IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May 2018 - 33

Smart CitieS and touriSm
The concept of a smart city has evolved with technology-centric evolution based on the Internet, mobile services, wireless
sensor networks (WSNs), smart technologies, and the IoT
[1]-[3]. The key elements of a smart community are the proactive participation of citizens in public life and the ability to
create new ways of association between citizens and city
administrations. In recent years, many initiatives have been
taken with different aims and objectives [4]-[6]. The vision is
that the integration of advanced tools and technologies and
societal engagement can provide the best opportunity to deal
with some of the hurdles.
Tourists' independent mobility in many countries is a paradigmatic example for a smart city [7]-[9]. Independent mobility
of tourists is limited in many countries for several reasons. Some
of these include: 1) lack of trust in the ongoing tourism services,
2) lack of security support, and 3) fraud-prone tourist spots.
Countries with various physical, religious, and social diversities
become preferable destinations for tourists. However, because of
the aforementioned reasons, tourists limit their travel to these
countries, and tourism industries are severely affected. Tourism
management plays an important role in making a smart city
more effective [10]. The proposed framework for tourists' independent mobility, iTour, has the ability to establish a new era for
smart-city functioning. iTour can overcome challenges in the
existing tourism management system as it involves a large variety of stakeholders, including city administrative officials and
volunteers. iTour is illustrated in Figure 1.

©iStockphoto/Scanrail

independent and SuStainable
mobility in Smart CitieS

mart tourism is an important component of
smart cities. However, in many cities, insecurity, safety, fraud, and the lack of availability of proper information about resources are the biggest hurdles toward
independent mobility. These issues can be overcome
via proactive participation of local citizens to help tourists as
well as by cooperation between citizens, city administration,
and tourists. As a result, a number of components of smart cities can be strengthened, from sustainable mobility in tourism
development to economic development. This is very challenging, as it requires a combination of societal inputs and
advanced smart and effective tools. This article presents a viable Internet of Things (IoT)-based solution called iTour that is
a framework for independent tourist mobility. In the process,
we analyze the difficulties in initiatives and lessons, exploring
possible roles of the IoT.

A key requirement of tourism has been to attract an increasing number of tourists from different parts of the world.
However, insecurity, fraud, and lack of proper transportation
and communication facilities are major concerns. Moreover,
safety concerns in tourist spots have restricted the independent mobility of tourists [11].
Tourism is an important component of the revenue of a
country. In India, it plays a major role in economic growth.

Figure 1. The iTour using the IoT.

MAy 2018

IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

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