Destination management and smart destinations.

Abstract

This chapter first revisits digital tourism ecosystems in the destination context, moving on to explain the development of destination management systems (DMSs), their functionality, information content and organizational structure. The chapter then discusses how destinations utilize websites and social media and position themselves in the online search market. Particularly, it introduces and explains the notion of smart destinations and how the ways we view and use information technology (IT) for destination management have shifted. It then goes on to explain how market intelligence, statistics and visitor tracking can be facilitated with IT systems. The chapter ends with key management issues such as crisis and risk management and stakeholder management, and the concept of learning destinations.