How smart are tourist attractions? the case of the city of Lisbon

In the era of technological "acceleration", marked by an increasingly global and heterogeneous tourist demand, namely its relationship with technology and the adoption of smartphone technology, there is a growing implementation of new functionalities and intelligent functionalities during the consumption of a tourist experience (Huang, Goo, Nam & Yoo, 2017; Xiang, 2018). In fact, we are facing a scenario of changes in which the "new tourist", experienced and autonomous, seeks new genuine and authentic concepts of product, customizable, online, timely and with new levels of interaction and information (Kandampully, Bilgihan, Zhang, 2016). On the other hand, the supply side, looking not only develop technology-based solutions that provide this value, in particular by sharing strategies and co-creation, but also understand, analyze and anticipate the consumer and their needs (big data and analytics) (Buhalis, & Lunge, 2018). In this new context of intelligent tourism ecosystem, this study focus on tourist attractions. Compared to conventional ones, smart attractions include co-ordination processes, well-connected services with in-depth information content, diversified and customized products, best value for money, social and technological engagement, efficient communication and management, as well as various smart tourism services (Boztas, & Hadwick, 2019). The main goal of this research is to realize the extent to which tourist attractions have adopted intelligent technologies and how they are perceived on the supply side, by the respective managers and the demand side, by tourists. Methodologically, the study is restricted to the city of Lisbon based on a set of tourist attractions of various categories which will be subsequently evaluated on key factors duly identified in the literature. At the end, it is expected to evaluate the "smart" performance of the tourist attractions of the city of Lisbon from the point of view of managers and tourists and to diagnose the respective strengths / weaknesses.Investigação financiada pelo IPL - Politécnico de Lisboa como um Projeto de Investigação, Desenvolvimento, Inovação e Criação Artística (IDI&CA) – IPL/2019/SMARTURIS_ESCSN/