Smart City Strategies for Sustainable Tourism: Definitions and Taxonomy

The present paper aims to design a taxonomy of the mutual interdependence between smart city policies and tourism in urban areas. The research is based on a deep literature analysis including both smart city definitions and smart city strategy examples, and tourism in smart city case studies. The relationship between smart city and tourism has been under-investigated until now, and a taxonomy of the mutual influence between tourism fluxes and smart policy still lacks in the international literature. Smart city policies can impact on tourism in several ways, but especially putting the conditions to support sustainable tourism in cities and improving the quality of the journey for city visitors. These aspects are very relevant, especially for large and medium cities all over the world that are simultaneously a place of life for their inhabitants and touristic destinations. Findings show that smart cities, with their several aspects and technologies, are able to positively impact on tourism, both offering smarter urban experiences and reducing the environmental impact of touristic fluxes.