International Journal of Tourism Cities

Urban Tourism Intelligence and Behavioral Innovation for Smart and Sustainable City Centers

Theme

The transformation of urban tourism is being reshaped by the convergence of smart technologies, behavioral sciences, and data-driven decision-making, redefining how cities engage residents, visitors, and urban ecosystems. As cities evolve into intelligent, interconnected environments, tourism becomes a vital testbed for integrating digital infrastructures with sustainable urban behavior. The emergence of urban tourism intelligence encompasses AI-powered analytics, IoT-enabled mobility systems, immersive digital experiences, and predictive behavioral modeling enabling city planners, tourism managers, and policymakers to understand and anticipate visitor dynamics with unprecedented precision. This transition moves beyond conventional tourism management toward a model of behaviorally adaptive urban systems where smart technologies and behavioral insights co-evolve to enhance the livability, inclusivity, and sustainability in city centers. The next generation of smart tourism cities demands not only technological sophistication but also deep behavioral innovation. The interplay between human behavior, urban infrastructure, and intelligent technologies determines how city centers can accommodate diverse visitor flows while maintaining environmental resilience and cultural integrity. Emerging behavioral shifts such as the preference for low-carbon mobility, hyperlocal tourism, regenerative travel experiences, and digital nomadism are redefining the social fabric and economic logic of city tourism. Integrating behavioral design with AI-driven city systems offers the potential to promote sustainable consumption, equitable space utilization, and ethical tourism engagement. Realizing this vision requires addressing complex challenges related to data ethics, algorithmic transparency, digital inclusion, and cross-sector governance.

Despite the promise of urban tourism intelligence, significant gaps remain in harmonizing behavioral innovation with smart city development. The challenge lies in reconciling data-centric urban design with the unpredictable, culturally diverse nature of human behavior. Overreliance on digital surveillance, fragmented data ecosystems, and unequal access to technological resources risk reinforcing urban inequalities. Similarly, balancing real-time responsiveness with long-term sustainability goals requires new interdisciplinary frameworks that blend behavioral science, urban analytics, and participatory governance. Future research must focus on co-creating intelligent tourism ecosystems that empower citizens and visitors alike where technology enhances collective well-being rather than merely optimizing efficiency. This special issue invites novel contributions exploring how behavioral intelligence, smart technologies, and sustainable city planning intersect to shape the future of urban tourism. Topics include digital twins for tourism behavior simulation, AI-driven crowd management, behavioral nudging for sustainability, immersive digital tourism, ethical data practices, and participatory smart city tourism frameworks. Collectively, these insights aim to redefine urban tourism as a catalyst for behavioral transformation and sustainable innovation in intelligent city centers.

Aims and scope

This special issue explores how smart technologies, behavioral insights, and data-driven systems reshape urban tourism for sustainable city centers. It focuses on AI-powered urban tourism intelligence, digital behavioral innovation, IoT-enabled mobility, immersive cultural engagement, and policy integration driving resilience, inclusivity, and sustainability in intelligent urban destinations, fostering transformative visitor experiences and responsible urban development.

Primary aims of this special issue

• To investigate the convergence of urban tourism intelligence and smart city technologies for sustainable city center transformation.
  This includes examining how AI, IoT, big data analytics, and digital platforms are reshaping urban tourism ecosystems, enhancing mobility, optimizing resource use, and fostering inclusive, data-informed destination management.
• To understand behavioral innovation and human-centered dynamics in smart urban tourism environments.
  Contributions are invited that explore how behavioral sciences, digital engagement, cultural adaptation, and post-pandemic behavioral trends influence tourist experiences, resident participation, and sustainable consumption patterns in revitalized city centers.
• To promote integrative frameworks for intelligent, resilient, and sustainable urban tourism development.
  This issue aims to encourage cross-disciplinary research that bridges technology, policy, design, and community engagement—advancing models for smart, culturally vibrant, and environmentally responsible tourism in future-ready city centers.

Contributions should be original, theoretically robust, and relevant to both scholars and practitioners. We invite empirical studies, conceptual frameworks, comprehensive reviews, and expert perspectives that examine emerging dimensions of urban tourism intelligence and behavioral innovation within the context of smart and sustainable city centers. Submissions may address topics such as AI-enabled urban tourism ecosystems, data-driven behavioral analytics, digital experience design, smart mobility and infrastructure, visitor flow optimization, and urban policy innovation for sustainable tourism management. Research that explores the convergence of artificial intelligence, IoT, and immersive digital technologies to enhance tourist engagement, improve decision-making for urban planners, and foster sustainable behavior among residents and visitors is especially encouraged. We particularly welcome interdisciplinary and mixed-methods investigations that capture the dynamic interplay between technology, human behavior, and urban tourism systems, contributing to the development of intelligent, inclusive, and sustainable city centers.

Topics

We invite submissions on - but not limited to - the following subthemes, ensuring alignment with urban contexts:

• Smart-sensor enabled visitor behaviour analytics for resilient city centre tourism ecosystems
• Behavioural nudging via augmented reality to foster sustainable urban tourism practices
• Data-driven co-creation of urban tourism experiences engaging local residents and visitors
• Mobility platform integration and behavioural adaptation in smart tourism city hubs
• Gamification of eco-tourism behaviour in urban destinations employing IoT technologies
• Personalised micro-itineraries and behavioural segmentation for smart sustainable city tourism
• Digital twin modelling of tourist flows and behavioural responses in city centres
• Ethics, trust and behavioural change in AI-mediated urban tourism services
• Smart governance frameworks enabling behavioural innovation for inclusive urban tourism
• Wearable technologies and tourist behaviour monitoring to optimise smart city tourism
• Blockchain-enabled incentives for sustainable visitor behaviours in urban tourism environments

We particularly welcome contributions from underrepresented regions, interdisciplinary approaches and mixed-methods research that advance theory and practice.