400 COMPETITION LAW IN TOURISM formulas that allow facing the new challenges more effectively. In this sense, the use of ICTs becomes a strategic element to achieve this goal. However, we must not only bear in mind this economic dimension – which is very important –, and the global adoption of ICT should not only be used to increase the supply and, therefore, the number of visitors. On the contrary, it can allow, for example, to know, in realtime, the number of tourists to know if the carrying capacity8 of the destination has been exceeded and, therefore, adopt necessary measures to protect the environment. In short, it can help achieve the sustainability of the sector. The concept of intelligent tourism that is going to be used in this work has this idea in mind, that is, the use of ICT in the sector not only to increase the supply but to globally manage the tourist destination, improve the quality of the product and grow in a sustainable way. 3. INTELLIGENT TOURISM: MAKING A MORE SUSTAINABLE TOURISM When we use the intelligent adjective to refer to a noun as a city or tourism, we should try to clarify what we are referring to. Of course, it seems that we can talk about the use of ICT, there is no doubt, but, for this, we have already used another adjective that seemed to refer clearly to these technologies – digital, a word that has been used for “digital tourism” or “digital economy”. What has changed, then, to now use the adjective “intelligent”? Well, it seems that, currently, by referring to tourism or a city as “smart”, we are indicating that it is something more than the mere use of ICT9, they provide a value that implies a total transformation of the noun, a structural change, which is precisely what is happening in tourism. As already indicated, the tourism sector has taken advantage, with exceptional performance, of the use of these technologies. Tourism companies have been 8 On the concept of carrying capacity, see O’REILLY, A. M., “Tourism carrying capacity: concept and issues”, Tourist Management, vol. 7, 1986, pp. 254-258; SALOM PARETS, A., “The limitations to the population and spatial growth established by the territorial and urban regulations”, INAP, 2011, pp. 309 et seq; & GARCÍA SAURA, P. J., Desarrollo sostenible y Turismo. Análisis del régimen jurídico medioambiental de la legislación turística española, Aranzadi, 2007, p. 140, “It is necessary to establish the carrying capacity to determine the limit of tourists compatible with a sustainable offer and undertake tourism management based on this variable”. 9 We must bear in mind, in this sense, that these technologies are constantly evolving and transforming. Think in this sense, in the Internet of Things or Artificial Intelligence itself, which have a potential that, as the author estimates, we are not able to intuit.
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