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Which smart tourism experiences are more likely to enhance
the destination attractiveness?
Sarah Poupineau
I. Introduction
Why are cities more important than ever?
The process of accelerated urbanization on the world scale profoundly modifies the
inhabitant’s way of living. Today more than half of the world population lives in
cities. In 2050, it is estimated that this will increase by 70% (World Health
Organization 2016).This urbanization is characterized by an increase of cities over
one million in population in addition to megalopolis (cities with more than 10 million
inhabitants). Their geographical distribution is unequal around the globe. The future
of the planet is partly at risk in those sprawling cities where each month, 5 million
people settle. How does one live decently in such cities where the priority is to find a
place to live? In those megalopolis, disparate forms of architecture coexist: buildings
Smart tourism is a new trendy expression related to the increasing
reliance of cities destinations and their tourists on new innovative
forms of ICT that allow to transform massive amount of data into
valuable offers. However, the concept of smart tourism lacks
theoretical development. The report will attempt to define a
successful smart city and understand the change in the tourist
experience by shedding light on current smart tourism trends. This is
followed by a cross-study analysis aiming to complement information
on key success factors for a touristic project. It will also make a point
on the contribution of smart touristic initiatives achieving
attractiveness of the destination. The paper further draws attention to
the obstacles, criticism and impacts of such projects.
Keywords: Smart cities • Smart technologies • Tourism experience •
Case Study • Smart destination •

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neighbour open-air rubbish dumps. Slums account for half of the urban world
population, integrating new migrants searching for a job in the city.
Another global phenomenon of the Western world that left a mark on modern Asian
cities is the importance given to the automobile in urban planning. Transport
infrastructures have deeply modified cities but not only this : they have also impacted
the relationship between the available space for traffic and the city life. This has led
to a fragmentation of the urban landscape and the development of residential
enclaves while upsetting a coherent integration of the population. In light of city
growth and other environmental issues, certain decision-makers and planners have
embarked on the development of the smart city concept. At its core is the idea of
optimizing networks which criss-cross cities (water, electricity, transportation, waste)
thanks to digital highways. The development of such gigantic cities gives rise to new
ways of thinking with a view to living together better; it takes into account social and
ecological problems in order to avoid the worst scenarios.
Smart cities are providing an alternative answer.
What is a smart tourism experience?
Smart technologies have received a widespread interest in the field of tourism.
Technology has not only become an integral part of tourism but has revolutionized
the way travelling is planned. New business models are emerging thanks to smart
technologies in the tourism sectors (Buhalis, 2003). Mobile applications, virtual
reality, cloud computing, open innovation, on-location based services are all
examples of smart innovations enhancing the tourism experience (Wang et al., 2012)
The city appeals as a place where all the opportunities for ‘being a protagonist’ is
affecting the choice of the tourist destination. Indeed, cities have become one of the
preferred places of the current tourist demand.
Particularly reinforced with the new collaborative dimensions of technologies, the
market place has undergone a kind of revolution with tourists playing an active and
interactive role in the experience. In this vein, Gretzel and Jamal (2009) question the
successful integration of technology into the tourist experience.
Yet, the understanding of the key success factors for a smart tourism experience is
limited. Recent research recognizes the potential of technology for more
personalized, interactive and socially engaged experience (Neuhofer, 2013).

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Zhang et al (2012) suggest that to set up a smart-tourism system, 4 forms of
Information Computers Technologies (ICTs) are vital: Internet of Things (IoT),
cloud computing, mobile technology and artificial intelligence.
Despite an increasing number of smart tourism studies, research exploring the smart
tourism experiences and its relationship with destination attractiveness research
remain fairly scarce (Gretzel, 2011). Based on this fact, the aim of the report is to
bridge the gap between enhanced tourism experience and destination attractiveness
to address the research question of “Which smart tourism experiences are more
likely to enhance the destination attractiveness?”. It is hoped that this study can
give useful directions for the diagnosis of the key success factors of a smart tourism
experience in a smart city by means of several cases study approach.
The paper first assesses the current literature on smart cities and tourist experience,
followed by the outline of the methodological approach. It then presents the research
findings related to the success factors of a touristic experience in a smart city.
Finally, it highlights several criticisms and discusses limitations and suggestions for
further studies.
II. Literature review
Definition of smart cities
The innovative city
The smart city is based on the identification of millions of elementary occurrences
from recording traffic hotspot, evaluating individual’s energy consumption to
measuring air pollution. Smart tourism is becoming a big contributor and benefactor
of the “sensor society” (Andrejevic and Burdon 2015) that is characterized by
ubiquitous, always-on data capture. During all travel-related activities, customers
leave electronic traces like searching a trip, planning, booking, giving feedbacks... As
a result it multiplies the sources of data, the channels of communications and the
interactions. Yet, despite the abundance of data, few cities are able to interpret and
integrate these data inside their urban system (La Rocca, 2013). One key question is

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the role of governments in these cities: do governments have to take the leading
role in coordinating smart city initiatives despite their own short term engagement?
For Coe et al (2001), “smart city governance should encapsulate collaboration,
cooperation, partnership, citizen engagement and participation”. They need to break
down their current practice of working in silos and “act as a network of multiple
systems” (Anne Hidalgo, 2016). “Cities that can shift from the traditional
bureaucratic approach to using ICT to support e-governance can achieve greater
smart city objectives” (Moon and Welch, 2005) A smart city therefore starts with
smart citizens who are engaged in the process and asked on their opinions.
(Mulligan 2013). The Future Space Foundation believes that “making data more
readily available improves travel experiences for everyone, whether they are a
commuter, a tourist or a resident exploring everything the city has to offer.” Therefore
cities need to “open-up” to their citizens by offering their data in an easily
accessible and reusable format. Moreover, open data policies can also foster a
culture of innovation as well as create jobs.
The sustainable city
Sustainability and the environment are critical to the urban landscape as cities
account for 80% of CO2 emissions and 75% of global energy consumption. Cities no
longer have the option to keep on working the way they have done in the past.
There are growing concerns on existing natural resources, increasing pressure
regarding the transportation infrastructures, access to education, provision of
adequate healthcare and safety of the growing number of urban residents. As a
result, the smart sustainable city aims to achieve an economically sustainable
urban environment without reducing the population quality of life through the use of
ICTs. The aggregation of data is not only used for the purpose of data analysis but
also to understand better how the city is running its resource consumption, services
and lifestyle. Many smart sustainable initiatives are already arising in the cities:
rooftop farms, shared gardens, vertical farms on skyscrappers, smart waste
management, smart city lighting…

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The social city
Artificial intelligence, digital revolution…the future of our cities seems to head
towards hyperconnexion and new technologies. Yet, is it the only solution so that
change may happen in our society? Next to the smart city, a human, collaborative
and open city is emerging. A smart future for our cities is one where we live
more collaboratively - not just by sharing decision-making and policy development,
but by sharing commodities such as cars, energy, data. Sharing economy platforms
directly contribute to the smartness of a city by providing services matching the need
of the municipality and speeding up social and urban transformations. It also
indirectly improve the attractiveness of a city. If a city is known to be innovative and
open to these new services, it may definitely attract business opportunities, tourists,
and improve the urban economy.
Understanding the change in the tourist experience
Travel experience” is defined by all the interactions and emotions felt by the traveler
at each step of his trip”. Considering the dynamic nature of the tourism industry,
experiences are subject to constant change. With fierce competition in the domain of
tourism experiences, the two significant paths for improvement have to do with the
integration of ICTs and the increasing co-creation of experiences.
Information and communication technologies:
ICTs have represented a catalyst of change that has opened unprecedented
possibilities for tourist experience creation and enhancement” (Sigala, 2012) The 4
forms of ICTs vital for Zhang et al (2012) enable for the collection of information in an
unobtrusive and cost-effective way. When strategically implemented, companies can
use ICTs to collect and analyze consumer needs to maximize both tourist
satisfaction and the destination competitiveness (Picolli et al. 2003).
Co-creation:
Empowered experiences incorporate immersive technological solutions to allow the
tourist “to become highly involved, actively participate and co-create with multiple
stakeholders throughout all stages of travel” (Neuhofer & Buhalis, 2013). The idea
of providing customers with empowered and unique experiences (Pine & Gilmore,

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1999) and thereby creating added value for them was proposed as a the key
competitive advantage. As a result, Pine & Gilmore emphasize that “companies do
not actually compete in terms of market price but rather in terms of the distinctive
value of an experience provided”.
Upgrading the experience:
ICTs have been central in building up platforms of interaction where dialogues occur,
fostering personalization and creating meaningful experiences (Buhalis, 2002). In
operating such possibilities, tourists are integrated in the value chain and can
customize their experience according to the background, their needs and
preferences. Such change in touristic behavior has brought the tourism industry to a
challenging situation and has led to the development of “smart destinations.”
What is important is not the technological development itself, but rather the
strategic and adequate integration of smart technology as a resource for the co-
creation of valuable touristic experiences. This paper suggests to subdivides the
experience creation process to understand where and how technology is used
alongside the different stages of travel.
III. Analytical method :
A case study approach has been used to validate the findings empirically and
measure the impact of smart touristic initiatives in the destination attractiveness
To address this enquiry, cases were identified following the benchmark of enhanced
tourists’ experiences. The selection has been treated according to a set of defined
criteria such as being represented in the hospitality & tourism industry, and
embodying currently a successful initiative of enhanced tourism experience in a
smart city. The following indicators had to be: attracting wide support, having clear
objectives, producing concrete outcomes and impacts, being imitated or scaled.
In this process, eight organizations were contacted covering various industry sectors:
telecoms, museums, destination management organization (DMO’s), hospitality,
travel agencies and restaurants. As major assets for the case study research,
multiple sources were integrated including informal interviews, observation,
documentary information, surveys. Informal interviews with project owners favored
an in-depth understanding of real life cases, while direct observations and on-site

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tests and visits enabled to get a first-hand technology-enhanced experience .This
diversified data collection allowed for a mixed and comprehensive understanding of
the smart tourism experience.
Table 1. Case study outline
Case
Nr.
Company Industry
sector
Rationale choice
1 Co-creation between
Orange / Musée de
l’Homme
Telecom
/museum
Orange Beacon partnered with the Musée de l’Homme in
Paris to create a fun and educational app for children. It
offers a chance to visit the museum through a series of
interactive games thanks to the use of Orange Beacons.
2 Château de Versailles Museum The Château de Versailles offers several applications
using Augmented Reality and 3D to guide tourists in their
visit.
3 Val Thorens Destination
Management
Organisation
The tourist office offers an interactive 360° video on their
Facebook page that takes tourist virtually through
different places of their destination.
4 Thomas Cook Travel
Agency
The travel agency equipped its agencies in England,
Belgium and Germany with Oculus Rift headset to inspire
clients and enable them to virtually visit hotel before
booking. The application consists in projecting oneself
into a virtual dimension by pointing one’s smartphone to
the specific place to ‘discover’.
5 August Smart Lock Hotel August Smart Lock partnered with Airbnb to propose a
keyless access to Airbnb’s hosts through an app and a
connected lock for a safer and time-saving check-in and
check-out.
6 Voyages SNCF Transport The company uses humanoid robots called “Pepper”
which give information on trains, helps travelers to carry
their luggage, and gives information on nearby public
transportation.

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7 Tourist Office Alençon Destination
Management
Organization
The tourist office of a French city in Alençon proposes an
app including beacons and virtual reality to attract its
visitors through an immersive visit of the city.
8 E-Office NFC Restaurants Restaurants use NFC technology to translate the menus
of the restaurants in several languages. The tourist just
needs to flash a QR code to get access to the translation.
IV. Findings and discussion
Smart Tourism Experiences
Having undertaken eight case studies, this section presents the findings of the study.
The four forms of vital ICT are validated by the case study analysis:
The Internet of Things is transforming the customer experience by merging the
digital and physical world. Both Alençon city and the Musée de l’Homme set up
beacons sensors in the city or in the museum to push interactions to visitors when
they are near to the place. Throughout their journey, visitors are guided and can
discover the story behind the different monuments or paintings thanks to mobile
applications. August Smart Lock also uses IoT to send electronic keys to their
Airbnb’s host’s smartphone, transforming the welcoming phase into a smooth
experience.
The mobile technology is also a key tool enabling information retrieval anywhere at
any time. Firstly, the mobile provides the right information at the right time and in the
right place . Secondly, mobile device becomes the new travel guide facilitating the
traveler’s experience: information, orientation, photographing, sharing … Many apps
now give the possibility to book an activity on site thanks to dematerialized tickets or
NFC technology. For instance, E-restaurant uses NFC readers to send the translated
menu directly on their guest’s smartphone.
At the booking stage, destination travelers have now the opportunity to watch
immersive 360° videos through virtual reality headsets on their smartphones to
project even more in the future. Thomas Cook has invested in virtual reality
technology to inspire clients and enable them to virtually visit the hotel before

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booking. On the same vein, the tourist office of Alençon enables to visualize the
famous Alençon castle at different times in history providing an immersive
experience.
To upgrade tourist personalization artificial Intelligence allows businesses to
facilitate the right customer service at the right time. Voyages SNCF for instance
offers a humanoid robot called Pepper which gives information on trains and nearby
public transports, and helps travelers to carry their luggage. This bot uses the SNCF
APIs to provide essential information to train station‘s users. Finally, the cloud
computing technology stimulates information sharing and provides access to solid
data storage. The findings from the cross-case analysis indicated that technology
can be used either has a supplementary role to support the experience either
constitutes the integral part of the experience. The analysis also suggested that
technology is revolutionizing the experience creation by offering high level of
interactivity, social engagement and personalization. This is in line with
literature, such as Neuhofer et al. (2013) who argue that ”the more involved the
tourists are with the technology, the richer their physical experience will be.” In this
respect, social media play an important role in empowering levels of interaction
among multiple parties. The tourist not only co-creates his experiences with his
immediate environment but also interacts with physically distant surroundings. The
Val Thorens DMO’s assert their strong digital positioning and foster brand
destination loyalty by being the first to offer an interactive 360° video on their
Facebook page. It is also a way to promote their destination to new markets allowing
clients or tourist operators to visit the city virtually without being actually in Val
Thorens.

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The experiences utility functions can be seen on Table 2:
Smart tourism experiences Company Goals and advantages
1. Virtual reality (VR) enables
visitors to experience digital
recreation of tourism sites and
time travel
2. NFC tags give access to
translated restaurant menus
3. Tourists are guided thanks to
beacon technology
4. 360° video is proposed on the
Facebook page of a destination
5. IoT smoother the check-in
experience
6. Pepper robot provides real-time
information on transport network
and guide the tourists in a train
station
Alençon Tourist Office
Thomas Cook
E-NFC restaurants
Musée de l’Homme
Château de Versailles
Alençon Tourist Office
Val Thorens
August Smart Lock
Voyages-SNCF
Promotion of the destination
Mind-blowing experience
Encourage visitors to spend more time
on site
Increase their willingness to visit the
place further
Attract new market
Increase sales
Promote local culture
Smart mobility
Innovate
Highlight the experience
Foster their digital brand destination
positioning
Attract new markets
Inspire, keep tourists engaged in real
time
Facilitate the experience
Secure
Planning
Guidance
Create a smart destination experience from scratch requires the project leader to
constructively involve and collaborate with the different stakeholders.
Table 3 summarizes the different outcome for each stakeholders based on the
analysis of the case studies.

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Table 3. Smart tourism experience characteristics
Stakeholders Characteristics of the requirements
Government ● Establish Public-Private Partnership
● Maintain adequate network coverage within the
city to avoid gap between dense and rural areas
● Support open-data
● Regulate data privacy
Tourism companies ● Digitalize their core business activities
● Give access to information in real-time and in a
readable format for users
● Engage with local communities, tourists and
government in co-creating the experience or
developing crowd-sourced applications
Local communities ● Actively involved in developing cultural heritage
Tourists ● Connected, active, committed
● Co-create the experience
● Contribute to the content
● Use end-user devices at multiple touch points
● involved in social media
Destination ● Innovative ecosystem
● Capture information from users and their activities
● Interconnected through IoT
● Interoperable services
● Eco-friendly environment
● Educate their citizens and visitors on how to best
use the technology
Source : Adapted from Buhalis (2013)
Smart Tourism Experiences take advantage of technologically embedded
infrastructures, end-user devices in various touch-points and engaged stakeholders.
The final goal is to use the system to upgrade tourism experience, to maximize both
destination attractiveness and consumer satisfaction and to demonstrate long term
sustainability commitment.
V. Conclusions and implications
Present cities are expected to become megalopolis with millions of inhabitants. To
manage the inevitable change of these new large urban systems, it will be necessary
to implement coordination among decision-makers, local authorities and the society.
A first attempt to define the pre-conditions for the development of smart city is to

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divide the city into three sub-systems: the innovative city, the sustainable city and the
social city. Smart dimension necessarily involves a review of the processes for the
governance of the urban system. Technology should be integrated into the urban
system and not to be considered as additional equipment. By the use of ICTs, locals,
tourists and city users can act as a dynamic role in improving their quality of life and
creating new experiences. The notion of creating experiences has become essential
for a successful promotion of the destination. The need for adapting urban services
supply, to answer the increasingly expert and qualified tourist demand will require to
reconsider the relation between and physical and virtual elements. For instance,
ferry terminals, low cost airports and buses represent new gates to enter the city
meant to receive the tourist flow and need to be upgraded in their hosting services.
The same will have to be developed with the tourist office, which will inevitably need
to modify its role and function to become new modern poles of tourist reception.
In reviewing the theoretical background of the smart city and the tourist experience,
the paper has recognized two major changes in the nature of tourist experience: a)
four forms of technology can be used to create enhanced touristic experiences, b)
empowered experiences incorporate immersive technological solutions to allow the
tourist “to become highly involved, actively participate and co-create with multiple
stakeholders throughout all stages of travel”.
A gap between the theoretical approach and the cases under analysis was spotted.
The theoretical approach indicated that successful destination of the future will be
the one that integrate ICTs in their structures to dynamically co-create smart
experiences with tourists in all travel stages. At the same times findings have
highlighted how low the level of tourist’s engagement can be in the co-creation
process and how hard it is to maintain a high level of commitment over time. This
suggests that the success of smart touristic projects cannot be disconnected from a
larger smart city policy able to penetrate in depth local residents and civil society. It
follows that smart touristic initiatives can empower citizens and tourists to actively
participate in bottom-up decision-making processes. Otherwise, it is likely to remain
a simple use of new technologies under the logic of brilliant engineer’s logic losing
track of the human part.