Purpose The purpose of this study is to present the state-of-the-art scientific research in the intersection between smart tourism and social networks to better understand the role of the latter (such as Facebook and Twitter) in the development of the smart paradigm in tourism, e.g. how the relationship between smart tourism and social networks has been observed by authors, or the techniques and analytical tools that are most broadly used to take advantage of available data in social networks to feed a smart logic in the management of tourism companies and destinations. Design/methodology/approach A systematic search in scientific databases (such as Web of Science and Scopus) was performed, with December 2018 as a closing date. Once duplications were eliminated and the adequacy the outputs obtained verified properly, a total of 61 documents were considered for this study, most of which were journal articles. Findings The characterization of research in this area with both a bibliometric and bibliographic analysis. Practical implications The presentation of a detailed picture on the content of the research carried out in the abovementioned intersections: evolution over time; most prolific authors, institutions and countries; journals, conferences and publishers that have paid more attention to this topic; type of research performed, objects of study, methodologies used and main contributions. Originality/value The proposal of a research agenda in the field under study. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is no a similar work carried out in this field.
In this study, the presence and management of the social networks of 78 tourist destinations were analyzed for the development of sustainable tourism, with particular attention being paid to Spanish smart destinations. The variables for the empirical analysis were determined from a literature review, and it was concluded from a descriptive analysis, correlation analysis and an analysis of variance, that although the presence of tourist destinations on the internet and on social networks was notable, their management was inadequate for the development of sustainable tourist destinations. It was shown that there is a direct relationship between the number of visitors at a tourist destination and its presence on social networks. However, our analyses found that this correlation was not related to social network management; a greater number of visitors were not related to the effective management of social networks. It was concluded that smart destinations, despite having a technological advantage, did not stand out for their presence and management on social networks. The manuscript ends with some recommendations for the future
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