Transforming to a Sustainable Visitor Economy With Information Systems
2024; Wiley; Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/isj.12573
ISSN1365-2575
AutoresBrad McKenna, Wenjie Cai, Tuure Tuunanen,
Tópico(s)Sharing Economy and Platforms
ResumoThe global visitor economy sector, which includes tourism, hospitality and events, makes significant economic contributions. In 2023, there were 1.3 billion international tourist arrivals globally, with expenditure of $1.5 trillion (USD) (UN Tourism 2024). The Travel and Tourism sector contributed 9.1% to global GDP, a 23.2% rise from 2022, alongside 27 million new jobs, increased domestic spending surpassing pre-pandemic levels, and a substantial 33.1% boost in international spending, indicating that tourism has rebounded after the pandemic (World Travel and Tourism Council 2024). The global hospitality sector is worth around $4.7 trillion (USD) in 2023, with an annual growth rate of 7% (Hospitality Insights 2024). In the UK, the hospitality sector contributes significantly to the economy, contributing £93 billion (GBP) in 2023, supporting 3.5 million jobs as the third largest employer, and generating £54 billion (GBP) in tax revenue, £20 billion (GBP) in exports, and £7 billion (GBP) in business investment (UK Hospitality 2023). The global events sector, which primarily consists of sports, music events, conferences and festivals, was valued at $1.4 trillion (USD) (Claight 2024). Mega-events, such as the Olympics, have large economic impacts on the host country (Sato et al. 2024; Wolfe et al. 2022), including job creation and tourism revenues. For instance, the 2024 Paris Olympics is set to generate between €6.7 and €11.1 billion (EUR) net economic benefit to the region (Claight 2024) and create up to 247 000 jobs (CDES 2024). Concerts and world tours also impact economies, society and sustainability. Taylor Swift's Eras tour is estimated to have contributed £1 Billion (GBP) to the UK with spending on tickets, travel, accommodation and hospitality (Masud 2024). ABBA Voyage, a virtual concert in London, features avatars of the original band members created with motion capture technologies (ABBA Voyage 2024), boosted the London economy by £322 million (GBP) (Prynn 2024) and provides event goers with new types of entertainment. The visitor economy can also contribute to sustainability goals. For example, Cold Play's Music of the Spheres world tour aims to be as sustainable and low-carbon as possible (Cold Play 2024). In addition to the economic impact, the visitor economy also contributes to social and environmental sustainability, such as empowering women and young people in the workforce, transforming perceptions through intercultural encounters, advancing heritage preservations through educating and engaging with stakeholders, improving quality of life and reducing inequality in developing countries through community development. A sustainable visitor economy is crucial due to its scale, multifaceted benefits and potential impacts. Its importance is particularly evident as a significant economic driver in the destination and benefits the host community (Arnegger and Herz 2016). It has great potential for promoting social stability, cultural preservation and community engagement (Besculides, Lee, and McCormick 2002; Webster and Ivanov 2014). On the one hand, tourism, hospitality and events are a positive force in achieving sustainability goals (Higgins-Desbiolles 2006); on the other hand, there are many unethical and irresponsible environmental and local community issues (Buckley 2012; Milano, Novelli, and Cheer 2019), for example, due to its dependence and entanglement with fragile natural resources (Sisneros-Kidd et al. 2019), and the amount of waste generated (Diaz-Farina, Díaz-Hernández, and Padrón-Fumero 2023). It is, thus, essential to develop and implement sustainable strategies that maximize the positive impacts of the visitor economy while effectively addressing and mitigating its negative consequences, ensuring that the visitor economy supports a sustainability agenda that serves multiple stakeholders. Visitor economy outlets often refer to information technology (IT) over IS, and has long been extensively used in the visitor economy (Cai, Richter, and McKenna 2019; Navío-Marco, Ruiz-Gómez, and Sevilla-Sevilla 2018). Examples published within tourism, hospitality or events journals are broad. For example, recent research has explored artificial intelligence (AI) service failure (Lv et al. 2021), the impact of AI on tourism firms (Li and Chen 2024) and luxury hospitality (Gonçalves et al. 2024). Robotics has also been of recent interest across the visitor economy, for example, robots in tourism services (Liu et al. 2025), robot service failure in hospitality settings (Liu and Wang 2025), and the use of robots in events (Webster and Ivanov 2022). Other recent interests include virtual tourism (Liu, Moyle, et al. 2024), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality in tourism (Bec et al. 2021) and augmented reality (AR) in science festivals (Olya et al. 2020). However, there are few examples of visitor economy research in information systems (IS). Examples with a sustainability focus include sustainable ICT capability (Gholami et al. 2017), marine animal conservation (Tan 2018) and sustainable tourism in developing countries (Tsokota, von Solms, and van Greunen 2017). We believe that IS research can bring new insights and produce new knowledge for a sustainable digital visitor economy. In some of our previous work in tourism (Cai and McKenna 2021; Cai et al. 2021), we called on 'information technology and tourism' researchers to draw more from IS's rich history of theoretical development and methodological approaches. Thus encouraging tourism researchers to enhance their theoretical and methodological development. In this editorial, we call for IS researchers to work with the visitor economy to create a vibrant cross-disciplinary research community and bring to light the opportunities for us to research sustainable visitor economies. We see that opportunities in this field are numerous for impactful research. The motivation for this special issue was to uncover how IS research can bring new insights and produce new knowledge for a sustainable digital visitor economy, which includes the tourism, hospitality and events sectors. In the next section, we provide an overview of the role that IS can play in the visitor economy and offer illustrative examples of how IS can transform this sector by enhancing efficiency, personalisation and sustainability. IS can drive innovation and sustainable practices, making the visitor economy more responsive to the needs of all stakeholders. Following this, we offer a cross-disciplinary research agenda on transforming to a sustainable visitor economy, introduce the special issue papers and conclude with some remarks about the special issue. In the tourism sector, IT has been utilized by service providers, decision-makers or designers to provide sustainable solutions for the conservation of cultural heritage and endangered nature-based attractions. For instance, the role of smart technologies in heritage tourism development (Balakrishnan et al. 2023), machine learning in marine protected areas (Rezapouraghdam, Akhshik, and Ramkissoon 2023) and smart coastal destinations (Foronda-Robles, Galindo-Pérez-de-Azpillaga, and Fernández-Tabales 2023). Other research has showcased that user-generated content on social media has implications for the sustainability of whale-watching (León et al. 2025) and digital exhibitions utilizing VR in museums (Kim et al. 2019). In the hospitality sector, including hotels, restaurants, and health and wellbeing centres, among other service providers, IT-related research has explored using blockchain to mitigate food wastage (de Visser-Amundson, Kleijnen, and Aydinli 2023; Omar et al. 2024), the use of QR code menus as a sustainable solution (Ozturkcan and Kitapci 2023), using big data to understand emotions based on online reviews (Yu, Chen, et al. 2024), or avatar servers to promote healthier dining habits (Hao, Aman, and Zhang 2024). In the hotel industry, smart and sustainable hotels have been promoted as the next step forward (Casais and Ferreira 2023). Smart technology can be used, for example, to decarbonize accommodation services (Coghlan, Becken, and Warren 2023). The events sector, encompassing conferences, sporting events, concerts, mega-events such as the Olympics, and various forms of entertainment, has also significantly benefited from the integration of IT. Research so far has explored the use of mobile applications for event management (Revilla, Moure, and Einsle 2023), virtual music concerts (Sequeira Couto et al. 2023), such as the use of avatars in the ABBA Voyage concert in London (Matthews and Nairn 2023), low carbon ice rink technology for the Winter Olympics (Li et al. 2023), the digitalization of mega-events (Lee Ludvigsen and Petersen-Wagner 2023), virtual LGBTQI+ pride events (McKenna 2020), and the live streaming of sports events (Liu and Tan 2023). Furthermore, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the visitor economy are essential in generating working opportunities and contributing to economic growth. IT adoptions, such as blockchain, facilitate SMEs' sustainable development and competitiveness with cryptocurrency payments (Nuryyev et al. 2020). Digital transformation and disruptive technologies adopted in the sector create new job opportunities for many, such as Uber, Airbnb and online travel agents and impact sustainable ecosystems (Leung, Xue, and Wen 2019). Smart destinations and infrastructure also play an important role in sustainability, with technologies such as the internet of things (IoT) and cloud computing enabling resources to be used more smartly (Cimbaljević, Stankov, and Pavluković 2019). However, significant challenges persist for destinations and attractions that lack the necessary resources and capabilities for digitalization. Additionally, visitors and service providers with limited digital literacy are likely to face considerable difficulties in effectively engaging with smart infrastructure, which could hinder the broader adoption of these technologies. However, in the context of the visitor economy, IT represents a double-edged sword in terms of its impact on sustainability. From the visitor's perspective, on the one hand, IS applications significantly improve visitors' wellbeing through innovating visitor experiences (Gretzel and Stankov 2021), supporting accessibility for individuals with disabilities (Bazazo and Alananzeh 2016) and enabling alternative forms of engagement through virtual platforms, such as virtual tours in the Faroe Islands during the pandemic and virtual museum experiences offered by Google Arts and Culture (Jarratt 2021; Lu et al. 2021; Zhang et al. 2022). These advancements have fundamentally reshaped how visitors interact with tourism offerings, making them more accessible and engaging. Additionally, virtual event platforms, such as online conferences and festivals, have allowed event organizers to reach a broader audience without the environmental impact associated with travel. However, from the visitor's perspective, questions persist regarding the long-term sustainability of these platforms, such as the environmental impact of increased energy consumption for virtual infrastructure, the economic viability of maintaining these services, and the risk of reduced user engagement over time. The increased reliance on IT has also been linked to various wellbeing issues, particularly in terms of blurring the boundaries between work and leisure, thereby undermining the concept of 'mental distance' when physically away (Floros et al. 2021; White and White 2007). From the perspective of operators and destination management organisations, emerging and disruptive technologies have primarily been applied to enhance operational efficiency, improve revenue management, manage tourism flows and sustain businesses. For example, IT to enhance efficiency in tourism and hospitality operations, contributing to more sustainable business practices (Lin, Shin, and Shin 2024), AI-driven solutions for crowd management in tourism (Vetrivel, Vidhyapriya, and Arun 2025), and immersive experiences afforded by extended reality (XR) and AI to preserve cultural heritage (Pistola et al. 2021). The adoption of green technologies in the hospitality sector has demonstrated potential for reducing environmental impact (Gunduz Songur, Turktarhan, and Cobanoglu 2023). Nevertheless, challenges such as overtourism, exacerbated by peer-to-peer accommodation platforms (Eckert et al. 2019) and the glamorization of certain destinations on social media (Gössling 2017), have led to conflicts between tourists and local residents (Mihalic and Kuščer 2022) and have imposed significant negative impacts on destinations ill-equipped to handle large volumes of visitors (Seraphin, Sheeran, and Pilato 2018). From an employee perspective, the integration of AI and service automation has provided considerable support by reducing repetitive tasks, thereby enhancing employee wellbeing. However, the implementation of these technologies has also raised concerns regarding job security, particularly within the hospitality sector (Koo, Curtis, and Ryan 2020; Li, Bonn, and Ye 2019). These concerns are especially evident among the female workforce, which constitutes a substantial portion of employment in the visitor economy (Ismail 2018). Women are often concentrated in roles more susceptible to automation, such as front-desk services and housekeeping, rendering them particularly vulnerable to job displacement as AI and automation technologies become more prevalent. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)1 aim to promote sustainable development globally; however, their implementation has occasionally led to unintended consequences that may undermine sustainability efforts. For instance, badly managed social media induced tourism may lead to overtourism, resulting in negative impacts on destinations such as tourists wearing inappropriate clothing, causing noise or invading local residents' personal space (Siegel, Tussyadiah, and Scarles 2023), ultimately counteracting the intended goals of sustainable development. The increased use of IT to optimise tourism marketing and manage visitor flows can inadvertently lead to overtourism, resulting in data-driven promotion that overwhelms local infrastructure, strains resources and degrades natural environments, ultimately counteracting the intended goals of sustainable development. We argue that the role of IS in shaping the sustainable visitor economy cannot be overstated. The integration of advanced data analytics, AI, immersive communication platforms and digital transparency frameworks offers promising pathways for addressing the SDGs. However, these technological interventions must be implemented with careful attention to ethical implications, data privacy and socio-economic impacts to ensure they contribute meaningfully to the broader research agenda on sustainable visitor economy. The subsequent sections examine how IS (instead of IT) can revolutionise data collection, sustainable operations and stakeholder engagement while emphasizing the importance of ethical and inclusive practices in promoting sustainability within the visitor economy, ultimately fostering a more resilient and inclusive future. Future research should focus on the innovative applications of data collection and analytics (DCA) to advance SDGs within the Visitor Economy. Leveraging generative AI to develop more accurate predictive models for tourist behaviour and trends remains an essential area for enhancing data-driven decision-making (Cheng et al. 2024). By enabling more precise resource allocation, these models can optimize resource usage, minimize waste and reduce carbon footprints, directly contributing to responsible consumption (SDG 12) and climate action (SDG 13), thus supporting sustainable tourism practices (Kashem et al. 2022). Data-driven insights can help address food insecurity (SDG 2) by optimizing food supply chains in hospitality settings, minimizing food wastage and ensuring efficient distribution of resources where they are needed most. Data-driven insights can also identify economic vulnerability in tourism communities and promote targeted interventions to alleviate poverty (SDG 1). Understanding tourist arrival fluctuations helps implement support, skill development and job opportunities, ensuring inclusive growth and strengthening resilience. It is critical to establish robust frameworks to ensure the ethical handling of health data (Reddy 2024) within the visitor economy, thereby preventing misinformation and mitigating health crises (SDG 3). For instance, managing health data related to guest safety and wellbeing is paramount in hospitality to build trust and ensure a positive experience. Research focusing on privacy concerns (SDG 16) should evaluate improved methods for safeguarding personal data, such as guest health information (Law, Ye, and Lei 2024; Shuqair et al. 2024), while maintaining the benefits of advanced analytics for enhancing services and operational efficiencies. Incorporating machine learning into predictive analytics can further enhance the ability of tourism operators (Hu et al. 2025) to identify patterns and make proactive decisions, ultimately contributing to more sustainable and efficient resource management. Such predictive capabilities can also support the efficient use of water resources, which aligns with SDG 6 by promoting water conservation in tourism hotspots and hospitality settings, reducing water scarcity impacts, and enhancing sustainability efforts in hotels and resorts. This application aligns with SDG 9 as it encourages the use of advanced technologies to build resilient infrastructure, foster innovation and promote sustainable industrial practices (Pérez López et al. 2024). Furthermore, leveraging DCA can facilitate collaboration between public and private stakeholders, helping bridge knowledge gaps and foster partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17). Such collaborations can drive unified efforts towards sustainability goals, enabling shared learning and effective resource management within the visitor economy. The adoption of big data, AI, machine learning (Spalding et al. 2023), or IoT (Tiwari, Rosak-Szyrocka, and Żywiołek 2022) for sustainable resource management is a promising field for exploration. By enhancing operational efficiencies and enabling data-driven decision-making, these technologies can significantly optimize resource usage in the visitor economy. This not only contributes to environmental sustainability but also bolsters the competitiveness and appeal of destinations, ultimately strengthening the visitor economy by ensuring a high-quality, sustainable experience for guests. Future research should examine how these IS can be optimized to promote energy efficiency and minimize carbon footprints (SDG 7 and 13). Further studies should investigate how AI can effectively predict energy needs (Vieri et al. 2024) specific to the peak demand patterns in visitor economy operations. Such predictive capabilities support sustainability efforts by reducing energy overuse while maintaining the high standards of service quality expected in these industries. Efficient use of water resources, monitored through IoT, contributes to achieving SDG 6 by improving water management in tourism, hospitality, and event facilities, ensuring sustainable usage and minimizing water waste across these key sectors. Robotics can also play a critical role in resource management within hospitality settings by automating housekeeping and other repetitive tasks (Wu and Zhang 2024), thereby reducing energy consumption and improving operational efficiency. This aligns with SDG 9, which promotes the adoption of resilient and sustainable IS to enhance industrial processes. Robotics contributes to innovation by streamlining operations (Liu, Gu, and Liao, 2024), reducing human error and fostering sustainable practices, ultimately helping to build a more resilient and energy-efficient infrastructure within the hospitality industry. Future research should investigate how immersive communication platforms, for example, including AR, VR, XR and the metaverse, can enhance stakeholder engagement and visitor experiences in the visitor economy (Chung, Goebert, and Johnson 2024; Gonçalves et al. 2024; Kostyk et al. 2024). Specifically, more studies are needed to understand how such technologies can foster inclusivity while mitigating the digital divide (SDG 10). These IS hold significant potential for enhancing social inclusion (Gonzalez-Jimenez and Costa Pinto 2024) by providing virtual experiences for those unable to travel due to physical, economic or social barriers, thereby expanding accessibility within the visitor economy. Immersive technologies can also be instrumental in the protection and preservation of natural and cultural heritage (Bec et al. 2019) (SDG 11 and 15) by offering immersive virtual tours of cultural events and heritage sites, reducing physical impacts on fragile environments while promoting broader awareness and appreciation. The integration of avatars into these virtual platforms can create more personalized and interactive experiences (Nan et al. 2023), allowing users to engage with content in a more immersive and emotionally connected manner. This aligns with SDG 9 as it fosters innovation in digital experiences and supports the development of resilient digital infrastructure that can enhance user interaction (Shin and Kang 2024). By integrating avatars, the tourism and hospitality sectors can improve customer engagement through innovative technology, ultimately contributing to sustainable infrastructure that meets evolving consumer needs. Research should consider the unintended consequences of problematic social media use, including misinformation and its impact on the wellbeing of tourists and visitors, as well as on sustainability goals (Mkono and Hughes 2023) (SDG 3, SDG 11, and SDG 12). Social media can negatively affect tourists' perceptions, contribute to stress through misinformation, and influence travel behaviours in unsustainable ways, ultimately impacting both individual wellbeing and broader sustainability efforts (Wengel et al. 2022). Furthermore, social media's emphasis on 'Instagrammable' destinations has contributed to overtourism (SDG 11), encouraging irresponsible tourist behaviours that often negatively affect local residents. The increased focus on visually appealing spots can lead to overcrowding (Song and Abukhalifeh 2021), strain local resources, and disrupt the quality of life for local communities, further undermining the goals of sustainable tourism and responsible consumption (Ganzaroli, De Noni, and Bonera 2021) (SDG 11 and SDG 12). The role of generative AI in transforming customer interactions in the visitor economy warrants deeper exploration, especially in terms of how it can personalize guest experiences and streamline customer service. For example, generative AI chatbots can be used to provide tailored recommendations to tourists (Xu et al. 2024), which may support SDG 8 by enhancing service efficiency and improving job quality. However, the ethical implications of over-reliance on digital communication, such as diminished human contact (Samala et al. 2020) and potential biases in AI-driven interactions, need to be considered to ensure inclusivity and fairness, aligning with SDG 10 and SDG 16. Research into transparency systems, such as blockchain, should be expanded to support various aspects of the visitor economy (Gao and Bi 2024; Muharam, Tussyadiah, and Kimbu 2024), including governance, sustainability and visitor engagement (SDG 16). Blockchain technology can create transparent, immutable records of transactions, such as hotel bookings or event ticket sales, which helps build trust and accountability within the visitor economy. Blockchain's ability to support secure, decentralized systems also aids in managing supply chains, offering visibility into the origin and sustainability of products used in tourism and hospitality (Özgit and Adalıer 2022), thereby contributing to responsible consumption (SDG 12). AR and VR can enhance stakeholder meetings by allowing remote participants to immerse themselves in the environment of a destination or hotel, thereby fostering more informed decision-making and enhancing collaboration (Fazio et al. 2023). The metaverse can facilitate virtual governance forums where stakeholders, for example, community members, policymakers and investors, can interact and discuss tourism management plans in a shared virtual space, promoting inclusivity (SDG 10), effective governance (SDG 16) and fostering collaborative partnerships for sustainable development (SDG 17). Investigating the integration of AR to provide guests with real-time, immersive views into sustainability practices (Cranmer, Tom Dieck, and Jung 2023) could further enhance transparency and trust. However, future studies must also address the potential risks related to unethical data use and the challenges associated with unequal resource distribution, which may hinder effective transparency efforts. The use of drones for monitoring and ensuring compliance with sustainability initiatives also represents an emerging area of interest. Drones can provide real-time data on environmental conditions (Zahir et al. 2024), helping destinations maintain transparency about their sustainability practices. This aligns with SDG 13 as drones facilitate the monitoring of environmental impacts, enabling destinations to implement proactive measures for mitigating climate-related risks. Additionally, drones contribute to SDG 9 by integrating advanced technology into infrastructure management, promoting innovation in how destinations handle environmental challenges. The intersection of e-learning, AI, and immersive technologies as tools for workforce development and visitor economy education presents numerous opportunities for future research (SDG 4 and 8). However, critical consideration is needed regarding the digital divide and the accessibility of these technologies (Lythreatis, Singh, and El-Kassar 2022), directly impacting SDG 10. While AI can be used to personalise training programmes, adapting learning experiences to the needs of individual learners, thereby improving the effectiveness of visitor economy education (Skavronskaya, Hadinejad, and Cotterell 2023), it also risks reinforcing existing inequalities. For instance, those without access to reliable internet or advanced digital devices may be excluded, deepening socio-economic divides (SDG 10). From a critical theory perspective, such as Foucault's concept of power and knowledge, the push for digital learning technologies could be seen as a form of disciplinary power, where those with access gain advantages in skill development, while those without are further marginalized (Cai and McKenna 2023). These dynamics challenge the principle of equality and inclusivity, highlighting tensions in achieving SDG 4 and SDG 10. Additionally, AI-driven analytics, while capable of identifying skill gaps and providing targeted training content, can introduce biases that shape what kinds of knowledge and skills are valued, potentially perpetuating exclusionary practices that conflict with SDG 5 and SDG 10. Furthermore, the design of these training programmes often reflects Eurocentric perspectives, raising questions about the validity and relevance of the knowledge being prioritized. This can lead to situations where local and indigenous knowledge are side-lined, thus undermining cultural diversity and inclusivity (SDG 5 and SDG 10). Exploring the use of metaverse platforms to create adaptive, immersive learning environments (Saneinia et al. 2024) is an important next step, but these efforts must also critically examine who is designing these systems, whose knowledge is being represented, and who ultimately has the power to access and benefit from these innovations. Future studies should evaluate the socio-economic impacts of introducing advanced digital infrastructure, including metaverse and XR technologies, to ensure they do not exacerbate existing inequalities. Exploring how AR and XR can create new opportunities for remote participation and virtual tourism (Miao et al. 2024) is vital for fostering inclusive tourism practices. These technologies can also contribute to reducing poverty (SDG 1) by providing new income opportunities for local communities. Studies should focus on not only creating standardized, high-quality content but also ensuring that such content includes local and indigenous knowledge and is accessible to all, including those who may be unwilling or unable to engage with advanced technologies, thus upholding the values of inclusivity, equal opportunity and cultural relevance (Gretzel et al. 2020) (SDG 4, SDG 5, and SDG 10). Future research should investigate gender-sensitive AI and generative AI applications that create tailored content and opportunities for underrepresented groups in tourism, hospitality and events (SDG 5 and 8). Examining the efficacy of these technologies in overcoming cultural and resource barriers that restrict women's access to technology and economic opportunities is an area requiring significant attention (Khoo et al. 2024). However, it is also essential to critically question the underlying design of these technologies. For example, virtual worlds can provide safe spaces for LGBTQI+ people (McKenna and Chughtai 2020), but to achieve that, LGBTQI+ members had to shape the affordances of the technology for their own purposes (McKenna 2020). Technology, including AI, often embodies masculine biases by design, which risks reinforcing gender stereotypes rather than dismantling them (Varsha 2023). For example, gender-sensitive AI can be used to empower women hos
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