Opportunities for smart tourism: from human tourist guiding to virtual guiding in Bucharest

Tourist destinations are based on new technologies to facilitate access of visitors to tourist attractions. The mobility of the tourists together with the access infrastructure to the tourist objectives is important in the coordination of the tourist flows. More and more self-organized tours will overshadow the travel agencies tours in the demand and preferences of tourists. As technology advances, the curiosity and need of tourists to experience something new develop. The stringent health security requirements in the ‘new normal’ social life during and post-pandemic times enforce radical changes of tourism, among which virtual tourism gains solid grounds. Virtual tours accessed via smartphones have largely replaced the classical guided tours, lately. Our research is aimed at finding new ways to help Bucharest turn into a smart tourism destination. Bucharest is a European capital that needs modernization, innovation, digitalization and greater exposure and promotion internationally. The paper discusses the new trends of smart tourist destinations, the ways and means by which a destination may become smart and attractive for tourists and proposes a virtual signposting for visiting tourist attractions in Bucharest. Through our research we contribute to the intelligent tourism development in Bucharest and we offer ideas for future smart tourism projects.