RoadMapping: A Case of Business Opportunities Identification in Smart Tourism Through University-Industry Collaboration

Abstract

Digital transformation presents significant challenges for organizations related to identifying opportunities and developing new business models. This article presents the results of a collaborative exercise involving tourism industry entrepreneurs, academic researchers, and students to identify business opportunities leveraging the potential of Tourism 4.0 or smart tourism. Using the RoadMapping methodology and the Hack4CBL framework, participants co-created four strategic roadmaps aligned with emerging technologies such as augmented reality, generative AI, and data analytics, addressing the specific needs of both domestic and international tourism markets. This article contributes by integrating business opportunity identification, digital innovation, and smart tourism literature through a challenge-based learning approach. It also offers a replicable methodology that fosters university-industry collaboration and supports policy and business model development in the tourism sector. Finally, we briefly discuss our outcomes, pinpoint the limitations of our exercise and propose some issues for future study.