The role of digital twin technology in supporting sustainable tourism practices: Destination Planning and Management
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Date
2026-05-06
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Uganda Christian University
Abstract
This dissertation explores the potential of digital twin (DT) technologies to aid the planning and
management of sustainable tourism by applying the document-analysis method and
concentrating on literature and policy material published in 201025, and a case study of the
Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in the national context of Uganda. Based on the conceptual
lineage of the DT back to Michael Grieves, and informed by the standards and practitioner
guidance (including that of the Digital Twin Consortium), the study is a synthesis of peer reviewed literature, technical white papers, policy documents and site management plans.
Analysis with the aid of a structured codebook and thematic matrices revealed seven major
themes, namely monitoring, simulation, conservation/heritage digitization, governance and
ethics, interoperability and standards, cost and accessibility, and validation/evidence. Critical
findings reveal a pragmatic approach of monitoring-first adoption trajectory of destination DTs,
the primacy of governance (data-sharing, privacy, community co-design) in driving social
legitimacy, lingering interoperability and cost barricades, and a desperate void on longitudinal
validation of the links between DT interventions and quantifiable sustainability outcomes. The
dissertation ends with the practical recommendations of staged, governance-based pilots, lowcost architecture, and stringent validation designs and research agenda to produce empirical
evidence needed to implement the policy. The work places DTs as a facilitative, but not
automatic, means to sustainable tourism- technical, institutional and ethical alignment has to
happen to achieve conservation and community benefits.
Description
Undergraduate