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Smart tourism is a new buzzword applied to describe the increasing reliance of tourism destinations, their industries and their tourists on emerging forms of ICT that allow for massive amounts of data to be transformed into value propositions. However, it remains ill-defined as a concept, which hinders its theoretical development. The paper defines smart tourism, sheds light on current smart tourism trends, and then lays out its technological and business foundations. This is followed by a brief discussion on the prospects and drawbacks of smart tourism. The paper further draws attention to the great need for research to inform smart tourism development and management.

Consumer-generated content (CGC) is growing in importance. Especially online travel reviews written by consumers are ever more available and used to inform travel-related decisions. A Web-based survey of users of the most prominent travel review site, TripAdvisor, was conducted to investigate how other travellers' reviews inform the trip planning process. Since current CGC statistics show generational and gender differences, the study also aimed at examining whether those carry over into the realm of travel review use. The results show that reviews are used mostly to inform accommodation decisions and are currently not used much for en route travel planning. Gender differences were found for perceived impacts of reviews, with females reaping greater benefits from using reviews, especially in terms of enjoyment and idea generation. Age differences occurred across a variety of perceptions and use behaviours. Implications for travel marketing and travel information systems design are provided.

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This viewpoint article argues that the impacts of the novel coronavirus COVID-19 call for transformative e-Tourism research. We are at a crossroads where one road takes us to e-Tourism as it was before the crisis, whereas the other holds the potential to transform e-Tourism. To realize this potential, e-Tourism research needs to challenge existing paradigms and critically evaluate its ontological and epistemological foundations. In light of the paramount importance to rethink contemporary science, growth, and technology paradigms, we present six pillars to guide scholars in their efforts to transform e-Tourism through their research, including historicity, reflexivity, equity, transparency, plurality, and creativity. We conclude the paper with a call to the e-Tourism research community to embrace transformative research.

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Destination marketing organizations invest considerable amounts of money in the development of Web sites as part of their overall promotion efforts. With increasing pressure on their budgets, it becomes ever more important for these organizations to assess the effectiveness of their Web sites, evaluate the return on their investments, and derive feedback on necessary improvements. Web site evaluation measures have been proposed in many ways and various contexts over the past decade. The study presented in this article used a qualitative meta-analysis methodology to synthesize the diverse findings. A unified framework of commonly used Web site success factors emerged from the analysis and included a total of nine factors: (1) information quality; (2) ease of use; (3) responsiveness; (4) security/privacy; (5) visual appearance; (6) trust; (7) interactivity; (8) personalization; and (9) fulfillment. Additional factors to further inform Web evaluation efforts were identified based on Werthner and Klein's dimensions of Web communication. The article concludes with a discussion of implications for future research.