Integrating Smart City Features into Non-Smart Urban Environments to Enhance Tourist Experiences and Foster Community Development: The Case of Alexandria Egypt

Smart city initiatives have gained significant momentum in recent years, with an emphasis on leveraging technology to improve urban living.
Based on the significant positive relation between technology, innovation and smart, technological solutions are being implemented to solve identified urban problems and conflicts. These range from traffic congestion, air pollution, high crime rate, difficulty in waste management to wasteful energy consumption, and so on.
Hence, allowing for the development of innovation networks, healthy societies and dynamic economies as well as providing solutions to many problems of urbanization and sustainability (Angelidou, 2015).
This study tried to explore the challenges, opportunities, and potential impacts of integrating smart city features into non-smart urban areas, with a specific focus on enhancing tourist experiences and fostering community development. In this regard, three case studies have been introduced, namely: the Lübeck Bay in northern Germany, Ahmedabad in India and Dubai in United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In addition, the study adopted the qualitative approach by using the focus group method. Using the purposive sampling, two focus groups were made with academic specialists, Tourism industry expertise and government officials.
Results clearly revealed that smart city features can be integrated in Alexandria to face some of its major problems and enhance tourist experiences and community development. Establishing widespread Wi-Fi hotspots throughout the city to ensure continuous connectivity for tourists, having smart mobility- and smart security solutions are especially needed. Some of the main challenges for implementation would be the lack of adequate financial and technical resources.