The elaboration and the application of modeling and tools supporting the innovation processes and the digital transformation of the tourism organisations and of the wider tourism ecosystems require not only a review of products and services, processes, work practices and organizational and networks structures, but also a cultural evolution towards the digital-driven innovation and the creation of a system of collaborations capable to identify, select, and involve effectively all the potential stakeholders interested in elaborating and adopting smart tourism solutions. Accordingly, renewed management methods, tools and practices need to be elaborated, understood and applied. To fill these gaps, Innovation Labs modeling and participatory events are identified and analysed as potential new key-levers to stimulate and supporting the digital innovation journey and the adoption of smart tourism solutions. The methodology elaborated and used in this paper is based on a desk-analysis of scientific research sources. The main findings of the research reside in an examination of the new management methods, tools and practices required to foster digital innovation culture and the adoption of smart tourism solutions, and in a systematization of the main traits characterizing the different potential formats of the participatory events inspired by the Innovation Lab principles. The value of the article mainly lies in its attempt to identifying and clarifying relevant themes and unanswered research questions about innovation dynamics in cultural tourism industries to be effectively declined and investigated according to a relatively new lens of analysis.