Smart Tourism Design: Launching the annals of tourism research curated collection on designing tourism places

Design is now considered a crucial activity in contributing to the success of tourism enterprises as well as destinations. This article builds upon the ideas first introduced in the two edited books, namely Design Science in Tourism and Analytics in Smart Tourism Design, which brought the conceptual and methodological foundations for designing tourism places to the forefront of tourism literature. Specifically, this article first introduces the intellectual background that dates back to Clare Gunn's seminal work on Vacationscape, which has evolved into a systematic approach that incorporates tools developed in psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, management and more recently data sciences. It then describes the tourism design system as a general framework, followed by a discussion on the nature and role of smart tourism in enhancing this framework. The article then introduces the Curated Series on Tourism Design by identifying a group of articles published in the Journal which address many essential issues shaping the future of the tourism industry. (C) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Design is crucial for the success of tourism enterprises and destinations, incorporating tools from psychology, behavioral economics, marketing, management, and data sciences. The tourism design system as a framework is discussed, along with the role of smart tourism in enhancing this framework. The article also introduces the Curated Series on Tourism Design which addresses essential issues shaping the future of the tourism industry.