Abstract
The use of technology has been making territories smarter. This fact allows policymakers and stakeholders to develop cities in a smart, sustainable way and provide more quality of life to those who live there. Tourism destinations are beginning to be able to anticipate behaviour and customize their offer, thus becoming intelligent tourist destinations. However, it has been the large cities that have been on this journey. The qualitative methodology was used, and five structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders to understand the ability of a low-density territory, using the municipality of Guarda as the object of study. Through the identification of the essential infrastructures, the importance is given by policymakers to the theme and understanding the perception of those who influence the destination, and a proposal for a model for low-density smart tourism destinations was developed. It is concluded that low-density territories must satisfy all the associated dimensions and conceive a collective thinking that makes this goal possible: intelligent tourism destinations.
TopIntroduction
In a context arising from the effects of a pandemic such as COVID-19, in which tourists' sensitivity to the identity character of the destinations they seek for their holidays differs, as does the consequent local impact of the service provided, as do their motivations, the search for smart, low-density tourism destinations is even more decisive. In other words, the search for low-density territories, as tourist destinations in which authenticity is the motivation for the tourist experience, emerges from the outset as a relevant alternative to massified territories, which in the past may have been the decision of choice and the generalized preference of tourists and visitors.
Endogeneity and the sense of place are fundamental arguments when approaching low-population density territories, since the idea of belonging to a place and transporting this image to those who visit, makes the experience unforgettable. This sense of place is shown in the relationship between people and places and in the emotional and symbolic values involved and which are conveyed by them, always related to the way people understand, experience and demonstrate their feelings. These feelings can influence the attitudes and behaviors of individuals in their relationship with place (d’Orey & Abreu, 2015).
In the early 1980s, ruralism began to be related with the concept of low-density territories. This concept does not only address territories with low population density, but also a low relational density, that is, the existence of some characteristic elements of these areas are: aging population; weak connection between people and between institutions; low level of public-private partnerships; several public institutions with little territorial dynamics, among others (Mendes, 2019).
Concerning the Portuguese territory, the theme began to gain relevance in 2015, when the application presented by the Interministerial Coordination Commission (CIC) began to define a multi-criteria approach for this type of territories. In that regard the criteria defined were based mostly on population density, population, demography, in the physical characteristics of the territory, socio-economic characteristics and in availability. Through the collaboration with the ANMP, there were classified 164 low-density cities (ANMP, 2014; CIC, 2015). Concerning the criteria for a territory to be of low density, in the Portuguese case, in 2014, the ANMP (National Association of Portuguese Cities), pointed out some extents and pointers to consider, such as: the population density; the territorial and demographic profile; the population, socio-economic and accessibility profile. Hence, and after assigning values to each of the above-mentioned indicators, the association considers low-density cities, “All cities with a density population of less than 25 inhabitants/km2 (…)” (ANMP, 2014).
Nevertheless, the difficulties that occur in this type of low-density regions, the reality is that through financial and intellectual investment and adding to the potential heritage, cultural, historical and its existence as a place, low-density territories are able to mesmerize visitors and simultaneously create a different and unforgettable image of the Portuguese countryside (Carvalho, 2018). Low-density territories have, as a tourist destination, an opportunity to redevelop the thinking of place, city and territory, despite the capacity of this type of territories that often are listed by the structural difficulties in existing as a tourist destination.
Despite being laborious and time consuming, the fact is that some projects have been designed with the aim of promoting and increasing the potential of regions and reducing the demographic desertion of territories (Ramos, 2015).
Then, it is up to the territories to aim constant development at the most varied levels. At the governance level, growth must be faced not only in the quality of life itself, but also as a tourist destination. In other words, the greater the investment, sometimes not financial, in expanding the knowledge of the territory as a place of visit by other citizens, the greater will be the clarity in the perception of itself as a tourist destination. So, regardless of its size, area or population density, the territory must seek, invest and aim to the evolution of its intellect (Pedro & Marques, 2010), and it will only be bright when it finds a balance in the various layers that take part of the building of collective intelligent thinking:
Key Terms in this Chapter
Smart Tourism Region: According to Priano et al. (2016) a smart tourism region it´s that to identify its strengths and opportunities and, in addition, adequately coordinates available - and generally limited - resources to generate maximum productivity in the areas that comprise it.
Low Density Territories: In Portugal, are considered low density territories: “ All cities with a density population of less than 25 inhabitants/km2” ( ANMP, 2014 ). In low density territories tourism is emerging as an excellent opportunity to promote innovative dynamics, to lure investment, and to attract new people. These territories represent an economic challenge, especially because most of them are home to an increasingly aging population unable to pursue economic development. However, in these territories it is important to promote sustainable tourism, which preserves the environment and communities’ quality of life ( Marques et al., 2021 ).
Smart Tourism Ecosystem: Gretzel et al. (2015b) defines smart tourism ecosystem as a system related with intense knowledge sharing and value creation, that depends on technology in the creation, management and provision of smart tourism services and experiences, and monitor technological advances.
Sustainability: At the level of tourism activity and tourism experience, considering sustainability is an efficient fit between human activity and development and environmental protection, which requires a clear and equitable distribution of responsibilities, with notorious respect for resources, consumption and behavior in relation to resources. natural and cultural features of tourism destinations ( Costa, Rodrigues & Gomes, 2019 ).
Smart Tourism City: According to Lee et al. (2020) “more over cities around the world are increasingly recognizing the smart tourism city concept and related strategies as means of optimizing sustainable environments. Particularly for cities facing emerging issues of residents’ negative perceptions towards tourism, smart tourism city empowers a city to rise to this challenge by creating urban spaces that residents and visitors can enjoy together.”
Smart Tourism: It is tourism supported by the use of technology combined with integrated efforts by destinations to collect, aggregate and harness data from physical infrastructure, social connections, governmental and organizational sources, human bodies and minds, with the aim of transforming this data into on-site experiences and business value propositions focused on efficiency, sustainability and differentiating experiences ( Gretzel et al., 2015a ). Conceptualized by Ödemis (2022) :
Competitiveness: According to Cronjé and Plessis (2020) AU124: The in-text citation "Cronjé and Plessis (2020)" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. “most of the research conducted on tourism destination competitiveness are based on the work of Porter, but prior to this, the issue of competitiveness was developed as a scientific discipline by Smith in the late 70's. Due to the reason that tourism is primarily a service driven industry, tourism researchers had to adjust definitions, develop new models and identify factors that would be applicable to the tourism industry. Crouch and Ritchie (1999) developed the concept of destination competitiveness and, according to the authors, it consists of the ability of a given destination to provide higher quality tourism experiences compared to other destinations.
Smart Destinations: It represents a consolidated innovative space, based on the territory and a technological infrastructure. Furthermore, it is a territory committed to environmental and cultural preservation and to the socioeconomic factors related to its identity and habitat. In these territories there are intelligence systems that capture and process information at real time, with the aim of facilitating the interaction of tourist and visitor with the environment and facilitating the acquisition of intelligence by the managers of these destinations, increasing their efficiency and improving the quality of tourist experiences (de Avila Muñoz & Sánchez, 2013 AU125: The in-text citation "Avila Muñoz & Sánchez, 2013" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ; Otowicz et al., 2022 AU126: The in-text citation "Otowicz et al., 2022" is not in the reference list. Please correct the citation, add the reference to the list, or delete the citation. ).
The concept of smart tourism is one of the tourism-based concepts and practices used for making tourism activities much more effective: making cities and destinations smart, and increasing tourist satisfaction, and has emerged with the need to ensure the adaptation and integration of internet and mobile technologies, which are among the technological developments of today, to tourism activities.