Big Data and Artificial Intelligence: Creative Tools for Destination Competitiveness

Introduction

Every economy in the world is geared up towards implementing major structural and technological changes and advancements in the present world. Adapting to such disruptive changes has called for societies to take up new challenges and constantly evolve and progress with a steady pace. Townsend (2013) suggests that the ideal method to be adopted by societies is to transform themselves with the use of cutting-edge technologies and applications. Technological advancements are prevalent in every sector, but with respect to travel and tourism, the impact of technology is huge. Literature propagates the importance of the development of smart communities to support and initiate urbanization, expansion and growth of the various industries functioning within the complex macro environment. The term ‘smart destination’ was coined in the early 1990s as a complex integration of technological infrastructure into the social and economic structure of an economy (Johnson, 2022). Later the acceptance of technology has contributed to the improvement and standardization of the various interconnected systems, subsystems and processes (Buhalis, 2015).

The need to evolve and imbibe technology into the operational structure and governance has been realized by the public and private bodies and this has led to the evolution of a smart and digital era that we are living in today. Adapting to the rapid changes in technology and advancing along at the same pace has created a wide range of opportunities for businesses and industries worldwide to explore, exploit and emerge as successful market leaders (Bolívar and Meijer, 2015). The role of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in enhancing customer experience and creating value for the products and services has been well researched in the past decades (Wang et al., 2013; Buhalis & Amaranggana, 2014; Gretzel et al., 2015).

Through smart economies, communities are well equipped with the infrastructure needed to create a connection between society and technology which leads to the creation of a digital ecosystem. Such a digital ecosystem helps to address the social, economic and environmental challenges caused by urbanism. McNaughton et al. (2016) highlighted the importance of integrating open data to boost the sustainability of the tourism sector in developed and developing countries. Since the tourism sector involves free flow of data and information about tourism products, services and destinations, it is essential to channelise this flow of data in the right means so that sustainable development and value creation can be achieved (Buhalis and Jun., 2011).