Analysis of Research Trends and Issues in Smart Tourism: A Comparative Study between South Korea and China

The development of information and communication technology and advanced technologies has led to the full-fledged implementation of smart tourism in the tourism industry. Concurrently, both domestic and international research on smart tourism has been actively pursued. This study aimed to compare and analyze the trends and issues in smart tourism research between South Korea and China, to identify differences in issues related to smart tourism in both countries, and to suggest directions for future research in smart tourism. For this purpose, a text mining analysis was conducted on 69 Korean papers and 42 Chinese papers related to smart tourism published from January 2020 to June 2024. The analysis showed that Korean research on smart tourism focused heavily on improving the quality and satisfaction of tourists' experiences and understanding their behavioral intentions, while Chinese research emphasized provision of immersive contents and studies on sustainable tourism. Based on the analysis results, implications for smart tourism research were presented, along with limitations of this study and future research directions.