Smart Cities and Tourism: The Case of Tel Aviv-Yafo

Abstract

This study explores tourists’ preferences and how Smart Cities (SC) can provide for them, using Tel Aviv-Yafo (TLV) as a case study. The theoretical model that we suggest measures gaps between the tourists’ perceived importance of the city’s characteristics, such as transportation, personal safety, recreation, etc., and their satisfaction with them. Then we evaluate the extent to which an SC can narrow those gaps and thereby enhance tourists’ satisfaction. The evaluation was performed by aligning each characteristic with a relevant indicator of the SC standard ISO 37122. Our model identified that SC measures can contribute the most to TLV tourists’ experience in the following aspects: information, transportation, personal safety, and disabled accessibility. Therefore, those aspects should be prioritized to improve tourists’ satisfaction and a promote longer stay in the city. We also recommend that cities will continuously challenge themselves with the most advanced technologies that will enable every single tourist to fully experience the city for all purposes of visits and for the different time frames of stay.