sustainability-logo

Journal Browser

Journal Browser

Smart and Responsible Tourism: Innovations for a Sustainable Future

A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Tourism, Culture, and Heritage".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 28 May 2026 | Viewed by 946

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economy and Informatics, Faculty of Organization and Management, The Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 2A, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: tourism; smart tourism; industrial heritage; cultural tourism; networking
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Economy and Informatics, Faculty of Organization and Management, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 2A, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: program management; project management; risk management; it projects; agile project management; scrum; teamwork; leadership and communication; business model; management of value; open innovation

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Organization and Management, Silesian University of Technology, Akademicka 2A, 44-100 Gliwice, Poland
Interests: production engineering; technology; energy; production management; mining; renewables; human-machine relation; virtual reality
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In an era of dynamic technological development, globalization, and easy access to transportation, travel has become fast, accessible, and increasingly affordable. The world is becoming increasingly open, and national borders are becoming easier for the average person to cross. On the one hand, this opens up great opportunities for discovering new places, cultures, and experiences, but on the other, it leads to negative environmental impacts, including an increased carbon footprint and an increased risk of tourists degrading infrastructure, heritage, monuments, and natural resources.

Referring to these challenges, there is a lot of theoretical and practical research conducted to develop various solutions, methods, and approaches related to responsible modern tourism. Therefore, we invite researchers and practitioners to publish scientific articles on smart and responsible tourism, which are based on innovations focused on environmental care, the protection of places visited, and a sustainable approach. We encourage you to submit papers on topics connected with the use of innovations and modern technologies. These include, but are not limited to, the following: artificial intelligence, virtual reality, the Internet of Things, digital tools supporting tourists, Industry 4.0 solutions in tourism, ecological models of travel management, smart cities, and educating tourists on the aspects of environmental responsibility.

The purpose of this Special Issue is to present the latest research and best practices in innovative, smart, and responsible tourism solutions that support sustainable development and minimize the negative impact of travel on the natural environment and destinations.

Dr. Mateusz Naramski
Dr. Mateusz Trzeciak
Dr. Kinga Stecuła
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • smart tourism
  • sustainable tourism
  • responsible tourism
  • IoT in tourism
  • VR in tourism
  • IT in tourism
  • AI in tourism
  • digital tools
  • tourism innovations
  • eco-friendly travel

Benefits of Publishing in a Special Issue

  • Ease of navigation: Grouping papers by topic helps scholars navigate broad scope journals more efficiently.
  • Greater discoverability: Special Issues support the reach and impact of scientific research. Articles in Special Issues are more discoverable and cited more frequently.
  • Expansion of research network: Special Issues facilitate connections among authors, fostering scientific collaborations.
  • External promotion: Articles in Special Issues are often promoted through the journal's social media, increasing their visibility.
  • Reprint: MDPI Books provides the opportunity to republish successful Special Issues in book format, both online and in print.

Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (1 paper)

Order results
Result details
Select all
Export citation of selected articles as:

Research

26 pages, 32504 KB  
Article
Smart Tourism Landmark Recognition: A Multi-Threshold Enhancement and Selective Ensemble Approach Using YOLO11
by Ulugbek Hudayberdiev, Junyeong Lee and Odil Fayzullaev
Sustainability 2025, 17(17), 8081; https://doi.org/10.3390/su17178081 - 8 Sep 2025
Viewed by 666
Abstract
Automated landmark recognition represents a cornerstone technology for advancing smart tourism systems, cultural heritage documentation, and enhanced visitor experiences. Contemporary deep learning methodologies have substantially transformed the accuracy and computational efficiency of destination classification tasks. Addressing critical gaps in existing approaches, we introduce [...] Read more.
Automated landmark recognition represents a cornerstone technology for advancing smart tourism systems, cultural heritage documentation, and enhanced visitor experiences. Contemporary deep learning methodologies have substantially transformed the accuracy and computational efficiency of destination classification tasks. Addressing critical gaps in existing approaches, we introduce an enhanced Samarkand_v2 dataset encompassing twelve distinct historical landmark categories with comprehensive environmental variability. Our methodology incorporates a systematic multi-threshold pixel intensification strategy, applying graduated enhancement transformations at intensity levels of 100, 150, and 225 to accentuate diverse architectural characteristics spanning from fine-grained textural elements to prominent reflective components. Four independent YOLO11 architectures were trained using original imagery alongside systematically enhanced variants, with optimal epoch preservation based on validation performance criteria. A key innovation lies in our intelligent selective ensemble mechanism that conducts exhaustive evaluation of model combinations, identifying optimal configurations through data-driven selection rather than conventional uniform weighting schemes. Experimental validation demonstrates substantial performance gains over established baseline architectures and traditional ensemble approaches, achieving exceptional metrics: 99.24% accuracy, 99.36% precision, 99.40% recall, and 99.36% F1-score. Rigorous statistical analysis via paired t-tests validates the significance of enhancement strategies, particularly demonstrating effectiveness of lower-threshold transformations in capturing architectural nuances. The framework exhibits remarkable resilience across challenging conditions including illumination variations, structural occlusions, and inter-class architectural similarities. These achievements establish the methodology’s substantial potential for practical smart tourism deployment, automated heritage preservation initiatives, and real-time mobile landmark recognition systems, contributing significantly to the advancement of intelligent tourism technologies. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Smart and Responsible Tourism: Innovations for a Sustainable Future)
Show Figures

Figure 1

Back to TopTop