A STUDY ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SMART TOURISM, DESTINATION COMPETITIVENESS, DESTINATION IMAGE AND BEHAVIORAL INTENTION

Abstract

The government is now actively promoting various applications that are conducive to smart urban and rural living, hoping to improve the tourist experience and enhance the competitiveness of the industry through smart tourism. This study investigates the interaction between smart tourism, destination competitiveness, destination imagery, and behavioral intentions. Firstly, this study uses the Fuzzy Delphi Method (FDM) to construct indicators that combine smart tourism and destination competitiveness and further compares urban and rural areas based on the Recreation Opportunity Sequence (ROS). The results show that in the smart tourism category, urban visitors are most likely to agree with "smart accessibility,” while rural visitors are most likely to agree with "smart package service.” In terms of destination competitiveness, visitors from both urban and rural areas were most supportive of the 'support factor.’ Furthermore, the Least Square Structural Equation (PLS-SEM) shows that only smart tourism has no influence or other relationship with destination imagery, whether a city or a rural area, while all others have an influence. Therefore, it can be seen that destination competitiveness is an essential component that mainly affects destination imagery and can further influence the behavioral intentions of tourists. However, smart tourism can be considered a component of destination competitiveness and can therefore be included as an element of destination competitiveness affecting destination imagery. The above findings can serve as a reference for the development of smart tourism in both urban and rural areas and the allocation and investment of resources to enhance the competitiveness of destinations.

Index Terms—smart tourism, destination competitiveness, fuzzy Delphi method, leisure opportunity sequences, least square structural equation