The coronavirus pandemic has reinforced the need for sustainable, smart tourism and local travel, with rural destinations gaining in their popularity and leading to increased potential of smart rural tourism. However, these processes need adjustments to the current trends, incorporating new transformative business concepts and marketing approaches. In this paper we provide real life examples of new marketing approaches, together with new business models within the context of the use of new digital technologies. Via hermeneutic research approach, consisting of the secondary analysis of the addressed subject of smart rural tourism in adversity of the COVID-19 and 6 semi-structured interviews, the importance of technology is underscored in transforming rural tourism to smart rural tourist destinations. The respondents in the interview section were chosen based on their direct involvement in the presented examples and geographical location, i.e. France, Slovenia and Spain, where presented research examples were developed, concretely within European programmes, i.e. Interreg, Horizon and Rural Development Programme (RDP). Interviews were taking place between 2022 and 2023 in person, email or via Zoom. This two-phased study demonstrates that technology is important in transforming rural tourism to smart tourist destinations and that it ushers new approaches that seem particularly useful in applying to rural areas, creating a rural digital innovation ecosystem, which acts as s heuristic rural tourist model that fosters new types of tourism, i.e. smart rural tourism.

Concession agreements (CAs) in the port sector are designed to establish mutually beneficial arrangements for involved parties. They serve as catalysts, enabling ports to attract adept private investors and secure requisite funding to enhance port infrastructure, superstructure, and service quality. Concurrently, the imperative to mitigate negative externalities and promote sustainable practices in port organization and development remains paramount. In this context, the paper explores the nuanced landscape of CAs, specifically focusing on the urgent need for an innovative framework that integrates sustainability within port organization, operations and development. Drawing from existing academic discourse and field evidence, it systematically identifies, examines, and analyzes fundamental requirements and key factors that should be considered in CAs, in line with sustainable development and proposes a reference framework for an ideal Concession Agreement model. Despite evident strengthening of sustainability implications in port concessions, significant room for improvement persists. Nevertheless, dynamics in the field create a certain optimism for the future.

The Government of Qatar is investing considerable resources in the development of integrated transport infrastructure as a solution to traffic congestion and environmental degradation. Autonomous vehicles are expected to be one of the methodologies for enhancing the quality of the built environment and fostering a more sustainable and environmentally conscious urban milieu. While autonomous cars have the potential to address urban difficulties and be utilized for personal, group, and public transit purposes, their implementation in the specific context of Doha has not been thoroughly analyzed. This research explores the potential impacts that autonomous vehicles are expected to have on travel demands, parking needs, and urban planning. It discusses the benefits and challenges associated with autonomous vehicles and predicts their likely implementation and development based on the different precedents. In addition, it explores how it will affect planning decisions such as drop-off and pick-up areas, parking and public transit. The research utilizes a qualitative approach through literature content analysis, field observations, and mobility analysis. Several case studies are analyzed to explore how autonomous vehicles can operate within a limited zone. The study uncovers the issue of ownership and mode of operation as essential factors that can affect the impact of autonomous vehicles (AVs). In addition, implementing AVs may create complex environmental concerns when greener and more sustainable transportation models are not integrated. It is recommended that Doha adopt integrated planning and implementation of AV technologies to ensure that AVs align harmoniously with the environmental stewardship requirement. The research study also presents urban design frameworks for how existing urban spaces can accommodate autonomous vehicles.

Smallholder cocoa producers often experience low productivity levels, partly due to their weak collaborative advantage (CA). CA enables businesses to optimize outcomes through effective collaboration within value chains. This paper aims at examining the effect of CA pillars (trust building, resource investment, and decision synchronization) on the productivity. This paper uses primary data of 406 samples from smallholder cocoa producers in Indonesia. The data is analyzed by using CDM (Crepon Duguet Mairesse) model that divides the CA process into three stages: effort, output, and productivity. In the first stage, our model shows that having motivation to collaborate positively affects collaborative effort expenditure to develop a CA. In the second stage, the study finds that the three pillars of CA have to some degree contributes to achieving a better access to finance, superior cocoa seeds, and cocoa processing technology for smallholder cocoa producers. In the third stage, acquiring the outputs of CA leads to productivity improvement. The findings underscore the significance of intangible factors in shaping robust Collaborative Advantage (CA) and influencing productivity. This enriches CA theory, which has traditionally focused primarily on tangible factors.

the development of digital technologies and their popularity in e-commerce is undeniable. However, consumers need to have a certain level of digital skills. The main aim of the paper was to examine and evaluate the development of consumers’ digital skills in the European Union and to identify the potential significant impact on online shopping. The EU countries studied experienced an increasing trend in both internet users and online consumers over the period under review, with Romania and Estonia experiencing the most significant year-on-year increases in internet users and online consumers respectively. The trend of consumers with digital skills was volatile and in some EU countries it was decreasing year-on-year. When comparing the share of online consumers and the share of consumers with digital skills, it was not possible to generalize the results as in some countries the values were at comparable levels, but in selected countries the share of consumers with digital skills was higher than the share of online consumers and in other countries the opposite was true. The results showed the existence of a significant impact of the level of digital skills on online shopping and also of the use of the internet for online shopping. The results obtained can provide a basis for online retailers to promote the increase of consumers’ digital skills, which will ultimately lead to the growth of e-commerce.

The objective of this work was to analyze the effect of the use of ChatGPT in the teaching-learning process of scientific research in engineering. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a topic of great interest in higher education, as it combines hardware, software and programming languages to implement deep learning procedures. We focused on a specific course on scientific research in engineering, in which we measured the competencies, expressed in terms of the indicators, mastery, comprehension and synthesis capacity, in students who decided to use or not ChatGPT for the development and fulfillment of their activities. The data were processed through the statistical T-Student test and box-and-whisker plots were constructed. The results show that students’ reliance on ChatGPT limits their engagement in acquiring knowledge related to scientific research. This research presents evidence indicating that engineering science research students rely on ChatGPT to replace their academic work and consequently, they do not act dynamically in the teaching-learning process, assuming a static role.