Tourism innovation-oriented public-private partnerships for smart destination development

The chapter aims at advancing existing knowledge on innovation-oriented public-private partnerships for developing smart tourism services at destination level. Recent research points to the importance of collaborative arrangements involving public sector organizations and private companies for the development of new or improved ICT-enabled tourism services and the smart transformation of destinations. However, knowledge on public-private partnerships specifically set up for realizing smart innovations is still scarce. This chapter develops a framework for understanding the nature and functioning of the partnership at destination level by integrating literature on tourism partnerships, smart tourism, and innovation in services with a case study of a successful partnership in the Italian destination of Siracusa.