Key drivers for service innovation in the UAE's hotel sector

The tourism sector in the UAE, which is witnessing strong growth, reached 13.8 million arrivals in 2013. The MasterCard Global Destination Cities Index reported that Dubai was ranked as the fourth most visited global site in 2015. In February 2015, the occupancy rate in Dubai reached 86.2% and helped contribute to the AED 6.5 bn in industry revenue in 2014. Service innovation helps hotels sustain the current market and create new business. The literature has focused on innovation more than efficiency as a vital factor of business success, growth, or failure. The main objective of the current study is to investigate the relationships between service innovation in the hotel sector in UAE and organisational support for innovation, resistance to change, organisational trust, work engagement, and organisational conflict. Quantitative research methods were used in this study. The research was conducted among 326 employees working in different levels of departments in UAE hotels. The main results of the study show that organisational support for innovation, organisational trust, and work engagement are positively correlated with service innovation, whereas resistance to change and organisational conflict failed to achieve statistical significance with service innovation.