Measuring the development of smart tourism at the destination level: a multidimensional composite smart tourism index

This thesis examines smart tourism and develops a new way to measure the extent to which destinations use technology, data and collaboration to improve visitor experiences and destination management. It shows that smart tourism involves far more than technology alone: governance, data, skills, sustainability and innovation each play a part, and destinations combine them in different ways. The study creates and tests the Composite Smart Tourism Index using responses from tourism professionals in 53 countries. The index helps destinations identify strengths, gaps and priorities, supporting better planning and more informed decisions for sustainable and competitive tourism.