IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May 2018 - 34

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.
Directly and indirectly, it provides employment for millions.
However, in 2013, the number of tourist visits in India was
fewer than those in cities like Bangkok and London. There
may be many reasons for this, as depicted in Figure 2, including: 1) a lack of trust in hotel and travel agencies, 2) a lack of
support from government and private bodies, 3) the insecurity
in tourist spots, and 4) the unavailability of real-time help
centers [11]. These things need to be addressed properly to
attract tourists.
There are many concerns for tourists while visiting unknown places. As discussed previously, this stems from the
lack of accurate information and security, as well as many
other concerns. For this reason, people prefer to travel to places they know and where they feel safe and comfortable.

Visa
Processing
Real-Time
Help
Personal
Safety

Trust of
Hotels
Issues of
Tourists in
Smart Cities

Government
Support
Private Body
Support

Location
Security

Mining and
Monitoring

Convenience and
Flexibility
The Role
of the IoT
in Tourist
Mobility

Tourism problems can be overcome with the use of information and communication technology, particularly by utilizing
the IoT. The role of the IoT in tourist independent and sustainable mobility is depicted in Figure 3.

ConvenienCe and Flexibility
The IoT can be used for convenience and flexibility in the tourism domain, and it can integrate various services. Stakeholders
can communicate with each other through IoT-enabled devices.
IoT-based services and applications can make tourism resources more convenient, e.g., roadside smart machines, police control room (PCR) vans, and mobile services. The IoT can also
provide these tourism resources more securely and reliably.

With the help of social networks and the IoT, the awareness
for tourist mobility in smart cities and other tourist spots can
be improved. Information about hotels and points of interest
can be integrated into a smart map. This smart map can be
helpful to all stakeholders, including the traffic police, a tourism office, transport services, and hotel services, to exchange
information. This facilitates inclusive support that allows
tourists to connect with a real-time support team, explore
options that may meet their needs, and make knowledgeable decisions.

independent initiatives
The IoT can help different stakeholders in the detection,
design, and operation of new ideas on tourists' independent
mobility. It not only facilitates investigating initiatives and
joining them, but also it suggests new initiatives to evaluate.

tourists' attitude toward the problem
Consciousness

Independent
Initiatives

Figure 3. The selected roles of the IoT in independent and sustainable mobility of tourists in smart cities.
34 IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine

independent and SuStainable
mobility with the iot

ConsCiousness

Trust of Travel
Agencies

Figure 2. The selected issues for tourists in smart cities.

Tourists'
Attitude
Toward the
Problem

One of the major obstacles in tourists' independent mobility is the lack of social awareness about technologies such as
IoT-based applications. Many initiatives have been introduced
by tourism departments. However, because of the lack of
awareness, those initiatives have not been utilized as expected.
Considering these facts, we introduced a framework for
tourists' independent mobility based on the IoT. It allows
stakeholders to easily avail themselves to required services,
including accessing information and managing tourism services like hotels, public and private transport, traffic, and
local volunteers.

MAy 2018

The IoT solutions will help improve tourist responsiveness
toward the tourism problem. Furthermore, it can be used for
the design of a real-time model for allocating social scoring.
This social scoring approach will attract and involve all
stakeholders. These processes encourage participation and
forthright behavior through virtual and real incentives and
will also increase the effects and duration of the engagement
of all stakeholders in independent mobility campaigns to
enhance their sustainability.

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Consumer Electronics Magazine - May 2018