Abstract:
Digitalization has profoundly changed and keeps changing the way
people live, work and travel and has opened up unprecedented
opportunities for tourism and hospitality firms to compete in global
markets. Rapidly evolving multiplicity of technological novelties (e.g.,
robotics, artificial intelligence, Internet of things, blockchain and
cryptocurrency) has influenced tourism and hospitality industries in all
aspects of its operations. Digital innovations and technological
novelties are changing the way work is organized and services
delivered, and also presents opportunities to capture and process data
and information on supply and demand, and integrate operations along
value chains and business ecosystems. In line with the technological
revolution, there is a dynamically increasing demand for unique,
seamless tailor-made travel experience beyond mass tourism.
Accordingly, tourism and hospitality firms have started leveraging
technology to reinvent the customer experience through service
innovations. Although digitalization has opened up unparalleled
opportunities for tourism and hospitality firms of all sizes to reach new
heights in profitability, successful digital transformation has been a
great challenge for many firms. With a compilation of eleven chapters
edited by the renowned contemporary tourism, hospitality and strategic
management scholars, namely Kayhan Tajeddini, Vanessa Ratten and
Thorsten Merkle, this book is a timely effort which critically analyzes
various challenges tourism and hospitality industries face in coping up
with digital transformation and how the two sectors have strategically
responded to such challenges.
