Planning and Management of Smart Tourism

Destination (TMgt 582)

By
Zemenu Bires (PhD)

May 2023
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
 Elements of Destination Planning
• Tourism can and will evolve with or without planning, however
the sustainability of a destination depends on whether the type and
scale of tourism is best suited to the destination.
• Effective destination management relies on an iterative and
continual planning process that integrates tourism into a
community’s social, economic and environmental aspirations.
• Tourism destination planning can be achieved through the
following 3 elements/ subsections of Destination Planning:
 Situation Analysis
 Planning Process
 Ongoing Engagement
 Effective destination planning should;

• Be collaborative process that ensures the engagement,

participation and commitment of all relevant stakeholders;
• Be a coordinated approach that is managed based on clearly
defined processes and frameworks;
• Be based on an understanding of existing internal and external
operating environments of the destination;
• Be based on a sound understanding of tourism supply and
demand forecasts for the destination;
• Consider all relevant information including market research,
stakeholder values, the planning environment and available
resources and assets;
 Effective destination planning....
• Develop a clear and agreed strategic direction for the
destination including a tourism vision, goals, strategies and
actions, brand and positioning, roles and responsibilities, ongoing
management processes and performance measures;
• Result in the development of key planning and strategic
documents including plans for destination management, ongoing
research, strategic marketing, risk identification and management;
• Be used to inform all phases of destination management
including ‘Implementation’ and ‘Destination Performance’;
• Be an ongoing or cyclical process, where plans and strategies are
regularly reviewed to ensure relevance within the changing
environment.
Elements explained
 1. Situation Analysis
• The situation analysis phase of destination management involves
analyzing and understanding the environment in which a tourism
destination operates.
• The aim is to assist destination managers in identifying key factors
that will influence how a destination is developed, marketed and
managed over time.
• It is an essential part of ‘Destination Planning’ and should underpin
the ‘Implementation’ phase where the strategic direction for a
destination is committed to action.
 A comprehensive situation analysis should include:
 An understanding of the destination community’s aspirations and
values;
 Identification and analysis of current visitor markets;
 Understanding consumer (visitor) characteristics, behaviours and
preferences to identify preferred future target markets;
 Situation....
 Reviewing and analysing the operating environment of a destination,
including internal and external factors that might influence the planning
and development a destination;
 Undertaking an infrastructure, product and experiences analysis that is
matched with a visitor demand analysis to identify key gaps in the
destination’s product offering and opportunities to value add to the visitor
experience;
 Measurement of the value of tourism, including economic and non-
economic contribution, to provide understanding and potentially
increased recognition of the importance of tourism;
 Forecasts of future visitation in sufficient detail to support
understanding of the likely demand and the future mix of visitors;
 An understanding of the existing and future resource impacts of
tourism on a destination and identification of strategies to develop a
sustainable approach to tourism development and growth. This includes
an assessment of the impact on natural areas and protected areas
within a destination;
 ..cont’d
 An indication of the vision for tourism is articulated and agreed by the
governments, tourism industries and community stakeholders;
 A review of important issues, challenges and opportunities facing the
destination across the short-term, medium-term and long-term;
 Recognition of the human and financial capital available to support
tourism and destination management;
 An analysis of the statutory and planning environment and how these
regulations will impact on tourism planning and development in a
destination, including the impact of climate change regulations;
 Review and where possible alignment of region-level strategic
planning with national and state policies and plans to assist the
development of partnerships and leverage strategic opportunities.
 Review of lessons learned from other destinations on pitfalls,
successes and future opportunities.
 2. Planning Process
• Ensure that all existing knowledge is considered and incorporated
into the strategic direction of the destination.
 An effective destination planning process include:
• Strong leadership is needed from destination managers and local
tourism champions to ensure stakeholder participation and
commitment
• Development of a comprehensive stakeholder engagement
process and clear definition of stakeholder roles and responsibilities
• Development of a shared stakeholder vision for tourism and
destination management
• Development of strategic planning documents that provide a
long-term direction for the destination’s development, marketing
and management as well as short, medium and long-term actions
 Strategic planning documents include:
• A long-term Strategic Plan identifying the strategic priorities and
direction for the destination including prioritisation of actions and
strategies;
• A Research Plan that identifies the data and information required
by destination managers to make informed planning and strategic
decisions;
• A Risk Management Plan that outlines a framework and
processes for identifying and responding to tourism risks and crises
that may impact on a destination;
• A Strategic Marketing Plan that identifies the marketing
strategies and activities to successfully attract target visitor markets
and influence destination and product choice.
• A Festivals and Events Plan that identifies opportunities to bring
locals and visitors together to celebrate the unique and special
features of a destination.
 3. Ongoing Engagement
• Keeping those stakeholders engaged throughout
the ‘Implementation’ and ‘Destination Performance’ stages.
Ongoing engagement of stakeholders include:
 Be specific: having specific projects or strategies to address will
keep stakeholders engaged.
 Allocate funding: for implementation, including a Project
Manager if possible, this will ensure progress continues and
projects progress.
 Measure success and celebrate the wins
 Having strong leadership to continue to inspire progress at an
operational level.
 Partnership Agreements: can help to formalise ongoing
engagement, moving beyond simply having a responsibility
allocated in a project plan.
STD development
 Introduction
 The development of smart cities has also been considered a
foundation for the formation of smart tourism destinations.
 The concept is related to the cities for describing the ways of using
innovative technologies in order to achieve resource optimization,
efficient management, sustainability and quality of life.
 Cohen (2014), has defined six smartness dimensions as very
important in the development of strategies for smart cities and
latter smart destinations: smart governance, smart environment,
smart mobility, smart economy, smart people, smart living.
 The concept of smart destinations is derived from smart cities.
 Smart destinations apply smart city principles to rural or urban
areas considering the intentions of tourists and residents and efforts
to support mobility, resource availability and allocation,
sustainability and quality of life.
 STDs Dev’t
Smart tourism destination should perform smartness by
implementing appropriate tourism applications wherein they
appear as the foundation for destination innovation and
competitiveness.
The aim of the competitive smart tourist destination is the smarter
use of resources in order to improve the quality of life in a
sustainable way, not only for residents, but for tourists.
Buhalis and Amaranggana (2013) state six components of tourist
destination that can increase the profit and improve the tourist
experience in the destination.
These components are represented as 6As and they include
attractions, accessibility, amenities, available packages, activities
and ancillary services.
It is very important for destination to strengthen each of 6As.
STD competitiveness framework
Smart Tourism Destination
Development Model
 Smart Tourism Destination Development Model (STDDM)

The model suggests the strategic steps a destination should climb

in order to become smart.
The STDDM was built upon the lessons learnt from the five smart
city models viz.,
 Instrumented, interconnected, and intelligent framework- deals with how
the concept of instrumented, interconnected and intelligent city (Table 2)
provides a useful model for designing the application of IT to address those
problems. but., neglects the human operator or manager making the decisions
upon the information provided by the ICT infrastructure.
 Smart city initiatives framework - aimed at creating a framework that can be
used to characterize how to envision a smart city and design initiatives, which
advance this vision by implementing shared services as well as navigating
their emerging challenges. Eight critical factors associated with smart city
Initiatives found: (1) management and organization; (2) technology; (3)
governance; (4) policy; (5) people and communities; (6) the economy, (7)
built infrastructure; and (8) the natural environment.
 Cont’d….
the framework, represent the factors that are represented in two
different levels of influence.
 Outer factors (governance, people and communities, natural
environment, infrastructure, and economy) are in some way
filtered or influenced more than influential.
 inner factors (technology, management, and policy) before
affecting the success of smart city initiatives
 Barcelona smart city initiative model- initiated to promote
innovation, create new channels of communication, facilitate
access to information both locally and internationally, & improve
the efficiency of public services. The model foundations lay on
three pillars, namely ubiquitous infrastructures, information and
human capital.
 Cont’d
 Stylized facts- consisting of six dimension: urban openness, service
innovation, partnerships formation, urban pro-activeness, smart city
infrastructure integration, and smart city governance. It has been
modified into 8 stylized facts:
o Movement towards more interactive services engaging citizens
o Open data movement facilitates open innovation
o Diversifying service development: exploit or explore
o How to accelerate adoption: top–down public driven vs. bottom-up market
driven partnerships
o Advanced intelligent technology supports new value added smart city services
o Smart city services combined with robust incentive systems empower engagement
o Multiple device and network accessibility can create network effects for smart
city services
o Centralized leadership implementing a comprehensive strategy boosts smart
initiatives
 Smart City Reference Model-addressed the smart innovation ecosystem
characteristics that elucidate the assembly of all smart city notions into green,
interconnected, instrumented, open, integrated, intelligent, and innovating layers
composing a planning framework called, Smart City Reference Model.
 Four Layers in smart tourism
destination development model
1. Ground layer—tourism destination
 Address destination’s resources (endowed and/or created) and
supporting factors), its capacity of delivering a competitive tourism
product and, the needs, expectations and perception of citizens in
respect to the tourism activity.
 That is, if technology is addressed in an isolated way, it will not act by
itself in order to organize a destination value chain and create public
value.
2. Layer one—smart ICT infrastructure- a stable environment of
broadband networks (telecomm infrastructure) that enables the
collection, communication and integration of information coming
from multiple sources is the basis of a smart ICT frame.
3. Layer two—tourism applications- new tourism applications, new
insights that drive decisions and actions that improve process
outcomes or system, organization, and industry value chains. change
the tourists experience by increasing service levels based on digital
resources
 Layers...Cont’d
4. Layer three—smart tourism destination-
• STDs are built on both technological and human capital.
• The STD in grounded on the destination’s stable identity and clear
vision, as well as on the support of the local government.
• In terms of human capital, actors actively take part on tourists’
experience (before, during and after the trip) are the ones that
potentially could make a destination smarter and more desirable.
• The implementation of the STD is not only a concern of public
administration but it should also involve the population and
companies as well.
Smart Tourism Destination Development Model
Thank you