Chapter 3 Smart Tourism Specialization to Outfox the Competition: An Analytical Framework Jorge Ridderstaat Abstract This study provides an analytical framework of smart tourism specializa- tion, integrating smart tourism, tourism specialization, and nations’ competitive advantage. The resulting model incorporates a process of tourism specialization, distinguishing between envisioned and realized tourism specialization. The model’s dynamic nature originates from the applied smart tourism management approach and a feedback loop while considering the possibility that tourism development is not an isolated process. The study contributes to the literature by analytically linking smart tourism with tourism specialization and nations’ competitiveness in a smart tourism specialization framework. Also, the study propels two new concepts in smart tourism literature, i.e., smart tourism specialization and smart tourism management. The analysis framework serves as a blueprint for policymakers in their quest to outfox the competition. Keywords Tourism · Specialization · Demand · Smart · Management · Competition 3.1 Introduction The “smart” concept was born from the scientific and technological revolution experienced since the end of the twentieth century (Dexeus 2019) and describes technological, economic, and social developments that are impacted by technology (Gretzel et al. 2015a). The term, which generally drifts toward user-friendliness rather than intelligence (Nam and Pardo 2011), has expanded to the tourism phe- nomenon, with buzzwords such as “smart destinations” and “smart tourism.” While smart destinations emphasize the enrichment of the tourist experience through embedded technology (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2014), smart tourism aims to develop information and communication infrastructure and capabilities to improve J. Ridderstaat (*) Rosen College of Hospitality Management, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL, USA e-mail: Jorge.Ridderstaat@ucf.edu © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021 S. Suzuki et al. (eds.), Tourism and Regional Science, New Frontiers in Regional Science: Asian Perspectives 53, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3623-3_3 37