Marketing smart tourism cities – a strategic dilemma

Smart governance for heritage tourism destinations: Contextual factors and destination management organization perspectives

“…Here, optimisation is defined as a heritage tourism destination governance approach that seeks to deliver policy responses to increase value for stakeholders within a destination system, with particular reference to addressing pressures of overtourism. The relationship between smart tourism and overtourism is an emerging issue (Coca-Stefaniak, 2019), but the governance aspects of this relationship are less well understood, especially in an era of light-touch governance and a trend towards minimal state interventions in tourism (Kennell, 2020;Koens et al, 2018). This study contributes to our understanding of the implementation of SG in tourism, by highlighting the significance of context to the development of SG for heritage tourism destinations.…”

Encyclopedia of Tourism Management and Marketing

“…The resilient tourism city systema multi-dimensional conceptual framework for managing sustainably tourism cities (adapted from Coca-Stefaniak, 2019).…”

“…Over the last six years, the International Journal of Tourism Cities has emerged as the only scholarly journal focusing specifically on research related to urban tourism and tourism cities. Similarly, the Routledge Handbook of Tourism Cities (2021) also provides a timely contribution to knowledge in this field, with particular emphasis on the challenges faced by tourism cities worldwide in the twenty first century and their leading role in delivering innovative solutions in tourism that range from crisis management to the emerging role of smart tourism cities in place marketing and branding processes (Buhalis, 2020;Coca-Stefaniak, 2019).…”

Smart Urban Tourism Destinations at a Crossroads

“…Since then, smart cities have consolidated largely as a form of visioning for improving local economies, enhancing mobility, delivering environmental sustainability, improving quality of life in cities, and enabling better governance (e.g. Abella et al, 2017;Angelidou, 2015;Caragliu et al, 2011;Vanolo, 2014;Picon, 2015;Hajer and Dassen, 2014;Monitor Deloitte, 2015) and even living test beds for urban innovation (Sassen, 2011; and engagement with visitors and residents (Molinillo et al, 2019) even if the use of place branding and marketing techniques by smart cities and smart tourism destinations remain a major challenge (Coca-Stefaniak, 2019). In spite of this seemingly endless list of benefits smart cities have attracted criticism from scholars on historical and philosophical grounds as constructs serving primarily a financial elite (Curugullo, 2018) through a form of market triumphalism (Gibbs et al, 2013) that promotes a standardising approach to the design of urban futures (Sadowski and Bendor, 2019) with arguably opaque approaches to urban planning and development (Kitchin, 2015;Kummitha and Crutzen, 2017).…”

“…However, at the core of the tourism destination's ecosystem will remain the same attractors and resources common to all smart and non-smart (dumb?) tourism destinations (see Figure 2) that have traditionally contributed to their authenticity and, by default, their unique competitive positioning and socio-economic sustainability, as stipulated by Crouch and Ritchie (1999) The resilient smart tourism destinationa conceptual framework for future proofing today's smart tourism cities (Coca-Stefaniak, 2019).…”