From Information and Communication Technology to the Smart Tourism Experience: Value Co-creation

Tourism contemplates dynamics that are socially, culturally, and economically relevant and that imply mobility, for personal or professional purposes, to destinations outside their usual environment [1]. The intensity and impact of information and communication technologies (ICT) on tourism make the smart concept also applicable to it [2]. The smart tourism experience, driven by aggregated information, the spread of connectivity, and permanent synchronisation [3], tends to be efficient and significant [4]. In this framework, tourists as an interested part, play a decisive role, given that they not only consume, but also create and improve data, which represent the structure of the experience, and, through their digital footprint, access to information and/or add value through mobile devices and tools [5–7]. Given the relevance and timeliness of the topics under analysis—aware of contemporary technological evolution and the impact it contemplates on science and tourist activity—, a conceptual approach is proposed that allows highlighting, through the literature review, the process, unavoidable interaction between technology and the tourism experience [6]. We highlight essential repercussions on the levels of services and destinations, organisations and business models, resources, and instruments, given a more versatile structure and different concepts regarding added value [4], with the consequent innovative impact in terms of services competitiveness, strategic vision, management and marketing models [12], highlighting its usefulness in co-creating positively differentiating tourism experiences for stakeholders, namely tourists, as well as accommodation and destinations.