Smart tourism destination advances through qualitative research and further research avenues: a systematic literature review

Smart tourism destinations have emerged in the last decade as a recent evolution of destination. These denote innovative tourist spaces based on hyper-connected technological infrastructures that promote sustainable development, efficient resource management, improved tourist experiences and meaningful interactions with residents, contributing to enhancing destinations’ competitiveness in the tourist sector. However, its widespread understanding and operationalization benefiting from qualitative research practices remains poorly explored. This article provides a comprehensive systematic literature review combined with thematic analysis to examine 43 studies on smart tourism destination advancements through qualitative approaches in detail and identify critical research trends that require urgent attention. The results provide multiple theoretical and practical implications related to employing qualitative methods to advance this emerging field; the most representative geographic scope covered and others demanding attention; the fundamental themes addressed for the economic, sociocultural, environmental, managerial, political, and tourism informatics dimensions of smart tourism destinations; and several future research avenues to extend and shape the future of this area of knowledge.