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Developing a model for smart tourism destinations: an interpretive structural modelling approach

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Abstract

The smart tourism concept emerged from smart city development and is a particular application area within smart city initiatives. Smart tourism is broadly applied as a strategic tool to enhance the competitiveness of tourism destinations. This study creates a framework to identify, explore, and rate the effective factors of developing smart tourism destinations. The effective factors were identified through a review of the research literature and by surveying experts. The identified factors were rated using an interpretative-structural modelling approach. A Cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification (MICMAC) analysis was used to determine the power and dependence of these factors. The findings show 20 indexes at ten levels. Financial resources, government support, and smart tourism policies were identified as the most important factors in modelling smart tourism development. By identifying effective factors for developing smart tourism destinations, the policymakers can encourage innovation of smart destinations, support smart tourism and highlight the multi-faceted contribution of smart destinations to sustainable development.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Information Technology Management, Payame Noor University, Tehran, Iran

    Sanaz Shafiee

  2. Department of Management, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Ali Rajabzadeh Ghatari

  3. Department of Information Technology Management, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    Alireza Hasanzadeh

  4. Department of Management, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran

    Saeed Jahanyan

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  1. Sanaz Shafiee
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  2. Ali Rajabzadeh Ghatari
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  3. Alireza Hasanzadeh
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  4. Saeed Jahanyan
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Correspondence to Ali Rajabzadeh Ghatari.

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Shafiee, S., Ghatari, A.R., Hasanzadeh, A. et al. Developing a model for smart tourism destinations: an interpretive structural modelling approach. Inf Technol Tourism 24, 511–546 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40558-022-00236-7

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