{"title":"COVID 19: The catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry?","authors":"Nuno António, P. Rita","doi":"10.18089/TMS.2021.170204","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Until the outbreak of COVID-19, digital transformation was not on many hotels' strategic plan, despite its efficiency-related benefits for saving time, creating better customer experiences, increasing revenue, and supporting decision-making. However, like in many other industries, the COVID-19 physical distancing good practices and governments' restrictions acted as a catalyst and promoted hotels' digitalization. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 51 hotel managers to verify if that happened in Portuguese hotels and what processes were most impacted. Results showed that 92% of the hotel managers agreed that COVID-19 promoted the digitalization of processes, with most organizations considering that online meetings and technology productivity tools are here to stay. Hotels’ digitalization has the potential to generate high-efficiency gains both in public-facing operations as well as in back-office operations. This study highlights these implications and intends to spur researchers to investigate the practical impact of these implications on business efficiency and social theory.","PeriodicalId":43763,"journal":{"name":"Tourism & Management Studies","volume":"17 1","pages":"41-46"},"PeriodicalIF":2.6000,"publicationDate":"2021-05-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"24","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Tourism & Management Studies","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.18089/TMS.2021.170204","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"HOSPITALITY, LEISURE, SPORT & TOURISM","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 24
Abstract
Until the outbreak of COVID-19, digital transformation was not on many hotels' strategic plan, despite its efficiency-related benefits for saving time, creating better customer experiences, increasing revenue, and supporting decision-making. However, like in many other industries, the COVID-19 physical distancing good practices and governments' restrictions acted as a catalyst and promoted hotels' digitalization. To this end, a questionnaire was administered to 51 hotel managers to verify if that happened in Portuguese hotels and what processes were most impacted. Results showed that 92% of the hotel managers agreed that COVID-19 promoted the digitalization of processes, with most organizations considering that online meetings and technology productivity tools are here to stay. Hotels’ digitalization has the potential to generate high-efficiency gains both in public-facing operations as well as in back-office operations. This study highlights these implications and intends to spur researchers to investigate the practical impact of these implications on business efficiency and social theory.