Porto as a Smart Destination. A Qualitative Approach

Abstract

Tourism is a major export industry for many countries and cities (Romao et al. 2015), a context in which the city of Porto is increasingly included as an anchor destination in the Northern Region of Portugal. Also, the city of Porto has been reinforcing its position as a smart tourist destination by betting on the digital channels of dissemination of its heritage, resources and tourism products, on the one hand, as well as in communication channels with its real and potential demand, in different stages of the tourism experience, before, during and after. The intervention of the most important Destination Management Organizations in the region is crucial. The Regional Tourism Entity of Porto and North, regarding the distribution of the interactive tourist shops of Tourism, namely at the Airport, and also Porto Council’s Tourism Department, concerning the support to the activity of companies in technological area and diversification of interaction in its primary communication channel, “visitporto.travel”. This study intends to present a qualitative approach to the consideration of Porto as a Smart Destination, through the content analysis of conducted interviews with researchers related to the sector, information technology entrepreneurs and responsible for the main regional and municipal DMO’s.