The topic of this doctoral dissertation is smart tourism destinations and the activities that influence their development and management. Given the continuing global increase in the number of tourist arrivals and the intensive development of new technologies that affect all phases of tourist travel, tourist destinations are becoming increasingly motivated to develop a modern information and communication infrastructure and continuous monitoring of tourist-related data as well as of all other stakeholders in the destination. Considering the complex political, sociological and cultural conditions affecting the development and management of a tourist destination and many of stakeholders involved, the data generated by such a system are of utmost importance because their analysis can yield valuable insights that can have a positive impact on development and management of a destination, thereby increasing its competitiveness and improving the tourist experience and quality of life of the local population. In this context, the concept of smart tourism is emerging, with a strong focus on the sustainable development of a tourist destination enabled by the innovative use of modern information and communication technologies and cooperation of all stakeholders, with the aim to improve the development and management processes in the destination. This paper analyzes existing scientific papers about smart tourism and smart tourist destination. Also, empirical research has been carried out to identify problems and describe all the important components present in the activity system related to the development and management processes of such destinations. The theoretical framework of the cultural-historical activity theory is used to better analyze the mentioned activity system and to identify the tensions and contradictions that occur in such a system in the context of how its components interact and how it transforms to the desired outcome. The scientific contribution of this paper reflects in the constructed system of activities which characterizes the process of development and management of smart tourist destinations, as well as in the design of an information system model for the support of smart tourism destinations development and management, based on the results of the conducted empirical research describing the social and the technological aspects of human activities in the context of smart tourism development in the Republic of Croatia.