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Smart tourism' and 'smart destinations' have been gaining attention as new frameworks within which to understand the impact the latest information and communication technologies (ICTs) have on the relationship between businesses, destinations and tourists. However, there is a crucial element of the smart tourism ecosystem that has been rather neglected in research hitherto: the tourists themselves. By acknowledging a shift in tourists' behaviour due to the advent of disruptive factors, this paper conceptualises the recently emerged notion of 'the smart tourist'. This new type of tourist is profiled through a description of their attitudes and behaviours, and their role within the smart destination scenario is depicted. By taking a consumer-centric perspective and framing the conceptualisation within the relevant theories, this paper contributes to the current body of knowledge on tourism in a highly technological context and facilitates bridging smart tourism theoretical foundations with empirical research. The observed transformation in tourists' behaviour and its encapsulation in the smart tourist conceptualisation reveal critical managerial implications for both destination management organisations and businesses in the rapidly changing smart tourism ecosystem.

Purpose This paper aims to contrast the expectations placed on the smart destination as a theoretical management approach with the reality of emergent tech-savvy tourism demand by examining the response of this segment to three critical dimensions of technology use in the context of smart destinations. Tech-savvy tourists are here represented by highly educated Spanish millennial tourists. Design/methodology/approach Data were obtained through an online survey and analysed through descriptive techniques and exploratory factor analysis using SPSS. Literature review was critical for setting the foundations of the research in this novel context. Findings Results suggest the existence of a gap between the smart destination theoretical expectations and created hype and the real response of the examined demand in the three main scopes for this tourist-smart destination technology-based relationship, namely, mobile technology use, data sharing for personalised experiences and smart technologies for enhanced experiences. Research limitations/implications Convenience sampling was used, and the results of the study cannot be generalised to all millennial tourists. The research is a first approximation to the interrelationship between tourists and smart destinations. Practical/implications Tourists’ role and experiences mediated by information and communication technologies (ICTs) are decisive in smart destinations. Destination Management Organisations (DMOs), through their policies and actions, ought to take into account the limited predisposition of tourists in using mobile devices, sharing data and using smart technologies for their experiences. Privacy concerns appear to have special relevance for tourists and, therefore, for the future of smart destinations. Originality/value The findings offer relevant insights for smart destinations from a neglected angle hitherto, as they introduce several interesting nuances which do not match entirely the fast track taken by institutions, media and academia. This is critical for better understanding tourists in the current panorama, for DMOs and for the theoretical foundations of smart tourism. Besides, the exploratory data analysis reveals potential dimensions of millennials’ behaviour, which can be useful for further investigations.

ResumenEste artículo analiza el nuevo enfoque de los destinos inteligentes para la gestión turística a escala local. Se estudia su génesis y se realiza una propuesta de conceptualización desde una perspectiva sistémica, que se contrasta con la gestión turística actual mediante una encuesta a municipios turísticos de la Comunidad Valenciana. Los resultados ponen de relieve que no se ha asumido como objetivo de gestión el enfoque de los destinos inteligentes, el cual requiere un proyecto global que incorpore cinco ámbitos fundamentales: gobernanza, sostenibilidad, conectividad, sistema de información e innovación. No obstante, la complejidad asociada a este enfoque hace aconsejable un desarrollo de tipo flexible, escalable y adaptado a cada entorno territorial. Palabras clave: destino turístico inteligente; tecnología; gobernanza; gestión; innovación. Resum. Gestió turística i tecnologies de la informació i la comunicació (TIC): La nova perspectiva de les destinacions intel·ligentsAquest article analitza la nova perspectiva de les destinacions intel·ligents per a la gestió turística a escala local. Se n'hi estudia la gènesi i s'hi realitza una proposta de concep-* El presente trabajo se enmarca en el proyecto de investigación Nuevos enfoques para la planificación y gestión del territorio turístico: Conceptualización, análisis de experiencias y problemas. Definición de modelos operativos para destinos turísticos inteligentes (CSO2014-59193-R), financiado por el Programa Estatal de I+D+i, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad.

The debate on sustainable tourism development usually focuses on small-scale tourism practices, such as rural tourism or ecotourism, inappropriately referred to as "alternative" tourism judging by the problems they start to create. Mature destinations in the Mediterranean are a classic example of inappropriate environmental practices and of disregard for the principles of sustainability, which had been present in scientific discourse long before the 1992 Rio Summit. However, the restructuring processes in traditional destinations lead to a more complex reality in which sustainability has become an inescapable reference, both as a competitiveness factor and as a growing social demand. This paper uses an operative definition of sustainable tourism development that makes possible the effective application of its principles. From this basis, a system of sustainability indicators is developed that can be applied to Torrevieja, a Spanish Mediterranean destination that is notable for the size of its tourism industry and for its supply of holiday homes. The territorial and socio-economic transformations that have resulted from Torrevieja´s tourism development, along with the new local policies in response to these transformations, highlight both the contradictions and the chances of reconciling economic growth with sustainable development.