Smart tourist destinations, a new conceptual contribution for local development in Ecuador. Case “Portoviejo UNESCO Creative City”

Abstract

The tourism activity is becoming more competitive every day, the exponential growth of technology makes possible the improvement of communications between businesses and end customers, the emergence of new applications makes it easier for tourists to acquire services in an easier way. For this and many other reasons, the public administration in tourism developed countries such as Spain is committed to the certification of Smart Tourism Destinations (STD) with criteria related to accessibility, sustainability, governance, technology and innovation.  This literature review uses basic tools of content analysis to classify information from documents, manuals and specialized articles in various databases, which seek to lay the foundations that serve as a reference for new tourism studies focused on this area, new for Ecuador, but not so much around the world. Portoviejo is a city recently declared Creative City by UNESCO, the same seeks to promote a new model of tourism management, which makes use of its cultural heritage, led by the gastronomic diversity, and in turn be able to enhance this development with the evolution towards an intelligent destination.