Touristic Experience in a Historic Destination at Northeast of Brazil under Smart Destination Conception

Abstract

This study is based on guidelines of a research project about the smart destination from several universities in Spain. The objective is to analyze tourists’perceptions regarding their experiences in São Luís, Maranhão, Brazil. Methodologically, this is an exploratory, descriptive, bibliographic and documentary study. The Spanish questionnaire of the project was used as a base, applying the same between January and April of 2017. The results indicate that the tourists interviewed perceive the city of São Luís as significant heritage value, besides in some identified dimensions, point out aspects that needed greater investment, mainly in technological scope so that the visitors' experience will be even better. It was observed that São Luís as capital and destination in the State of Maranhão has structure regarding smart destination pillars, but it is fundamental public and private guidelines so that the city will be inagreement with the Spanish project premises to a smart destination.