¿Destinos turísticos inteligentes o territorios inteligentes?. Estudio de casos en España

Resumen:El artículo discute la interpretación y aplicación de un mismo término (inteligencia) en el desarrollo territorial y turístico. En primer lugar, se presenta una revisión bibliográfica sobre la terminología tratada, relacionada principalmente con la Inteligencia Territorial y los Destinos Turísticos Inteligentes, con objeto de establecer comparaciones entre los mismos. En segundo lugar, se presentan los resultados obtenidos del análisis de la implementación de varios proyectos de destinos turísticos inteligentes. Se concluye cómo la aplicación de “lo inteligente” al desarrollo territorial parece no ir en consonancia con lo entendido en el campo del turismo, identificándose este último con un proceso basado principalmente en acciones de innovación tecnológica.Abstract:Introduction In the Spanish context, two new concepts have emerged. They are producing a change in the formulation of destination management. Those terms are Territorial Intelligence (TI) and Smart Destinations (SD). Despite sharing the term "intelligent1" and focusing on the development of the territory or destination, a simple consultation of the so-called TI and SD projects leads to a possible disconnection between them, and it is not clear if there are any links of union between them. This fact generates a confused conceptual framework that impedes a correct interpretation and application of the terminology of both fields, disorienting the work of study, assimilation of contents and investigation of intelligence applied to tourism. This article emerges with the ultimate aim of providing clarity to this context, while determining what exactly the use of SD in the field refers to. This is where the main interest of the research lies in, the contrast of the two terms and the identification of the links of union between them, as well as the types of orientations and methodologies of work that are being followed to develop what could be called "Touristic Intelligence" or "Intelligence in the tourist field".2 The contents of this article are structured in four sections. The first one is dedicated to make a bibliographic review on the concepts of TI and SD. The second focuses on an analysis of cases of smart destinations in Spain and Portugal. The third explains the main results of the case analysis and the last one focuses on offering the final conclusions and recommendations. In this sense, it is considered interesting to focus on the application of the concept of smart destinations in Spain for several aspects: a) in arrivals as well as income from international tourism, Spain is situated on the top three countries which are the most important touristic destinations in the world (WTO, 2016); b) one of the first countries that in its tourism policy contemplates the project of Smart Destinations; specifically in one of the measures included in the National and Integral Tourism Plan (NITP) 2012-2015, promoted by the Ministry of Tourism of the Spanish Government and managed by the State-Owned Company for the Management of Innovation and Tourism Technology (Segittur, 2015); c) as a result of this, the White Paper on Smart Destinations (Blanco, 2015) has already been created in Spain, e) and even the proposed model of Smart Destination is being exported to other countries such as Mexico (Segittur, 2015). Consequently, considering that the Spanish government has been trying for a number of years to implement the concept of intelligent destination, it will be considered interesting to analyze the extent to which it has been applied, opposing to it is the concept of Territorial Intelligence and Smart Destination, collected in the previous literature consulted about it. What do the real experiences of Smart Destinations in Spain consist in? What are the implementation approaches in the field? Do they coincide with the approach and theoretical framework of Territorial Intelligence? These are the issues to be dealt with through the analysis of some projects of Smart Destinations that have been implemented in the last years. They have been made in order to distinguish the extent to which this approach is applied and the possibilities that exist to take it as reference in the field of tourism destination management. Main objective The main goal of this article is to determine, study and analyze the application of the principles and characteristics of the Territorial Intelligence in the management of Smart Destinations; and to establish if the concept of “intelligent” is being applied to these territories in a correct, complete and adequate way, according to the concept of Territorial Intelligence, as Luque Gil et al (2015) state, "any Smart Destination must be an intelligent territory”. Hypothesis The main hypothesis of the research is that there is a disconnection between TI and SD because, despite sharing a similar denomination, they do not actually use a similar work philosophy; the last term is very focused on the development of new technologies, as López de Ávila and García Sánchez (2013) recognized in 2013. Methodology We have chosen a combined methodology. A case study, in which projects of destinations called “intelligent” have been examined, has been joined to the bibliography review on the subject and to the concepts. This study has been carried out through interviews with technicians and those in charge of the projects. In addition, three of them have been studied more deeply by their actions, orientations and / or developed axes that are related, in more or less extent, to the TI. Those are two Spanish destinations and one Spanish-Portuguese destination, Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), the "Eurociudad" Badajoz-Elvas3 (Spain-Portugal) and Benidorm (Community of Valencia, Spain). Likewise, a study has been made from the certification and standardization processes of two reference institutions in national tourism intelligence (Aenor4 and Segittur5), they have been supplemented by interviews with technicians and project managers of Smart Destinations. In short, a methodological process divided into four phases has been carried out. The different stages are the following: 1st) Bibliographical selection and consultation, 2nd) Extraction of information from the analyzed destinations, 3rd) Evaluation of the certification processes, standardization and / or recommendation of the reference institutions and 4th) Interviews with the technicians and responsible of the three selected destinations. The development of each of these phases has allowed the obtaining of the results and the concretion of the conclusions. Main results The analysis of cases has allowed to extract the following results: There is an imbalance in the degree of development of the intelligent axes. Innovation and information are the most developed and the ones which may be considered when we talk about Smart Destination. The orientation to which they apply is eminently technological; therefore, the concept would be closer to technological tourism intelligence6 than to tourism intelligence in general. On the information axis, the level of development is more than acceptable although it would be necessary to improve its accessibility. Regarding the axis of sustainability, with the exception of Badajoz, it has a high degree of development, concentrating mainly on the environmental dimension. On the other hand, governance is the most forgotten axis, leading a development (albeit low) in a single destination, Benidorm (Community of Valencia, Spain). Regarding the precursors and initiators of the conversion processes, the study leads to the fact that the initiatives clearly start from the Public Administrations, which in most cases promote the different projects proposed. Certain destinations, such as Palma de Mallorca (Balearic Islands, Spain), use the intelligence not as an alternative to the conventional tourism development model, but as a tool to improve their problems resulting from their maturity as a destination and even for the conversion of the same. Similarly, it seems that the term SD tends to be seen from the promotional point of view, taking the risk of being identified rather than with a new destination management model, with a brand. In summary, a certain disorder in the conversion processes has been perceived. There is also a lack of common methodology that, on the other hand, should not prevent the processes from adapting to the particularities of each destination. Conclusions The research shows that the intelligent concept applied to the tourism sector has to do, mainly, with the application and use of new technologies in destinations. In a lesser extent, conversion projects tend to contemplate actions related to sustainability and information, with a clear absence of governance and the participation of the agents that form the destination in the development / conversion of their own territory, giving an incomplete application of intelligent principles (innovation, information, sustainability and governance). In short, a disconnection between the terms TI and SD whose motivations may be due, on the one hand, to the ignorance of the term SD (in its relationship with TI) and, on the other hand, to the complexity of the application of the requirements of the TI to the tourist territories.