The paper provides a comprehensive analysis of how digitalisation is shaping tourism in Italy, why supporting the digital uptake of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is essential for the competitiveness of the sector, and the policies supporting the digital uptake among SMEs. More specifically, it analyses the opportunities that digitalisation presents for tourism SMEs and the wider tourism sector to access new markets, develop new tourism products and services, adopt new business models and processes, upgrade their position in global tourism value chains, and integrate into digital ecosystems. It concludes by providing guidance on the key policy actions needed to create the necessary framework conditions to promote the digital transformation of tourism business models and the wider tourism ecosystem and to foster digital technology uptake and use by tourism SMEs in particular.
