite its advancements and ongoing calls for research (Gretzel et al., 2015; Mehraliyev et al., 2020). The word ‘smart’ plays an integral role in shaping how smart tourism is defined. In order to define smart tourism, there needs to be an examination of the word ‘smart’, which is the common word found in ‘smart tourism’ and ‘smart experiences’. It denotes a device or phenomenon acting independently (Oxford Dictionaries, 2018). When applied to the tourism context, various definitions have been proposed for ‘smart’, which include an ever-present information system for tourists driven by technology (Li et al., 2017). According to Gretzel et al. (2015), smart tourism is
Key Terms in this Chapter
Smart Business Ecosystem: Tourism suppliers and other suppliers who directly exchange resources for the generation of resources and experiences.
Thematic Analysis: A method for locating patterns in data.
Smart Experiences: Technology-enhanced tourist experiences.
Collaboration: A decision-making process that engages stakeholders from a destination in order to address a problem.
Smart: Intelligence for autonomous actions.