Transformative smart rural tourism in adversity of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond

Cvar, Nina (author), Stojanova, Simona (author), Trilar, Jure (author), Kos, Andrej (author), Stojmenova Duh, Emilija (author)

The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the need for sustainable, smart tourism and local travel, with rural destinations gaining in their popularity and leading to increased potential of smart rural tourism. However, these processes need adjustments to the current trends, incorporating new transformative business concepts and marketing approaches. In this paper we provide real life examples of new marketing approaches, together with new business models within the context of the use of new digital technologies. Via hermeneutic research approach, consisting of the secondary analysis of the addressed subject of smart rural tourism in adversity of the COVID-19 and 6 semi-structured interviews, the importance of technology is underscored in transforming rural tourism to smart rural tourist destinations. The respondents in the interview section were chosen based on their direct involvement in the presented examples and geographical location, i.e. France, Slovenia and Spain, where presented research examples were developed, concretely within European programmes, i.e. Interreg, Horizon and Rural Development Programme (RDP). Interviews were taking place between 2022 and 2023 in person, email or via Zoom. This two-phased study demonstrates that technology is important in transforming rural tourism to smart tourist destinations and that it ushers new approaches that seem particularly useful in applying to rural areas, creating a rural digital innovation ecosystem, which acts as s heuristic rural tourist model that fosters new types of tourism, i.e.smart rural tourism.

• Language: English
• Keywords: podeželski turizem, podeželski digitalni inovacijski ekosistem, pametne in trajnostne turistične destinacije, trajnostni razvoj, digitalne tehnologije, spodbujanje trženja, hevristični model podeželskega turizma
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FE - Faculty of Electrical Engineering
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: 30 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 8, iss. 6, article ID 4065
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-158642
• UDC: 004:338.48(1-22)
• ISSN on article: 2572-7923
• DOI: 10.24294/jipd.v8i6.4065
• COBISS.SI-ID: 199101955
• Publication date in RUL: 18.06.2024

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of infrastructure, policy and development
• Shortened title: J. infrastruct. policy dev.
• Publisher: EnPress Publisher
• ISSN: 2572-7923
• COBISS.SI-ID: 174862339

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: rural tourism, rural digital innovation ecosystem, smart and sustainable tourist destinations, sustainable development, digital technologies, marketing promotion, heuristic rural tourism model

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P2-0425
• Name: Decentralizirane rešitve za digitalizacijo industrije ter pametnih mest in skupnosti