Smart ‘Tourist Cities’ Revisited: Culture-Led Urban Sustainability and the Global Real Estate Market

Abstract

Smart tourism destinations have received increasing attention during the last few years. Digital technologies have reshaped the smart city paradigm in terms of both resilience and sustainability, capitalizing cities’ cultural and historical components while providing unique potential for growth in the real estate industry. Real estate, in particular, is considered a main asset to the tourist experience, whether it is in the form of hospitality accommodation facilities, urban landscapes, or cultural heritage hotspots. In addition, the effect of cultural sites and overall destination attractiveness on real estate dynamics (land/housing prices and building activity) is well established. Thus, uncovering how enhanced technological throughputs and synergies, culture-led urban sustainability initiatives and the real estate dimension are directly (or indirectly) associated could support cities to better delineate policies for their promotion as international, sustainable, and resilient tourist destinations. With this perspective, the present study focused on four particular cities’ successful smart initiatives, namely Amsterdam, Barcelona, Seoul, and Stockholm, in an attempt to identify how developers and local authorities will need to transform in order to offer better services to residents and visitors. This work reveals that smart projects alone cannot secure the transition of existing (European) cities into smart and sustainable tourism destinations. In addition, this study also contributes to public policy by demonstrating how challenging it is to be smart without the support and involvement of the local community, highlighting the significance of public awareness. The empirical findings suggest that local authorities are of critical importance when shaping a well-structured and practically effective strategy for the integration of sustainable and technologically advanced smart features. Results are promising, and final reflections provide insights for tourism destinations policymakers, city authorities, and real estate professionals.

Urban buildings sustainable adaptive reuse into tourism accommodation establishments: a SOAR analysis

“…[29] demonstrated the value of repurposing heritage buildings as tourist attractions and facilities while stressing the necessity of adapting historic structures for use in the hospitality sector in order to ensure sustainability, and meet contemporary user needs and demands, effectively integrated into modern social and cultural modern-day life. Along the same lines, [118] and [119] underlined the sustainability potential for the tourist product and destination, while [120] stressed the importance of fostering a sustainable culture within accommodation facilities [121] examined the tourist potential of historical sites as part of a comprehensive planning strategy and tool that supports regional growth. While, in a rare attempt, [122] explored the dimensions for (dis)satisfaction among customers of heritage hotels, supporting the fact that satisfied customers mentioned -among others-the tangible features of the hotel.…”

Contemporary Challenges in Destination Planning: A Geographical Typology Approach

“…In strategies for innovative cities, there should be foresight, among other things, for innovative initiatives in visitor management and enhancing the tourist experience. The European Capital of Smart Tourism is a relatively new European initiative that, since 2019, recognizes outstanding achievements from European cities as innovative tourist destinations [59,60].…”

Exploring the Contribution of Advanced Systems in Smart City Development for the Regeneration of Urban Industrial Heritage

“…The concept of smart cities and their pursuit of sustainable development (SD) has garnered significant scholarly attention. Numerous researchers have explored various aspects of smart city design, technology integration, and their implications for urban governance and sustainability [4][5][6][7][8][9]. Xia et al (2022) conducted a study on the integration of a geographic information system (GIS) and building information modeling (BIM) in city digital twin technologies, emphasizing the potential of this integration for sustainable smart city design [4].…”

“…Wang et al (2023) focused on understanding the identification and transformation mechanism of rural regional function using the self-organizing feature map (SOFM) model, providing valuable insights into rural regional development in the central plains urban agglomeration of China [5]. Vardopoulos et al (2023) examined cultureled urban sustainability in smart tourist cities and its connection to the global real estate market, shedding light on the role of culture in shaping sustainable urban development [6]. Leorke and Wyatt (2019) highlighted the significant impact of public libraries as vital community hubs and platforms for knowledge sharing within the context of smart cities [7].…”

“…As stated, the precise and unified definition of a smart city is currently unavailable, which leads to questions regarding its fundamental characteristics and criteria [4][5][6][7]. To assess the level of "smartness" in a city, it becomes imperative to identify its essential components.…”