Research conducted in the domain of smart city development reveals that the implementation of smart city initiatives has the propensity to draw individuals residing in the surrounding rural areas, as well as a growing influx of tourists. While numerous smart tourisms' approach primarily emphasise the advancement of technology, individuals, and institutional logic, the entrepreneurial ecosystem approach plays a crucial role in enhancing smart destinations. The objective of the current study is to examine novel initiatives pertaining to the advancement of startups in Eastern India. The study employed an exploratory and descriptive research design. Additionally, specific initiatives in the realm of tourist innovation, particularly those associated with startups, were also discovered. The findings of the study indicate that there exist guidelines associated with startups in the study area. The promotion of tourism can be facilitated through the implementation of several initiatives, which have been identified as contributing factors, including the provision of valuable experiences.
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Tourism is a rapidly rising industry and a sector that reflects the rise in personal income, leisure, and mobility. It is now considered one of the most significant components of human spatial behaviour. Travel and tourism contribute to employment creation for individuals with varying levels of qualifications, as supported by research conducted by Korinnyi and Tsyhanok (2020) and Pohuda and Rozmetova (2018). Unlike numerous other sectors, this particular industry has the capacity to expand without substantial investments, resulting in multiple advantages in terms of both generating cash and creating employment opportunities. Thus, tourism serves as a crucial sector in both the public and private domains for numerous countries (Abbate et al., 2019).
Tourism is a diverse field of inventive activity that encompasses various sectors of the economy, such as housing, transportation, communication, leisure, and food. Tourism not only generates novel offerings, but also leverages advancements adopted in other domains, such as cutting-edge practises in management, task execution, and the utilisation of recent scientific breakthroughs and technologies. These are employed by the tourism industry to enhance the quality of products and services sought by the market. The integration of cutting-edge information technology has the potential to significantly enhance the development of tourism products and services, as well as improve the efficiency of hotel management and ticket reservation processes (Abbate et al., 2019).
Different literatures demonstrate that the tourism business, including cultural tourism and art, is always evolving in response to advancements in technology and innovative solutions (Gusakov et al., 2016; Bertasini, 2020; Khan & Maria, 2022). This development is driven by the growing demands and behaviours of end customers, as well as the desire and requirement of firms to acquire competitive advantages or preserve their positions in relation to their competitors. Startups thrive in this niche as fertile ground, serving as idea incubators for larger and established organisations or potential future ventures. The tourism industry has witnessed a paradigm shift on both the supply and demand sides and this industry is undergoing significant structural changes, with technology playing a crucial role (Pavlatos, 2021). Tourist destinations are embracing innovative planning and management approaches to effectively address these changes, with the aim of enhancing innovation, competitiveness, and sustainability. Initiatives associated with the smart city concept are prominent in the political and academic domains. The integration of the smart city perspective is facilitated by the tourism activity, leading to the emergence of the concept of Smart Tourism Destination. The incorporation of this concept into tourism is deemed suitable, as it combines strategic planning, technology advancement, sustainability policies, and innovation. Additionally, there is an increasing body of research that establishes a connection between the smart city concept and tourism (Soares & Conceição, 2016; Gusakov et al., 2020).