A Systematic Review of Event Technologies in the Context of Smart Tourism: Trends and Future Directions

Abstract

This study presents a systematic review of the integration of emerging digital technologies in smart tourism events, with the purpose of understanding how technological innovation is transforming event design, management and visitor experience. The review examines peer-reviewed journal articles and conference proceedings published between 2014 and 2024 and indexed in the Scopus and Web of Science databases. The analysis was conducted using the Bibliometrix package in the R environment, while descriptive and thematic analyses were performed with the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The findings show that several technological domains, including Artificial Intelligence, the Internet Of Things, Big Data analytics and immersive technologies, are driving significant advances in the development of smart tourism events. These technologies support improvements in personalisation, behavioural analysis, sustainability, accessibility and real-time decision making. The review also reveals conceptual fragmentation, methodological diversity and geographical imbalances across the existing literature. Overall, this study contributes to consolidating the theoretical foundations of smart events and identifies promising directions for future research and innovation within technology-enhanced tourism event ecosystems.