Journal of Tourism and Development

Journal of Tourism and Development

Analysis of basic cultural and social functions of smart tourism development in urban destinations

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Ph.D. Student in Business Management, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Social Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
2 Associate Professor, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Social Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran
3 Associate Professor, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Urmia University, Urmia, Iran
4 Associate Professor, Department of Business Management, Faculty of Social Science, University of Mohaghegh Ardabili, Ardabil, Iran.
10.22034/jtd.2024.432412.2874
Abstract
In recent years, smart cities and smart tourism destinations have received wide attention due to providing effective solutions to solve the problems faced by the communities and promoting a sustainable competitive advantage from the point of view of tourism destination marketing. However, the consequences of its development on the residents from socio-cultural aspects have not been studied. The purpose of this study is to analyze the basic cultural and social functions of smart tourism development in Tabriz city. The current research is applied in terms of its purpose and descriptive survey in terms of its nature. In this research, a qualitative approach was used with the method of content analysis and using library resources and in-depth semi-structured interviews. The expert members were selected by the snowball method and theoretical saturation was obtained after interviewing 13 experts, but three more interviews were conducted for more certainty. After performing three stages of open, core and selective coding, the findings identified 19 concepts in the form of 7 sub-themes, including innovation acceptance, public value, sustainability, promotion of citizen participation, tourism co-creation, residents’ subjective well-being and new technologies ethical aspects. The results of this study can be of great help to policy-makers and managers of urban tourism destinations in order to understand and manage how its development affects people.
Keywords

Abbie-Gayle., J. (2023). Why are smart destinations not all technology-oriented? Examining the development of smart tourism initiatives based on path dependence. Current Issues in Tourism, 26(8), 1282-1294. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2022.2053071
Beyranvandzadeh, M., & Sharafi, S. (2019). Investigation of Social Dimensions and Consequences Affecting Tourism Development in Khorramabad-Poldokhtar Tourism. Geography and Human Relationships2(3), 446-455. https://dorl.et/dor/20.1001.1.26453851.1398.2.3.28.0. [In Persian]
Bhatta, K. D. (2023). Tourism Impacts on Local Culture, Heritage and Architecture in the High Himalayan Settlements. Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 7(3), 01–14. https://doi.org/10.35484/pssr.2023(7-III)01
Blešić, I., Pivac, T., Kovačić, S., Cimbaljević, M., Lukić, T., Bubalo Živković, M., Đerčan, B., et al. (2022). Place Attachment, Cultural Involvement, and Residents’ Attitudes towards Tourism Development: The Case of Novi Sad, the European Capital of Culture 2022. Sustainability, 14(15), 9103. MDPI AG. http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/su14159103
Boes, K., Buhalis, D., & Inversini, A. (2015). Conceptualising Smart Tourism Destination Dimensions. In: Tussyadiah, I., Inversini, A. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism. 391–403. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14343-9_29
Bouzguenda, I., Alalouch, C., & Fava, N. (2019). Towards Smart Sustainable Cities: A Review of the Role Digital Citizen Participation Could Play in Advancing Social Sustainability. Sustainable Cities and Society, 50, 101627. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scs.2019.101627
Buhalis, D., O’Connor, P. & Leung, R. (2023). Smart hospitality: from smart cities and smart tourism towards agile business ecosystems in networked destinations. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 35)1(, 369-393. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-04-2022-0497
Cavalheiro, M., Joia, L, A., & Cavalheiro, G. (2019). Towards a Smart Tourism Destination Development Model: Promoting Environmental, Economic, Socio-cultural and Political Values. Tourism Planning & Development, 17(3), 237-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2019.1597763
Chen, S., Tian, Di., Law, R., & Zhang, Mu. (2022). Bibliometric and visualized review of smart tourism research. International journal of tourism research, 24(2), 298-307. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2501
Ebrahimi, A., & Fatemi, M. (2022). Investigating and Evaluating the Economic Consequences of Urban Tourism from the Perspective of Citizens (Case Study: Birjand City).  The Journal of Urban Futurology, 3(1), 91-109. https://doi.org/10.30495/uf.2023.1983906.1116
El Archi, Y., Benbba, B., Nizamatdinova, Z., Issakov, Y., Vargáné, G. I., & Dávid, L. D. (2023). Systematic Literature Review Analysing Smart Tourism Destinations in Context of Sustainable Development: Current Applications and Future Directions. Sustainability, 15(6), 5086. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15065086
Eyisi, A., Lee, D., & Trees, K. (2021). Local perceptions of tourism development and socio-cultural impacts in Nigeria. Tourism Planning & Development, 20(4), 499-521. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2021.1939134
Farhadi Uonaki, M., Jahanian, M., Pourtaheri, M., & Eftekhari, A. R. (2022). Providing an experience-oriented tourism model in creative cultural attractions Case study: Tehran city. Urban tourism, 9(2), 13-26. doi: https://doi.org/10.22059/jut.2022.339631.1018 [In Persian].
Gretzel, U., & Chulmo, K. (2021). Smart tourism cities: a duality of place where technology supports the convergence of touristic and residential experiences. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 26(4), 352-364. https://doi.org/10.1080/10941665.2021.1897636
Hewett, G. K., Hult, T. M., Mantrala, M. K., Nim, N., & Pedada, K. (2022). Cross-border marketing ecosystem orchestration: A conceptualization of its determinants and boundary conditions. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 39(2), 619-638. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2021.09.003
Javashi Jadid, S., Taherikia, F., Jalali, S. M., & Tabrizian, B. (2020). Introducing a Model of Value Co-Creation with Customers in the Tourism Industry. Innovation Management in Defensive Organizations3(1), 119-146. https://doi/org/10.22034/qjimdo.2020.210870.1242. [In Persian]
Keshvardoust, M., & Amar Hajishirkia, T. (2022). Explaining the socio-cultural consequences of tourism development in coastal villages of Rasht County. Regional Planning12(46), 112-126. https://doi.org/10.30495/jzpm.2022.5384. [In Persian]
Lanjani, M., Motaharnia, M., & Torabi, M. (2021). iran's tourism development strategy in the era of globalization and its consequences. Research Letter of International Relations14(3), 193-165. [In Persian]
Lin, C., Zhao, G., Yu, C., & Wu, Y.J. (2019). Smart City Development and Residents’ Well-Being. Sustainability, 11(3), 676, https://doi.org/10.3390/su11030676
Miyaoka, A., Decker-Woodrow, L., Hartman, N., Booker, B., & Ottmar, E. (2023). Emergent Coding and Topic Modeling: A Comparison of Two Qualitative Analysis Methods on Teacher Focus Group Data. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22. https://doi.org/10.1177/16094069231165950
Romão, J., Kourtit, K., Neuts, B., & Nijkamp, P. (2018). The smart city as a common place for tourists and residents: A structural analysis of the determinants of urban attractiveness. Cities, 78, 67–75. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cities.2017.11.007
Saghafiasl, S., & Afrakhteh, H. (2022). Investigating the set of governing contexts and consequences of tourism development based on competitiveness advantages, case study: Rodbar Ghasran Rura area. Village and Space Sustainable Development, 4(3), 20-38. https://doi.org/10.22077/vssd.2022.5392.1114 [In Persian]
Shin, H. H., Ki, J., & Jeong, M. (2023). Memorable tourism experience at smart tourism destinations: Do travelers' residential tourism clusters matter? Tourism Management Perspectives, 46, 101103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tmp.2023.101103
UNWTO. (2002). Tourism and poverty alleviation. Madrid: World Tourism Organization.
Yin, C., Xiong, Z., Chen, H., Wang, J., Cooper, D., & David, B. (2015). A literature survey on smart cities. Sci. China Inf. Sci, 58(10), 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11432-015-5397-4
Zarei, G., & Haghverdizadeh, A. (2022). The branding model of Iranian industrial products in international markets with the approach of grounded theory. Journal of International Business Administration, 5(4), 199-226. https://doi.org/10.22034/jiba.2022.50654.1857 [In Persian]
Zayyari, K., Besharati, N., & Shabani, K. M. (2018). Social and cultural consequences of tourism development (Fomen Masuleh's case study). Applied Studies in Social Sciences and Sociology, 1(1), 31-42. [In Persian]
Zhang, Y., Sotiriadis, M., & Shen, S. (2022). Investigating the Impact of Smart Tourism Technologies on Tourists’ Experiences. Sustainability, 14(5), 3048. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14053048