is no longer just a simple user of services, but an individual capable of interacting at any time and in any place with both the demand and the supply of tourism, as a result of new Web technologies, social networks, blogs, chats, Apps, through which he stages or practices his desire for knowledge or leisure and entertainment by influencing the reputation of industries and actively participating in service design, i.e., the creation of new ideas or products. The smart tourist is, therefore, also cybertrip constantly looking for information over the airwaves that is useful for guiding his upcoming trips, sharing information, and buying travel-related services through those new pseudo-instruments that are now part of his life in the same way that yesterday’s ones such as a shirt, pants, or pair of shoes continue to be part of his life. The concept of smart tourism also refers to an additional dimension, namely that related to the use of digital and innovative technologies even designed to improve the tourism experience, optimize resources and reduce environmental impact. Artificial intelligence, virtual reality, augmented reality, big data and IoT technologies are just a few of the examples on which some of the most important smart tourism experiments known to date stand, such as those that we would like to mention below, but not before mentioning, again within the theme we are concerned with, the European Capital of Smart Tourism European Capital of Smart Tourism, which, as is well known, is a European Union initiative, currently funded by the COSME program, that recognizes and rewards the achievements of European cities as tourist destinations in four categories: (a) sustainability; (b) accessibility; (c) digitalization; and (d) cultural heritage and creativity. This very initiative awarded the city of Turin this year as a best practice of smart tourism based on the ratings indices taken into consideration by the initiative. Among the main ideas and case histories in smart tourism and smart tourism destination that we find useful to highlight should certainly be recalled: 1. IT.A.CÀ83, a festival was born in 2009 in Bologna by Association YODA, COSÀPE onlus and Nexus Emilia-Romagna. The goal of the project is to create innovative and winning relationships between locals and tourists by encouraging understanding of the principles of responsible tourism among travelers, companies, institutions and tour operators. 83 Cf., www.festivalitaca.net 188 FRANCESCO GASPARI | LUIGI CAMERIERO
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