Abstract

Indicators are a fundamental tool for destinations in their progress towards a more sustainable tourism development. However, the lack of real progress and the accelerated technological change are obliging policy makers to rethink the existing indicator systems. This paper examines the relationship between smart cities and destinations and sustainable tourism indicators by analyzing proposals at different scales. It provides a critical review of international smart city standards and the role that sustainability indicators play within them. Then, it conducts a content analysis of planning instruments applied in smart strategies in Spain, focusing on how sustainability indicators are considered under the smart paradigm. At the regional-local scale, this research compares two sets of indicators and tests the scientific validity of one of them for addressing the imbalance suffered by many indicators between their usefulness for policy makers and their academic rigor. The results show that little progress has been achieved despite the appropriation of the sustainability discourse by smart city and smart destination promoters. These findings reveal the (limited) real contribution made by smart cities/destinations to sustainable tourism development and contribute to identifying weaknesses and opportunities so as to redirect smart policies and projects. A final discussion contextualizes the findings within the novel framework of smart sustainability and highlights the need to reinforce public governance of urban and tourist spaces.

摘要

指标是目的地实现更可持续旅游业发展的基本工具。然而，缺乏真正的进展和加速的技术变革迫使政策制定者重新考虑现有的指标体系。本文通过分析不同规模的提案，探讨了智慧城市和目的地与可持续旅游指标之间的关系。它对国际智慧城市标准以及可持续性指标在其中发挥的作用进行了严格审查。然后，它对西班牙智能战略中应用的规划工具进行了内容分析，重点关注如何在智能范式下考虑可持续性指标。在区域-地方尺度上，这项研究比较了两组指标，并测试了其中一组指标的科学有效性，以解决许多指标在对政策制定者的有用性与其学术严谨性之间存在的不平衡问题。结果表明，尽管智慧城市和智慧目的地推动者采用了可持续发展话语，但取得的进展甚微。这些发现揭示了智慧城市/目的地对可持续旅游业发展做出的（有限的）真正贡献，并有助于识别弱点和机遇，从而调整智慧政策和项目的方向。最后的讨论将研究结果置于新颖的框架内 结果表明，尽管智慧城市和智慧目的地推动者采用了可持续发展话语，但取得的进展甚微。这些发现揭示了智慧城市/目的地对可持续旅游业发展做出的（有限的）真正贡献，并有助于识别弱点和机遇，从而调整智慧政策和项目的方向。最后的讨论将研究结果置于新颖的框架内 结果表明，尽管智慧城市和智慧目的地推动者采用了可持续发展话语，但取得的进展甚微。这些发现揭示了智慧城市/目的地对可持续旅游业发展做出的（有限的）真正贡献，并有助于识别弱点和机遇，从而调整智慧政策和项目的方向。最后的讨论将研究结果置于新颖的框架内智能可持续发展，并强调需要加强城市和旅游空间的公共治理。