The spread of global COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten the world economy and take a heavy toll on various industries. As the tourism industry, which is particularly hit by the disease, is seeking its own ways to overcome the crisis by providing non-face-to-face or intact services, etc., ICT-based smart tourism has begun to receive attention as a promising solution to break through the current situation.
As more people are increasingly prefering non-face-to-face services assuring privacy, the provision of tourism services tailored to the needs of tourists based on data analysis has become all the more important. The smart tourism is expected to be an integral part of future tourism business as an approach for responding to changes in tourism trends.
Many islands are actively moving to embrace the smart tourism by integrating the conventional hospitality business and tourism industry with the help of latest ICT in order to keep up with such new changes in tourism.
Against this backdrop, this session is designed to discuss with ITOP member regions that share geological and industrial characteristics with Jeju on the topic of “Response to COVID-19 and Smart Tourism of Island Tourism Regions”.
Specifically, ITOP member regions will share information on changes in island tourism after the spread of COVID-19 and case studies on how they are responding to such new consumer trends in travel, and discuss ways to utilize smart tourism and overcome challenges in the future during the session.