An evaluating approach for smart tourism governance in an urban bioregion in southern Sardinia (Italy)

In recent years, the management of smart tourism has seen a significant transformation from a sole technology strategy to one that emphasizes the location’s issues. As a result, territorial ecosystems have been defined, which can be connected to the urban bioregion but are not always tied to administrative boundaries. The polycentric bioregional strategy is even more important in island situations, which have demographic and environmental disadvantages because of their geographic conformation. This chapter’s goal is to introduce the idea of smart tourism in an insular bioregion as a potential inland area development strategy by linking tourism goals to coastal regions. To achieve this, the authors analyze the historical region of Sulcis Iglesiente. Smart tourism is investigated as a central component of programs to address depopulation, social marginalization, and economic stagnation in inland areas. In order to quantitatively describe the distribution of local resources, a methodological approach that combines geospatial analysis and spatial syntax techniques has been used. The study comes to a close by outlining centrality and integration plans that could boost island bioregions’ tourist potential.