This study aims to identify the impact of smart tourism technologies (STTs) on tourist satisfaction, residents’ quality of life (QOL) and destination image and examine whether STTs can contribute to developing a tourist destination that is good to live in and good to visit. In other words, it analyses the relationship between STTs and tourist satisfaction, QOL or destination image and whether it connects to enhancing place attachment to Kyoto, Japan. Kyoto is one of the famous tourist destinations in Japan, and it has been struggling to solve issues such as over-tourism and tourism gentrification. The City of Kyoto recently has taken several measures to handle these issues and achieve a tourist destination that offers good experiences for tourists and residents. Therefore, this study chose Kyoto as a research destination, and an online questionnaire was conducted to target people who have been to Kyoto or have lived in Kyoto before.
This study considers STTs into five components: informativeness, accessibility, interactivity, personalisation and security. Place attachment is analysed by dividing it into four components: place dependence, place identity, place affect and place social bonding. As a result, this study found that STTs are positively associated with tourist satisfaction and QOL. In terms of the relationship with place attachment, this study found that tourist satisfaction and destination image significantly impact place attachment. The relationship between STTs and destination image, and place attachment and QOL are not supported, while it presents some positive relationship between them as the value was moderate.
Based on findings, this study identifies that STTs can contribute to enhancing tourist satisfaction and QOL, and STTs meditate to improving place attachment even though each figure is slightly different. These results add value to this study in terms of several aspects, including how STTs can contribute to enhancing QOL and support several researchers’ arguments. Namely, this study clarifies that STTs play a significant role in establishing a tourist destination that balances tourists’ and residents’ experiences.
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