Systematic Literature Review on Smart Tourism in India and the Future Directions

In the Indian tourism industry, the concept of smart tourism is unfolding as a pivotal factor for innovation and digital transformation of the country. The current paper is an endeavour to undertake an extensive systematic literature review entwined with thematic analysis. Despite increasing global interest, insufficient research attention has focused on the Indian context, which highlights the need for a focused synthesis to examine key themes, research trends and gaps in the smart tourism research landscape within the Indian context. The Scopus database was searched by using the keywords “smart tourism” and “India” to retrieve relevant documents. A total of 27 research papers were retrieved initially. 11 peer-reviewed papers from journal articles and conference papers were selected for the final analysis of SLR. To ensure transparency in screening and selection the PRISMA flow approach was adhered to. The outcome of this study reveals that there is a growing interest in smart tourism research in India but still in its early phase. The research is highly concentrated on the consumer perceptions of smart tourism destinations, use of ICT and the integration of IoT for enhanced tourism experience. This study contributes to the literature by providing a systemic overview of the thematic trends and outlining the main issues, such as the lack of stakeholder awareness, insufficient technological infrastructure, and challenges in integrating sustainability into practice. The results provide practical guidance aimed at supporting the adoption of technology-driven and sustainable tourism ecologies to the policymakers and tourism stakeholders.