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Abstract
This paper investigates the economic incentive mechanisms and institutional financing architectures required to catalyze innovative smart tourism startups and modern digital-physical destination infrastructure. The smart tourism paradigm-underpinned by the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence (AI), cloud computing, and big data analytics-creates substantial positive network externalities and non-rivalrous data assets that conventional private capital markets systematically under-fund due to high initial capital expenditure and elevated technological uncertainty. By synthesizing endogenous growth theory, innovation economics, and public finance principles, this research delineates a multi-tiered incentive framework encompassing R&D tax credits, public-private venture co-investment, Viability Gap Funding (VGF) for digital infrastructure, and regulatory sandboxes. The findings demonstrate that establishing structured additionality criteria and synchronized fiscal-financial incentives substantially de-risks private equity participation, mitigates early-stage startup mortality, and accelerates the development of integrated, data-driven smart destination ecosystems.
References
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