This study examines the synergy between information and communication technology (ICT) and destination performance (DP) across 84 destination countries from 2000 to 2019 using canonical correlation analysis. Incorporating the ICT penetration and the economic contribution of ICT as the proxies for measuring the development of ICT, this study concludes that both dimensions of ICT are significantly associated with DP. This study also conducts a three-step sensitivity analysis tostrengthen the credibility of our findings. The conclusion is consistently supported given various heterogeneous factors, including different levels of tourism performance, the change of time, and different levels of economic development. This study contributes to the current tourism literature byillustrating a strong interaction between ICT and DP, indicating that the importance of ICT in tourism has been gradually growing over the past two decades while urgently calling for developing economies to capitalize on ICT-related resources to enhance tourism performance.
Wei et al. (2026) studied this question.