Zheng “Phil” Xiang, associate professor of hospitality and tourism management, received one of the two Papers of the Year 2016 awards from Electronic Markets, a leading international academic journal that offers a forum for research on networked business. Xiang’s co-authored paper, “Smart tourism: foundations and developments,” was published in the 25 (3), 2015 issue.

Abstract

Smart tourism is a new buzzword applied to describe the increasing reliance of tourism destinations, their industries and their tourists on emerging forms of ICT that allow for massive amounts of data to be transformed into value propositions. However, it remains ill-defined as a concept, which hinders its theoretical development. The paper defines smart tourism, sheds light on current smart tourism trends, and then lays out its technological and business foundations. This is followed by a brief discussion on the prospects and drawbacks of smart tourism. The paper further draws attention to the great need for research to inform smart tourism development and management. (Read more)