OBLIQUITY IN TOURISM ECONOMICS: SMART AND SUSTAINABLE TOURIST DESTINATIONS

Abstract

Obliquity describes the process of achieving complex objectives indirectly. The recent emergence of the concept and paradigm of intelligent or smart tourist destinations has given rise to a proliferation, often driven by publicly and privately financed technologically-based companies, of initiatives to convert many tourism destinations into smart tourism destinations (STDs). In theory, the concept of the smart tourist destination includes different levels of action in the environmental, social and technological fields, directed at enhancing the satisfaction and experience of tourists. However, in many practical applications of the concept only the latter level is addressed and the other dimensions are neglected. This article argues that the STDs represent the first real opportunity to make the concept of sustainable tourism operational. This argument is based on the fact that for the first time, the intensive use of technology involved in implementing an STD will enable the continuous measurement of aspects related to sustainability which, until now, in the absence of this technology, were difficult or impossible to measure, and therefore, manage.