Understanding the governance of smart destinations: The case of Florianopolis in Brazil

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze the process of tourism governance based on innovation in the use of ICT as a factor in the development of a smart tourism destination, and its relationship with public-private networks. The empirical analysis refers to the case study of the city of Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Therefore, the following methods were used: literature review, documentary analysis, in-depth and semi-structured interviews with tourism agents of the destination, and content analysis. The Atlas TI 8 software was used for data processing, which enabled a more detailed analysis in the understanding of the object of study of the research, through networks and conceptual maps in the cross-referencing of information. The results show that public-private relationships based on trust, joint decision-making, informal structures, strategic consensus, and the use of ICTs, seem to have a positive impact on the level of development and innovation in the smart tourism destination.