Smart Tech, Smart Tourists: A Systematic Review of Digital Technology and Sustainable Tourist Behaviour

Tourists are increasingly using digital technologies to search for, book, stay and share about their experiences. Their environmental concern is generally not reflected in their actual travel behaviour. Digital technologies are increasingly influencing tourist decisions, but it is not clear whether they actually close the gap between pro-environmental attitudes and pro-environmental behaviour. This review looks at the mechanisms by which digital technologies can lead to changes in sustainable tourist behaviour, the strength of the evidence for each mechanism and when individual change results in net benefit at the system level. Following PRISMA 2020, we identify the digital mechanisms which lead to changes in sustainable tourist behaviour and assess the strength of the evidence for each. Scopus and Web of Science were searched for studies published between 2010 and 30 June 2026 with a supplementary citation search. A total of 156 studies were included and coded by touchpoint, design and outcome. They were graded for strength of evidence and synthesised thematically. The literature is very new with 95% of the studies published since 2020 and the vast majority (87%) reporting on stated intentions. Only 11 of the studies actually looked at a change in behaviour; these are largely field experiments in which the technology influenced behaviour at the moment of choice via real time feedback, digital defaults, recommenders, robot delivered prompts or app based rewards. Evidence for the use of social media, labels, immersive media and smart destinations is still emerging. AI agents can either promote or inhibit pro-environmental behaviour. Spillover, rebound and the technology’s own footprint are rarely measured. We propose a Technology-Mediated Sustainable Tourist Behaviour (TMSTB) model which links behavioural to system level outcomes and which sets six questions for future research.