New call for papers nº 230

Estudios Turísticos, Spain's oldest and most respected tourism journal is going to dedicate a special issue to “Artificial intelligence, blockchain and cybersecurity applied to tourism.” This issue will be published in December 2025 and we'd love your input.

Innovation processes and the rapid advancement of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) are forcing tourism companies and destinations to adapt to a changing landscape when it comes to internal management, promotion and marketing in the tourism sector.

This scenario facing businesses and tourism destinations requires a redesign of process models to create greater connections between them. Therefore, it is necessary to both plan the implementation of ICTs efficiently and comprehensively and to have specialist tourism and ICT personnel capable of managing the added value that innovation and technological change can offer.

Traditionally, the tourism sector has been a pioneer in the implementation of ICT in the various processes of companies and institutions, both public and private. In the current context of the tourism industry, it has been demonstrated that technology and the different digital tools on offer allow the sector to effectively respond to potential improvements, trends, problems and crises that may arise.

Tourism digitalization has therefore become a priority, addressed through various plans and strategies, both public and private, that offer tools and resources to boost the digital growth of companies and institutions.

We invite you to submit texts, both theoretical and empirical, that address topics related to:

• Artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly the technological field generating the most products and solutions in this field, positioning itself as a highly accurate automated processing and synthesis mechanism. In fact, it is considered one of the technologies that is driving the digital transformation of tourism, production processes and businesses. From a practical perspective, these technologies have undergone an exhaustive training process in recent years, allowing them to acquire cognitive abilities to rival humans. They now possess the skills to support and solve a variety of problems. (Deloitte, 2024).

• Blockchain. This blockchain-based technology cryptographically links transactions together in the form of a sequence of lists or blocks. Each new transaction recorded is chained to the block, creating a historical blockchain. By using blockchain correctly, data integrity can be guaranteed. It would seems that this technology has the capacity to be applied to the tourism sector: there are several projects currently underway that could change marketing systems, although it is still too early to predict such a change (Guevara et al., 2023).

• Cybersecurity. Data security is particularly important in the tourism sector, where a large number of high-value transactions are generated and personal data is shared to confirm identity and access certain stages of a person's trip. With the advances made in automated personal identification and improvements in the efficiency of smart payment systems, among others, safeguards must be in place to protect personal data, including facial recognition, voice and fingerprints, which are used across many devices for the purposes of user authentication.

We welcome original academic contributions from any scientific discipline that shed light on these important topics or any other related to artificial intelligence, blockchain and cybersecurity applied to the tourism industry. Articles will be subject to a peer review process to ensure academic excellence.

Those interested in contributing should send us a summary of their article, in the form of a preview, before 6 February 2025. This will be accepted or rejected before the end of March. The full article must be received by June 30, 2025 for review. All documents must be submitted via the journal's website, where the publication rules can also be consulted. We look forward to receiving your contributions and collaborating in the creation of knowledge that drives the efficient implementation of digital processes.

Kind regards,

Antonio Guevara Plaza as guest editor.

References.

Andrades, L. & Dimanche, F. (2024). Tourism Trends: Current Challenges for Tourism Destinations Management. In L. Andrades, E. Martínez, & C. Romero (Ed.), The Spanish Model for Smart Tourism Destination Management, Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-60709-7.

Guevara Plaza A., Lozano Domínguez M, & Hustova, N. (2023). C5 New Technologies, Spanish tourism activity in 2022 [2023 Edition], Síntesis. [ ISBN: 9788413573212].

Tourism 4.0. (nd) Capacity building and peer-learning transnational supporting scheme towards smart, innovative and sustainable tourism. https://tourism4-0.eu/