Smart services and equity of smart tourism destinations: analysis from the perspective of the residents

Tourist destinations are increasingly considered as brands that need to be managed to increase not only the arrivals of tourists, but also the quality-of-life of residents. Thus, brand equity plays an important role in the achievement of those objectives. Simultaneously, the integration of ICT has leaded to the concept of "smart tourist destinations". With this in mind, the main goal of our paper is to develop a model of smart destination equity from the point of view of residents (i.e. a key stakeholder of tourist destinations since they project the image of their places and influence the tourist experience). In particular, our model includes smart services linked to safety, health, heritage, mobility, and environment. Our results confirm that smart destination equity is formed by awareness, image, perceived quality, and loyalty. In addition, smart services related to safety, the environment and mobility are the main factors influencing smart destination equity.