Development of Smart Tourism Scale: Focusing on the Convention Industry

Purpose: Based on the existing discussions on smart tourism, this study intends to develop a scale by using both qualitative and quantitative methods of the compositional dimensions and sub-elements of smart tourism in the convention industry. Through this, the concept and components of smart tourism in the convention are clearly defined and organized, and a theoretical frame that will be the basis for smart tourism-related research is presented. Methods: Based on web crawling, this study first performed a cluster analysis by matching data to the Nvivo program, and second, an FGI and expert opinion survey were conducted to derive an item pool through qualitative analysis. Third, using the derived item pool, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed using the data collected through the survey to secure reliability and validity. Results: The final derived compositional dimensions were finally derived in five dimensions: technology integration, convenience, information, smart infrastructure, and reliability, and a total of 15 questions were derived, 3 questions each for the lower dimensions. Conclusion: The results of this study provide the following theoretical and practical implications. Theoretically, it laid the foundation for systematically understanding the convergence of smart tourism and the convention industry. In practice, it is possible to lay the foundation for providing personalized services by analyzing participant's preferences and behavioral data, thereby increasing participants' satisfaction and willingness to re-engage.