Track chairs: Dr Igor Calzada, Oxford University & Professor Dimitrios Buhalis, Bournemouth University 

Smart tourism emerges as a concept that enables destinations to build their competitiveness based on the interoperability of systems and co-creation of tourism products between all stakeholders. This is based on emergent smart cities and smart living developments and take city principles to urban or rural areas and not only consider residents but also tourists in their efforts to support mobility, resource availability and allocation, sustainability and quality of life/visits. The Smart City idea and application from the Critical Social Innovation perspective means that a new paradigm is required when bottom-up interventions are the key governance challenge in the postgrowth era. A requirement that is already taking place due to the effect of some disruptive private initiatives such as Uber and AirBnB, among others, that are altering the traditional dynamic between the locals/residents and the trans-locals/tourists in a new way of combining the practice of travelling, the changing nature of the mobile way of living and the new  understanding of the place itself.

Smart Cities and Smart Living can bring together the need to use technology innovations to develop regional competitiveness of territories towards Social Innovation & Governance and create value to all stakeholders. Social, technological, economic, democratic and politically innovative processes in cities and regions introduce a wide range of innovative methods and solutions that improve the value cocreation for all stakeholders.

The theme is inclusive to a range of Smart Cities, Smart Living and Smart Tourism approaches including the following topics:

• Smart region technologies and open innovation
• Internet of everything, big data, analytics
• Digital and smart living
• Smart territories – comparative city-coastal/mountain regions
• Smart transformations: innovation, transition, governance, resilience,change
• Smart cities and smart tourism
• Digital social innovation
• Social capital & social entrepreneurship
• Smart region and smart tourism strategy & governance
• Smart tourism, smart travel, smart hospitality
• Smart local governance, citizen participation & communitarian development
• Smart and future everything.

In his keynote presentation, Dr Calzada reflected upon the critical facts around tourism and how smart strategies should be considered from the local development perspective. He referred to a Living Lab project being implemented in the Zumaia (Basque Country, Spain) entitled #ZumaiaLab. He disseminated this intervention while elaborating on some key issues.