sustainable tourism digital campaign

• Air Pollution
• Architecture
• Bioengineering
• Boundary Elements
• Computational Methods for Engineering
• Damage & Fracture Mechanics
• Design & Nature
• Earthquake Engineering
• Electrical Engineering & Electromagnetics
• Environmental Engineering
• Environmental Health
• Fluid Mechanics
• Heat Transfer
• Historical Interest
• Information Systems
• Marine & Offshore Engineering
• Materials & Manufacturing
• Mathematics & Statistics
• Risk and Security
• Structural Engineering
• Sustainable Development
• Transport Engineering
• Urban Development
• Water Resources
• International Journals
• International Journal of Computational Methods and Experimental Measurements
• International Journal of Design & Nature and Ecodynamics
• International Journal of Ecodynamics
• International Journal of Energy Production and Management
• International Journal of Environmental Impacts
• International Journal of Heritage Architecture
• International Journal of Safety and Security Engineering
• International Journal of Sustainable Development and Planning
• International Journal of Transport Development and Integration
• Transactions of the Wessex Institute
• WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences
• WIT Transactions on The Built Environment
• WIT Transactions on Information and Communication Technologies

WIT Transactions on Ecology and the Environment

• WIT Transactions on Modelling and Simulation
• WIT Transactions on Biomedicine and Health
• WIT Transactions on State-of-the-art in Science and Engineering
• About WIT Press
• About the Wessex Institute
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Obituary - Professor Carlos A Brebbia
• Privacy Policy
• Returns Policy
• WIT Transactions
• WIT Transactions Editorial Board
• Publish with WIT Press
• Submit a Conference Paper

Sustainable Tourism VII

Managing The Digital Campaign Process For Sustainable Tourism Destinations

Related conference

SUSTAINABLE TOURISM 2024

24–26 September 2024

Seville, Spain

Related Book

Edited By: F.D. Pineda, Complutense University of Madrid, Spain; C.A. Brebbia, Wessex Institute of Technology, UK; J.L. Miralles i Garcia, Universitat Politècnica de València

Transaction

10.2495/ST160121

Y. Y. Liu, A. Mačerinskienė

This paper was developed reviewing literature and presenting frontiers of sustainable tourism destinations and marketing. This paper discusses (1) the process of managing a digital campaign for sustainable tourism destination, with its five steps, i.e., designing the digital campaign, selecting the digital platforms, measuring the performance of digital platforms, evaluating the effectiveness of digital campaign, and making decisions; (2) two models created by authors, i.e. a model of tourist sustainability empathy, and a model of tourist experience integration; (3) two recent issues related to sustainable tourism and its marketing, i.e., Web 3.0 technology and the Marketing 3.0 discipline; and (4) recommendations for future research in the area of sustainable tourism and its marketing. This paper fills the gap between digital campaigns and sustainable tourism, and provides marketers with skills, tools, and marketing methods for sustainable tourism destinations.

sustainable tourism, destination, sustainable tourism marketing, digital campaign, and digital marketing

Other papers in this volume

Green Practices In Hotels: The Case Of The GreenLeaders Program From TripAdvisor

Ecotourism Principles As A Framework For Culturally Responsive Community Development

Sustainable Ecotourism Development In The Muslim Community After The Impact Of The Tsunami Disaster In 2004: A Case Study In Bang Rong Village, Phuket Province, Thailand

Tourism Employment And Local Residents’ Engagement In The Conservation Of The Built Heritage In Zanzibar Stone Town In Tanzania

Sustainable Coastal Resource Co-management

Beach Filling Model To Improve Beach Management: A Case On The French Atlantic Coast (Pertuis Charentais Beaches)

Adaptation Processes Of Peripheral Coastal Tourism Communities In Québec, Canada

Keep me updated

Tourism Employment And Local Residents’ Engagement In The Conservation Of The Built Heritage In Zanzibar Stone Town In Tanzania

Adaptation Processes Of Peripheral Coastal Tourism Communities In Québec, Canada

WIT Press, Ashurst Lodge, Ashurst, Southampton SO40 7AA, UK. Registered in England as a limited company No. 4741634

Copyright 2024 WIT Press All Rights Reserved - Prices are Subject to Change - Returns Policy - Privacy Policy - Site Map

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

• View all journals
• My Account Login
• Explore content
• About the journal
• Publish with us
• Sign up for alerts
• Review Article
• Open access
• Published: 07 October 2023

A ten-year review analysis of the impact of digitization on tourism development (2012–2022)

• Chunyu Jiang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-6072-8365 1 &
• Seuk Wai Phoong   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-9925-0901 1  

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume  10 , Article number:  665 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

5826 Accesses

2 Citations

1 Altmetric

Metrics details

• Development studies
• Science, technology and society

Many tourism-related activities have been suspended due to the nationally enforced lockdown to combat the Coronavirus pandemic. The tourism industry suffered immensely from the lockdown, and as a result of this, digital tourism began gaining traction and attracted public attention. This study analyses the impact of digitalization on the social and economic sustainability of the tourism industry via systematic literature network analysis. The findings indicated that digitalization impacts economic sustainability, encompassing economic benefits in tourism product development, tourism consumption, and industrial development. Moreover, digitalization fosters social development, cultural awareness, and tourism participation in digital technology and cultural heritage. This study identified publication trends and research hotspots using bibliometric analysis, and it was confirmed that Sustainability was the top journal in published digital and tourism sustainability-related articles, followed by the International Journal of Tourism Research, Tourism Management , and Current Issues in Tourism . This study resulted in two implications: identifying the knowledge gap and evidence-based decision-making based on the (previous) literature. Recommendation for future research is also discussed in this study, which is helpful to policymakers, tourism planners, and researchers to develop strategies grounded in research.

Similar content being viewed by others

Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations

Determinants of behaviour and their efficacy as targets of behavioural change interventions

The role of artificial intelligence in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

Introduction.

From 2019 through 2022, the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) wreaked havoc on the world’s tourism business (Navarro-Drazich and Lorenzo, 2021 ). Tourism contributes to many nations’ gross domestic product (GDP) as it is intertwined with various industries (Gössling et al., 2017 ). Examples of tourism products include lodging options such as hotels and Airbnb. Food and drink, theme parks, museum visits, and fashion items such as clothes and bags are additional examples of tourism products that boost the economic health of the individual and the nation.

Tourism is regarded as a complex service-driven industry, one of the characteristics of which is that if external influences disrupt the tourism sector, other industries linked to it will also be directly affected. Tourism development refers to creating and maintaining the tourism industry in a particular location and is closely linked to economic and social progress (Telfer and Sharpley, 2015 ). Over the past four decades, global tourism development has reported intense growth performance and research on tourism development (Capocchi et al., 2019 ). Kreishan ( 2010 ) posited that the impact of tourism development on destination development is a commonly discussed issue, particularly in terms of tourism development improving economic efficiency and local competitiveness. The growth of tourism currently is significant not only from an economic perspective but also from a social perspective, as evidenced by the optimization of the local social structure (Yang et al., 2021 ), increased community participation (W. Li, 2006 ), participation of women (Ferguson, 2011 ), and increased cultural awareness (Carbone, 2017 ). Also, the development of the tourism industry benefits the environment by increasing environmental protection awareness and providing greater funding for initiatives to conserve resources and the environment (Zhao and Li, 2018 ).

However, unmanaged over-tourism can cause serious harm, according to Berselli et al. ( 2022 ). From an economic standpoint, excessive tourism can result in higher prices and imbalanced industrial structure development, which lowers industries’ overall resilience. Social issues arising from over-tourism include the commercialization of culture (Wang et al., 2019 ), the shift in locals’ attitudes from friendliness to hostility towards tourists (Kim and Kang, 2020 ), and the emergence of on-stage authenticity (Taylor, 2001 ). In terms of the environment, issues such as excessive carbon emissions causing global warming (Liu et al., 2022 ), damage to water and soil resources, destruction to flora and fauna (Gössling and Hall, 2006 ), and even harm to cultural heritage (Zhang et al., 2015 ) are some of the effects of over-tourism. Since the development of the tourism industry combines economic, social, and cultural phenomena, as well as the past COVID-19 disruptions, the industry’s suspension for several years presents a significant opportunity for all stakeholders to reposition tourism for sustainable development.

Some studies suggest the tourism industry will recover after COVID-19 (Zhong et al., 2021 ). However, given the abovementioned problems caused by over-tourism, what needs to be considered is the sustainability of the tourism industry post-COVID-19. Researchers and tourism stakeholders are becoming more aware of the importance of the concept of sustainable development (Miceli et al., 2021 ), especially since COVID-19, as the tourism or hospitality industry remains one of the least developed sectors in terms of sustainable tourism practices (Kim and Park, 2017 ). Korstanje and George ( 2020 ) noted that over-tourism is a chronic disease that mere temporary changes cannot treat; it can be minimized via education and training to raise awareness. The tourism industry needs to rethink how to develop in a sustainable and healthy direction (Higgins-Desbiolles et al., 2019 ), not only in terms of ecotourism or green tourism but also in terms of putting the concept of sustainability into practice at a deeper level as it faces multiple pressures and challenges of an overarching environment, economy, and society.

Sustainability is often cited as one of the reasons for improved competitiveness among different tourism destinations (Han et al., 2019 ). The United Nations 2030 (UN, 2030 ) Agenda for Sustainable Development has developed a Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) plan, defined as a set of global goals for fair and sustainable health at every level, from the planetary biosphere to the local community. The aim is to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that everyone enjoys peace and prosperity now and in the future. The basic concept is that productivity can be preserved for future generations. Due to the general emphasis of the United Nations World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) on sustainable tourism and the industry’s economic importance, the SDGs and its associated millennium development goals (MDGs) have become critical elements for research into tourism’s contribution to sustainable development and overall sustainability (Saarinen et al., 2011 ; Saarinen and Rogerson, 2014 ). Winter et al. ( 2020 ) indicated that as sustainable tourism development needs to take complete account of the combined social, economic, and environmental impacts, stakeholders are expected to integrate scientific management and practice for future sustainability using updated and innovative technologies that can provide more tourism opportunities for groups unable to travel directly while enhancing environmentally-friendly behavior. Bramwell and Lane ( 2011 ) suggested that effective policy support is also crucial to implementing sustainable tourism development, as the path to sustainable development is guided and monitored by excellent and progressive policies. From a postmodernist perspective, social media and place brand authenticity in smart tourism are essential to place trust, place identity, and place brand image, while the development of this brand authenticity is one of the critical indicators of the visitor experience (Handayani and Korstanje, 2017 ). As a result, Korstanje et al. ( 2022 ) contended that new paradigms and strategies must be created to confront risks to tourism in the 21st century and satisfy the SDGs by 2030.

Several studies are underway to determine the impact of various programs and strategies on the environmental component of sustainability practices (Goralski and Tan, 2020 ). Yalina and Rozas ( 2020 ) suggested that a digital workplace can promote environmental sustainability. Although there have been studies on the digitalization of tourism and environmental sustainability, such as Loureiro and Nascimento ( 2021 ), who reviewed digital technology on the sustainability of tourism using bibliometric methods, there is a need for a thorough examination of the impact of digital transformation on sustainable tourism growth, particularly in terms of economic and social dimensions (Feroz et al., 2021 ). Therefore, the objective of this study is to review the impact of tourism digital technology development on the economic and social sustainability of tourism development to offer future research guidance.

With the growing literature and the emergence of cross-disciplinary research related to sustainability and digitalization in tourism development, it is critical to analyze the changes in its research, summarize the focus of previous research content, and predict future research prospects. As a result, this study will address the above research gaps by answering the following three questions.

RQ1: What are the prominent documents, authors, sources, organizations, and keywords in digitalization for the economic and social sustainability of tourism development?

RQ2: What are the linkages based on bibliographic coupling, co-authorship, co-occurrence, and citation in digitalization for the economic and social sustainability of tourism development?

RQ3: What is the future research agenda based on the results of this study?

Literature review

Several review papers on tourism research are now available and relevant to this study. Ülker et al. ( 2023 ) assumed that there are currently 136 bibliometric studies in the tourism and hospitality industry, of which the literature review studies on overall trends in the tourism and hospitality industry are continuously being updated (Chang and Katrichis, 2016 ; Wang et al., 2023 ). Also, economic development in the tourism industry (Comerio and Strozzi, 2019 ), tourism marketing (Mwinuka, 2017 ), tourism and education (Goh and King, 2020 ), hospitality (Manoharan and Singal, 2017 ), Airbnb (Andreu et al., 2020 ), and even COVID-19 review articles related to tourism development are available (Bhatia et al., 2022 ).

With the emergence of cross-disciplinary digital-related technologies, the link between tourism and digitalization has become one of the hot topics of research, and as a result, several literature review articles on digitalization and tourism have been published, such as on robotics (Buhalis and Cheng, 2020 ; Ivanov et al., 2019 ; Pizam et al., 2022 ), ICT (Buhalis and Law, 2008 ; Law et al., 2014 ), big data (Li et al., 2018 ; Stylos et al., 2021 ), smart tourism (Buhalis, 2020 ; Mehraliyev et al., 2020 ), social media (Buhalis and Inversini, 2014 ; Mirzaalian and Halpenny, 2019 ), eye-tracking (Muñoz-Leiva et al., 2019 ; Scott et al., 2019 ), AI (Buhalis and Moldavska, 2022 ; Doborjeh et al., 2022 ; Dwivedi et al., 2023 ), VR (Koohang et al., 2023 ; Wei, 2019 ), AR (Jingen Liang and Elliot, 2021 ; Tscheu and Buhalis, 2016 ; Yovcheva et al., 2012 ), MR (Buhalis and Karatay, 2022 ), and the Metaverse (Ahuja et al., 2023 ; Buhalis et al., 2022 , 2023 ; Go and Kang, 2023 ).

Due to the rise of sustainability research, the literature review on sustainability research in tourism has seen a stark increase (León-Gómez et al., 2021 ; Ruhanen et al., 2018 ; Streimikiene et al., 2021 ). The proliferation of studies related to digitalization and sustainable tourism development has led to a considerable number of review articles (Elkhwesky et al., 2022 ; Gössling, 2017 ; Loureiro and Nascimento, 2021 ; Nascimento and Loureiro, 2022 ; Rahmadian et al., 2022 ). Feroz et al. ( 2021 ) conducted a literature study on the environmental aspects of tourism sustainability and digitalization; however, there is a distinct lack of studies on the economic and social dimensions.

Therefore, the study’s unique value is that it presents the first literature review in the field of digitalization and social and tourism economic sustainability development using a novel method of systematic literature network analysis (SLNA), filling a gap in the literature review landscape and addressing the need for more comprehensive, detailed, and up-to-date research endeavor.

Methodology

Colicchia and Strozzi ( 2012 ) proposed a systematic literature review analysis (SLNA) to identify past research trends more sophisticatedly, integrated, and scientifically. This method is currently used in reviews of sustainable development research (Afeltra et al., 2021 ) but is rarely used in reviews of tourism sustainability; therefore, SLNA is used in this study.

Systematic literature review (SLR) and bibliographic network analysis (BNA) are the two phases of SLNA. These actions comprise the first phase of SLR, which includes choosing the study’s final selection, conducting a dialectical examination of the most pertinent articles, and evaluating the results. Next, citation analysis and bibliographic coupling of BNA are also included in this paper to investigate the relationship between the previous literature, assess the research trends, and aid in uncovering future research innovation opportunities. Bibliographic coupling is a scientific mapping technique regarding two articles with a common citation contentedly comparable. This technique permits the segmentation of publications into thematic clusters utilizing published references to understand the most recent developments in current research issues (Donthu et al., 2021 ). Citation analysis reveals which papers are influential and their authors and journals and aids in comprehending what past literature has contributed (Pilkington and Meredith, 2009 ).

First phase: systematic literature review (SLR)

Introduction of slr.

The most widely used and reputable databases are the Web of Science (WOS) and Scopus (Garrigos-Simon et al., 2018 ); thus, both were used in this study to eliminate data search omissions, broaden the search scope, and improve the accuracy of data outputs.

Figure 1 shows the flow diagram for systematic bibliometric analysis. Firstly, this paper takes “virtual reality or augmented reality or artificial intelligence or big data or mobile technology or internet of technology or social platform technology) and (sustainable tourism development or sustainability of tourism or green tourism or ecotourism” as keywords. The search process began by searching topics (including article titles, abstracts, and keywords). The language of the articles was set to English and had to be published between 2012 and 2022. The search process resulted in 91 articles. The data were extracted on February 15, 2022, per Fig. 2 .

This figure shows the overall process of this study from database selection until suggestions for future research. Source: Own elaboration.

The criteria and steps used to identify the selected target literature are explained in this diagram. Source: Own elaboration.

A review article with scholarly worth and contribution is required to describe the literature’s links and contents and examine and critique it precisely (Hart, 2018 ). As seen in Fig. 3 , the following research topics are divided into two categories: economic sustainability (which includes topics such as economic benefit, industry development, and tourist consumption) and social sustainability (which includes topics such as tourist behavior, social development, cultural awareness, and participation).

The research topics are divided into two categories: economic sustainability (which includes topics such as economic benefit, industry development, and tourist consumption) and social sustainability (which includes topics such as tourist behavior, social development, cultural awareness, and participation. Source: Own elaboration.

The SLRs are used to locate, appraise, and synthesize existing, completed, and documented work (Cocchia, 2014 ), facilitating classification and summarization, particularly for micro-profiling within macro-level fields of study.

Digitalization’s impact on economic sustainability

Digitalization’s impact on economic benefits.

Adequately improving the economic development of tourism is also one of the sustainable needs for developing tourism. At a time when tourism has been devastated by COVID-19, the tourism industry has almost ceased to exist. Therefore, one of the most popular research topics is maintaining substantial economic benefits while allowing the tourism industry to flourish sustainably.

Digital technology has piqued researchers’ interest due to its potential benefit to the tourism industry. Technologies that directly improve the economic situation are classed as economic benefits, and per many studies, digitization positively impacts local economic development and may bring objective revenue to tourism (Tables 1 – 7 ).

Digital technology promotes economic development. The growth of information communication technologies (ICT) positively impacts China’s tourism industry while promoting economic growth (Shehzad et al., 2019 ). As a rapidly evolving digital technology, mobile technology has significantly minimized asymmetric information, enhanced local GDP growth, and increased citizens’ financial capital through tourism (Kim and Kim, 2017 ; Phoong et al., 2022 ). Technologies such as 3D virtual, mixed reality (MR), virtual reality (VR), or augmented reality (AR) applied in heritage tourism can effectively increase local economic income and the added value of tourism (Manglis et al., 2021 ; Martinez-Grana et al., 2019 ). Furthermore, marketing tools such as small programs and network technologies confer several advantages to tourism stakeholders, such as the ability to help local communities contribute value and support the tourism economy (Caciora et al., 2021 ; Lin et al., 2020a , b ). Also, smart heritage city tourism technology tools can drive the tourism economy to inaccessible areas (Gomez-Oliva et al., 2019 ).

The increase in income is proportional to increased economic benefits. ICT is often used in the tourism industry, which has an essential impact on the tourism service industry, one of which is the improvement of tourism income (Gomez-Oliva et al., 2019 ; Koukopoulos and Koukopoulos, 2019 ). Virtual tourism technologies, such as AR and VR, are digital tools that can help overcome cultural heritage tourism challenges, such as reviving the tourism industry and resolving funding shortages (Lu et al., 2022 ). Mobile money, such as electronic traveler’s checks and credit cards, can assist low-income people in taking advantage of their marginal savings and encourage implementing a cashless economy for tourism sustainability (Singh, 2017 ).

Second, digital marketing technologies are frequently utilized by hotels to improve hotel performance, which increases profit (Theocharidis et al., 2020 ; Vitezic et al., 2015 ). Another example is Muslim-friendly apps promoting the international trade of products during the tourism process (Cuesta-Valiño et al., 2020 ),

Digitalization’s impact on tourism industrial development

Technological development has driven the tourism industry in local tourist cities, organizations, businesses, and governments. From the perspective of industrial market development, ICT, extensive data network marketing, and other virtual tourism technologies can create market development potential and improve market positioning for companies (Ammirato et al., 2021 ; Filipiak et al., 2020 ; Ma et al., 2021 ).

Adopting and applying information in the tourism industry are commonly regarded as a source of corporate innovation. The implementation of ICT can increase the profitability of tourism enterprises while also increasing organizational productivity (Croitoru and Manoliu, 2016 ; De Lucia et al., 2021 ; Duy et al., 2020 ; Obonyo et al., 2018 ). VR, AR, 3D digital technology, and mobile technology can all be used to improve a company’s performance and competitiveness in the tourism industry (Cranmer et al., 2021 ; Koukopoulos and Koukopoulos, 2018 ; Pavlidis et al., 2022 ; Yuce et al., 2020 ), and these technologies have made significant economic contribution to economic sustainability.

The application and implementation of ICT play an essential role in developing the tourism industry (Adeola and Evans, 2020 ; Tan et al., 2019 ; Zhou and Sotiriadis, 2021 ). Also, digital advanced technologies, such as MR technology adopted by museums, AR technology adopted by destinations, and smart tourism products and tourism ecological reservation systems have made significant contributions in the front-end development stage, providing opportunities to monitor the future development of tourism, as well as being beneficial to the formulation and implementation of tourism industry strategies at later stages (Graziano and Privitera, 2020 ; Tsai et al., 2018 ). The abovementioned electronic environment is an excellent lubricant for tourism’s active and healthy development (Maiorescu et al., 2016 ). Moreover, apps can help customers understand legacy cities more from the standpoint of heritage preservation and help cities promote tourist city development (Briciu et al., 2020 ).

From the perspective of products sold and variations in product types, online services in Muslim-friendly apps can be helpful for market segmentation and promotion of product positioning and sales (Cuesta-Valiño et al., 2020 ). Furthermore, virtual multi-sensory technologies can improve the company’s potential, increase public awareness, and sell products (Martins et al., 2017 ). Undeniably, the development of digitalization enriches the cultural service products of museums in developing heritage tourism (Palumbo, 2021 ), and AR technology also increases the diversification of products in water tourism (Kaźmierczak et al., 2021 ).

Digitalization’s impact on tourism consumption

Tourists’ spending power can reflect the overall economic development of the tourism industry as one of the contributing variables, and the number of tourists and the value of tourist flow are two measurement criteria of tourism consumer spending. Tourism apps, for example, can make traveling more convenient for tourists, increasing tourism consumption (Lin et al., 2020a , b ). Virtual tourism products or augmented reality technology allow tourists to spend more leisure time, increasing consumption (da Silva, 2021 ; Pehlivanides et al., 2020 ).

The application of virtual tourism technology is also helpful in improving the attractiveness of tourists (Cai et al., 2021 ; Manglis et al., 2021 ; Martins et al., 2017 ). Meanwhile, big data analytic tools, e-marketing (WOM), and mobile applications positively influence customers’ intention to travel and contribute to improving tourism sustainability (Gajdosik, 2019 ; Kim and Chang, 2020 ; Pica et al., 2018 ). With the application and construction of ICT, the demand for tourism has increased, and the number of tourists has also increased (Adeola and Evans, 2020 ; Kabassi, 2017 ; Kumar and Kumar, 2020 ). In addition to enhancing tourists’ imagination, virtual tourism technology and 3D digital technology can also be used as practical tools to further develop tourism and increase the number and flow of tourists (Bae et al., 2020 ; Graziano and Privitera, 2020 ; Pavlidis et al., 2022 ). Word-of-mouth marketing has increased the number of tourists (Fernandez-Lores et al., 2022 ; Wang et al., 2020 ).

Digitalization’s impact on social sustainability

Digitalization’s impact on tourist behavior.

Virtual tourism technology is gradually being implemented in the tourism industry, focusing on increasing the satisfaction of the elderly and disabled (Lu et al., 2022 ). Artificial intelligence and virtual reality are integrated into human-computer interaction system equipment, boosting service quality and increasing tourist satisfaction (Van et al., 2020 ). The mixed experience helps enrich tourists’ feelings about the surroundings, thereby boosting tourists’ contentment (Bae et al., 2020 ), and the succinct information and dependable system offered by VR can promote tourists’ satisfaction (Yuce et al., 2020 ). 3D digital technology to build innovative and appealing tourism items can help boost consumer satisfaction and positive feedback (Pavlidis et al., 2022 ).

Tourism stakeholders’ use of tourism apps is critical to increasing tourist satisfaction (Lin et al., 2020a , b ). For example, tourism management in Ho Chi Minh City’s use of Web 4.0 can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty in the long run (Duy et al., 2020 ). The mobile usability and ease of use of social media as a suitable medium directly impact satisfaction (Sharmin et al., 2021 ). It can also serve as a platform for tourists to communicate and contribute to increased satisfaction (Jamshidi et al., 2021 ). Simultaneously, tourism safety is an essential factor that influences tourist satisfaction, and the use of closed-circuit television (CCTV) and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) can help to improve tourism safety (Ko and Song, 2021 ). The use of mobile technologies and payment mechanisms in the tourism process is also a fascinating study. Through electronic technology, two-dimensional code payment techniques improve tourists’ pleasure (Lou et al., 2017 ). Furthermore, incorporating digital innovation into hotel management structures increases hotel performance and client satisfaction (Vitezic et al., 2015 ).

Tourism satisfaction is directly related to tourism experience, and tourism experience is one of the most important criteria to measure in the tourism process. The findings suggest that using virtual immersion technologies such as AR, VR, and MR in the tourism process can significantly improve the tourist experience (Bae et al., 2020 ; Fernandez-Lores et al., 2022 ; Franco and Mota, 2021 ; Lee and Kim, 2021 ; Yin et al., 2021 ).

Additionally, the intention and motivation of tourism drive tourism behavior from the psychological aspect. Digital innovative technology can boost tourists’ interest in tourism products and locations, enrich their understanding of tourism culture, attract more tourists, enhance tourists’ preferences, and strengthen their desire to visit (Caciora et al., 2021 ; Cranmer et al., 2021 ; Gajdosik, 2019 ; Kang, 2020 ; Kaźmierczak et al., 2021 ; Manglis et al., 2021 ; Monterroso-Checa et al., 2020 ;). Digital marketing tools can ramp up customers’ desires and habits (Theocharidis et al., 2020 ), and digital mobile programs can increase tourists’ attention, influencing their overall view of the tourism experience (Wang et al., 2020 ). Big data can also be utilized to foresee client wants and expectations, allowing for a better understanding of customer needs (Del Vecchio et al., 2018 ). For example, Internet of Things technology can scientifically guide and divert tourists to alleviate the problem of local saturation and overload in scenic sites, thus improving the tourist experience (Xie and Zhang, 2021 ). It can also provide various cultural tourism content to enhance and support the experience of active tourists (Ammirato et al., 2021 ).

Digitalization’s impact on social development

Tourism planners and governments can use the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and geographic information system-remote sensing (GIS-RS) technology to accurately select sites, develop eco-tourism activities, relieve the burden of tourism in the region, and thus help the locals create new employment opportunities (Chaudhary et al., n.d. ). Virtual tourism technology, such as AR, can also aid in analyzing tourist flow and conditions, improve safety, and expand job chances (Franco and Mota, 2021 ). Advances and innovations in tourism ICT can benefit enterprises enough to increase job prospects (De Lucia et al., 2021 ). Virtual tourism, ICT, mobile technology, smart heritage tourism technology, and innovative marketing methods improve stakeholders’ quality of life, increasing the tourism system and community awareness (Lemmi and Deri, 2020 ).

Digitalization’s impact on cultural awareness

Virtual technologies, such as AR, VR, and mobile augmented reality (MAR), are now widely used in cultural heritage tourism, with the potential to protect cultural heritages and enhance the potential of heritage management, thereby contributing to cultural communication (Bec et al., 2019 ; Caciora et al., 2021 ; Graziano and Privitera, 2020 ). Some studies indicate that online engagement platforms, mobile application technologies, and smart tourism models can all support the socially sustainable growth of culture (Bonacini et al., 2018 ; Pica et al., 2018 ; Zubiaga et al., 2019 ).

AR, VR, and other techniques can promote tourists’ behavior in underwater cultural tourism and raise public awareness of natural heritage protection among tourists (Manglis et al., 2021 ). Research on low-carbon travel modes is frequently concerned with tourism sustainability, and big data marketing technology can supply tourists with more low-carbon transport schemes, thus increasing tourists’ environmental consciousness (Ma et al., 2021 ). As a common medium for cultural communication, social media can raise tourists’ awareness of environmental protection (Haque et al., 2021 ).

Digitalization’s impact on participation

Tourists’ active participation in cultural heritage can be enhanced by digital technology, as can people’s feeling of belonging and responsibility to society (Koukopoulos and Koukopoulos, 2019 ; Permatasari et al., 2020 ). Virtual technology can also encourage public participation in preserving and promoting cultural heritages (Caciora et al., 2021 ), while digital media can help tourism businesses improve public relations and social participation (Camilleri, 2018 ; Haque et al., 2021 ). Increased smart tourism destinations optimize the potential for these communities to involve the destinations’ residents and impact their lives due to the improved urban tourism experience.

Stakeholders are closely linked to the sustainable development of tourism. Innovative applications of digital technology can better manage destination stakeholders, strengthening their linkages (Camilleri, 2018 ), help promote their participation in the development of tourist destinations (del Vecchio et al., n.d. ; Gajdosik, 2019 ), and create a democratic and sustainable system when promoting cultural heritage, which balances the opinions of different stakeholders.

The interactive network platform empowers local communities and encourages local inhabitants and tourists to communicate, which promotes the healthy growth of resident-tourism relationships (Dionisio et al., 2019 ). Also, ICT tourism apps influence the ultimate perception of older tourists’ travel experiences, stimulate tourists’ interest in world cultural heritage sites (WCHS), and increase contact and understanding between tourists and destinations (Ramos-Soler et al., 2019 ). Social media can help tourists increase their knowledge of environmental protection, which increases the participation of tourists and citizens and helps formulate sustainable goals (Haque et al., 2021 ).

Second phase: bibliographic network analysis (BNA)

The VOSviewer is the analysis tool used in this work to visualize the impact of digital technology on sustainable tourism development in economic and social aspects. VOSviewer employs the visualization of similarities (VOS) mapping approach to create a map (Moya‐Anegón et al., 2007 ).

Bibliographic coupling network of sources

Bibliographic coupling analysis mainly measures the similarity of documents by the number of identical references cited by documents. Although co-citation refers to the appearance of two documents in the same reference list, bibliographic coupling refers to the number of references that a group of papers share; for example, paper A and paper B are coupled if they both cite document C (Garrigos-Simon et al., 2018 ). In other words, bibliographic coupling happens when two documents quote the same document (Phoong et al., 2022 ; Mulet-Forteza et al., 2018 ), demonstrating the power of one publication in comparison to a group of others (Cavalcante et al., 2021 ). It should be pointed out that the size of the sphere represents the number of similar citations. This paper analyzes the bibliographic coupling network of sources, and the findings are summarized in Fig. 4 . Per Fig. 4 , there are 9 clusters, and the journal source with the highest number of similar citations is Sustainability . It can, therefore, be concluded that this journal has the most citations and published articles on this subject.

This figure refers to the number of references shared by a group of papers. Source: Own elaboration.

Citation network of documents

Citations are formed when two documents cite the same document and are used to illustrate the relation between documents and study fields. Figure 5 shows four clusters, each representing the degree of connection and the extent of influence in size. This study has the highest influence, according to the largest green group. It offers insight into the impact of reality and virtual reality on heritage tourism, stating that these technologies favorably impact tourists’ experiences (Bec et al., 2019 ).

Cluster size indicates the degree of connection and influence of the literature and research area. There are four groups, with the blue (Encalada et al., 2017 ) and green (Bec et al., 2019 ) groups representing the two articles that are relatively most influential. Source: Own elaboration.

This Blue Group study is also prominent, proposing that the widespread use of information and communication technologies, such as cloud computing, the Internet of Things, and data mining with high processing performance, are the key to tourism’s sustainability (Encalada et al., 2017 ).

The number of citations between documents is used in co-citation analysis to determine their relevance. Figure 6 shows which publications are cited most frequently, and it is clear that tourism management and sustainability are the two commanding the most attention. Generally, the closer two journals are located to each other, the stronger their relatedness. For example, according to an article published in Tourism Management , virtual reality has significantly increased tourism intention and consumption (Tussyadiah et al., 2018 ). Simultaneously, this article presents the finding, which illustrates that combining history with cutting-edge technology in immersive spaces can preserve and manage legacy and enrich the visitor experience and, as a result, engagement with history (Bec et al., 2019 ).

This figure represents the citation strength of publications. The circle distance represents relevance. Source: Own elaboration.

Co-occurrence network of Keywords and titles

The significance of keyword co-occurrence analysis in bibliometrics resides in an intuitive understanding of hot subjects in the study field through the frequency and relevance of terms (Phoong et al., 2022 ). Before that, the following considerations must be made.

To begin, each node in the network map indicates a keyword, and the size of the ball represents the number of keywords that appear. The larger the ball, for example, indicates the higher frequency of keywords occurring. Second, the larger the co-occurrence rate between terms, the thicker the curve between the second keywords. In the third, on the network map, different color groups reflect different theme collections, while the same color represents similar subjects (Loureiro and Nascimento, 2021 ).

Figures 7 and 8 illustrate overlay visualization (Fig. 8 ) and network visualization (Fig. 7 ). From Fig. 7 , the keywords of high frequency include tourism (37 occurrences), technology (35 occurrences), tourist (32 occurrences), experience (31 occurrences), information (25 occurrences), application (23 occurrences), data (22 occurrences), analysis (21 occurrences), impact (21 occurrences), sustainability (14 occurrences) and sustainable development (9 occurrences). Some of Red Network Group’s primary keywords are tourism, information, impact, communication technology, virtual reality, new technology, and cultural tourism. The study’s content focuses on the impact of the relationship between information technology and tourism. Yellow Network Group’s primary keywords are destination, tourism destination, environment, and AR, mainly concentrated on destination environment and AR application research. The green network group comprises tourists, analysis, process, big data, management, stakeholders, case studies, innovation, and other topics. This group has conducted more studies on the effect of digital technology on enterprise management from stakeholders’ perspectives. The Blue Network Group focuses on technology, experience, data, service, research, relationships, social media, sustainable development, tourist satisfaction, intention, and other related topics, and this group study is particularly interested in the influence of technology on tourist experience and satisfaction.

The same color indicates a close relationship between the keywords. The red network group focuses on tourism and information technology, the yellow network group concentrates on destinations and the environment, and the blue group emphasizes tourists and technology, the green group concerns tourists and analyses. Source: Own elaboration.

Darker colors indicate older keywords such as tourists, information, data, research, etc. and lighter colors show the recent hot keywords such as big data, AR, VR, sustainable development, etc. Source: Own elaboration.

After conducting a literature review on digital technology’s economic and social implications on sustainable tourism development over the last ten years and creating a density visualization network map, it can be concluded that tourist experience, information technology, augmented reality, and data are research hotspots. As a result, most studies on tourism sustainability in social and economic dimensions focus on the impact of digital technology on the tourist experience.

Even though they are all co-occurrence analyses of keywords in literature, the emphasis in each network map is different. Generally, overlay visualization and network visualization are comparable to a certain extent; however, the color differs in overlay visualization (Fig. 8 ). In the lower right corner, there is also a quantification table. Purple indicates that the keywords are older, while yellow indicates that they are more modern. For example, keywords such as big data, augmented reality, sustainable development, creation, and intention are yellow, indicating a recent research hotspot, but keywords such as communication technology, information, environment, and service are purple, indicating that these themes were formerly popular.

Results and discussion

The data were collected from 2012 until February 2022. Analysis of the published articles shows a significant increase in publications on digitalization and tourism sustainability development. In 2017, seven articles were published, 10 in 2018, 16 in 2019, and 23 in 2020 and 2021. Furthermore, there are 6 published in the first two months of 2022. These findings illustrate a rise in data availability for digitalization and sustainable tourism development research and suggest that researchers are considering this topic more seriously, demonstrating its value to academic research.

According to the findings, Sustainability was the top journal in published digital and tourism sustainability-related articles. This is followed by the International Journal of Tourism Research , Tourism Management , and Current Issues in Tourism . The number of publications on the relevant subject has increased steadily, particularly in recent years, indicating that this form of research is increasingly gaining attention. Research over the last decade has shown the existence of a certain number of empirical studies on the relationship between digitalization and tourism social and economic sustainability, and from the bibliometric analysis, it emerges that the current research direction on tourism social and economic sustainability has shifted from exploring ICT to AR and VR. Moreover, Tourism Management and Sustainability have the highest citation.

In summary, this study answers RQ1 using the bibliometric literature analysis, while a systematic literature review used to answer RQ2 and RQ3 is discussed in the conclusion and further recommendation sections.

The content of relevant articles published in WOS and Scopus in this research area over the last decade was visually analyzed through bibliometric and systematic literature analysis, and a total of 91 articles meeting the research criteria were selected to provide information on the status of the impact of digitalization on the social and economic aspects of sustainable tourism development, as well as to identify specific research fields and research topics. It can be concluded that the digitalization of the social dimension of tourism sustainability is more richly studied and explored from a more diverse perspective, considering not only the tourists’ but also the residents’ perspectives. There are two implications in the present study. The first is that this study pinpointed the knowledge gaps. Systematic literature review analysis is used in this study to identify the gaps in the existing body of research in tourism development. By reviewing the previous literature and synthesizing the findings, researchers can identify the areas receiving limited or much attention. This insight is valuable for policymakers, tourism planners, and researchers when dealing with specific areas where future research is warranted. Furthermore, the publication trend and popular research themes were also discussed in this study. This enables the policymaker and tourism planner to understand tourism development and the potential for improved policies and practices. The second implication is enabling evidence-based decision-making in tourism development. Researchers can identify patterns, trends, and best practices by synthesizing the findings from multiple studies. This evidence-based approach helps policymakers, destination managers, and tourism stakeholders make informed decisions and develop strategies grounded in research. However, there is a lack of a more comprehensive perspective to explore in an integrated manner. For example, social and economic sustainability development sometimes does not increase simultaneously, and perhaps there is a particular imbalance between the two when using certain digital technologies. Therefore, it can be observed from this study that there is a lack of research in the past ten years that has explored both the economic and social sustainability of tourism comprehensively and that future research could emphasize the integration of social and economic sustainability, even a synthesis study of three dimensions: environmental social, and economic.

Therefore, when considering future developments, several challenges were raised.

Lack of integration study of social and economic dimensions.

Lack of cooperative research among other disciplines.

Lack of suitable theory and conceptual model for sustainable development research in the tourism area.

Lack of universality in different regions based on proposed digital technology.

Lack of research from the perspective of subject education or particular population as the research object.

Based on this literature study, relatively few research topics about this research area are suggested, and the following research scope and questions can be referred to as a priority in the future research process so that research trends can be accurately grasped more quickly and efficiently.

What is the impact of digital technologies on the economic and social sustainability of destinations?

How do digital technologies used in cultural heritage tourism impact tourism sustainability?

What is the impact of digital technology on education?

How can tourism companies improve employee satisfaction, loyalty, and sustainable performance through digital technology?

How can we create a globally accessible and digital system for tourism destinations for sustainable development goals?

How does digitalization impact sustainable development from stakeholders’ perspectives?

The above suggestions and research direction recommendations can provide new research inspiration to researchers in the same field for future research, and this study is expected to help other researchers understand the current research trends related to the digitalization of sustainable tourism development.

Adeola O, Evans O (2020) ICT, infrastructure, and tourism development in Africa. Tour Econ 26(1):97–114

Google Scholar  

Afeltra G, Alerasoul SA, Strozzi F (2021) The evolution of sustainable innovation: from the past to the future. Eur J Innov Manag 26(2):386–421. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-02-2021-0113

Article   Google Scholar  

Ahuja AS, Polascik BW, Doddapaneni D, Byrnes ES, Sridhar J (2023) The digital metaverse: applications in artificial intelligence, medical education, and integrative health. Integr Med Res 12(1):100917

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Ammirato S, Felicetti AM, Linzalone R, Carlucci D (2021) Digital business models in cultural tourism. Int J Entrep Behav Res Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJEBR-01-2021-0070

Andreu L, Bigne E, Amaro S, Palomo J (2020) Airbnb research: an analysis in tourism and hospitality journals. Int J Cult Tour Hosp Res 14(1):2–20

Anser M, Adeleye B, Tabash M, Tiwari A (n.d.) Services trade–ICT–tourism nexus in selected Asian countries: new evidence from panel data techniques. Curr Issues Tour. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1965554

Bae S, Jung T, Moorhouse N, Suh M, Kwon O (2020) The influence of mixed reality on satisfaction and brand loyalty in cultural heritage attractions: a brand equity perspective. Sustainability 12(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12072956

Balakrishnan J, Dwivedi Y, Malik F, Baabdullah A (n.d.) Role of smart tourism technology in heritage tourism development. J Sustain Tour. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2021.1995398

Bec A, Moyle B, Timms K, Schaffer V, Skavronskaya L, Little C (2019) Management of immersive heritage tourism experiences: a conceptual model. Tour Manag 72:117–120. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tourman.2018.10.033

Berselli C, Pereira LA, Pereira T, Limberger PF (2022) Overtourism: residents’ perceived impacts of tourism saturation. Tour Anal 27(2):161–172

Bhatia A, Roy B, Kumar A (2022) A review of tourism sustainability in the era of Covid-19. J Stat Manag Syst 25(8):1871–1888

Boboc R, Duguleana M, Voinea G, Postelnicu C, Popovici D, Carrozzino M (2019) Mobile augmented reality for cultural heritage: following the footsteps of ovid among different locations in Europe. Sustainability 11(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11041167

Bonacini E, Tanasi D, Trapani P (2018) Digital heritage dissemination and the participatory storytelling project #iziTRAVELSicilia: the case of the Archaeological Museum of Syracuse (Italy). Acta IMEKO 7(3):31–41. https://doi.org/10.21014/acta_imeko.v7i3.584 . Scopus

Bramwell B, Lane B (2011) Critical research on the governance of tourism and sustainability. J Sustain Tour 19(4–5):411–421

Briciu A, Briciu V, Kavoura A (2020) Evaluating how “smart” Brasov, Romania can be virtually via a mobile application for cultural tourism. Sustainability 12(13). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12135324

Bruno F, Ricca M, Lagudi A, Kalamara P, Manglis A, Fourkiotou A, Papadopoulou D, Veneti A (2020) Digital technologies for the sustainable development of the accessible underwater cultural heritage sites. J Mar Sci Eng 8(11):955. https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse8110955

Buhalis D (2020) Technology in tourism-from information communication technologies to eTourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: a perspective article. Tour Rev 75(1):267–272

Buhalis D, Cheng ESY (eds) (2020) Exploring the use of chatbots in hotels: technology providers’ perspective. In: Information and communication technologies in tourism 2020: proceedings of the international conference in Surrey, United Kingdom, January. Springer International Publishing, 8–10. pp. 231–242

Buhalis D, Inversini A (eds) (2014) Tourism branding, identity, reputation co-creation, and word-of-mouth in the age of social media. In: Tourism management, marketing, and development: vol I: the importance of networks and ICTs. pp. 15–40

Buhalis D, Karatay N (eds) (2022) Mixed reality (MR) for generation Z in cultural heritage tourism towards metaverse. In: Information and communication technologies in tourism 2022: Proceedings of the ENTER 2022 ETourism conference, Springer, Cham, January 11–14, 2022. pp. 16–27

Buhalis D, Law R (2008) Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the Internet—the state of eTourism research. Tour Manag 29(4):609–623

Buhalis D, Leung D, Lin M (2023) Metaverse as a disruptive technology revolutionising tourism management and marketing. Tour Manag 97:104724

Buhalis D, Lin MS, Leung D (2022) Metaverse as a driver for customer experience and value co-creation: implications for hospitality and tourism management and marketing. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 35(2):701–716

Buhalis D, Moldavska I (2022) Voice assistants in hospitality: using artificial intelligence for customer service. J Hosp Tour Technol 13(3):386–403

Caciora T, Herman GV, Ilieș A, Baias, Ștefan, Ilieș DC, Josan I, Hodor N (2021) The use of virtual reality to promote sustainable tourism: a case study of wooden churches historical monuments from Romania. Remote Sens 13(9):1758. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13091758

Article   ADS   Google Scholar  

Cai Z, Fang C, Zhang Q, Chen F (2021) Joint development of cultural heritage protection and tourism: the case of Mount Lushan cultural landscape heritage site. Herit Sci 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40494-021-00558-5

Camilleri MA (2018) The promotion of responsible tourism management through digital media. Tour Plan Dev 15(6):653–671. https://doi.org/10.1080/21568316.2017.1393772

Capocchi A, Vallone C, Pierotti M, Amaduzzi A (2019) Overtourism: A literature review to assess implications and future perspectives. Sustainability 11(12):3303

Carbone F (2017) International tourism and cultural diplomacy: a new conceptual approach towards global mutual understanding and peace through tourism. Tourism 65(1):61–74

Cavalcante WQ, de F, Coelho A, Bairrada CM (2021) Sustainability and tourism marketing: a bibliometric analysis of publications between 1997 and 2020 using VOSviewer software. Sustainability 13(9):4987

Chang W-J, Katrichis JM (2016) A literature review of tourism management (1990–2013): a content analysis perspective. Current Issues Tour 19(8):791–823

Chaudhary S, Kumar A, Pramanik M, Negi M (n.d.) Land evaluation and sustainable development of ecotourism in the Garhwal Himalayan region using geospatial technology and analytical hierarchy process. Environ Dev Sustain https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01528-4

Cocchia A (2014) Smart and digital city: a systematic literature review. Smart City p 13–43

Colicchia C, Strozzi F (2012) Supply chain risk management: a new methodology for a systematic literature review. Supply Chain Manag 17(4), 403–418

Comerio N, Strozzi F (2019) Tourism and its economic impact: a literature review using bibliometric tools. Tour Econ 25(1):109–131

Cranmer E, Urquhart C, Dieck M, Jung T (2021) Developing augmented reality business models for SMEs in tourism. Inf Manag 58(8). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2021.103551

Croitoru A, Manoliu A (2016) BIG DATA—a new tool shaping the future of the tourism industry. In: Pamfilie R, Dinu V, Tachiciu L, Plesea D, Vasiliu C (eds) Basiq international conference: new trends in sustainable business and consumption, pp. 69–74

Cuesta-Valiño P, Bolifa F, Núñez-Barriopedro E (2020) Sustainable, smart and muslim-friendly tourist destinations. Sustainability 12(5):1778. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12051778

da Silva A (2021) In quest of a new AR technology application to enhance the sustainability of cultural tourism: the Olive Heritage in Madeira through the looking glass of a “Sandbox” approach. Eur J Tour Hosp Recreation 11(1):66–76. https://doi.org/10.2478/ejthr-2021-0007

De Lucia C, Pazienza P, Balena P (2021) How does ICT influence residents’ attitudes towards tourism as a driver of development? A generalised ordered logistic regression analysis: ICT for tourism as driver of development in lagging behind regions. Int J Tour Res jtr.2473. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2473

del Vecchio P, Malandugno C, Passiante G, Sakka G (n.d.) Circular economy business model for smart tourism: the case of Ecobnb. Euromed J Bus. https://doi.org/10.1108/EMJB-09-2020-0098

Del Vecchio P, Mele G, Ndou V, Secundo G (2018) Open innovation and social big data for sustainability: evidence from the tourism industry. Sustainability 10(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093215

Dionisio M, Silva C, Nisi V (2019) Fostering interaction between locals and visitors by designing a community-based tourism platform on a touristic island. In: Lamas D, Loizides F, Nacke L, Petrie H, Winckler M, Zaphiris P (eds) Human-Computer Interaction–INTERACT 2019: 17th IFIP TC 13 International Conference, Paphos, Cyprus, September 2–6, 2019, Proceedings, Part II 17, Springer International Publishing. vol 11747, pp. 768–787

Doborjeh Z, Hemmington N, Doborjeh M, Kasabov N (2022) Artificial intelligence: a systematic review of methods and applications in hospitality and tourism. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 34(3):1154–1176

Donthu N, Kumar S, Mukherjee D, Pandey N, Lim WM (2021) How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: an overview and guidelines. J Bus Res 133:285–296. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070

Duy N, Mondal S, Van N, Dzung P, Minh D, Das S (2020) A study on the role of web 4.0 and 5.0 in the sustainable tourism ecosystem of Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sustainability 12(17). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177140

Dwivedi YK, Kshetri N, Hughes L, Slade EL, Jeyaraj A, Kar AK, Baabdullah AM, Koohang A, Raghavan V, Ahuja M (2023) “So what if ChatGPT wrote it?” Multidisciplinary perspectives on opportunities, challenges and implications of generative conversational AI for research, practice and policy. Int J Inf Manag 71:102642

Elkhwesky Z, El Manzani Y, Elbayoumi Salem I (2022) Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: a systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era. Tour Hosp Res 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/14673584221126792

Encalada L, Boavida-Portugal I, Ferreira C, Rocha J (2017) Identifying tourist places of interest based on digital imprints: towards a sustainable smart city. Sustainability 9(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/su9122317

Ferguson L (2011) Promoting gender equality and empowering women? Tourism and the third Millennium Development Goal. Current Issues Tour 14(3):235–249

Fernandez-Lores S, Crespo-Tejero N, Fernández-Hernández R (2022) Driving traffic to the museum: the role of the digital communication tools. Technol Forecast Soc Change Scopus 174. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121273

Feroz AK, Zo H, Chiravuri A (2021) Digital transformation and environmental sustainability: a review and research agenda. Sustainability 13(3):1530. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13031530

Filipiak BZ, Dylewski M, Kalinowski M (2020) Economic development trends in the EU tourism industry. Towards the digitalization process and sustainability. Qual Quant Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-020-01056-9

Franco M, Mota L (2021) Reopening for business post-COVID-19: augmented reality as a strategy for attracting visitors to a tourist destination. Eur J Tour Hosp Recreation 11(1):54–65. https://doi.org/10.2478/ejthr-2021-0006

Gajdosik T (2019) Big data analytics in smart tourism destinations. a new tool for destination management organizations ? In: Katsoni V, SegarraOna M (eds) Smart Tourism as a Driver for Culture and Sustainability: Fifth International Conference IACuDiT, Athens 2018, Springer International Publishing, pp. 15–33

Garrigos-Simon FJ, Narangajavana-Kaosiri Y, Lengua-Lengua I (2018) Tourism and sustainability: a bibliometric and visualization analysis. Sustainability 10(6):1976

Garzon J, Acevedo J, Pavon J, Baldiris S (2018) ARtour: Augmented Reality-based game to promote agritourism. In: DePaolis L, Bourdot P (eds) Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Computer Graphics: 5th International Conference, AVR 2018, Otranto, Italy, June 24–27, 2018, Proceedings, Part I 5, Springer International Publishing, vol 10850, pp. 413–422

Giaccone SC, Bonacini E (2019) New technologies in smart tourism development: The #iziTRAVELSicilia experience. Tour Anal 24(3):341–354. https://doi.org/10.3727/108354219X15511864843867

Go H, Kang M (2023) Metaverse tourism for sustainable tourism development: tourism agenda 2030. Tour Rev 78(2):381–394

Goh E, King B (2020) Four decades (1980–2020) of hospitality and tourism higher education in Australia: developments and future prospects. J Hosp Tour Educ 32(4):266–272

Gomez-Oliva A, Alvarado-Uribe J, Parra-Merono M, Jara A (2019) Transforming communication channels to the co-creation and diffusion of intangible heritage in smart tourism destination: creation and testing in Ceuti (Spain). Sustainability 11(14). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11143848

Goralski MA, Tan TK (2020) Artificial intelligence and sustainable development. Int J Manag Educ 18(1):100330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijme.2019.100330

Gössling S (2017) Tourism, information technologies and sustainability: an exploratory review. J Sustain Tour 25(7):1024–1041

Gössling S, Hall CM (eds) (2006) An introduction to tourism and global environmental change. In: Tourism and global environmental change. Routledge, pp. 1–33

Graziano T, Privitera D (2020) Cultural heritage, tourist attractiveness and augmented reality: Insights from Italy. J Herit Tour 15(6):666–679. https://doi.org/10.1080/1743873X.2020.1719116

Hammady R, Ma M, AL-Kalha Z, Strathearn C (2021) A framework for constructing and evaluating the role of MR as a holographic virtual guide in museums. Virtual Real 25(4):895–918. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-020-00497-9

Han H, Eom T, Al-Ansi A, Ryu HB, Kim W (2019) Community-based tourism as a sustainable direction in destination development: an empirical examination of visitor behaviors. Sustainability 11(10):10. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11102864

Handayani B, Korstanje ME (2017) Place brand authenticity in social media interaction: a postmodern perspective. Études Caribéennes 37–38, Article 37–38. https://doi.org/10.4000/etudescaribeennes.11182

Haque E, Sungsuwan T, Sanglimsuwan S (2021) Can social media be a tool for increasing tourists’ environmentally responsible behavior? Geoj Tour Geosites 38(4):1211–1222. https://doi.org/10.30892/gtg.38428-762

Hart C (2018) Doing a literature review: releasing the research imagination. Doing a Literature Review, p 1–352

Higgins-Desbiolles F, Carnicelli S, Krolikowski C, Wijesinghe G, Boluk K (2019) Degrowing tourism: rethinking tourism. J Sustain Tour 27(12):1926–1944. https://doi.org/10.1080/09669582.2019.1601732

Huang T, Liu B (2021) Augmented reality is human-like: how the humanizing experience inspires destination brand love. Technol Forecast Soc Change 170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.120853

Ivanov S, Gretzel U, Berezina K, Sigala M, Webster C (2019) Progress on robotics in hospitality and tourism: a review of the literature. J Hosp Tour Technol 10(4):489–521

Jamshidi D, Rousta A, Shafei R (2021). Social media destination information features and destination loyalty: does perceived coolness and memorable tourism experiences matter? Curr Issues Tour Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.2019204

Jingen Liang L, Elliot S (2021) A systematic review of augmented reality tourism research: what is now and what is next? Tour Hosp Res 21(1):15–30

Kabassi K (2017) Evaluating websites of museums: state of the art. J Cult Herit 24:184–196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.culher.2016.10.016

Kang H (2020) Impact of VR on impulsive desire for a destination. J Hosp Tour Manag 42:244–255. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.02.003

Kaźmierczak R, Szczepańska A, Kowalczyk C, Grunwald G, Janowski A (2021) Using AR technology in tourism based on the example of maritime educational trips—a conceptual model. Sustainability (Switzerland) Scopus 13(13). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13137172

Kim D, Kim S (2017) The role of mobile technology in tourism: patents, articles, news, and mobile tour app reviews. Sustainability 9(11):2082. https://doi.org/10.3390/su9112082

Kim H, Chang B (2020) A study on the effects of crowdfunding values on the intention to visit local festivals: focusing on mediating effects of perceived risk and e-WOM. Sustainability 12(8). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12083264

Kim K-H, Park D-B (2017) Relationships among perceived value, satisfaction, and loyalty: community-based ecotourism in Korea. J Travel Tour Mark 34(2):171–191. https://doi.org/10.1080/10548408.2016.1156609

Kim S, Kang Y (2020) Why do residents in an overtourism destination develop anti-tourist attitudes? An exploration of residents’ experience through the lens of the community-based tourism. Asia Pac J Tour Res 25(8):858–876

Ko Y, Song B (2021) Complementary cooperation of CCTV and UAV systems for tourism security and sustainability. Sustainability 13(19). https://doi.org/10.3390/su131910693

Koohang A, Nord JH, Ooi K-B, Tan GW-H, Al-Emran M, Aw EC-X, Baabdullah AM, Buhalis D, Cham T-H, Dennis C (2023) Shaping the metaverse into reality: a holistic multidisciplinary understanding of opportunities, challenges, and avenues for future investigation. J Comput Inf Syst 63(3):735–765

Korstanje ME, George BP (2020) Education as a strategy to tackle over tourism for overtourism and inclusive sustainability in the twenty-first century. In: Séraphin H, Gladkikh T, Thanh TV (eds) Overtourism: causes, implications and solutions. Springer International Publishing, pp. 341–359

Korstanje ME, Seraphin H, Maingi SW (eds) (2022) Tourism through troubled times: emerging issues and new pathways for the 21st century tourism. In: Tourism through troubled times. Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 1–5

Kotsopoulos KI, Chourdaki P, Tsolis D, Antoniadis R, Pavlidis G, Assimakopoulos N (2019) An authoring platform for developing smart apps which elevate cultural heritage experiences: a system dynamics approach in gamification. J Ambient Intell Humaniz Comput Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12652-019-01505-w

Koukopoulos Z, Koukopoulos D (2018) Intelligent management of outdoor cultural events promoting exploitation in smart city environments. In: Katsoni V, Velander K (eds) Innovative Approaches to Tourism and Leisure: Fourth International Conference IACuDiT, Athens 2017, Springer International Publishing, pp. 303–319

Koukopoulos Z, Koukopoulos D (2019) Evaluating the usability and the personal and social acceptance of a participatory digital platform for cultural heritage. Heritage 2(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage2010001

Kreishan FM (2010) Tourism and economic growth: the case of Jordan. Eur J Soc Sci 15(2):63–68

Kumar N, Kumar RR (2020) Relationship between ICT and international tourism demand: a study of major tourist destinations. Tour Econ 26(6):908–925

Law R, Buhalis D, Cobanoglu C (2014) Progress on information and communication technologies in hospitality and tourism. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 26(5):727–750

Lee W, Kim Y (2021) Does VR tourism enhance users’ experience? Sustainability 13(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13020806

Lemmi E, Deri M (2020) A new model for the “tourism renaissance”: the case study of the Tuscan Village of San Pellegrino in Alpe. Almatourism—J Tour Cult Territ Dev 11(22):19–43. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2036-5195/12345

León-Gómez A, Ruiz-Palomo D, Fernández-Gámez MA, García-Revilla MR (2021) Sustainable tourism development and economic growth: bibliometric review and analysis. Sustainability 13(4):2270

Li J, Xu L, Tang L, Wang S, Li L (2018) Big data in tourism research: a literature review. Tour Manag 68:301–323

Li W (2006) Community decisionmaking participation in development. Ann Tour Res 33(1):132–143

Lim C, Mostafa N, Park J (2017) Digital Omotenashi: toward a smart tourism design systems. Sustainability 9(12). https://doi.org/10.3390/su9122175

Lin M, Li F, Zhou H (2020a) A research on the combination of oblique photography and mobile applications based on the sustainable development of tourism. Sustainability 12(9). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12093501

Lin S, Juan P, Lin S (2020b) A TAM framework to evaluate the effect of smartphone application on tourism information search behavior of foreign independent travelers. Sustainability 12(22). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229366

Liu Z, Lan J, Chien F, Sadiq M, Nawaz MA (2022) Role of tourism development in environmental degradation: a step towards emission reduction. J Environ Manag 303:114078

CAS   Google Scholar  

Lopes R, Malik O, Kumpoh A, Keasberry C, Hong O, Lee S, Liu Y & IEEE (2019) Exploring digital architectural heritage in Brunei Darussalam: towards heritage safeguarding, smart tourism, and interactive education. 2019 IEEE Fifth International Conference on Multimedia Big Data (BigMM) At: Singapore Proceedings. p 383–390. https://doi.org/10.1109/BigMM.2019.00067

Lou L, Tian Z, Koh J (2017) Tourist satisfaction enhancement using mobile QR code payment: an empirical investigation. Sustainability 9(7). https://doi.org/10.3390/su9071186

Loureiro SMC, Nascimento J (2021) Shaping a view on the influence of technologies on sustainable tourism. Sustainability 13(22):12691. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132212691

Lu J, Xiao X, Xu Z, Wang C, Zhang M, Zhou Y (2022) The potential of virtual tourism in the recovery of tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Current Issues Tour 25(3):441–457. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1959526

Ma D, Hu J, Yao F (2021) Big data empowering low-carbon smart tourism study on low-carbon tourism O2O supply chain considering consumer behaviors and corporate altruistic preferences. Comput Ind Eng 153. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cie.2020.107061

Maiorescu I, Negrea M, Popescu D, Sabou G (2016) Best practices regarding the use of electronic environment for Romanian tourism development. Amfiteatru Econ 18(42):474–486

Manglis A, Fourkiotou A, Papadopoulou D (2021) A roadmap for the sustainable valorization of accessible underwater cultural heritage sites. Heritage 4(4):4700–4715. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage4040259

Manoharan A, Singal M (2017) A systematic literature review of research on diversity and diversity management in the hospitality literature. Int J Hosp Manag 66:77–91

Martinez-Grana A, Goy J, Gonzalez-Delgado J, Cruz R, Sanz J, Cimarra C, de Bustamante I (2019) 3D Virtual itinerary in the geological heritage from natural areas in Salamanca-Avila-Caceres, Spain. Sustainability 11(1). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11010144

Martins J, Gonçalves R, Branco F, Barbosa L, Melo M, Bessa M (2017) A multisensory virtual experience model for thematic tourism: a Port wine tourism application proposal. J Destin Mark Manag 6(2):103–109. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdmm.2017.02.002 . Scopus

Mehraliyev F, Chan ICC, Choi Y, Koseoglu MA, Law R (2020) A state-of-the-art review of smart tourism research. J Travel Tour Mark 37(1):78–91

Miceli A, Hagen B, Riccardi M, Sotti F, Settembre-Blundo D (2021) Thriving, not just surviving in changing times: how sustainability, agility and digitalization intertwine with organizational resilience. Sustainability 13(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042052

Mirzaalian F, Halpenny E (2019) Social media analytics in hospitality and tourism: a systematic literature review and future trends. J Hosp Tour Technol 10(4):764–790

Mohd NS, Ismail HN, Jaafar SMRS, Isa N (2020) Experience co-creation of city visitors from the perspective of technological engagement. IOP Conf Ser Earth Environ Sci Scopus 447(1). https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/447/1/012002

Monterroso-Checa A, Redondo-Villa A, Gasparini M, Hornero A, Iraci B, Martin-Talaverano R, Moreno-Escribano J, Munoz-Cadiz J, Murillo-Fragero J, Obregon-Romero R, Vargas N, Young S, Yuste R, Zarco-Tejada P (2020) A heritage science workflow to preserve and narrate a rural archeological landscape using virtual reality: the Cerro del Castillo of Belmez and its surrounding environment (Cordoba, Spain). Appl Sci-Basel 10(23). https://doi.org/10.3390/app10238659

Moya‐Anegón SGFde, Vargas‐Quesada B, Chinchilla‐Rodríguez Z, Corera‐Álvarez E, Munoz‐Fernández FJ, Herrero‐Solana V (2007) Visualizing the marrow of science. J Am Soc Inf Sci Technol 58(14):2167–2179

Mulet-Forteza C, Martorell-Cunill O, Merigó JM, Genovart-Balaguer J, Mauleon-Mendez E (2018) Twenty five years of the Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing: a bibliometric ranking. J Travel Tour Mark 35(9):1201–1221

Muñoz-Leiva F, Hernández-Méndez J, Gómez-Carmona D (2019) Measuring advertising effectiveness in Travel 2.0 websites through eye-tracking technology. Physiol Behav 200:83–95

Muthuraman S, Al Haziazi M & IEEE (2019) Smart tourism destination—new exploration towards sustainable development in Sultanate of Oman. In 2019 5th International Conference on Information Management (ICIM). p 332–335

Mwinuka OH (2017) Reviewing the role of tourism marketing in successful sustainable tourist destinations. Afr J Hosp Tour Leis 6(2):1–11

Nascimento J, Loureiro SMC (2022) The impact of augmented and virtual reality for sustainable tourism. In: Jung T, Dieck MCT, Loureiro SMC (eds) International XR conference. Springer, pp. 148–156

Navarro-Drazich D, Lorenzo C (2021) Sensitivity and vulnerability of international tourism by covid crisis: South America in context. Res Glob 3:100042. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.resglo.2021.100042

Obonyo G, Okeyo D, Kambona O (2018) Effect of management practices on actual ICT application in Kenyan hotels: a PLS-SEM approach. Int J Hosp Tour Adm 19(2):142–166. https://doi.org/10.1080/15256480.2017.1305311

Palumbo R (2021) Enhancing museums’ attractiveness through digitization: an investigation of Italian medium and large-sized museums and cultural institutions. Int J Tour Res Scopus. https://doi.org/10.1002/jtr.2494

Pavlidis G, Solomou A, Stamouli S, Papavassiliou V, Kritsis K, Kiourt C, Sevetlidis V, Karetsos G, Trigas P, Kougioumoutzis K, Goula K, Proutsos N, Pistikos G, Theodoridis Y, Galanopoulos E, Paraskevas N, Foskolou U, Papadopoulos M (2022) Sustainable ecotourism through cutting-edge technologies. Sustainability 14(2). https://doi.org/10.3390/su14020800

Pehlivanides G, Monastiridis K, Tourtas A, Karyati E, Ioannidis G, Bejelou K, Antoniou V, Nomikou P (2020) The virtualdiver project. Making Greece’s underwater cultural heritage accessible to the public. Appl Sci (Switzerland) 10(22):1–22. https://doi.org/10.3390/app10228172

Article   CAS   Google Scholar  

Permatasari P, Qohar A, Rachman A (2020) From web 1.0 to web 4.0: the digital heritage platforms for UNESCO’s heritage properties in Indonesia. Virtual Archaeol Rev 11(23):75–93. https://doi.org/10.4995/var.2020.13121

Phoong SW, Phoong SY, Ho ST (2022) Technology, organisation and environment factor on mobile payment implementation: focus on SMEs in Malaysia. Int J Mob Commun 20(5):519–540. https://doi.org/10.1504/IJMC.2022.125420

Phoong SW, Phoong SY, Khek SL (2022). Systematic Literature Review With Bibliometric Analysis on Markov Switching Model: Methods and Applications, Sage Open 12(2). https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440221093062

Pica A, Reynard E, Grangier L, Kaiser C, Ghiraldi L, Perotti L, Del Monte M (2018) GeoGuides, urban geotourism offer powered by mobile application technology. Geoheritage 10(2):311–326. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12371-017-0237-0

Pilkington A, Meredith J (2009) The evolution of the intellectual structure of operations management—1980–2006: a citation/co-citation analysis. J Oper Manag 27(3):185–202

Pitoska E (2013) E-tourism: the use of internet and information and communication technologies in tourism: the case of hotel units in peripheral areas. In: Jankovic S, Jurdana D (eds) Tourism in Southern and Eastern Europe. vol 2. WOS:000323235000025, pp. 335–344

Pizam A, Ozturk AB, Balderas-Cejudo A, Buhalis D, Fuchs G, Hara T, Meira J, Revilla MRG, Sethi D, Shen Y (2022) Factors affecting hotel managers’ intentions to adopt robotic technologies: a global study. Int J Hosp Manag 102:103139

Rahmadian E, Feitosa D, Zwitter A (2022) A systematic literature review on the use of big data for sustainable tourism. Current Issues Tour 25(11):1711–1730

Ramos-Soler I, Martinez-Sala A, Campillo-Alhama C (2019) ICT and the sustainability of world heritage sites. Analysis of senior citizens’ use of tourism apps. Sustainability 11(11). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11113203

Ruhanen L, Moyle C, Moyle B (2018) New directions in sustainable tourism research. Tour Rev 74(2):138–149. https://doi.org/10.1108/TR-12-2017-0196

Saarinen J, Rogerson CM (2014) Tourism and the millennium development goals: perspectives beyond 2015. Tour Geogr 16(1):23–30. https://doi.org/10.1080/14616688.2013.851269

Saarinen J, Rogerson C, Manwa H (2011) Tourism and millennium development goals: tourism for global development? Current Issues Tour 14(3):201–203. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2011.555180

Scott N, Zhang R, Le D, Moyle B (2019) A review of eye-tracking research in tourism. Current Issues Tour 22(10):1244–1261

Shafiee M, Shafiee M, Shams H, Yahai M, Golchin H & IEEE (2013) ICT capacities in creating sustainable urban tourism and its effects on resident quality of life (WOS:000326046500028). In: Shafiee MM, Shafiee MM, Shams H, Yahai MR, Golchin H (eds) 2013 7th international conference on E-commerce in developing countries: with focus on E-Security (ECDC), IEEE

Sharmin F, Sultan M, Badulescu D, Badulescu A, Borma A, Li B (2021) Sustainable destination marketing ecosystem through smartphone-based social media: the consumers’ acceptance perspective. Sustainability 13(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13042308

Shehzad K, Liu X, Rauf A, Arif M, Mazhar S, Sohail N, Amin W (2019) Revolutionising tourism development in China: an effective role of ICT and Western Silk Road project. Asia Pac J Tour Res 24(9):965–977

Singh S (2017) Mobile money for promoting conservation and community-based tourism and ecotourism in underdeveloped regions. Tour Recreation Res 42(1):108–112. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2016.1251011

Streimikiene D, Svagzdiene B, Jasinskas E, Simanavicius A (2021) Sustainable tourism development and competitiveness: the systematic literature review. Sustain Dev 29(1):259–271

Stylos N, Zwiegelaar J, Buhalis D (2021) Big data empowered agility for dynamic, volatile, and time-sensitive service industries: the case of tourism sector. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 33(3):1015–1036

Talafubieke M, Mai S, Xialifuhan N (2021) Evaluation of the virtual economic effect of tourism product emotional marketing based on virtual reality. Front Psychol 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.759268

Tan W, Shrestha D, Jeong S (2019) Digital tourism development and sustainability model for Nepal. In: Shen W, Paredes H, Luo J, Barthes J (eds) 2019 IEEE 23rd International Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work in Design (CSCWD). IEEE, pp. 182–187

Taylor JP (2001) Authenticity and sincerity in tourism. Ann Tour Res 28(1):7–26

ADS   Google Scholar  

Telfer DJ, Sharpley R (2015) Tourism and development in the developing world. Routledge

Theocharidis A, Argyropoulou M, Karavasilis G, Vrana V, Kehris E (2020) An approach towards investigating factors affecting intention to book a hotel room through social media. Sustainability 12(21). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12218973

tom Dieck MC, Jung T, Han D-I (2016) Mapping requirements for the wearable smart glasses augmented reality museum application. J Hosp Tour Technol 7(3):230–253. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTT-09-2015-0036 . Scopus

Tsai T-H, Chang H-T, Lin Y-W, Yu M-C, Lien P-J, Yan W-C, Ho W-L (2018) Emerging social media and social networks analysis transforms the tourism industry: living green smart tourism ecosystem. In: Antona M, Stephanidis C (eds) Universal Access in Human-Computer Interaction. Virtual, Augmented, and Intelligent Environments, Springer International Publishing, vol. 10908, pp. 583–590

Tscheu F, Buhalis D (eds) (2016) Augmented reality at cultural heritage sites. In: Proceedings of the international conference on information and communication technologies in tourism, Bilbao, Spain, Springer, Cham, February 2–5. pp. 607–619

Tussyadiah IP, Wang D, Jung TH, Tom Dieck MC (2018) Virtual reality, presence, and attitude change: empirical evidence from tourism. Tour Manag 66:140–154

Ülker P, Ülker M, Karamustafa K (2023) Bibliometric analysis of bibliometric studies in the field of tourism and hospitality. J Hosp Tour Insights 6(2):797–818

Um T, Jia J, Xiaorui T, Chung N (2021) Technology readiness as moderator for satisfaction and destination loyalty in augmented reality environments. Asia Pac J Inf Syst 31(2):220–235. https://doi.org/10.14329/apjis.2021.31.2.220

United Nations Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. https://sdgs.un.org/2030agenda

Van NTT, Vrana V, Duy NT, Minh DXH, Dzung PT, Mondal SR, Das S (2020) The role of human–machine interactive devices for post-COVID-19 innovative sustainable tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sustainability 12(22):9523. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12229523

Vitezic V, Car T, Simunic M (2015) Managing innovative technology in the hotel industry—response to growing consumer preferences. In: Jankovic S, Jurdana D (eds) Tourism in Southern and Eastern Europe, vol 3, pp. 467–478

Wang F, Liu Z, Shang S, Qin Y, Wu B (2019) Vitality continuation or over-commercialization? Spatial structure characteristics of commercial services and population agglomeration in historic and cultural areas. Tour Econ 25(8):1302–1326

Wang G, Wang H, Wang L (2023) Research trends in tourism and hospitality from 1991 to 2020: an integrated approach of corpus linguistics and bibliometrics. J Hosp Tour Insights 6(2):509–529

Wang Y, Lin Y-J, Lin B-S (2020) The factors that affect usage intentions and travel intentions of travel-related WeChat official accounts. Sustainability (Switzerland) 12(15). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12156108

Wei W (2019) Research progress on virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) in tourism and hospitality: a critical review of publications from 2000 to 2018. J Hosp Tour Technol 10(4):539–570

Winter PL, Selin S, Cerveny L, Bricker K (2020) Outdoor recreation, nature-based tourism, and sustainability. Sustainability 12(1):1. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12010081

Xie X, Zhang W (2021) Regulation mechanism of spatial capacity of tourist resources in scenic spots based on Internet of things technology. Complexity https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/3934894

Yalina N, Rozas IS (2020) Digital workplace: digital transformation for environmental sustainability. IOP Conf Ser: Earth Environ Sci 456(1):012022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1755-1315/456/1/012022

Yang J, Yang R, Chen M-H, Su C-HJ, Zhi Y, Xi J (2021) Effects of rural revitalization on rural tourism. J Hosp Tour Manag 47:35–45

Yin C, Jung T, Dieck M, Lee M (2021) Mobile augmented reality heritage applications: meeting the needs of heritage tourists. Sustainability 13(5). https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052523

Yovcheva Z, Buhalis D, Gatzidis C (2012) Smartphone augmented reality applications for tourism. E-Rev Tour Res 10(2):63–66

Yuce A, Arasli H, Ozturen A, Daskin M (2020) Feeling the service product closer: triggering visit intention via virtual reality. Sustainability 12(16). https://doi.org/10.3390/su12166632

Zhang C, Fyall A, Zheng Y (2015) Heritage and tourism conflict within world heritage sites in China: a longitudinal study. Current Issues Tour 18(2):110–136

Zhao J, Li S-M (2018) The impact of tourism development on the environment in China. Acta Sci Malays 2(1):1–4

MathSciNet   ADS   Google Scholar  

Zhong L, Sun S, Law R, Li X (2021) Tourism crisis management: evidence from COVID-19. Current Issues Tour 24(19):2671–2682. https://doi.org/10.1080/13683500.2021.1901866

Zhou C, Sotiriadis M (2021) Exploring and evaluating the Impact of ICTs on culture and tourism industries’ convergence: evidence from China. Sustainability 13(21). https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111769

Zubiaga M, Izkara J, Gandini A, Alonso I, Saralegui U (2019) Towards smarter management of overtourism in historic centres through visitor-flow monitoring. Sustainability 11(24). https://doi.org/10.3390/su11247254

Download references

Acknowledgements

This research is supported by the Universiti Malaya International Collaboration Grant, grant number ST013-2022.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Decision Science, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Chunyu Jiang & Seuk Wai Phoong

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Seuk Wai Phoong .

Ethics declarations

Competing interests.

The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

This article does not contain any studies with human participants performed by any of the authors.

Informed consent

Additional information.

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Jiang, C., Phoong, S.W. A ten-year review analysis of the impact of digitization on tourism development (2012–2022). Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10 , 665 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02150-7

Download citation

Received : 25 April 2023

Accepted : 11 September 2023

Published : 07 October 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-02150-7

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

Quick links

• Explore articles by subject
• Guide to authors
• Editorial policies

Embracing Sustainability: Initiatives for Sustainable Tourism in DMOs

by Bryan Reynolds | Jan 3, 2024 | Destination Marketing

As the world grapples with the effects of climate change, sustainability has become a major concern across various sectors. The travel and tourism industry is no exception. With a growing awareness of the environmental impacts of mass tourism, there is an increasing demand for sustainable tourism practices that respect both the natural environment and host communities. Let’s explore the crucial role of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in promoting sustainable tourism and highlights some successful examples of their initiatives.

The Importance of Sustainability in the Travel and Tourism Industry

Sustainability in the travel and tourism industry is about balancing the needs of tourists, the environment, and host communities. It seeks to manage tourism development in a way that ensures long-term socio-economic benefits without degrading the natural and cultural resources upon which it depends.

According to the UN World Tourism Organization, sustainable tourism aims to do the following.

• Minimize negative social, economic, and environmental impacts
• Boost the economic prosperity of local populations and improve the quality of life in host communities.
• Improve working conditions and access to the industry
• Involve local people in decisions that affect their lives and life chances
• Contribute positively to preserving natural and cultural heritage while also supporting the upkeep of global diversity.
• Provide access for physically challenged people
• Promote cultural understanding, foster mutual respect between visitors and local residents, and bolster local pride and self-assurance.

The Role of Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs)

Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) are organizations responsible for promoting a town, city, region, or country in order to increase the number of visitors. They work closely with local businesses, tour operators, and local communities to attract tourists and ensure that tourism development benefits the local economy. As such, DMOs play a crucial role in promoting sustainable tourism practices and ensuring that tourism development aligns with the principles of sustainable development.

The Importance of Sustainable Tourism

Sustainable tourism is more than just a trend; it’s a necessity for the survival of our planet and its diverse cultures. By promoting responsible tourism, we can help preserve the world’s natural and cultural heritage, empower local communities, and mitigate the environmental impacts of travel. Here are some key sustainable initiatives for DMOs

In recent years, international tourist arrivals have been steadily increasing, bringing both opportunities and challenges to tourism destinations worldwide. While tourism can stimulate economic development and promote local culture, it can also strain natural resources and disrupt local communities if not managed properly.

Sustainable tourism development is an approach that considers the long-term impact of tourism on natural resources, the local community, future economic prospects, and cultural diversity.

Sustainable tourism, by its very nature, refers to the careful stewardship of resources to meet economic, social and environmental requirements, all while preserving cultural authenticity, crucial ecological functions, biological diversity, and systems that support life.

Promoting Eco-Friendly Transportation

One of the most critical components in sustainable tourism management is promoting eco-friendly transportation. It is essential for Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) to encourage public transportation, biking, or walking tours as they have a smaller carbon footprint compared to private vehicles. This move towards sustainable transportation reduces direct and indirect impacts on the environment, contributes to the preservation of natural sites, and promotes a healthier lifestyle among tourists.

Moreover, DMOs can partner with eco-friendly transportation services, such as electric vehicle rentals and hybrid buses, to further minimize the environmental sustainability impacts. These partnerships can also stimulate economic growth by creating jobs and attracting environmentally-conscious tourists.

Supporting Local Culture and Businesses

Supporting local culture and businesses is another vital aspect of sustainable tourism. Showcasing and supporting local artisans, cultural events, and traditions not only enriches the tourist experience but also empowers local communities by providing economic and social benefits.

Encouraging tourists to buy local products and souvenirs can help sustain local businesses and contribute to economic development. Moreover, collaboration with these businesses to adopt sustainable practices can further enhance the community’s resilience and sustainability.

Implementing Waste Reduction Strategies

Waste reduction is a crucial part of sustainable tourism management. DMOs can play a significant role by providing recycling and composting facilities in tourism areas, initiating plastic-free campaigns, promoting reusable alternatives, and educating tourists about responsible waste management practices. These initiatives not only protect the natural world but also promote environmental awareness among tourists and the local community.

Conservation and Preservation Efforts

Conservation and preservation of natural heritage are at the heart of sustainable tourism. DMOs can contribute by preserving natural habitats and wildlife through responsible tourism guidelines, partnering with conservation organizations for eco-friendly initiatives, and establishing protected areas. Promoting responsible wildlife viewing ensures that tourists can enjoy the natural world without disturbing it, contributing to a more sustainable tourism industry.

Engaging in Sustainable Marketing and Education

Sustainable marketing and education are powerful tools that DMOs can use to promote sustainable tourism practices. Incorporating sustainability messaging in marketing campaigns can influence tourists’ behavior and make them more conscious of their impact on the destinations they visit.

Educating tourists about the importance of responsible travel through guides and information centers can enhance their understanding and appreciation of the local culture and environment. Collaborating with influencers or ambassadors who promote sustainable tourism practices can further spread the message and inspire more people to travel sustainably.

In conclusion, sustainable tourism means managing tourism’s social, economic, and environmental impacts while ensuring that it remains a positive force for global development. It is closely linked to the broader sustainable development goals and requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders, including DMOs, tourists, local communities, and governments. By adopting these initiatives, DMOs can ensure that tourism continues to be a source of enjoyment and enrichment for future generations.

Best Sustainable Tourism Practices

Adopting sustainable practices in the tourist industry is essential for Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) and tourism areas to ensure long-term success and positive impact on the environment and local communities. These practices focus on sustainable management, which includes monitoring sustainable development impacts, empowering local communities, and promoting local culture.

Internationally, sustainable tourism companies are setting the standard for how tourism can be a force for good. They are showing that it’s possible to have a profitable business model that also respects socio-cultural aspects, protects the environment, and contributes to job creation in destination communities.

Here are some best practices that DMOs and tourism areas can follow:

• Community Involvement – Engage local communities in and include them in the decision-making. This not only empowers them but also ensures that tourism development aligns with their needs and aspirations.
• Local Employment – Prioritize job creation for locals to ensure that the benefits of tourism are distributed within the community. This is particularly important in developing countries and small island developing states where tourism is a major source of income.
• Promoting Local Culture – Showcase local traditions, arts, and cuisine to tourists. This not only enriches the tourist experience but also helps preserve cultural heritage and provides additional income for local artisans.
• Sustainable Transport – Implement and promote the use of sustainable transport options such as cycling, walking, or public transportation. This reduces the carbon footprint of tourism activities and contributes to the overall sustainability of the destination.
• Environmental Conservation – Establish and enforce guidelines for tourists to minimize their impact on the local environment. This can include rules about waste disposal, wildlife interaction, and usage of natural resources.

By adopting these practices, DMOs and tourism areas can work towards achieving their sustainable development goals and ensure that their destination remains attractive and enjoyable for future generations of tourists.

Successful Case Studies

An excellent example of a DMO effectively promoting sustainable tourism is Visit Finland. They have implemented a sustainable travel program named “Sustainable Travel Finland” that educates and assists Finnish travel service companies in adopting sustainable procedures.

For more information on how Visit Finland has successfully implemented sustainable tourism practices, refer to their comprehensive case study available: Read Case Study from Finland .

Another example is the South African Tourism Board, which has a comprehensive sustainable tourism strategy and partners with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council to ensure compliance with international standards.

To delve into the specific efforts made by the South African Tourism Board in implementing sustainable tourism practices, refer to their detailed case study in collaboration with the Global Sustainable Tourism Council. This case study provides comprehensive insights into their sustainable tourism strategy and the impact it has had on local communities and the environment. Read the South African Case Study .

Sustainable tourism is crucial for the preservation of our planet and its diverse cultures. DMOs play a vital role in this process by promoting sustainable tourism practices and ensuring that tourism development benefits local communities and preserves the natural environment. As we move towards a more sustainable tourism sector, the initiatives undertaken by these organizations will be instrumental in shaping a future where travel is beneficial for all.

• Company Updates
• Customer Spotlight
• Destination Marketing
• Digital Signage
• Employee Engagement
• Internal Communications
• New Features
• Newsletters
• Product Updates
• Touch Kiosks
• Visitor Information

Recent Posts

Destination tourism: in-destination marketing, the 9 best free templates for digital signage, how to turn a tv into digital signage.

• Grow Digital Kiosk and Signage Engagement with HootBoard OS
• Free Events Calendar Template for a Website
• Knowledge Base
• Setup a Demo
• Privacy Policy
• Terms of Use

Related Posts

by Mannat Sharma | Destination Marketing

Destination marketing is all about crafting a compelling image for a location that attracts travelers from across the...

by Bryan Reynolds | Templates

In my career as a digital signage and software industry veteran, I've had the opportunity to explore a myriad of...

by Bryan Reynolds | Digital Signage , Touch Kiosks

Turning a regular smart TV into digital signage can be a game-changer for your business or project. Digital signage...

Thank you! Your Download Should Begin Automatically.

Email Address

Organisation

Phone Number

Industry Industry Travel & Tourism Smart City Education Workplaces Industry Agnostic Others

UN Tourism | Bringing the world closer

Share this content.

• Share this article on facebook
• Share this article on twitter
• Share this article on linkedin

Digital Transformation

Technologies are emerging, disrupting and affecting our lives in ways that indicate we are at the beginning of a Fourth Industrial Revolution, a new era in which digitalization builds and impacts societies in new and often unanticipated ways. It is worthwhile considering exactly what kind of shifts we are experiencing and how we can ensure, collectively and individually, that this revolution creates benefits for all.

Tourism was one of the first sectors to digitalize business processes on a global scale, bringing flight and hotel booking online to become a digital pioneer. As information and communications technology (ICT) became a global phenomenon, tourism was a consistent early adopter of new technologies and platforms.

A digitalized tourism sector must innovate and generate new business opportunities to ensure the continued competitiveness, growth and sustainable development of the sector. The ultimate goal is to make a solid contribution to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations and the global development community.

With the aim of realizing UNWTO Secretary-General Zurab Pololikashvili’s new Visions and Priorities, specifically the priorities of “Innovation & digital transformation” and “Investment & entrepreneurship”, the Strategy on Innovation, Investment and Digital Transformation has been developed.

Digital Transformation & SDGs

Digitalization is expected to continue propelling the travel experience on its trajectory towards becoming more seamless, frictionless, and high quality and in a way that contributes to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations..

The use of technologies including the ‘Internet of Things’, location-based services, artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality, and blockchain technology (see definitions below) has resulted in a tourism offer that is more attractive, efficient, inclusive, and economically, socially and environmentally sustainable than its predecessor. It has also facilitated innovation and rethinking of processes, with a view to tackling challenges such as seasonality and overcrowding and developing smarter destinations.

Digitalization has a positive environmental impact and can yet have a greater one, with innovations in manufacturing, smart assets and efficient use of resources contributing to a more sustainable industry footprint.

Some major impacts on the sector as a whole are the development of smart travel facilitation , smart destinations , and a new wave of job profiles .

Smart travel facilitation

In the same way the smartphone has transformed telecommunications and media, a comprehensive smart travel model – one that includes smart visas, borders, security processes and infrastructure – will revolutionize tourism. With consolidation of these tools, passengers can book their flights and check in online, have their boarding passes on their smartphones, go through automated clearance gates and even validate their boarding passes electronically to board planes. These measures improve both travel facilitation and security.

Smart destinations

A smart destination is one with a strategy for technology, innovation, sustainability, accessibility and inclusivity along the entire tourism cycle: before, during and after the trip. A smart destination is also one with residents as well as tourists in mind, factoring multilingualism, cultural idiosyncrasies and seasonality into tourism planning.

This is why smart destinations are key to the transformation of the tourism sector. By continuously and accurately measuring, integrating and analyzing data for efficient decision-making, prioritization and anticipation of challenges, they create a seamless and exciting experience for tourists while managing local resources efficiently.

Smart destinations can make tourism governance more inclusive through inclusive entities, such as boards, trusts or foundations, which represent all public/private stakeholders in the destination. They can help ensure maximum accessibility in sites, products and services, eliminating barriers to mobility. And they allow us to analyse sustainable tourism management through different lenses.

Consider, for example, the challenge of seasonality, where population change from variation in tourist flows makes tourism’s impact difficult to measure. Technology-based data tools, such as remote sensors and big data management systems, can help destination managers capture and process large volumes of data for a greater understanding of the impact of seasonality on tourism and on sustainability. It can therefore help them to predict and manage tourist flows in order to more efficiently and effectively manage destinations.

Job creation

The future of travel is technology-based, so tourism jobs will require both technical and advanced soft skills used to effectively implement and manage smart initiatives. The greatest societal impact of digital transformation in tourism may be the effect on the sector’s workforce, which directly and indirectly represents 1 in every 10 jobs worldwide. Like in other economic sectors, intelligent automation will change the nature of some travel jobs and eradicate others altogether. However, digitally-enabled growth will also generate new employment opportunities that could outpace the automation of existing roles, especially as strong growth is forecast for the sector.

Startups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) – drivers of technology-based innovation and entrepreneurship in tourism – will take on an increasingly important role in developing the skills needed for the jobs of the future. The sector should therefore prioritize strengthening startups and MSMEs so they can become integral parts of the tourism value chain, and boosting technology- and skills-based education, training and policies that stimulate innovation and decent employment.

More From Forbes

Ischia is more: a new campaign promotes sustainable tourism to the island.

• Share to Facebook
• Share to Twitter
• Share to Linkedin

At the time of publishing, American travelers are not permitted to visit Italy and international travel is not currently advised. This piece is intended to serve as inspiration (and armchair travel) while we wait for the situation to improve.

Ischia's Castello Aragonese dates back to the 5th century BC.

Ischia, an island celebrated for its healing thermal springs, verdant hills and crystalline waters, wants visitors to know that there’s more to it than just mare e montagna – the sea and the mountains. Ischia Is More . This is the catchphrase behind a new campaign designed to boost tourism to the “Isola Verde” and raise its profile in the face of a pandemic that has devastated tourism in Italy and abroad.

Located off the coast of Naples and blessed with fertile, volcanic soil, Ischia has been a wellness destination for millennia, first attracting the Ancient Greeks and later modern-day travelers to soak in the healing waters of its resorts, spas and natural pools. But the island also boasts scenic mountain trails, vineyards perched above the sea, archeological sites, charming villages and an exciting calendar of events that celebrate regional foods, local saints and more.

A view of Ischia Porto from the Castello Aragonese.

Ischia Is More was born from a desire to showcase the island’s multifaceted identity – as well as its untapped potential. “Ischia represents a true Italian experience. It’s a place that expresses a rare authenticity and really captures the essence of benessere , or wellness,” says Maurizio Orlacchio, managing director of the San Montano Resort . Mr. Orlacchio, along with 12 founding members, have banded together to spur sustainable tourism to the island through the new campaign, launched in summer 2020. “Inclusivity is one of our founding principles, along with perseverance, trust and real passion.”

Wells Fargo Championship 2024 Golf Betting Preview Odds And PGA Picks

The minnesota timberwolves are suffocating everyone defensively, new fbi warning as hackers strike email senders must do this 1 thing.

The group, which includes hotels, spas and shops, wants to inspire visitors to experience Ischia in a new light by using digital tools to reach a wider audience. In the face of COVID-19, Italians everywhere have embraced teamwork and digital communication with new fervor, and this project exemplifies the shift. Ischia Is More opted to launch its campaign on Instagram and is enlisting digital ambassadors to share emotive and authentic stories from the island, from spotlighting its people and traditions to its accommodations and trattorias.

Sant'Angelo is one of the most charming villages on Ischia.

One of the main objectives of the campaign is to extend the tourist season beyond the summer months by encouraging travel in the off season. “Ischia, like most islands, attracts tourists between April and October. But the weather is temperate year-round, and the hot springs are ideal even in the winter months,” says Luca D’Ambra, the president of Federalberghi, a hospitality association for the island of Ischia. “To change the nature of tourism, though, we need to ensure that services like hotels, restaurants and transportation stay open.”

The Giardini Poseidon Terme is the largest thermal park on Ischia with more than 20 pools.

The island hosts numerous culinary events throughout the year, including Ischia Safari, a food festival each September that celebrates regional cuisine, and “Stelle In Strada” (Stars in the Streets) which invites Michelin-starred chefs to prepare street food in December. Spring is a great time to enjoy the natural flora and fauna of the island on nature hikes to the top of Mount Epomeo and two botanical gardens, Giardini La Mortella and Giardini Ravini, are in their full splendor. Fall marks the vendemmia (wine harvest) at Ischia’s picturesque vineyards where you can sip Biancolella, an acclaimed white wine that originates on the island.

“Stelle In Strada” invites Michelin-starred chefs to prepare street food along one of Ischia's main ... [+] thoroughfares each December.

And if you decide to visit during the summer, you can attend the island’s celebrated Ischia Film Festival which screens movies against the backdrop of the medieval Castello Aragonese, or you can go scuba diving to explore the ancient submerged city of “Aenaria” located on the southeastern coast. It’s easy to spend an entire week on the island, if not longer, given the wide variety of activities the island has to offer beyond its beaches.

“The pandemic has changed our outlook on tourism, and we’ve realized we all need to be more resourceful and work together to pave a better future. That’s what we’re trying to do with Ischia Is More,” says Michele Sambaldi, managing director of Mezzatorre and the Pellicano Hotels Group . “We launched this campaign to promote a destination we know and love, and we hope to welcome more partners and investors to help us spotlight the beauty of Ischia.”

For more information, visit @ IschiaIsMore .

A view of Lacco Ameno on Ischia.

Ischia Travel Guide: 6 Places You Need To Visit Now

• Editorial Standards
• Reprints & Permissions

A global network for

Destinations, tourism research, tourism events, a global network for.

Building a Stronger Business Through Sustainable Design

In episode 9 of our "Tour Tech: Your 5 Weekly Takeaways to Tourism Success" podcast series, part of the EU-funded Tourbit project, we learn how digitalisation supports backend business operations and the importance of effective design and sustainability in glamping experiences.

Celebrating Female Leaders in Tourism: Diverse Paths, Shared Passion

20 Years of Likes: Facebook's Enduring Impact on Tourism

Learning Through Experimenting With Technology

Tourism Innovation in Greece

Designing Inclusive Tourism Experiences for Neurodivergent Travellers

2024 roadmap.

Get a taste of what's to come from the DTTT as we head into 2024.

Destination

A community of destinations from all over the world. As a member destination you get access to 100's of case studies, development programmes, trend session, events and more.

• Events & Awards
• Strategic Development
• Insights & Resources

A community of universities and research organisations from all over the world. Our research members enjoy an unprecedented view on the work of destinations from a practitioner's perspective.

• Extensive Practitioner Insights
• Guest Lectures & Workshops
• Professional & Industry Pathways

Our corporate partners are the leading providers of digital, technology, data and intelligence services to the tourism industry. Together, DTTT Corporate Partners are committed to making tourism stronger, smarter and more competitive.

• Events & Awards
• Thought Leadership
• Endorsement & Visibility

A community of businesses driven to succeed by gaining the competitive edge as innovative, digital-first champions, carving their way in the new impact-driven visitor and experience economy.

• Latest Trends & Innovation
• Essential Training
• Recognition & Visibility

A community of universities and research organisations from all over the world, in partnership with IFITT. Our research members enjoy an unprecedented view on the work of destinations from a practitioner's perspective.

Client Stories

Simpleview Says Generative AI Will Transform Destination Marketing

Skyscanner Unveils Key Travel Trends Shaping Regional Tourism in 2024

Sojern Spotlight: Shining a Light on Eugene, Cascades & Coast's Marketing Masterclass

Celebrating the best of the best in tourism.

After meticulous evaluation by our expert judging panel, the winners were unveiled alongside the inaugural edition of Future. Destination. Brand. Five stand-out awards recognise the very best of our industry, in addition to a People's Choice Award voted on by thousands.

Celebrating Youth in Tourism

International Youth Day is a holiday created by the United Nations and celebrated annually since 2000. On this day, people are supposed to recognise the importance and the hard work of the youth of the world and how they have made a difference to society. We asked our members to promote a young member of their staff that has worked hard to get where they are today and to share how they got this far and what inspired them.

Celebrating Women in Tourism

The WIT #InspireInclusion campaign celebrates women and diverse voices in tourism, amplifying their contributions and advocating for a more equitable, inclusive tourism industry for all. We invited women from all sectors to join this campaign and share their passion about leveraging the role of women in the tourism industry.

Celebrating Global Tourism

The WTD #TourismAndGreenInvestments campaign is about celebrating destinations that put people and the planet first. These are one step ahead of others in terms of innovation and digitalisation. ‍ As you navigate through the site, you’ll find recent initiatives and incredible projects of destinations working towards a better world.

Industry leading conferences

The biggest tourism event covering the latest trends and developments

X Festival is the tourism industry's flagship event with more than 100 keynote speakers, discussions and fireside chats, covering the latest trends and developments through the lens of destinations, their partners and industry.

Bridging the gap between the tourism industry and technology

Putting design-led collaboration at the core of reshaping tourism, X Design Week provides a platform for some of the industry's most innovative players to come together explore, connect, create and reflect on future tech and tourism trends.

Sustainability Leadership Programme

International Youth Day

Latest podcasts.

Listen to the latest podcasts from the DTTT Team and industry experts invited to share their views on current trends and developments.

Keynote Speakers

Workshop facilitation.

Strategy Enquiries

The digital transition of tourism

As in every ecosystem of our economy and our society, digitalisation impacts and transforms tourism. Platforms, online payments, and social media – to give but a few examples – greatly impact how we live and do tourism. The European Commission pays close attention to this process to support the competitiveness, sustainability, and resilience of the tourism sector in the EU.

Support for destinations, SMEs and visitors

Defined as ‘Europe’s Digital Decade’, in 2021, the Commission presented a vision for Europe’s digital transformation by 2030. The  digital compass  evolves around four action areas, namely 

• skilling and upskilling
• secure and sustainable digital infrastructures
• the digital transformation of businesses 
• the digitalisation of public services

This ambitious strategy is the roadmap for the digital transition of the tourism sector in the EU, which can benefit all stakeholders.

Digital solutions for business 

Considering business opportunities, digitalisation inspires innovative models, solutions and ecosystems. It opens up new roles for consumers and producers, making way for start-ups and upscaling existing businesses. While also helping meet supply and demand.

Given that SMEs and micro enterprises make up the bulk of the business contribution to tourism, the Commission pursues all sectoral policies at EU level in close coordination with the supporting measures for  SMEs . EU funding available for the tourism sector provides further support (see the  Guide on EU funding for tourism ,  the Single Market Programme ).

Digital solutions for the public sector and tourism managers

From the point of view of local authorities and destination management organisations (DMOs), digitalisation supports destinations in easing the impact of seasonal flows on local resources, infrastructures, transport systems, and services, thereby integrating arrivals seamlessly and sustainably. This can be particularly important for developing rural and remote destinations and ecosystems. It can also help to increase measurability and track trends, which can be a game changer for sustainable tourism strategies at local, regional, national, and EU levels.

Digital solutions for visitors 

For visitors, digitalisation can offer customised experiences, which can be enjoyed before, during and after a visit. It also has the potential to provide tourists with integrated, easy-to-use, remote information on services, offers, maps, events, experiences, available infrastructure, and sustainability and safety levels.

A key success factor for the uptake of digitalisation is the preparedness of stakeholders. That depends on skill levels and governance systems capable of creating synergies – between different actors, residents and visitors, levels of government, and also across sectors.

The Commission strongly focuses on helping to upskill and re-skill the sector’s workforce , notably in digital skills. 

As for innovative governance models, the Commission supports networks of cities that have already put effective mechanisms in place, or are contemplating doing so, staying in close contact and exchanging good practices.

• Intelligent cities challenge  
• European capitals of smart tourism
• EDEN - European Destinations of Excellence

In addition, one of the actions identified in the Transition Pathway for Tourism and the EU Agenda for Tourism 2030 to support the digitalisation of tourism SMEs and destinations is to develop a searchable inventory of existing transferable digital tools and practices. The Commission, with the assistance of an external contractor,  developed an inventory of digital tools   and practices based on submissions by SMEs, destinations, and other stakeholders, continuously updating it. Tourism stakeholders have free access to this inventory to support their efforts in developing a similar digital tool or practice for their destination or business.

Data management for tourism 

All digital developments evolve around access to data and strategic data management. Combining historical data with rapid real-time flows of often unstructured data (e.g. the streams of photos and videos generated by social network users) drives the competitiveness and sustainability of destinations.

Therefore, data management and its specificities in the tourism sector will depend on the access, use, reuse, and exchange of data. At the same time, expertise on what data is needed and how to use it in the tourism ecosystem should inform the governance of these important elements. 

As regards governance for data access, the  European data strategy   announced legislative measures to create the necessary overarching governance framework for a data-agile economy and to address common data-sharing issues between different sectors and domains. 

A pillar of this strategy is the  European Data Governance Act   proposed by the Commission in 2020. Among its priorities, the act aims to create EU-wide common, interoperable data spaces in strategic sectors to overcome legal and technical barriers to data sharing. The Commission is therefore looking into setting up an EU data space for tourism. In March 2022, we organised the  first workshop  tackling one of the key enablers for interoperability in the data space for tourism.

Facilitating data sharing

In September 2021, stakeholders in the tourism sector volunteered to prepare a code of conduct for data sharing in tourism to offer guidance and inspiration to the industry when envisaging a partnership or contractual agreement. 

The excitement over access to real-time information often overshadows the importance of policy indicators and high-quality, highly reliable statistics for analytics and evidence-based decision-making. At the same time, there is a need to improve the coverage of tourism statistics from basic figures on trips and overnight stays to data on tourism’s social, environmental and economic impacts. A combination of both offers the most comprehensive perspective on developments and trends and can profoundly impact policy change. 

Other initiatives 

• Data Spaces Support Centre
• Living in EU

More information

• Tourism dashboard
• Study on the most common uses of data by EU destination

Share this page

Expedia Group Media Solutions

Travelers’ interest in sustainable tourism options increases  .

By Expedia Group Media Solutions

April 18, 2023

During the pandemic, it was well-documented that the decrease in carbon emissions resulted in positive environmental impacts such as reduced air pollution, improved air and water quality, and ecological restoration. As travel restrictions have eased and travelers hit the road and skies once again we must balance the return of travel with the importance of improving sustainability in the travel industry. 

At Expedia Group Media Solutions, we routinely commission custom research to get the insights you need into traveler’s interests and behaviors. What we found was that travelers are increasingly seeking ways to have more meaningful and conscientious travel experiences, from searching for and booking more sustainable options to identifying opportunities to improve their impact on the destinations and communities they visit. We also wanted to understand what consumers consider to be sustainable travel, what tradeoffs they’re willing to make to travel more sustainably, and where and how they are looking for information to make more mindful choices.  

Our research was conducted in February and March 2022 by Wakefield Research. The study engaged 11,000 representative consumers in 11 countries: Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, the U.K., and the U.S.

Here are some key findings on past and future attitudes, behaviors, and values around sustainability in travel. 

Consumers are looking for sustainable travel options  

Consumers around the world are making more mindful decisions when traveling, such as visiting local cultural or historical sites (46%), using more environmentally friendly transportation options (43%), and traveling to smaller, lesser-known destinations (41%) — and more want to do so in the future. Compared to prior trip behavior, intent to make these same choices on future trips increased nearly 10% on average, demonstrating the growing opportunity in sustainable travel.   

Nine in 10 consumers said they look for sustainable options when traveling, but 70% reported feeling overwhelmed by starting the process of being a more sustainable traveler. Many are turning to trusted travel resources and providers for inspiration and guidance to inform their decisions, including destinations, lodging providers, transportation providers, travel agencies, and booking sites.  

For travel brands, this points out the importance of clarity in sustainability information. When spotlighting eco-friendly options or differentiators, travel brands should make it easy for consumers to understand. This includes clear and concise messaging, leveraging visually appealing formats, and showing the positive impacts of making responsible travel choices.

The price of sustainable travel          

While most consumers said it costs too much to be more sustainable when traveling, there are opportunities to shift that mindset. More than half of travelers said they would be willing to pay more for transportation, activities, or lodging if the option was more sustainable. And they are also willing to make trade-offs to lessen their environmental impact. Nearly 70% of consumers said they would be willing to sacrifice convenience to be a more sustainable traveler.   

Making mindful travel choices goes beyond eco-tourism as well, with nearly three in four consumers stating they would choose a destination, lodging, or transportation option that is committed to supporting the local community and culture, even if it was more expensive.  

Since consumers are willing to pay more for certain sustainable travel options — and make trade-offs — illustrating the value and positive impact of making more conscientious choices can help make the decision easier. While consumers may be overwhelmed by the prospect of making their entire trip more sustainable, it’s important to communicate how one small change can make a difference.  

Hotel advertising that can reach any traveler, anywhere

Travelers looking to book a hotel use multiple channels to find their ideal place to stay, from social media to travel websites, and more. This is why it’s imperative that you know when — and where — to reach the right traveler. Whether you’re trying to reach early-bird or last-minute bookers, our targeting capabilities can help you connect with the right traveler at the right time.  

Opportunities in sustainable travel   

As consumer interest in sustainable travel continues to increase and many travelers intend to make more conscientious choices it’s important to understand the types of information they want access to during the trip planning process and the preferred formats. 

The sustainable travel information consumers want to see most when planning a trip are recommendations for locally owned businesses and restaurants at or near a destination, and transportation options that have a lower environmental impact (45%). Cultural resources are also helpful during the trip planning process – 43% of consumers want information on how to best engage with local cultures and communities at or near a destination. 

The good news for the planet, as well as travel marketers, is that the interest in sustainable travel is high and travelers are looking for a broad range of information on sustainable travel options. Whether you’re a destination, a lodging, transportation or activity provider, restaurant, or local business, consumers are interested in learning more about eco-friendly offerings and recommendations.  

When it comes to viewing sustainable travel information during the trip planning process, listings or information pages on travel sites is the preferred format (54%). Videos, reviews from other travelers, and advertisements are also valued by consumers. 

Authenticity in sustainability commitments is critical  

Consumer attention toward sustainable tourism has also resulted in higher expectations for destinations and travel brands. Seven in 10 consumers have avoided a destination or transportation option because they felt it was not truly committed to sustainable practices. This illustrates that authenticity and transparency around sustainability commitments and outcomes are important.

Consumers want to know that travel brands are genuinely committed to sustainability, not just checking a box. Backing up sustainability practices and claims with proof points and data can help drive traveler consideration and minimize skepticism. For example, in our recent  Discover Iberostar  campaign, we educated travelers on the hospitality group’s commitment to sustainability and the  Wave of Change  initiative showcased inspirational and informative content on more responsible vacation experiences.  

Expedia Group actions to improve sustainability  

Expedia Group will innovate sustainable solutions for the future of travel, while mitigating and adapting to the impacts of climate change. We will empower travelers to act more sustainably through better information and enhanced eco-conscious travel options, and we are mobilizing our partners and peers to innovate a more sustainable travel ecosystem.

Last year Expedia Group joined the  Travalyst Coalition  in support of its mission to empower travelers with better information and encourage travel providers to improve the sustainability of their offerings. We also signed the  Glasgow Declaration for Climate Action in Tourism , which aims to align urgent climate action across tourism stakeholders to cut tourism emissions in half over the next decade and reach Net Zero emissions as soon as possible before 2050. 

Download the full Sustainable Travel study for additional global insights on consumer attitudes, values, and motivations in making conscientious choices.

Expedia Group Media Solutions is a global travel advertising platform that connects marketers with hundreds of millions of travelers across Expedia Group's 200+ websites and apps. Our exclusive first-party data on traveler trends, search behavior, and booking data provides travel advertisers and marketers with unique insights to inform their strategies. We offer a full-funnel suite of solutions to help our partners connect with and convert travelers globally. Our digital experts have more than 20 years of travel and media experience to help our partners create advertising campaigns that deliver meaningful results.

Recommended for you

travel trends

Traveler insights Q1 2024: Top destinations and event trends

Travel advertising solutions for the travelers’ buying journey

How to connect with and convert travelers in 2024

Traveler Insights Q4 2023: Traveler confidence steadies

UN Tourism’s Best Tourism Villages set examples for resource efficiency and sustainable practices

Explore the innovative initiatives made by UN Tourism’s Best Tourism Villages as they embark on a journey towards sustainability. Recognised for their commitment to waste reduction and emission minimisation, these villages showcase how rural communities lead the way in adopting eco-friendly measures to boost efficiency and preserve their environment and cultural heritage. From Rwanda’s Nkotsi to Portugal’s Sortelha, each village unveils unique initiatives designed to mitigate environmental impact while promoting economic growth and community welfare.

Nkotsi, Rwanda

Nkotsi, a quaint village nestled in south-west Musanze, Rwanda, is part of Volcanoes National Park, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, housing 30% of the global mountain gorilla population. To facilitate sustainable community development, Nkotsi engages locals in programs focusing on environmental conservation. To combat plastic pollution, The Igihoho Project was established to reduce plastic bag usage, offering eco-friendly seed bags made from banana barks, crafted by local women. Since its inception, over 15,000 bags have been made and more than 70% have been sold to nursery bed business in the region.

Pozuzo, Peru

Pozuzo, Peru is within the Selva Central tourist route, one of six destinations known for nature and biodiversity. As part of the “Sustainable Pozuzo 2023” program with the local government and universities, Pozuzo works to protect water sources, preserve fauna and flora species and safeguard biological corridors. Through eco-friendly practices such as utilising biodegradable packaging, prioritising local products, and repurposing organic waste, Pozuzo promotes sustainable tourism while harnessing renewable energies for street lighting.

Choachi, Colombia

Choachí, a municipality of Colombia, is located 39km from the country’s capital and has developed tourism by valuing its natural, cultural and gastronomic wealth. In partnership with the private recycling company Bancalimentos, Choachí has launched an initiative encouraging community members to exchange their household waste such as plastics, cardboard and other recyclable items, for food.

Slunj, Croatia

Situated alongside the serene Slurnjčica and Korana rivers, Slunj is prioritising environmental sustainability through practices aimed at minimising tourism’s negative impacts, preserving protected landscapes and investing in infrastructure. Projects including “Drop the plastic, make a difference” highlight the town’s commitment to reducing plastic use and encouraging sustainable practices. Additionally, The Waste Management Plan, smart city initiatives, and Natura 2000 protection further emphasise Slunj’s dedication to minimising its ecological footprint and preserving its natural beauty. ​

Zell am See, Austria

Zell am See, a picturesque lakeside village in Austria has implemented 11 measures to support sustainability in the region through a programme called Klima und Energie Modell Region (KEM). This has resulted in a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, a new sustainable mode of transport, micro mobility and decreases in traffic levels. Also supporting the accommodation providers to become certified with the European Eco-Label, the village is focusing on waste reduction, more solar panels and food production, supporting local businesses and the community.

Sortelha, Portugal

One of Portugal’s best-preserved villages, Sortelha, demonstrates a strong commitment to sustainability through its energy pilot initiative, aiming to optimise energy efficiency to reduce its carbon footprint, positioning the village as a pioneer in eco-friendly solutions. Its €3M investment in a tourist resort also aligns with sustainability principles. From utilising local raw materials to supporting traditional construction methods, Sortelha’s efforts embody a commitment to responsible tourism and a greener, more sustainable future. ​

These women-led enterprises are driving Rural Tourism

Women’s Day Special: Unveiling the Face Behind Best Tourism Villages

UN Tourism shares Top Destinations to visit in 2024 before peak season 

Sundaram: Tourism in 2023, both globally and for the Maldives, looks promising

Since you're here...

...there are many ways you can work with us to advertise your company and connect to your customers. Our team can help you design and create an advertising campaign

We can also organize a real life or digital event for you and find thought leader speakers as well as industry leaders, who could be your potential partners, to join the event. We also run some awards programmes which give you an opportunity to be recognized for your achievements during the year and you can join this as a participant or a sponsor.

Let us help you drive your business forward with a good partnership!

Yes, contact me I want to download the media kit

Comments are closed.

LATEST STORIES

TDM interviews Kritsanee (Kris) Srisatin, Founder and Managing Director, Stream Events Asia

Royal Caribbean’s Spectrum of the Seas offers added ports of call

Emirates partners with Mauritius and Uganda, supporting inbound tourism targets to both nations

The Collinson Group announces new global JV with FitTech leader, WithU Global

Welcome, Login to your account.

Sign in with Google

Powered by wp-glogin.com

Recover your password.

A password will be e-mailed to you.

Welcome back, Log in to your account.

SIGN UP FOR FREE

Be part of our community of seasoned travel and hospitality industry professionals from all over the world.

• LOGIN / SIGN UP
• Middle East
• UK & Europe
• USA & Canada
• Hospitality
• HR & Careers
• Luxury Travel
• MICE (Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions)
• Travel Tech
• Travel Agents
• Airlines / Airports
• Conferences
• Cruising (Ocean)
• Cruising (River)
• Destination Management (DMC)
• Hotels & Resorts
• Hotel Management Company
• Hotel Technology
• HR / Appointments
• Meetings, Incentives, Conferencing, Exhibitions (MICE)
• Travel Agents (all)
• Travel Technology
• Tourism Boards
• TDM Travel Show
• Industry appointments
• Travel Bloggers
• Podcasts – Features
• How to join
• RSVP Portal
• Event Photos/Videos
• Competitions
• Thailand 2024
• Middle East 2024
• Destination NaJomtien BanAmphur BangSaray *NEW*
• จุดหมายปลายทาง นาจอมเทียน หาดบ้านอำเภอ บางเสร่ *NEW*
• South Australia Reward Wonders *NEW*
• Ponant Yacht Cruises and Expeditions
• Encore Tickets (Chinese Guide)
• Affordable Luxury in Thailand by Centara Hotels
• Rising Above the Oridinary by Conrad Bangkok
• The Best of Thailand
• Who is IWTA
• Philippines
• Recommend Someone
• Recommend yourself
• IWTA Awards
• TRAVEL CLUB

To revisit this article, visit My Profile, then View saved stories .

The Best Destinations for Sustainable Travel

By Nicole Kliest

When it comes to sustainability, travel can feel like a double-edged sword. On one hand, exploring the world helps to cultivate empathy towards new cultures and can lead to radical change. On the other, the potential emissions from hopping on a plane and touring around a destination is at odds with a cleaner planet. This is why there’s no silver bullet solution to making travel more sustainable —it’s nuanced.

“When talking about a sustainable destination, different factors come into play,” explains Roi Ariel, the general manager at The Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC), an organization that sets global standards for sustainability in travel and tourism. “The management teams at destinations considered sustainable understand that ‘sustainability’ is a journey that is never complete.” Therefore, a dynamic approach is surely the way forward, with considerations stretching from sustainable management and socioeconomic implications to cultural and environmental impacts.

“I think what makes a hotel obviously sustainable from a guest perspective is conscious communication regarding all their initiatives to make their operations more sustainable,” says Few & Far co-founder Sarah Dusek, adding that “if a hotel isn’t talking about their initiatives, chances are they don’t have any.” There are baseline considerations that should already be put in place, such as minimizing (or eliminating) single-use plastics and the implementation of eco-friendly products such as soaps and cleaning products. “Conscious connection with sourcing of food is something I also expect to see,” Dusek says, noting the more local the better. Energy efficiencies and waste management strategies are also paramount, she notes, and often incorporate alternate, innovative sources such as solar power.

More broadly speaking, we can look to entire regions as sustainable travel destinations that prioritize conscientious tourism simply by checking for accreditations, like the GSTC certification. “Türkiye for example, has taken a big step towards sustainability as a destination,” Ariel says, noting that the country has developed the first mandatory national program for accommodations based on the GSTC criteria. “From 2023 through 2030, all accommodations in Türkiye must be certified through a GSTC-Accredited Certification Body.”

Keeping these complexities in mind, scroll below to explore eight unique sustainable travel destinations destinations this year, from biodiverse Costa Rica to the remote arctic shorelines of Norway.

Bawah Reserve , Indonesia

By Christian Allaire

Six islands, 13 beaches, three lagoons, and 100 hectares of lush forest comprise the remote Anambas Islands situated in the South China Sea. Bawah is the first island in Indonesia to be powered by a renewable microgrid and is also certified as a five-star resort under the Singing Blue WWF program. Guests who journey to the otherworldly reserve can witness the property’s 18 floating solar platforms (enough to service most of the island’s energy needs) and can dine at the restaurants with produce that comes from their own permaculture vegetable and herb gardens. 98 percent of Bawah Reserve’s employees come from Indonesia and each month, their so-called ‘ECOmmittee’ strategizes on initiatives ranging from turtle conservation to beach clean-ups.

Rwanda , Africa

For the ultimate bucket list adventure that slots in well with sustainability-focused travel, gorilla trekking in Rwanda ranks high on the list. The country is already well-regarded for its commitment to conservation and responsible tourism, and Dusek’s Few & Far itinerary supports rural communities in the Masai Mara in Kenya as well as rural female empowerment through female tracking, guiding, and porter teams. While on the trip, guests will also be introduced to the Mara Conservancy Canine Anti-Poaching Unit to learn about how their trip supports the company’s mission.

Peninsula Papagayo , Costa Rica

Costa Rica has long been a leader in sustainable tourism, having set goals to be the first carbon neutral country in the world and producing nearly 93 percent of its electricity from renewable resources. Peninsula Papagayo is located in the northwestern province of Guanacaste and is home to one of the largest dry tropical forests in Central America. The 1,400-acre resort community is hyper-focused on sustainability, with a committee structure made up of six different entities. While initiatives range—from opening a child care clinic to conservation of archaeological sites—their home gardens project ( huertas caseras ) is especially of note; it empowers local families to grow vegetables and legumes on their own land using drip irrigation (a necessity due to the uniquely dry climate), also supplying produce for the restaurants at properties like the Four Seasons Resort Peninsula Papagayo, Costa Rica .

Lyngen Alps , Norway

Finally check the northern lights off your list this year with a visit to the Lyngen Alps, a breathtaking destination beloved for its rugged mountain peaks and pristine wilderness. The region concentrates its sustainability efforts on employment, nature conservation, and local culture, while encouraging visitors to choose accommodation that funnels back into these initiatives. The Aurora Lodge (exclusive to luxury tour operator Black Tomato) is nestled in the heart of the Norwegian wilderness overlooking the Norwegian Sea on over 200,000 square meters of private, protected land. All native trees including birch, pine, and fir have been preserved, providing shelter for local elks and enriching the lodge’s natural surroundings.

Lake Lucerne , Switzerland

For a spa getaway that replenishes both you and the planet, head for Bürgenstock Hotels & Resort in Switzerland. This tranquil property on Lake Lucerne received the Green Globe certification, the ‘Swisstainable’ classification Level 3 from Switzerland Tourism, and was recognized as one of The Leading Hotels of the World’s Sustainability Leaders. Their primary efforts are focused on environmental protection, historic preservation, and social responsibility. (For example: the resort uses a unique energy system that uses deep, cold lake water to cool and heat the entire property.) Guests can partake in immersive experiences celebrating sustainability efforts like regenerative dining tasting menus and harvesting honey from the resident beehives.

Bhutan made headlines when it announced its ‘ High Value, Low Volume’ tourism strategy, which centers on attracting mindful, responsible visitors. (They’ve also introduced a Sustainable Development Fee for those entering.) If a country that’s over 70 percent covered by forest sounds up your alley, head for this Buddhist kingdom in the striking Himalayas on a curated journey with GeoEx . The itinerary includes breakfast with monks, wandering around monasteries, hiking through hidden valleys, and wellness treatments like a Bhutanese herbal body scrub at the Six Senses Lodge .

Tetiaroa , French Polynesia

There’s nowhere in the world quite like French Polynesia , with its turquoise-tinted waters and lush mountainous landscapes rivaled only by rich cultural traditions and local culinary scene. Set your sights on The Brando , a luxury resort anchored by Marlon Brando’s original vision for sustainable tourism to French Polynesia. It was the first resort in the world to obtain LEED Platinum certification and a few on-property initiatives include airstrip solar panels for energy and hot water heating, wastewater irrigation, and a Sea Water Air Conditioning program. While vacationing here, go on a naturalist-led tropical safar i or take a bird tour to spot local breeds like boobies, terns, and egrets.

San Pedro de Atacama , Antofagasta, Chile

Tucked away in the high northern deserts of Chile lies Tierra Atacama , a luxury escape that’s widely considered a South American leader in renewable energy and sustainability. This picturesque region is beloved for its distinct landscapes, from sand dunes and hot springs to canyons and geysers. The property’s initiatives embrace these natural surroundings through solar power, on-site water sourcing, and community engagement. It was one of the first hotels on the continent to produce solar-powered electricity and is capable of supplying 100 percent of its water needs.

More Great Living Stories From Vogue

The Best Places in the World for Solo Travel

Candice Bergen on What It Was Really Like to Attend Truman Capote’s Black and White Ball

Never miss a Vogue moment and get unlimited digital access for just $2 $1 per month.

The Curious Case of Kate Middleton’s “Disappearance”

Sofia Richie Grainge Is Pregnant! And It’s a….

Sustaining or Sustainable? UNESCO and partners host fourth regional seminar in sustainable tourism in South-East Asia

The Thai coastal city of Pattaya, some 152 kilometers southwest of Bangkok, is globally renowned for its vibrant local culture, its thriving tourism scene, and its pampering of global expats and retirees. It was only natural, therefore, for UNESCO to host there its regional seminar, ‘Pattaya & Sustainable Festival and Event Tourism: Exploring Strategies for Growth and Development’, which took place on 10 April 2024, at the Amari Pattaya Hotel.

The in-person seminar, which was live-streamed on UNESCO’s Facebook page, as well as on the Zoom conferencing platform, brought together key stakeholders, industry experts, and thought leaders to delve into the burgeoning nexus of culture, sustainability, and tourism in the region. This was the fourth public seminar in UNESCO’s ongoing project, ‘Achieving Sustainable Tourism with Intangible Cultural Heritage and Creative City Network in Waterway Cities of ASEAN’. The project, which comprises six such events through mid 2024, is supported by Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA) , ASEAN-Türkiye Cooperation, K11 , International Training Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage in the Asia-Pacific Region under the auspices of UNESCO (CRIHAP) , and ONYX Hospitality Group , in collaboration with The City Connext.

The seminar was timely in immediately preceding Thailand’s New Year’s celebration of Songkran, which was inscribed by UNESCO to its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, in 2023. In delivered opening remarks, Soohyun Kim, Regional Director of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok, pointed out the role of the multifaceted annual Songkran festival as a vital economic driver, a unifying force for diverse communities, and a platform for environmental advocacy. As is true throughout Thailand, Songkran and its attendant water-based festivities attracts global travelers and stimulates local businesses, particularly within the creative industries and entrepreneurship sectors.

Kim also underscored the universal heritage importance of Songkran and its capacity to foster inclusivity, diversity, and social cohesion, stating,

Hopefully spurred on even more universally by UNESCO's recent recognition, Songkran could well become a powerful tool for promoting gender equality and youth empowerment and provide a chance for us to nurture local knowledge and practices in marginalized ethnic communities.

The environmental dimension of Songkran was advocated as well, with Kim and seminar participants emphasizing the importance of sustainable practices such as water conservation and waste reduction to address issues of water scarcity and ecological degradation. Songkran stands among a number of water festivals celebrated across the Asia-Pacific region, all of which symbolize the cleansing and rejuvenating properties of water, and the free flow of joy. Starting from Songkran, the experiences of transforming water festivals towards achieving greater sustainability can be beneficial to Thailand's local development and can serve as a model for other countries.

Transitioning to a local perspective, Poramase Ngampiches, Mayor of Pattaya City, outlined Pattaya’s vision to evolve into a cultural zone and a sustainable tourism destination. He emphasized the significance of eco-friendly practices, such as zero waste initiatives and recycling programs, alongside the fostering of public-private partnerships. Ultimately, Pattaya City aims to establish exemplary benchmarks for sustainable and inclusive tourism within ASEAN.

Further insights were provided by Chiruit Isarangkun Na Ayuthaya, President, Thailand Convention and Exhibition Bureau (TCEB), who underscored the crucial integration of sustainability into festival planning and execution. Chiruit stressed the importance of capacity-building to empower practitioners, and the aligning with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), particularly SDG8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDG12 (Responsible Consumption and Production), and SDG13 (Climate Action). Additionally, Chiruit shared inspiring success stories of TCEB, such as TCEB Climate Achievement Impact (2022–2024), and the recent FARM to FUNCTIONS+ sustainable destination master plan (2016–2020).

During the panel session, Suphot Prakitjanuruk, Area General Manager, Eastern Thailand-Amari Pattaya; Alisa Phanthusak Kunpalin, Managing Director, Tiffany’s Show Pattaya; Dr Chumpol Musiganont, Director-General, Designated Areas for Sustainable Tourism Administration (DASTA); and Samran Sonpuing, Senior Vice President & General Administration. Management System Certification Institute (MASCI), shared their respective strategies for integrating sustainability into their organizations’ daily operations.

Suphot Prakitjanuruk emphasized the pivotal role of marketing and staff training in fostering sustainability awareness within organizations. He emphasized that sustainability should be more than a buzzword; rarther, it should be a principle ingrained in every aspect of the operation.

Alisa Kunpalin shared insights from the entertainment industry, highlighting how creativity can be leveraged to promote gender equality and diversity. She cited Tiffany’s Show Pattaya as an example of the importance of using platforms to increase visibility for marginalized groups, as well as to challenge stereotypes and foster inclusivity.

Dr Chumpol Musiganont illuminated the role of tourism organizations in driving community involvement in festival tourism activities, emphasizing the need for extensive consultation with the public and private sectors and the creation of collaborative development plans with the participation of local communities.

Turning the discussion towards standards, Samran Sonpuing highlighted the benefits of ISO standards for businesses, tourists, and local communities. He cited examples such as ISO 14001 for environmental management, and ISO 20121 for event sustainability, as frameworks that benefit businesses and contribute to environmental protection and community well-being.

Wrapping up the discussion, panelists offered vital principles and actions for organizations looking to enhance their sustainability efforts. Among such initiatives are providing career opportunities for minority groups; inspiring others to join the sustainability movement; adhering to standards; and prioritizing economic influence, environmental protection, and societal benefit as guiding principles for sustainable development. From marketing initiatives to community engagement, the need for genuine commitment and continuous monitoring to ensure lasting impact was emphasized by all the panelists.

The UNESCO Pattaya seminar served as a pivotal moment in the ongoing endeavor to blend culture, sustainability, and tourism. By bringing together stakeholders, experts, and regional leaders, the seminar not only celebrated the richness of Songkran but also underscored the economic, social, and environmental significance of festival tourism.

UNESCO is organizing more seminars on sustainable tourism for ASEAN professionals until June 2024. Receive the latest update on planned events and more information by visiting the project portal and the project page .

#SustainableTourism #IntangibleCulturalHeritage #CreativeCities #ASEANWaterwayCities

Reporting for this article was contributed by Yizheng Gu, an intern supporting the work of the Culture Unit of the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok.

More from UNESCO Bangkok

Related items.

• Cultural heritage
• Intangible cultural heritage
• Intangible heritage
• Cultural tourism
• Sustainable Tourism
• Creative cities
• Region: Asia and the Pacific
• UNESCO Office in Bangkok and Regional Bureau for Education
• SDG: SDG 8 - Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
• SDG: SDG 9 - Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation
• SDG: SDG 11 - Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
• See more add

This article is related to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals .

More on this subject

Other recent news