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Indicators are a fundamental tool for destinations in their progress towards a more sustainable tourism development. However, the lack of real progress and the accelerated technological change are obliging policy makers to rethink the existing indicator systems. This paper examines the relationship between smart cities and destinations and sustainable tourism indicators by analyzing proposals at different scales. It provides a critical review of international smart city standards and the role that sustainability indicators play within them. Then, it conducts a content analysis of planning instruments applied in smart strategies in Spain, focusing on how sustainability indicators are considered under the smart paradigm. At the regional-local scale, this research compares two sets of indicators and tests the scientific validity of one of them for addressing the imbalance suffered by many indicators between their usefulness for policy makers and their academic rigor. The results show that little progress has been achieved despite the appropriation of the sustainability discourse by smart city and smart destination promoters. These findings reveal the (limited) real contribution made by smart cities/destinations to sustainable tourism development and contribute to identifying weaknesses and opportunities so as to redirect smart policies and projects. A final discussion contextualizes the findings within the novel framework of smart sustainability and highlights the need to reinforce public governance of urban and tourist spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Spatial planning is a public policy that aims to improve the quality of life of citizens through the development of a territorial model in the geographical space to act. Four decades after the approval of the first Statute of Autonomy of the Valencian Community, it is possible to carry out a critical analysis of the public policies in spatial planning developed in this period. In these decades, regulations, guiding principles, procedures and work methods in spatial planning have changed, with a definitive commitment to sustainability since the beginning of this century. All this in relation to the proposals of the European Spatial Planning Strategy and the European Landscape Convention, as basic documents of territorial planning in this geographical space. The balance of spatial planning in the C. Valenciana offers lights and shadows that must be taken as lessons for the future practice of territorial planning. The geographical discipline has played an important role in the process of implementing territorial policies in the Valencian region, participating in the elaboration of plans on a regional or subregional scale, incorporating tools, working methods and proposals in the search for a territorial balance, difficult to achieve in an area with little culture of the territory. Finally, the paper presents a series of proposals for future spatial planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is part of the analysis of innovation policies in tourism. It studies the use of cluster policies and the configuration of clusters as planned initiatives, by focusing on the analysis of the tourist Innovative Business Group Programme in Spain. A qualitative method is used to study the point of view of managers who play a fundamental role in the Proramme. The results of the study are related to the cluster configuration process, the favourable factors and limitations of their activity, the general evaluation of the programme and the identification of proposals on how to improve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]