Digital Transformation of The Hotel Industry: Jorge Marques Rui Pedro Marques Editors

Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management
Jorge Marques
Rui Pedro Marques Editors
Digital
Transformation
of the Hotel
Industry
Theories, Practices, and Global
Challenges
This book series covers all topics relevant to the tourism, hospitality, and event
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Jorge Marques • Rui Pedro Marques
Editors
Digital Transformation
of the Hotel Industry
Theories, Practices, and Global Challenges
Editors
Jorge Marques Rui Pedro Marques
University Portucalense Infante Higher Institute of Accounting and
D. Henrique (UPT) Administration (ISCA-UA)
Porto, Portugal University of Aveiro
Aveiro, Portugal
ISSN 2510-4993 ISSN 2510-5000 (electronic)

ISBN 978-3-031-31681-4 ISBN 978-3-031-31682-1 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1
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Preface
Technology has been present in the daily lives of people and organizations for a long
time, and its evolution has been constant. This evolution naturally contributes to new
responses and solutions to society’s challenges. However, it also brings difficulties
in keeping the technological context up to date and knowing which will be the most
recent and adequate solutions available. It is no longer a question of understanding
the need and the advantage of using technological tools but of trying to understand
which tools and how they can be used to get the most out of them.
In hospitality, technological evolution has been especially evident, since the
introduction of the first equipment, in the nineteenth century, to the use of Artificial
Intelligence today. In this context, the concept of Digital Transformation arises,
referring to the process of using technology to increase the efficiency and compet-
itiveness of the organization, whether in terms of management processes,
operationalization, or relationship with customers. In the hotel industry, and in
general in the tourism sector, interaction with customers is of great importance,
especially as it is a sector of activity in which human contact and interpersonal
relationships are of particular importance in the tourist experience and levels of
consumer satisfaction. If, on the one hand, technological processes can facilitate and
improve the interaction between hotel and customer, on the other hand, they can
contribute to creating barriers and making this interaction more difficult. It is,
therefore, essential to invest not only in the improvement and evolution of techno-
logical processes but also in the study and analysis of the evolution of consumer
behaviour and the training and enhancement of human resources so that this
interaction is simultaneously simple and effective in your processes.
This book arises precisely from identifying the need to study the context of
Digital Transformation in the hotel industry in more depth. It is structured into
13 chapters by 32 authors. An initial order of more theoretical articles follows, based
on the review and analysis of the literature about technology and the use of various
technological tools in the hotel industry. Then follows a set of articles that deal with
communication collected through booking platforms and social networks. Finally, a
collection of texts has been presented that focus more on the impact of technologies
v
vi Preface
on management and leadership processes. The book offers theoretical approaches,

case studies, and applied research, with significant territorial coverage, including
authors from Portugal, Spain, Netherlands, Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, India, Indo-
nesia, and Mexico.
The first chapter, by Jorge Marques and Rui Pedro Marques, entitled Trends in
the Hospitality Industry: A Global Perspective, presents a framework on the evolu-
tion of the hospitality industry and the prominent trends that have affected this
sector, with a particular focus on technological trends. The authors identify a set of
technological tools that have recently shaped the hotel landscape.
In the same context, the chapter Innovative Technology Applications in Hotel
Business, by Ahmet Erdem and Mahmut Barakazi, explores the theme of smart
hotels as an innovative concept and identifies the leading technologies currently used
in the hotel industry.
Then, the chapter Does Virtual Hotel Shifting Realities or Just Daydreaming? A
Wake-up Call, by Aniesa Samira Bafadhal and Muhammad Rosyihan Hendrawan,
explores the concept of a virtual hotel and how virtual reality (VR) and augmented
reality (AR) tools can be used in hospitality, mainly in terms of promotion and
communication and in terms of interaction with hotel customers.
In the chapter Selecting Robots to Take Over Tasks in Hospitality Settings:
Joining Two Research Fields, by Klaas Koerten and David Abbink, the role of
robots in hospitality is discussed, as what are their possible impacts on the organi-
zation, customers, and employees. A literature review on the hospitality robotics
categories is carried out, presenting concrete examples of robots currently used in
hospitality to perform different functions.
In the chapter Mapping Research Trends on Smart Tourism: A Bibliometric
Analysis, by Suneel Kumar, Varinder Kumar, Isha Kumari Bhatt, and Sanjeev
Kumar, a comprehensive analysis is made of the topics that have been studied in
smart tourism, which are the most relevant scientific journals in this area, which are
the most discussed topics, and which are the most cited authors, among other criteria.
This exhaustive work will be important in supporting other researchers who want to
work on technology in tourism and who find guiding support for the delimitation of
the reference literature.
The next topic, addressed in the chapter Big Data in Hotel Companies: A
Systematic Literature Review, by Elva Martínez and Alejandro Cruz, deals with
the problem associated with the large amounts of information that organizations
increasingly must manage. How hotels collect and handle sensitive information,
which must be confidential, can be very useful for knowing their target audience and
predicting possible future consumer behaviour. At a strategic level, this information
management could be significant.
After these first six chapters, four chapters focus on strategic communication
through digital platforms. On the one hand, online booking platforms are explored
that allow guests to evaluate the hotel service and leave comments to help other
guests. On the other hand, social networks are analysed as means of promoting
tourism. The first of these four chapters, entitled Communication Factors to Increase
Awareness and Sales in the Hotel Industry Versus Search Platforms, by Paula
Preface vii
Gonzãllez-Padilla and Francisco Lacárcel, explores the primary communication and

tourism promotion strategies through digital channels. This work identifies a set of
processes and tools used in digital marketing, especially relevant in hotel
management.
Turning to social media platforms, Marília Durão, Medéia Veríssimo, and
Michelle Morais, in Social Media Research in the Hotel Industry: A Bibliometric
Analysis, present a survey of recent research that has been carried out in this area and
identify the main digital strategies for hotel businesses.
The next chapter, Digital Transformation in Hospitality: Identifying Customer
Satisfaction Based on Online Guest’s Ratings, by Fotis Kitsios, Maria Kamariotou,
Panagiotis Karanikolas, and Evangelos Grigoroudis, addresses the consumer’s per-
spective through online hotel guest’s ratings, collected through a booking platform
online. This chapter closes an important part of theoretical and conceptual analysis,
based mainly on the literature review and the application of bibliometric analysis
tools.
From here, a set of chapters based on case study analysis and empirical studies
with primary data collection through surveys and interviews are presented. The
chapter Influence of Social Networks on the Choice and Promotion of a Tourist
Destination, by Teresa Pereira, Vânia Costa, and Alexandra Malheiro, once again
addresses the issue of social networks. Still, this time explores the influence of social
networks on consumer behaviour by applying a survey to tourists who usually use
social networks to look for information about tourist destinations.
In the following chapter, Digital Transformation in the Hotel Industry: Shaping
the Challenges and Opportunities by the Case of Five-Star Hotels in Bulgaria, by
Mariya Stankova and Svetoslav Kaleychev, the websites of 87 hotels were analysed
to understand the applied effects of Digitalization on the hotels in Bulgaria.
Next, Alexander Lennart Schmidt, in Changing the Rules of the Hotel Business—
The Case of CitizenM’s Digital Business Model Disruption, discusses the issue of
digital disruption and how this phenomenon affects business models in hospitality.
A case study based on a Dutch hotel group (CitizenM) is presented in this case.
Finally, the book closes with the chapter Leading Digital Transformation in
Tourism and Hospitality by Maria José Silva, Marília Durão, and Fernando Florim
de Lemos, which deals with the issue of strategic leadership and how technological
innovation can be related to leadership processes.
Thus, this book could be an essential resource in supporting scientific research in
this area, teaching and supporting hotel managers, enabling more informed decision-
making, and supported by the technical-scientific knowledge we present here.
Finally, we would like to thank all the authors for their precious contributions to
the increase of scientific knowledge in this field and for the collaboration and
constant availability that were necessary for the realization of this book. We
acknowledge the excellent and valuable work of the Editorial Advisory Board
members and the reviewers regarding the improvement of quality, coherence, and
viii Preface
content presentation of chapters. Finally, we also thank Springer for the opportunity
to publish this book and for their support throughout the process.
Porto, Portugal Jorge Marques

Aveiro, Portugal Rui Pedro Marques
Reviewers
Ahmet Erdem, Harran University, Turkey

Alexander Lennart Schmidt, Zuyd University of Applied Sciences, Netherlands
Aniesa Samira Bafadhal, Brawijaya University, Indonesia
Craig Webster, Ball State University, United States of America
Elva Esther Vargas Martinez, Autonomous University of the State of Morelos,
Mexico
Faruk Seyitoglu, Mardin Artuklu University, Turkey
Fernando Florim De Lemos, Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, Portugal
Fotis Kitsios, University of Macedonia, Greece
Jaime Serra, University of Évora, Portugal
Joana Quintela, Portucalense University Infante D. Henrique, Portugal
José Luís Braga, Institute of Higher Studies of Fafe, Portugal
Josefina Salvado, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Klaas Koerten, Hotelschool The Hague and Delft University of Technology,
Netherlands
Luís Silveira, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Mahmut Barakazi, Harran University, Turkey
Maria Kamariotou, University of Macedonia, Greece
Mariya Stankova, South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Bulgaria
Medéia Veríssimo, Portucalense University Infante D. Henrique, Portugal
Paula González-Padilla, Rey Juan Carlos University, Spain
Paula Triviño-Tarradas, University of Córdoba, Spain
Suneel K Kashyap, University of Delhi, India
Svetoslav Kaleychev, South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Bulgaria
Vânia Costa, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Portugal
ix
Editorial Advisory Board
Ali Afshar, Eqbal Lahoori Institute of Higher Education, Iran

Azizan Marzuki, Science University of Malaysia, Malaysia
Cândida Silva, Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal
Carlos Ferreira, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Isabel Borges, Institute of Higher Studies of Fafe, Portugal
Jaime Serra, University of Évora, Portugal
José Alberto Rodrigues, Polytechnic Institute of Tomar, Portugal
José Álvarez García, University of Extremadura, Spain
José António Santos, University of Algarve, Portugal
Luís Henrique de Souza, Federal University of Pernambuco, Brazil
Mana Khoshkam, West Tehran Islamic Azad University, Iran
Mariamo Abdula, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique
Marília Durão, Portucalense University Infante D. Henrique, Portugal
Maya Ivanova, Varna University of Management, Bulgaria
Michal Koskowski, SGH Warsaw School of Economics, Poland
Norberto Santos, University of Coimbra, Portugal
Rui Costa, University of Aveiro, Portugal
Shaian Kiumarsi, Science University of Malaysia, Malaysia
Stanislav Ivanov, Varna University of Management, Bulgaria
Vanessa Ratten, La Trobe University, Australia
xi
Contents
Trends in the Hospitality Industry: A Global Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Jorge Marques and Rui Pedro Marques
Innovative Technology Applications in Hotel Businesses . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Ahmet Erdem and Mahmut Barakazı
Does Virtual Hotel Shifting Realities or Just Daydreaming?
A Wake-Up Call . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Aniesa Samira Bafadhal and Muhammad Rosyihan Hendrawan
Selecting Robots to Take Over Tasks in Hospitality Settings:
Joining Two Research Fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Klaas Koerten and David Abbink
Mapping Research Trends on Smart Tourism: A Bibliometric
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Suneel Kumar, Varinder Kumar, Isha Kumari Bhatt, and Sanjeev Kumar
Big Data in Hotel Companies: A Systematic Literature Review . . . . . . . 111
Elva Esther Vargas Martínez and Alejandro Delgado Cruz
Communication Factors to Increase Awareness and Sales in the
Hotel Industry Versus Search Platforms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Paula González-Padilla and Francisco Javier S. Lacárcel
Social Media Research in the Hotel Industry: A Bibliometric
Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Marília Durão, Medéia Veríssimo, and Michelle Moraes
Digital Transformation in Hospitality: Identifying Customer
Satisfaction Based on Online Hotel Guests’ Ratings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Fotis Kitsios, Maria Kamariotou, Panagiotis Karanikolas,
and Evangelos Grigoroudis
xiii
xiv Contents
Influence of Social Networks on the Choice and Promotions

of a Tourist Destination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Teresa Pereira, Vânia Costa, and Alexandra Malheiro
Digital Transformation in the Hotel Industry: Shaping the
Challenges and Opportunities by the Case of Five-Star Hotels
in Bulgaria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
Mariya Stankova and Svetoslav Kaleychev
Changing the Rules of the Hotel Business: The Case of citizenM’s
Digital Business Model Disruption . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Alexander Lennart Schmidt
Leading Digital Transformation in Tourism and Hospitality . . . . . . . . . 247
Maria José Silva, Marília Durão, and Fernando Florim De Lemos
Trends in the Hospitality Industry:
A Global Perspective
Jorge Marques and Rui Pedro Marques
1 Introduction
Based on the relationship between host and guest, the hotel industry emerged with
the development of the first societies (Clarke and Chen 2007). The concept of
hospitality is as old as civilisation itself, evolving from the ancient custom of
breaking bread with a passing stranger to the operations of today’s multifaceted
hospitality industry (Walker 2017). Host and guest relationships have always been
based on mutual honour and respect. For the host, it was an honour to welcome
someone into their home or establishment, offering comfort, security and entertain-
ment. For the guest, who was aware of this honour, it was an obligation to repay this
kindness, respecting the values and customs of the host (Clarke and Chen 2007).
Hospitality comes from the French word hospice, meaning “to provide care/shelter
for travellers” (Walker 2017, p. 36). According to the École Hôtelière de Lausanne
(EHL), hospitality means extending a welcome to travellers or offering a home away
from home. The word is derived from the Latin word hospes, meaning visitor or
stranger (EHL 2022).
Over time, some important milestones have influenced the development of
facilities that accommodate and feed travellers. The first identified hospitality
J. Marques (✉)
Research on Economics, Management and Information Technologies (REMIT), University
Portucalense Infante D. Henrique, Porto, Portugal
Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning (CEGOT), University of Coimbra,
Coimbra, Portugal
e-mail: jorgem@upt.pt
R. P. Marques
Higher Institute of Accounting and Administration (ISCA-UA), University of Aveiro, Aveiro,
Portugal
e-mail: ruimarques@ua.pt
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1

J. Marques, R. P. Marques (eds.), Digital Transformation of the Hotel Industry,
Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_1
2 J. Marques and R. P. Marques
business goes back to the ancient times, during the Sumerians period when the first
taverns appeared (Walker 2017). According to Hollander (2019), the ancient history
of the hospitality industry began in 15,000 BCE with the Lascaux caves in France,
which were developed to provide shelter to members of other tribes. Early civilisa-
tions in Europe, China, Egypt and India had implemented taverns and inns along the
roadsides. In classical antiquity, Greek and Roman spas became popular places for
those seeking rest (Hollander 2019). In the eighth century, Charlemagne established
rest houses for pilgrims along the routes in the European continent, with service
advertising: “a warm welcome at the door, free bread, a barber and a cobbler, cellars
full of fruit and almonds, two hospices with beds for the sick” (Walker 2017, p. 37).
By this time, the first two hotels in history were registered in Japan, called
Ryokans. These Ryokans were resting places along the Silk Road (Hollander
2019). In the Middle East, caravanserais were the resting places for caravans along
the Silk Road, and refuges served pilgrims and other travellers on their way to the
Holy Land. In China and Mongolia, staging posts provided shelter for couriers and
allowed horses to be changed more easily. In Europe, cloisters and abbeys offered
free accommodation to travellers.
The development of stagecoach as the primary means of transport during the
Middle Ages led to increased travel and the emergence of more roadside inns.
Gradually, inns and guesthouses began to open on popular trade routes to provide
lodging for travelling merchants and their horses (Walker 2017). By the seventeenth
century, more than 600 inns were registered in England, and in the early 1800s, the
first modern hotel, with a full complement of facilities, was built in England.
Significant improvements were made in accommodation conditions, with the intro-
duction of bathrooms inside the rooms and locks on the doors and the appearance of
the bellboy’s activity and steam-powered elevators (Hollander 2019). Lodging was
not just about bedding and resting facilities anymore. With the new concept of
hotels, these facilities started providing travellers with food, drinks and entertain-
ment. From here, holiday resorts began to flourish along the French and Italian
rivieras, and the concept of luxury in the hotel industry began to develop. By the end
of the nineteenth century, the first school for hoteliers was founded in Switzerland
(École Hôtelière de Lausanne). The hotel service concept began taking on another
dimension (Hollander 2019).
At the beginning of the twentieth century, luxury hotels started to appear. The
Waldorf Astoria in New York (the first hotel offering room service), the Ritz
in Madrid, the Savoy in London, the Beau-Rivage Palace in Lausanne, the Plaza
in New York, the Metropole in Brussels, the Plaza-Athenée in Paris or the Taj Mahal
in Bombay, to name a few. Also, some of the most critical players in the hotel
industry began to emerge, such as Hilton (1919), Marriot (1927), Sheraton (1937),
Holiday Inn (1952) and Hyatt (1957). In Switzerland, the first ski resorts were built
(EHL 2022; Walker 2017). Furthermore, from the mid-twentieth century onwards,
the hospitality industry had a significant development, with the appearance of Club
Med, the first casino hotels, the first hotels developed by airline companies and
beach resorts on the Mediterranean coast (Page 2019).
Trends in the Hospitality Industry: A Global Perspective 3
With the improvement of living conditions, the development of transport and the
increase in purchasing power, the travel sector was boosted, and the hotel industry
developed even more. Hotels improved their services and began to diversify their
offer more to better respond to the needs and motivations of the different target
markets (spa hotels, airport hotels, conference hotels, resorts, hostels, motels and
inns). Also, new concepts shaped the products and services, such as the atrium
concept, the limited service, the technological advances, the marketing approach and
the total quality management (TQM) (Bardi 2011). The atrium concept was an
architectural design in which guest rooms overlook the lobby from the first floor
to the roof, first used in the 1960s by Hyatt Hotels (Vallen and Vallen 2017; Walker
2017). The limited-service concept, related to hotels built with guest room accom-
modations and limited food service and meeting space, became popular in the early
1980s, with many major hotel chains adopting this concept to serve business
travellers and travellers with a limited budget (Page 2019). Hampton Inn was a
pioneer in creating a brand targeted to the new limited-service hotel segment,
offering comfortable rooms but eliminating or reducing other services and facilities
such as restaurants, lounges and meeting and lobby space. With this, it could offer
lower rates to customers (Vallen and Vallen 2017; Walker 2017; Bardi 2011).
Technological advances significantly developed products and services, such as
reservations, property management and in-room guest checkout (Buer 2020). Now-
adays, technology has already taken on another dimension with the use of robots,
artificial intelligence (AI) and service automation (RAISA) (Ivanov et al. 2017).
Hotels and other tourism companies are adopting these technologies to reduce costs,
improve efficiency, optimise service operations and design innovative experiences
for their guests and clients (Ivanov and Webster 2019). Figure 1 shows the chronol-
ogy of the first technologies introduced in the hotel industry.
With the introduction of marketing techniques in the hotel industry in the 1970s,
it was possible to work on the identification of niche markets and build systems
around the needs of identified segments. The reservations and marketing systems
were improved to facilitate the booking process by the guests. The marketing
emphasis continues in the 2000s through the routine use of the Internet to place
guest reservations (Buer 2020). The concept of total quality management (TQM),
which is critical in today’s hotel management and service delivery process, started in
the 1990s, helping managers on looking at processes used to create products and
services with a critical eye on improving those processes and overall quality (Bardi
2011).
By the end of the twentieth century, the so-called digital age was already
underway, with the hotel industry benefiting from technological innovations in
terms of hotel websites and customer databases and systems for reservations, room
and housekeeping management, customer preferences, loyalty programmes and
more. From the consumer’s perspective, the new tools have made it possible to
search, compare and review hotels, such as Booking.com and Expedia, which
appeared in 1996 (Vallen and Vallen 2017; Walker 2017; Bardi 2011). This new
era of globalisation has contributed to a more competitive hospitality industry, in
1846 Central heating

1859 Elevator
1881 Electric lights
1907 In-room telephone
1927 In-room radio
1940 Air-conditioning
1950 Electric elevator
1958 Free television
1964 Holiday Inn reservation system with centralized computer
1965 Message lights on telephone
Introduction of Front-Office computer systems

1970s Electric cash register
POS (point of sale) systems and keyless locks

Colour television standard
1973 Free in-room movies (Sheraton)
1980s Property management systems
In-room guest checkout
1983 In-room personal computers
Call accounting
1990s On Command Video (on-demand movies)
LodgeNet Entertainment (interactive video games)
Interactive television in rooms (shopping, visitor’s guide, fax delivery, guide

to hotel’s facilities and activities, reservations, weather reports)
Internet reservations
Introduction of legislation that monitored hotel ownership through real estate

investment trusts (REITs)
2000s Wireless technology (Check-In, Housekeeping Guestroom Glean and Re-
lease Status, Marketing Guest Profile, Bell Staff Baggage Handling)
Guest “hot spot” centres in hotels for wireless transmission and reception of
emails and documents
Social media, guest room technology, Information Technologies infrastruc-
ture
2010s Robots, Artificial Intelligence, and service automation in hospitality
Fig. 1 Introduction of technological advances in the hotel industry. Source: Adapted from Bardi
(2011), Ivanov and Webster (2019)
which differentiating and qualifying factors have assumed high importance

(Abgottspon 2020).
With the arrival of the twenty-first century, the global phenomenon in the
hospitality industry has taken on a new level. Traditional hospitality has become
an even more dynamic sector seeking to constantly exceed guests’ expectations, not
only through the quality of service but also through differentiation. Today, guests
find hotels that meet their needs, motivations and expectations through price,
location, theme or specific services. Hotels have also gained new dimensions, both
in height, such as the JW Marriott Marquis (1165 feet tall), the Rose Rayhaan By
Rotana (1093 feet) and the Burj Al Arab (1053 feet) in Dubai, or the Four Seasons
Place Kuala Lumpur, in Malaysia (1122), and size, such as the First World Hotel,
also in Malaysia (7351 rooms), or the Venetian-Palazzo (7117) and the MGM Grand
(6852), in Las Vegas. Some leading hotel groups underwent major reorganisations,
with purchases and mergers, originating global players in the hotel industry. For
example, InterContinental Hotels Group integrated Holiday Inn and Crowne Plaza,
Marriot integrated Renaissance and Starwood and AccorHotels integrated Raffles,
Sofitel and Novotel.
Additionally, the increase in local tourist accommodation, based on short-term
rental (e.g. Airbnb, Vrbo) (EHL 2022), made the hospitality activity reach practi-
cally to all parts of the world, especially in places where traditional hotels were
insufficient or not present, such as rural or isolated areas. Thus, the hotel industry
started to offer more local and flexible tourist experiences. Hotels responded with
more creative infrastructure development, service quality and marketing approaches,
including social media campaigns and personalised customer experiences created
through smart devices (Buer 2020). Globalisation has thus contributed to greater
competitiveness in the hotel sector, and the increase in purchasing power in devel-
oping countries has led to more and more people being able to travel and access
quality services. However, the cleavage between the upper and middle classes has
also widened, meaning that generally, only the most affluent tourists can access the
most innovative, creative and over-the-top experiences (SiteMinder 2022).
2 Latest Trends Impacting Hospitality
Today’s travellers have a wide variety of accommodation options. Besides tradi-

tional hotels, there are vacation rentals (or short-term rentals), hostels, serviced
apartments, themed park hotels, castles, tree houses, glamping, underwater hotels,
ice hotels, cave hotels, capsule hotels or even mobile hotels. The mobile hotel
concept has reached to another level with the development of bus hotels
(e.g. Cabin, the overnight bus with beds, launched in 2017) and innovation in
trailers, further boosted by the COVID-19 pandemic (e.g. Airstream trailers) (Hol-
lander 2022). Many hotels are starting to differentiate their brands by doing some-
thing unique in how they design, style and equip their facilities. Travellers are
increasingly looking for relaxed and fun hotel stays, so anything a hotel can do to
offer an element of novelty is beneficial. Increasingly, travellers and guests are

looking for experiences, something unique, something that is remarkable and lasts
in the memory (Rather 2020). Concepts such as personalisation, exclusivity, escape
and unique experiences are on the agenda of the hospitality business (Knobloch et al.
2017; Heyes and Lashley 2017). Travellers want to get away from the daily routine
to find unique experiences. Hotels are creating additional facilities and services that
are balanced with offering a local experience (SiteMinder 2022). Tourists do not
simply want to experience a life like their own but in a different location. Instead,
they want to experience an authentic way of life in the location they visit. Businesses
in the hospitality industry are responding to this to cater to these demands. Hotels
might provide local products, while other options like Airbnb and farmhouse
accommodations can offer a more immersive and authentic guest experience.
Moreover, travel agents and tour operators can help travellers participate in local
activities. Personalisation can be deployed in a variety of ways. Within hotels, for
instance, returning customers can be automatically provided similar services to the
last time they stayed. At the same time, they can also be personally greeted by a staff
member upon arrival, using GPS technology and booking data. Furthermore, with
the rise of technology and smart devices, hotel guests can use their own devices and
accounts on entertainment platforms.
Along with this experience concept, the solo travel trend is emerging (Bianchi
2022; Otegui-Carles et al. 2022). More tourists are spending time alone and ventur-
ing out to discover the world, interacting, making friends and integrating the
cultures, they pass through. For solo travellers’ comfort, barriers between hotel
staff and guests are being lowered, and interior design choices are made to evoke
a sense of homeliness and an informal atmosphere cultivated. Along with a less clear
divide between guests and locals, it encourages a feeling of hotel community (EHL
2022).
Another trend is digital guest experiences (Iranmanesh et al. 2022). Digital
marketing has been a helpful tool used by hotels to reach travellers. Guests interact
more than ever through digital experiences and privileging communication through
this format (Morrison 2018). Apps are part of everyday life, and hoteliers use these
tools to manage their relationships with potential and existing guests. Also, social
media has an impact on this interaction. Since the advent of Facebook, Instagram,
LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter and Tripadvisor, the influence of social media plat-
forms has increased rapidly (Shin et al. 2019). People sharing videos and photos of
their trips with friends and family is one of the most influential factors that inspire
travel. The sheer number of media available to a global audience is vast and highly
engaging, and brands use this for marketing and to reach new customers. Another
benefit of the increasing dominance of social media is the ability for travellers to stay
connected to hotels at any time of the day (SiteMinder 2022).
The health and wellness trend is also addressing the attention in hospitality. With
travellers becoming health-conscious, hotels are providing guests with experiences
related to health and well-being (Hekmat et al. 2022). Preparing healthier restaurant
and bar menus and breakfast buffet (including vegetarian, vegan, organic, gluten-
free, dairy-free and low-fat options), upgrading amenities, putting on classes,
renovating rooms and facilities to create more body and mind harmony and includ-
ing beauty salons, spas and fitness centres in their facilities are just a few examples
(Revfine 2022).
Also, remote work was increased by the pandemic. Business travel shut down,
leading to the rapid rise of virtual conferencing and events. Offices closed, leading to
the rise of remote work. Consumer health concerns catalysed a new wave of
contactless solutions. Once thought to be short term, trends grew increasingly
engrained in long-term behaviours. Virtual meeting technology and real-time com-
munication tools make work no longer exclusively location-bound. Some hotels
already have remote revenue and marketing managers, but this trend will likely
allow more hotel employees to work remotely occasionally or permanently. Even for
those who choose nomadic lifestyles, specialised organisations (e.g. Remote Year)
have emerged to facilitate travel and accommodations for people working or inter-
ested in working remotely (Hollander 2022; Floričić and Pavia 2021). Remote work
has become commonplace for many employees and is expected to be more than a
passing trend. Amid changes accelerated by the global public health crisis, many
high-profile companies (leading tech giants such as Twitter, Facebook and Amazon)
are adopting hybrid or flexible approaches to remote work. As remote work becomes
common, entrepreneurs and remote employees search for coworking spaces
(e.g. WeWork, Spaces, Impact Hub) to find fast Wi-Fi, desk space and community
and networking opportunities. Also, the hotel industry is investing in creating
coworking brands. For example, the international hotel giant Accor launched its
coworking brand Wojo (Hollander 2022), and the Selina Group developed a global
network of tourist accommodations based on the concept of digital nomads.
Also, combining business and leisure into one trip—bleisure—is becoming
popular (Economist 2019; Expedia 2018). “Bleisure traveller” has been used to
define professionals who combine business trips with leisure time and activities
(World Economic Forum 2016). It is an opportunity for hotels and hospitality
businesses to capitalise on this trend and serve the needs and desires of this emerging
segment (EHL 2022).
New markets are also emerging. Younger travellers tend to be more adventurous
and wanderlust, which makes this segment one of the most challenging for the
hospitality industry (Cavagnaro et al. 2018). Generations Y and Z live for the
opportunity to get away and undertake life-changing or life-enriching experiences
(Robinson and Andschänzel 2019; Slivar et al. 2019). They also bring a new focus to
travel, with older generations thinking about hotels and car rentals, while the
younger group are starting to think about Airbnb and Uber, contributing to the
development of what we know today as the sharing economy (Bishop 2019;
Cheng 2016; Tussyadiah and Park 2018). Airbnb has revolutionised the travel
industry, making the lodging industry more competitive and diverse (Guttentag
2015).
The concern for sustainability will continue to be the order of the day. Sustain-
ability is an important issue, and the awareness of the environment in society is
increasing (Reddy and Wilkes 2013). These changing attitudes affect how travellers
choose a hotel (SiteMinder 2022). Customers are increasingly concerned about
environmental issues and want reassurance that their companies act ethically. For
this reason, many hospitality companies promote environmental actions (Kim et al.
2019). Hotels respond with green buildings, energy savings, waste management,
solar power, water savings, less plastic, motion sensors and more meat alternatives
on their menus. The world is rapidly becoming more environmentally conscious and
is beginning to influence travellers’ accommodation choices (SiteMinder 2022). This
focus on environmental sustainability is not new, and guests increasingly expect
(and prefer) environmentally friendly products and services. Today’s travellers want
to stay in hotels that incorporate environmentally responsible practices into every
aspect of their business (Hollander 2022).
3 Digital Transformation in the Hotel Industry
Digital technologies combine information, computing, communication and connec-

tivity technologies, including social, mobile, analytics, cloud computing, the Internet
of things (IoT), AI and blockchain technologies (Busulwa et al. 2022; Vial 2019). Its
use has been increasingly comprehensive, including tourism and hospitality (Van
Der Schaft et al. 2022). Organisations must constantly adapt to new technological
realities, from digitisation to digitalisation to digital transformation (Lam and Law
2019; Vial 2019; Hess et al. 2016). Digitisation consists of converting information
into digital format to be stored, processed and transmitted. On the other hand,
digitalisation is about using digital technologies and digitised data to transform
roles, processes and workflows to implement more straightforward and efficient
working methods (Ritter and Pedersen 2020). On this basis, digital transformation or
digital business transformation enables organisations to review their business and
reorganise their processes to increase efficiency and stand out in customer experi-
ence and value, scalability, optimisation of strategic agility and minimisation of
strategic risk (Busulwa et al. 2022; Buhalis et al. 2019; Vial 2019). The digital
transformation of hotels is underway, with various technologies in all hotel areas,
processes, products and even buildings to improve efficiency and guest satisfaction
while solving current and future problems (Busulwa et al. 2022; Soria 2020).
Traditionally, customer-facing services are being overhauled, thanks to the more
widespread use of technology-assisted options, such as mobile check-in, contactless
payments, voice control and biometrics. Consumers who have become accustomed
to unlocking their smartphones and laptops using facial and fingerprint recognition
will soon expect the same convenience in accessing their hotel rooms (EHL 2022).
Technology is so advanced that every part of a trip or experience depends on
technological interactions, and hotels rarely operate without it. More and more
new technological tools are used in the hotel industry (Ratten et al. 2020), both in
terms of management and interface with guests and potential guests (Liu et al. 2014).
Technology makes it much easier to personalise guests’ experiences and remem-
ber their preferences. Most websites interact with notification pop-ups and chatbots,
and this trend is especially noticeable in hospitality, where permanent support is
often required (SiteMinder 2022; Revfine 2022). Chatbots can be especially useful
for providing quick answers to questions, especially when human resources are
unavailable. In many cases, this interaction can help resolve more simple issues at
an early contact stage. In other cases, collecting and passing information onto the
people most suited to solving or monitoring the problem is also essential. This
interaction seems particularly useful for dealing with the exponential increase in
questions related to the coronavirus and the respective restrictions on hotels and
restaurants (Ukpabi et al. 2019). Chatbots can answer the most fundamental ques-
tions in this area in seconds, helping to reduce stress levels for everyone involved.
Other areas, such as AI and big data, are already on the hospitality radar but still need
to be used to the fullest. Digital transformation can open new opportunities to
generate more or increase hotel revenue (Soria 2020). We identify some of the
main technological trends marking the hospitality scene in this context.
Smart hotels: A smart hotel is a hotel that uses Internet-enabled devices to send
data to one another (Yang et al. 2021). Smart hotel designs are tied in with the IoT
concept and have become more popular since smart speakers and smart hubs became
popular consumer products (Buhalis and Leung 2018). For example, smart hotels
allow guests to control heating and air conditioning from their mobile phones or turn
on their televisions by giving voice commands to smart speakers. In many cases,
smart rooms also automatically adjust things like the brightness of light bulbs, or the
temperature of a radiator, to maintain optimal conditions (Revfine 2022). The IoT is
spreading not only in our homes but also in our hotel rooms. From access to
streaming services to room keys on smartphones, essential guest room amenities
are increasingly digitised. These trends sound futuristic now, but more than a trend,
smart hotels and smart rooms will be normalised soon, as they will all have
integrated different levels of technology use and digital interfaces (Hollander 2022).
Big data: refers to analysing and interpreting a large volume of remotely stored
data (Lv et al. 2022). An example of big data would be the volume of data collected
by the hotel’s property management systems (PMS), which can be used for market-
ing purposes through customer relationship management (CRM) or customer expe-
rience management (CEM) platforms (Soria 2020). These systems use big data to
create one-to-one interactions between guests and hosts at scale. Hotel operations,
more generally, are increasingly shaped using management systems to monitor and
optimise revenues, customer relationships, property, channels and reputation (EHL
2022; Ali et al. 2019).
Artificial intelligence (AI): technology that can automatically think and reason
like humans (Lv et al. 2022). This technology analyses big data to identify patterns
and trends (Busulwa et al. 2022; Li et al. 2018). Combining a hotel’s historical data
with AI makes it possible to understand better and predict patterns of reservations
(Soria 2020). However, AI can be used for pricing rooms, checking in and checking-
out guests, online help, room service and more. Revenue management systems use
AI-powered pricing algorithms to analyse historic, forecast and market data to
determine optimal pricing (Buer 2020). It is also known as machine learning,
which in addition to thinking like humans, also learns like humans. Learning in
this area means continuously analysing and studying new data, thus identifying new
patterns (Hollander 2022). Another concept related to the use of AI is business

intelligence (BI), which ties in with the previous concept, transforming big data into
actionable information, that is, using AI and machine learning to transform hotel big
data into trustworthy and actionable information. Thanks to hotel business intelli-
gence, revenue managers can now predict whether the demand will go up or down
and make business decisions based on this information (Soria 2020; Tussyadiah
2020; Shi et al. 2020).
Blockchain: new system that allows structured sales. The idea behind this was a
cluster of computers with the same dataset, constantly checking if the content was
identical (Dogru et al. 2018). Because big data and individual datasets are not stored
centrally, blockchain allows faster access to datasets. It uses mathematical algo-
rithms to determine whether a dataset has changed or, in fact, for what purpose. The
hospitality industry is seen as an opportunity to gain independence from the distri-
bution channels (especially OTAs, search engines and GDS). The development of
digital solutions on blockchain and the optimisation of related sales, guest agree-
ments and payment transactions will make future processes faster and more efficient
(Buer 2020).
Virtual reality: following on from the orientation towards visually appealing
content, it seems only natural that businesses in the hospitality industry should
seek to capitalise on features such as virtual tours, conjuring up a digital environment
for consumers to picture themselves (Loureiro et al. 2020). For example, a
360-degree video showing a restaurant’s ambience, a lush cafe terrace or a hotel
by the beach is a great way to make an establishment stand out. Virtual tours/360
videos can help some customers better understand the available facilities. Offering
this service contributes to the enhancement of the tourist experience and, as such, to
the increase of competitiveness in the hotel industry (Buhalis and Leung 2018;
Buhalis and Law 2008).
Augmented reality: like virtual reality technology in many ways, but rather than
creating a new digital environment for users, it is concerned with enhancing real-
world environments through graphical or informational overlays (Buhalis and Law
2008). Augmented reality apps can be designed so that users can point their phones
at a restaurant and see reviews or opening times (Revfine 2022). Hotels and other
accommodation types can also use augmented reality to provide interactive tourist
information maps within their properties or to create fun opportunities to create user-
generated content (EHL 2022). Virtual reality replaces the real world with visual and
audio input, while augmented reality layers virtual elements onto the real world.
Customers who want to try before they buy can take virtual tours of hotels and even
parts of the destination. With AR, a hotel could use an interactive map to provide
information to guests (Hollander 2022).
Voice technology: with the amount of data in the world, voice search is another
aspect with the potential to take the hotel industry to another level (Buhalis and
Leung 2018). Instead of a whole screen of information overload, voice-based search
tools are designed to deliver a much more personal and helpful result. Amazon has
announced that its voice assistant (Amazon Alexa Voice Assistant) is coming to
hotels, from chains to vacation rentals (Cao et al. 2022). The system can be
customised to include critical guest information, such as check-out time or pool

hours; allows guests to request housekeeping, room service or other services; and
can be configured to control smart hotel room functions, like adjusting lights and
temperature, controlling the TV and entertainment systems or raising the blinds. This
development is a big step forwards in enhancing the guest experience and giving
travellers freedom, comfort and style during their stay (SiteMinder 2022). However,
the most significant impact may come from travellers using Alexa in their homes as
the technology develops further with the help of AI. If guests can have a conversa-
tion with Alexa and ask it to find them a hotel or organise a trip, then the whole
search and distribution landscape changes (SiteMinder 2022).
Robot staff: a growing number of hotels are using robots in some way to automate
check-in and check-out, carry luggage and act as concierges and room services
(SiteMinder 2022; Ivanov et al. 2017). Automation is high on the list of hospitality
trends, and robotics is an excellent example of pushing this further. Hotels, restau-
rants and similar businesses can use robots to greet customers and provide customer
information, while they can also play a vital role in security operations. Within the
hotel setting, robots have been used to offer room service and perform cleaning and
other housekeeping chores. For restaurants, it is possible to use robots to carry out
tasks related to food service. It can be beneficial when dealing with restaurant
customers trying to reduce close contact with people as much as possible (Revfine
2022; Hollander 2022; Ivanov et al. 2020).
Drones: using drones for photography and video has become very popular. Many
travellers are now using drones to record their trips and post stunning images on their
social media to show friends and family examples of the beauty of their destinations.
It is easy to understand that these aerial images can be helpful in destination and
hotel marketing (Kim et al. 2021). With a drone, it is possible to take photos that
captivate travellers online. Travellers can get ground-level imagery of stunning
accommodations and a near-preview of their journey at their destination via drone
footage, showing off more than ever before (SiteMinder 2022). However, drone
technology has already reached other levels. Drones for different purposes include
agricultural practices, control surveillance, disaster management, environment pres-
ervation, transport operations (Kim et al. 2021) and entertainment. In Las Vegas, for
example, it is already used to produce light shows (e.g. Open Sky Productions) for
hotels, resorts and casinos to entertain guests, create impactful experiences or
capture memories of the events held.
Contactless payments/new ways of payment: alternative forms of payment
encompass anything beyond the typical card and cash transactions. It might include
cryptocurrencies or loyalty points and will form the basis for a cashless society.
Integrated payment solutions have made it much easier for hotels to accept and
process transactions (Rahimizhian and Irani 2020). With payment portals housed
within the property management system, cumbersome hardware is reduced, and
more paperless transactions are enabled. Customers will always look for and choose
the payment method that’s easiest and more convenient for them. Keeping track of
trends that allow hotels to drive repeat business is also essential. In a highly
competitive market, any action that allows a hotel to stand out is a big step. Expedia
and CheapOair have already started to work with cryptocurrencies, allowing travel-
lers to buy flight, hotel and vacation packages with fully digitalised bidding
(SiteMinder 2022). Also, the emergence of tools such as Apple Pay and Google
Pay removes the need even to carry a wallet. Aside from removing friction and
improving the customer experience, the coronavirus pandemic has also increased the
demand for contactless payments. Many customers and staff members feel uncom-
fortable handling cash and offering contactless payment options may be a necessity
rather than a luxury (Revfine 2022; Hollander 2022).
Distribution technology: selling rooms through the proper channels is as critical
to the success of the hotel business as effectively managing sales and bookings. With
more online booking channels announcing their presence across the industry and
more travellers visiting these platforms, hotels are increasingly working with online
travel agents (OTAs) and other platforms to maximise visibility (Talwar et al. 2020).
It has become much easier for travellers to find and book hotels, making it easier for
hotels to reach their audience. Hotels can now brand and book rooms like never
before. Today, OTAs are an integral part of hotel sales and marketing strategies.
Also, many restaurants and catering establishments have adapted to the COVID
situation by increasing food and beverage deliveries, allowing customers to enjoy a
dining-at-home-like experience. It often means taking orders over the phone or
online, delivering them quickly and offering contactless delivery (Revfine 2022;
SiteMinder 2022; Kim et al. 2021; Hao 2021).
4 Final Considerations
The transformations in the hotel industry that have taken place over the years have
been evident. On the demand side, consumers have become savvier and more
demanding. They travel more, have more access to information and are more critical
of the services they want and the hotels or other forms of accommodation they
choose. Technological evolution has contributed to this closer and more direct
relationship with the hotel industry regarding the search for information, the choice
of alternatives, forms of communication and payment. On the other hand, higher
levels of demand have contributed to a constant evolution of hoteliers, whether in
service quality or diversification of supply.
In increasingly competitive markets, tourist accommodation must differentiate
itself by creating added value in the tourist experience. Technology has also con-
tributed to this context by working the information and other multimedia content,
introducing technological tools to improve the relationship with consumers,
optimising service operations, accessing the information on the competition,
collecting feedback in real time and improving the service and any failures corrected.
Finally, tourist intermediaries have also found new business formulas in techno-
logical tools, mainly on digital platforms and, more specifically, in online booking
centres. These platforms are important sales, communication, promotion and differ-
entiation channels for the hotel industry. Digital transformation is therefore seen as
an ongoing and constantly evolving process, through which it is verified that as new
technologies emerge, they are being integrated, in one way or another, by the hotel
industry.
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Innovative Technology Applications
in Hotel Businesses
Ahmet Erdem and Mahmut Barakazı
1 Introduction
Technological inventions with a scientific basis are at the forefront of the elements
that play a key role in the development of civilization. Man, who has increased his
physical and social opportunities at various stages throughout history, has made
rapid progress by using technology. Similarly, businesses are trying to keep up with
digital innovations by improving their assets with technological opportunities. With
the Industrial Revolution, the industrialization process began to spread all over the
world in line with technological developments. This situation has expanded with the
concepts of communication and competition, allowing technology to have a global
impact (Inikori and Inikori 2002).
In line with technological developments, global competition and management
style gain different dimensions. In this context, sectors aiming at sustainable growth
invest in technology and develop infrastructure opportunities within this scope. In
particular, organizations such as informatics, technology companies, and hotel
businesses in the service sector have higher technology sensitivities (Boxall 2003).
This is because they must meet technology demands and produce higher quality
service compared to their competitors, due to their human-oriented service. With this
research, the applications of hotel businesses, which are one of the most important
tools in the realization of tourism activities, toward innovative technology develop-
ments are discussed. This context plans to evaluate the digital transformation process
in hotel businesses from Hotel 1.0 to Hotel 4.0. In addition, it will be interpreted
A. Erdem (✉)
Tourism Management, Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey
e-mail: ahmeterdem@harran.edu.tr
M. Barakazı
Gastronomy and Culinary Arts, Harran University, Şanlıurfa, Turkey

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_2
18 A. Erdem and M. Barakazı
what the applications that are the latest developments of digital technology (cloud
computing, blockchain, metaverse, etc.) mean in terms of hotel businesses.
The increasing interest in innovative applications brought about by global com-
petition has enabled great technological opportunities to be rapidly integrated into
businesses. From this point of view, Internet-based reservations, Internet of objects,
and mobile applications have started to be used frequently in hotel businesses. In
addition, the use of vehicles with robotic technology has been increasing rapidly in
recent years to increase service quality and limit the necessity of human labor.
Robotic services, bartenders, beverage machines, service robots, and smart applica-
tions can provide services in hotel businesses in various ways through devices. The
high rate of use of technological tools, which is concentrated in the young and
middle-age group, has an impact on the purchase of hotel services with technological
infrastructure. In other words, the need for technology is seen so that hotel busi-
nesses can maintain their current existence and achieve high profitability. In addi-
tion, feedback can be obtained from digital rating agencies to evaluate the services
purchased in hotel businesses as positive or negative. However, there are some
multifaceted negativities brought about by technology. It is known that it provides
serious positive economic effects to the destination, especially employment in hotel
businesses. In addition, it is stated that this situation has a critical role in regional
development and welfare. It is expected that hotel businesses using high technology
will reduce the human workday utilizing robotic tools and employment will be
damaged. In this context, the advantages and disadvantages of technology in terms
of hotel businesses are presented in this research.
It is a known fact that hotel businesses should closely follow technological
developments to maintain their current existence in the future. When the reservation,
purchasing, decision-making process, and the fact that communication can be done
with technological tools are added, hotel businesses can’t act independently from
digital environments. In this context, a multifaceted approach is exhibited in this
study, in which the relationship between technology and hotel management is taken
into account. First of all, the current technological applications used by hotel
businesses, which constitute one of the most important sub-layers of the tourism
sector, are discussed. Then, it is revealed what the technological applications, which
are thought to take place more in the future, will mean in terms of hotel management.
Finally, the compatibility and applicability of innovative technological applications
with tourism dynamics are evaluated from a broad perspective.
Although there are separate studies (RFID, NFC, robots, visitor experience) on
different study areas related to smart hotels, the lack of a study that includes all of
them as a whole is the starting point of the study (Goulding 2000; Want 2006;
Coskun et al. 2013). In this study, we tried to reveal together both positive and
negative effects of innovative technological approaches on hotel businesses.
With this research, it is studied how similar advanced technological develop-
ments, especially metaverse and blockchain, will reveal results for hotel businesses.
Traditional methods and differences in the digital transformation process are handled
with a detailed approach. In addition, the positive and negative effects of high
technology will be examined in terms of tourism dynamics and compared with the
Innovative Technology Applications in Hotel Businesses 19
relevant literature. The innovations brought by the technological change process in

the vision and management understanding of hotel businesses will be explained in
the form of sample applications. On the other hand, the compatibility of technolog-
ical tools and the infrastructure of hotel businesses will be discussed, and the level of
cooperation will be discussed as a research topic. Beyond all these processes, the
advantages and disadvantages of innovative technological developments in hotel
businesses are discussed with a general evaluation.
2 Theoretical Framework
Smart hotels are an integrated concept that includes modern information technology-
based automation control systems, an advanced set of sensors, various communica-
tion possibilities and protocols, wireless technology, renewable energy sources, and
modern waste treatment. To ensure the successful implementation of the smart hotel
concept, all hotel staff, stakeholders, and visitors should have certain knowledge and
experience (Petrevska et al. 2016). In this regard, a training program including the
use of technology should be applied especially to hotel employees.
Current client requirements for hotel services go far beyond room service or
decoration. Enjoying comfort using various leading technologies and services is the
basis of smart hotels (Chen and Liu 2020). The features of smart services (intelligent,
forward-looking, and adaptive use of data and technology) allow customers to
experience services that are not available and unexperienced in the traditional
hotel regarding their service experience. Intelligent services provide empowerment,
experience enrichment, satisfaction, privacy, security, and accurate service delivery
(Kabadayi et al. 2019).
When the relevant literature on the subject is examined,
Kim and Han (2020) categorized the underlying dimensions of smart hotel
features like convenience and control, maintenance and security, and pristine envi-
ronment and personalization. Smart hotel applications mainly provide information
services to guests, as well as increase sales, revenues, engagement, and brand loyalty
(Mourmoura 2020). It shows that for guests to be satisfied, hotel guest technologies
must be of a higher standard than at home (Beldona et al. 2018).
The study, which examines smart hotels in China, shows that the customer
experience design of smart hotels has improved to different degrees in terms of
interaction, personalization, accessibility, information, and privacy security (Luo
and Pan 2021). The perceived performance of a smart hotel is very important to
individuals’ positive attitudes and positive word-of-mouth marketing intentions
(Kim et al. 2020). In this respect, it is possible to say that the effect of smart
technologies placed in hotels on performance and marketing is an undeniable fact.
Pelet et al. (2019) emphasize that the information and communication technolo-
gies that will be used in hotels can stimulate the sensory experiences of the guests
and increase their satisfaction and loyalty. Similarly, Kim et al. (2021) revealed that
entertainment and security, as well as personalization, have a significant impact on
the development of perceived value in smart hotels. In addition, another study states
that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness in smart hotels are related to
technology possibilities (Yang et al. 2021).
Finally, Law et al. (2022), in their conceptual study examining the smart hotel
literature, found that more than half of the articles analyzed were made from the
perspective of customers; suppliers, technology, and policymakers stated that they
were less discussed. In this respect, researchers working on the subject can turn to
these areas where the literature is lacking. The studies to be carried out will
contribute directly to the literature. Smart technologies can act as catalysts that can
help facilitate dynamic service comparisons, consumer profiling, and co-experience
creation practices. Businesses should take advantage of emerging smart technolo-
gies. In addition, they need to be implemented in all strategic and operational
structures of the service environment (Neuhofer et al. 2015).
3 Technologies Used in Hotel Businesses
Recent advances in technology have led to the emergence of innovative smart

solutions that offer unprecedented opportunities for application in the tourism and
hospitality industry. With intense competition in the tourism market, it has become
important for businesses to explore the potential of technology not only to optimize
existing processes but also to facilitate the creation of more meaningful and person-
alized services and experiences (Neuhofer et al. 2015). In particular, information and
communication technologies have changed elements such as operation processes,
customer relations, marketing, purchasing, and service in the sector. Industry man-
agers have started to use technologies to maximize their efficiency, monitor the
performance of competitors, expand distribution channels, differentiate from com-
petitors, improve corporate image, and create the best strategies (Leung 2019).
Hotel businesses are one of the most important parts of the tourism industry,
calling for innovation and technological advances to become “smart” (Yang et al.
2021). In hotel businesses, smart technologies are divided into two categories:
operation (e.g., property management system, revenue management technology)
and experience enhancement (e.g., face recognition technology, smart room elec-
tronic control, virtual reality experience) (Han et al. 2021a, b). Technologies used in
businesses include robotic services, Internet of things (IoT), data analytics and cloud
technology, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, blockchain, NFC (Near
Field Communication), and a range of technologies such as RFID (Radio Frequency
Identification). In this context, some of the technologies used in hotel businesses are
explained in this part of the book section.
4 Cloud Computing
Cloud computing can be defined as being able to access files, data, programs, and
third-party services via a web browser over the Internet hosted by a third-party
provider (Kim 2009). Seyrek (2011) defines cloud computing as “the model where
users access various information services such as computing, storage and applica-
tions over the internet without knowing where this information is stored, on which
servers the applications are running and how they are technically configured.” In
short, cloud computing is the platform where programs are used, files are stored, or
data is accessed over the Internet instead of hard drives.
Types of cloud computing systems include public (it is an open cloud computing
platform and its data is easy to use), private (a system that businesses set up and
manage in-house), community (combines features of public cloud and private
cloud), and hybrid clouds (platform is used to share resources, co-created by various
organizations) (Lai and Hung 2018). In this context, cloud computing is a model of
receiving service by connecting to other servers over the Internet without the need
for any software and storage unit via desktop computers, tablets, phones, or smart
mobile devices. Cloud computing facilitates the overall distribution of services and
resources, helps keep costs under control, and is poised for a major change in the
way we do business globally (Nadda et al. 2020).
The data obtained from all units within the hotel ecosystem is stored in the cloud.
The cloud data center not only collects statistics and operational data produced by
stakeholders but also allows timeless and unlimited access (Buhalis and Leung
2018). In the hospitality industry, cloud computing is used in many services such
as customer performance monitoring and reporting, stock control, food and beverage
management, staff productivity, and towel tracking (Gökalp and Eren 2016). The
collection of instantaneous data from guests and employees in a single point is very
valuable for managers. To list the advantages of cloud computing in the hospitality
industry (Bhatnagar 2020):
• Reduces operating costs (benefit to hoteliers by reducing costs such as energy,
equipment, and operations)
• Provides enriched guest experiences (meaning hotel check-in can be done from
smartphones or tablets, not just through the hotel’s reception)
• Provides direct reservations (one of the biggest advantages is real-time updates,
making the process much smoother, cheaper, and faster)
• Helps with payment processes (provides payment variety/convenience for the
guest)
• Enables remote working (giving hotel managers the flexibility to access and work
on them from anywhere in the world)
To sum up, cloud computing helps guests to choose a suitable hotel and get
desired services and amenities before their trip. It then supports the guest’s welcome
by the staff at the hotel and provides a customized service. In addition, cloud
computing provides the hotel’s value to the guest and provides the hotel staff with
the information they need (Deloitte 2022). In this context, although hotel managers
cannot control the weather, they can use the cloud to reach their goals.
5 Blockchain
Blockchain technology (BCT) is an online platform that records transactions chro-

nologically and tracks assets through distributed ledgers (i.e., shared ledger) in a
network (Dogru et al. 2018). Accordingly, it is defined as a distributed database or
general ledger of all transactions or digital events conducted and shared between the
participating parties. Unlike a traditional ledger, it does not require a centralized
system for ownership management (Filimonau and Naumova 2020). This means that
ledgers are not stored in a central repository but across the network, thus providing
users with more secure, permanent, auditable, anonymous, and decentralized access
(Nam et al. 2021).
Transactions on the network can include numerous options such as sending and
receiving money, paying for products and services, booking a hotel room or flight,
making a reservation, and entering into a contractual agreement (Dogru et al. 2018).
In addition, blockchain technology can eliminate fraud and errors, increase effi-
ciency and security, reduce paperwork-related costs, and create sustainable inven-
tory management, control systems, and vendor transactions to facilitate more
efficient supply chain management (Kizildag et al. 2020).
The potential use of blockchain technology (BCT) will help interested companies
create secure digital records as well as enable secure data storage. Adoption of
cryptocurrencies as a payment method can save millions of travelers from the
extra costs associated with using intermediary platforms. This means that travelers
can book hotel and flight tickets without the need for an intermediary (Rashideh
2020). Blockchain satisfies tourist requirements as it provides trust, transparency,
security, and credibility by adding transactions to an immutable distributed ledger.
Using blockchain in the tourism industry allows customers to interact directly
with various stakeholders, reducing the need for third-party booking agents. Travel
and accommodation industries also make smart contracts among themselves regard-
ing the financial records of tourists. The blockchain provides a common view of a
unique transaction wallet and allows users to book travel tickets, hotel, and restau-
rant reservations from the same blockchain-based application using a single
cryptocurrency (Bodkhe et al. 2019). The usage areas of blockchain technology in
the hotel industry are listed below (Kizildag et al. 2020).
Payment and cryptocurrencies:
• Monitoring and service customization (blockchain technology has the potential to
provide monitoring functions and personalization services for guests without
violating guest privacy)
• Mediation of accommodation and tourism operations
• Innovative loyalty programs
• Smart contracts
• Integrated property management systems (PMS)
• Verified rating and review systems
• Collaboration initiatives and due diligence
As with other industries, the hospitality and tourism industry is always on the
lookout for innovative solutions to help increase competitive advantage, increase
customer satisfaction, and improve profitability performance. For this purpose,
blockchain can be used strategically in the hospitality, travel agency, and catering
industries to achieve goals (Willie 2019).
6 Internet of Things (IoT)
The Internet of things (IoT) has brought with it a paradigm shift that radically
changes the way they do business, enabling businesses to develop value-added
services, service business models, and sustainability with the machine and device
networks (Lee 2019). The hotel industry has recognized the potential impact of the
IoT as many hotel chains are researching to implement their custom solutions. The
application of IoT in the hotel industry focuses on providing personalized services to
improve the guest experience (Amer and Alqhtani 2019). The IoT is considered a
major stream of research and innovation, connecting the physical and virtual worlds
with the massive amount of electronic devices distributed in homes, vehicles, streets,
buildings, and many other public environments, leading to countless opportunities
for new services (Car et al. 2019). It is possible to list the three main features of the
Internet of things at the system level as follows:
• Everything communicates: smart things can communicate with each other wire-
lessly and create ad hoc networks of interconnected objects.
• Everything is defined: smart things are defined by a digital name—relationships
between objects can be specified in the digital domain when physical intercon-
nection cannot be established.
• Everything interacts: smart things can interact with the local environment
through sensing and actuation capabilities when available (Miorandi et al. 2012).
One of the unique features of IoT technology is that it is very effective in finding
and using various information available on the Internet through several devices, thus
responding to customers’ requests (Ramgade and Kumar 2021). Smart technology
using IoT data offers new opportunities for the travel and hospitality industry. IoT
provides easy access and interaction with a wide variety of information for areas
such as transportation, attractions, tours, shopping, and hotels (Wise and Heidari
2019).
IoT in a smart hotel consists of smart sensing technologies, smart devices,
services, and networked technical systems. To achieve speed, quality, and comfort
in a smart hotel, an intelligent management system that provides smart and automatic
control with self-awareness, self-prediction, self-optimization, self-configuration,

and self-diagnosis should be developed (Metallidou et al. 2020).
With IoT, hotels can save energy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and
increasing comfort and convenience for hotel guests. IoT solutions can help imple-
ment sustainability programs. For example, occupancy sensors can provide critical
data and alerts that can help hotel management better manage and regulate energy
consumption and support sustainability initiatives (Eskerod et al. 2019). In this
context, IoT technologies offer the opportunity to integrate more systems (e.g.,
heating, air conditioning, window openings) on a single platform (also known as
smart management). This makes it easier for the guest to operate and regulate the
room conditions (heating, ventilation, lighting, TV usage, sound level, etc.) through
a single device while optimizing hotel operations (Morales Contreras et al. 2019).
Thanks to the Internet of Things, hotels are better able to manage their operations
(Ristova Maglovska and Dimitrov 2020):
• High level of customization and satisfaction
• Sustainable hotel rooms
• Enhanced security of guests, staff, and hotel property
• Facilitation of the management system
Customers are the epicenter of these IoT technologies that result in massive
amounts of data being collected from them. Such data and their management bring
along new concerns about privacy and ethical issues, as well as their business use
(Mercan et al. 2020). To overcome such concerns, it is necessary to clearly explain
how the system works to the visitors. In addition, the benefits that visitors will gain
as a result of sharing personal data should be demonstrated.
7 Mobile Apps
Numerous industry reports on mobile technology and travel indicate that mobile is
one of the most important trends to watch in the future (Gibbs et al. 2016). The
number of smartphone users is estimated at 6.4 billion as of 2021 and this figure is
expected to increase to 7.5 billion by 2026 (Statista 2022). The fact that the average
adult today spends more than 4 h a day using their smartphone (Law et al. 2018)
reveals a striking fact about technology use. Users can use mobile applications both
in their daily lives and in their travels without the time and place limits (Erdem et al.
2020). Many hotels and online travel agencies want to be at the forefront of this trend
in the adoption of smartphones for travel planning and accommodation services.
While some hotel groups such as Choice Hotels, Starwood Hotels and Resorts,
InterContinental Hotels Group, Marriott, and Hyatt have developed their mobile
applications, large online travel agencies such as Expedia, Travelocity, Tripadvisor,
and Hotwire have also launched mobile applications (Wang et al. 2016). In this
respect, the increasing ownership of mobile devices, the adoption of applications, the
contribution of mobile travel reservations to the general travel market, and the
features and functionality of hotel applications are facilitating the processes.
Tourists rely on mobile technologies to simplify travel, especially by searching
for information about transportation, accommodation, attractions, and activities
before and during travel. In addition, tourists use smartphones to communicate
with others through emails, calls, text messages, and social media, play games,
listen to music, take photos, share pictures, watch movies, or read the news
(Adukaite et al. 2013). In the early stages of the hotel mobile application in 2009,
Choice Hotels International launched its iOS-based mobile application to allow hotel
guests to book rooms and access the guest loyalty program. Hotel apps have evolved
since then and now generally offer a wider range of functionality (Gibbs et al. 2016).
In the era of mobile consumption, travelers have become, and will continue to be,
more dependent on smartphones to search for and purchase hotel accommodations
(Leung et al. 2013). Mobile technology operates in an environment where multiple
actors can simultaneously exist and interact, including customers, employees, man-
agers, partners, and suppliers. In this respect, mobile applications can be defined as
actors that facilitate the integration of resources during co-creation (Han et al.
2021a, b).
There are applications for many hotels such as room reservations, calls, real-time
feedback via guest surveys, area information, loyalty account access, restaurant and
spa reservations, maps, augmented reality apps, check-in and check-out, and room
door key and payment method (Chen et al. 2016). With the development of infor-
mation technologies, guests can control many hotels from their smartphones, get a
digital key, and go to their rooms and do all these without touching anyone (Bilgin
Sarı 2018). In addition, smartphones and applications provide more convenience,
flexibility, efficiency, and entertainment to users, but they can also cause unwanted
problems as a result of poor connection, high battery power consumption, charging
problems, limited device processing capabilities, or excessive roaming charges
(Stankov et al. 2019). Therefore, businesses should take the necessary measures to
get the maximum benefit from technology. For example, at this point, placing
charging stations at certain points of the hotel and keeping the Internet connection
speed high can be counted among the simplest measures that can be taken.
As a result, mobile technology has been recognized as an accessible tool with
high potential to enhance customer experiences and facilitate co-creation in the
hospitality industry. Mobile technologies have expanded the spatial and temporal
dimensions that can create value with their portability, ubiquity, and synchronized
structures (Lei et al. 2019). As many people now spend more time online on their
smartphones than on their computers, hotel and tourism suppliers have to design
online marketing tools and applications to increase their visibility on smartphones
and gain share from the burgeoning online market (Leung et al. 2013). In this
context, understanding the current capabilities of smartphone applications and the
user experience of these applications can help the hospitality industry develop more
user-friendly applications and effective distribution strategies through mobile chan-
nels (Wang et al. 2016).
8 Robots
Robotic vehicles, which are expected to develop further with artificial intelligence,
are expected to reach levels that can understand and empathize with human emo-
tions. In this context, it is predicted to have positive emotions such as robotic
vehicles, social multiplier effect, hedonic motivation, human formalism, perfor-
mance efficiency, and increased effort (Lin et al. 2020). It is thought that humans
will fulfill behavioral emotional tasks as well as physical work outputs. Advanced
robotic systems will be more involved in the production and presentation process of
tourism businesses in the future, thanks to the ability to set standards in service
quality, comply with hygiene rules, ensure continuity, and transfer positive behav-
iors with artificial intelligence (Demir and Dincer 2020). Robots represent three
levels: hardware, functionality, and service. While expressing the shape of the
mechanical design including the hardware, sensing system (sensors), and motion
system (actors), functionality and software architecture such as navigation, dialogue,
visual and voice recognition, location, and mapping mechanisms are specified.
Finally, service refers to the added value that a hotel aims to create and offer to its
customers to maintain its competitive advantage (Kuo et al. 2017).
The reason why robotic vehicles will become more important in the future is
summarized as follows (Milman et al. 2020):
• Welcoming and directing people
• Information about the product without worrying about keeping waiting on staff
• Helping people to buy
• Using the features and functions offered by robotic servers
• Access to the production preparation process, cooking techniques, and stock
information
• To save time by knowing the service timing of the products
• To reveal personalization and promotional information by matching with mobile
applications (brand loyalty and belonging)
• To check the price after the experience and to measure service satisfaction
Job positions performed by robots in hotels include various tasks such as front
desk duties, doorman, bellboy, in-room assistants, fielder, waiter, bartender, cook,
security service, vacuum cleaners, and a robotic arm that operates the luggage
storage room (Lukanova and Ilieva 2019). Considering the abovementioned tasks,
it is a fact that robots can work in almost every department in the hotel industry. In
this respect, with the help of technology, the problem of employing specialist
personnel in many fields can be eliminated in hotels that are labor-intensive.
However, it will not be utopian to expect unmanned hotels to become widespread
and serve soon.
9 Sensors
Sensors, which are an important part of the Internet of things, are a technology that
works at low power, detecting all the motion around it and reporting it to the relevant
area (Thakur 2022). Thanks to the sensors to be placed in the hotel, all the
movements of the guests in the hotel can be examined (Xu and Helal 2015). Many
important details can be obtained, such as which bar guests visit the most, which
areas (such as cold, hot, pastry or sitting areas) are used more intensively in the
restaurant, and which routes are most preferred within the hotel. Thanks to the data
received with the help of sensors placed in various areas of the hotel, guests’
preferences can be determined more clearly. In addition, possible problems can be
prevented. Other advantages of the sensors are that they can be used in processes
such as towels, slippers, toiletries, and the products in the minibar. Thanks to this
kind of instant data, employees can quickly procure a new beverage, for example, a
beverage that has run out in the minibar. In this way, both staff efficiency and guest
satisfaction can be increased.
10 Sound Technology
In hotels, sound technology is mostly used in the section of the room. This technol-
ogy, currently under development, is sound zone technology that aims to understand
the voices of individuals without headphones or other wearable speakers (Johansen
et al. 2021). When the guests settle into their rooms, they can make all the adjust-
ments in the room with the help of voice commands without doing any physical
activity. For example, when customers say that they want to get information about
the activities in the hotel by voice command, the system installed in the room shares
all the information with the guest. In addition, daily activities, breakfast/lunchtimes,
and menus in the hotel can be reflected on smart screens or television in the room. In
addition, the wallpaper can be arranged as desired, and the temperature and pressure
of the water in the bathroom can be adjusted (Yalçınkaya et al. 2018). Thanks to its
sound technology, it can change the entire design of the room according to its
wishes, without the need to learn the location of the air conditioner control, televi-
sion control, telephone location, or the location of the electrical switches.
Audio technology provides guests with the happiness of convenience, comfort,
and personalization. To activate the morning wake-up service, guests can activate
the wake-up call at any time with the help of a voice command instead of calling the
reception by phone. In addition, it has the opportunity to bring the ambient temper-
ature in the room to the desired level without taking any action. When he wakes up in
the morning, he can open the curtain as much as he wants with the help of voice
commands without getting out of bed. Such features can directly affect guest
satisfaction and comfort.
11 Face Recognition Technology
Face recognition is a biometric technology based on image and pattern recognition.

Its basic principle is to compare a person’s facial features with an existing database
to identify them (Chen and Liu 2020). Biometric technology is used for the identi-
fication and verification of identity by measuring and analyzing the physical and
behavioral characteristics of the individual. Biometric authentication refers to the
correct authentication based on the physical (face, fingerprint, etc.) or behavioral
(such as voice) characteristics of individuals (Ciftci et al. 2021).
In line with new service models in the hospitality industry, such technologies are
promising as they can optimize processes and increase safety. Facial recognition
technologies can facilitate fast and less intrusive automatic authentication while
providing a low error rate (Morosan 2020). The facial recognition system provides
relevant technical support for smart hotels and allows visitors to pass quickly,
facilitate the management, and experience high-tech convenience (Chen and Liu
2020).
Artificial intelligence has proven to be increasingly useful for hotel practitioners.
For example, allowing hotel guests to access their rooms using facial recognition
software not only facilitates the check-in and check-out experience but also increases
efficiency (Lau 2020). In addition, thanks to face recognition technology, guests can
pay for the extra service they will receive within the hotel without any additional
action. Guests’ faces can be registered to the system before or during check-in.
Guests who have completed the face recognition registration and verification process
beforehand can go to their rooms without being subjected to the check-in procedure
at the reception. The room doors can be opened with the help of face recognition
technology, thus eliminating the loss of time for the guests.
Guests who do not perform the relevant facial recognition procedures before
arriving at the hotel can easily provide the activities within the hotel by verifying and
registering during check-in. Facial recognition technology eliminates elements such
as recognizing hotel guests, detecting their preferences (such as what food customers
prefer at the restaurant or what drinks they want from the bar), and room cards. This
situation has many advantages such as providing cost advantage and saving time and
space by eliminating or minimizing the density during the entrance to the hotel.
Another advantage of facial recognition technology is security. Hotels are complex
structures where too many people enter and exit. Therefore, it is impossible to know
all the guests in big hotels. With the help of face recognition technology, all guests
can be registered and possible illegal entries can be prevented.
12 Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Metaverse
Augmented reality can be defined as the addition of objects to the physical world in a
virtual environment with the help of various applications (Carmigniani and Furht
2011). Virtual reality, on the other hand, provides interactive 3D environments
simulated by a computer, transferring the senses to the virtual environment, allowing
users to feel the moment. In terms of the hospitality industry, where experience is of
great importance, such applications are considered promising technologies that have
a strong impact (Nayyar et al. 2018). The main feature of VR is that users enter a
completely immersive world invented by a computer system without seeing the real
world around them (Marzouk et al. 2019).
Metaverse, on the other hand, can be thought of as a mixture of augmentation and
virtual reality. But the metaverse is a virtual universe without borders. After
metaverse users log in to this virtual world through various technological devices,
shopping, meetings, concerts, and various meetings can be held. Metaverse provides
users with a wide range of motion by eliminating the limits on travel.
Through such applications, users can preview their hotels, make reservations,
access information about the business, navigate their destinations, translate written
and spoken signs or conversations, and see dining and entertainment options
(Nayyar et al. 2018). In this respect, related technologies are very important in
terms of accessibility and marketing in the tourism industry. While these applica-
tions have strengths such as a secure environment, alternative access, information
enrichment, and experience development, it has weaknesses in issues such as cost,
know-how, security, and reliability (Altınay Özdemir 2021).
Immersive technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and metaverse
have enabled tourism managers to increase their satisfaction by offering unforgetta-
ble experiences to tourists. Such immersive virtual environments based on new and
future technologies are changing the way tourism operators encourage their cus-
tomers before, during, and after their experience (Loureiro et al. 2020). Therefore,
sector managers should focus on the issue and make the necessary preparations.
13 Sample Applications Used in Hotel Businesses
The hotel industry, which has a labor-intensive feature, makes technological invest-
ments by keeping up with the global trend. Technology has found its place in every
field of the hotel industry and has triggered changes in processes. Technologies used
in the hotel industry and some sample applications for them are given below.
Henna Hotel, Japan, is one of the first examples of investing in the future as a
hotel run entirely by robots. Multilingual robots serve the guests. After check-in, the
luggage is carried to the rooms by a robot on duty, and after entering the face
recognition system, the guests do not need a room card for entry (McQuarrie 2016).
UK-based hotel chain Village Hotels, on the other hand, launched self-service hotel
kiosks supported by a cloud-based management system. Visitors checking into the

hotel can check into their rooms without having to consult a traditional concierge
(Pijak 2016).
Wynn Resort in Las Vegas has created a mobile app that allows guests to easily
access all the information they need about the facility, shops, current events,
concerts, and offers. In addition, the hotel has placed a voice assistant feature in its
rooms in cooperation with Amazon. Smart self-check-in/check-out kiosks, smart
TVs for connectivity, and service robots serve guests at YOTEL Singapore Orchard
Road Hotel (Sbounıas 2019).
Aloft Cupertino, California, employs a robotic butler that offers room service.
The robot directly fulfills the requests through its local map. Eccleston Square,
London, has integrated modern technology, giving guests an iPad so they can control
the heating, lighting, and music in the room. The Scarlet Hotel, Cornwall, UK, on the
other hand, has adopted environmentally sustainable principles and prevented the
waste of energy with the help of various sensors in the rooms (Charlton 2018).
14 Conclusion
Today, especially the techniques related to the service sector are developing and this
creates valuable opportunities for tourism. Various technologies used in the service
field have been applied in planning, managing, promoting, educating, creating, and
transforming tourism experiences (Loureiro et al. 2020). As a result of these appli-
cations, smart hotels started to serve. The smart hotel has a technology-based smart
system. Hotels use information and communication technologies and other technical
intermediaries to achieve the goal of saving operating costs, strengthening the
experience level of customers, and increasing the work efficiency of employees
(Xia 2018).
Hotel businesses are one of the most basic requirements for people who want to
travel, because the destination must have accommodation and eating facilities. In
addition, the technological infrastructure and service elements should have digital
possibilities. However, the applicability and shareability of technological tools in
terms of hotel businesses need to be investigated effectively. Digital developments
that are not suitable for the infrastructure and management process of the hotel
business sector can give more than benefits. At this point, the sensitivity and
integration of the process management and physical capacities of hotel businesses
to technology are important.
Smart hotels leverage cutting-edge technologies to offer customers different and
more technology-driven experiences. It has been observed that human-induced
service errors are minimized and costs are saved in hotels where smart applica-
tions/technologies are used (Dalgic and Birdir 2020). In smart hotels, customers
benefit from efficient services without spending too much effort and time, resulting
in positive customer responses (Kim et al. 2020). It supports minimizing the risk of
transmission by reducing contact, especially in pandemic conditions such as
Covid-19. In addition, the Internet of things, artificial intelligence, and sensors used
in hotels offer advantages in terms of energy saving. Unnecessary use of energy in all
areas, especially in hotel rooms, is prevented, thereby supporting the protection of
scarce resources and providing cost savings (Ramgade and Kumar 2021).
Smart hotel applications have many advantages as well as disadvantages. Visitors
may want to experience a technology-free holiday during their stay. However,
problems of adaptation to new technologies may arise, especially for visitors in the
upper age group. In addition, guests may not have devices that can run the mobile
applications in the hotel without any problems. In such situations, hotels need to
offer various training videos and device support to guests. Another negative situation
is that guests do not like systems where facial recognition systems, fingerprint
readers, or other personal data are recorded. In particular, following the personal
data protection law, businesses must show maximum care and make the necessary
investments to store information. In the face of other possible problems, managers
need to make plans covering various alternatives to keep customer satisfaction at a
high level.
As in all areas of tourism, due to the different dynamics and approaches in hotel
businesses, complex level service applications can become easier with innovative
technologies. For example, Penha Longa Resort, which operates within the Marriott
group, offers a 3D experience to people who receive massage or treatment. Thanks to
the application, the individual’s mental and physical relaxation process is improved
and it is ensured that he enjoys the services more. Again, one of Marriott’s applica-
tions, the “VRoom Service,” allows guests to order their rooms through their 3D
glasses. A first in the industry was achieved with the “VRoom Service” developed in
cooperation with Samsung. The use of the program was first initiated at the
New York Marriott Marquis and London Marriott Park Lane businesses. Another
brand that uses technological applications in the field of hotel management is Hilton
hotel businesses. In collaboration with Opera MediaWorks, it runs an interactive
360° video mobile advertising campaign that takes users on a virtual vacation
to create an immersive and engaging experience. The application allows the user
to adjust the desired angle by rotating the device instead of touching the screen to
explore the surroundings. With digital advertisements, Hilton enables guests to
discover new places, experience unique adventures, and create their own stories.
Virtual environments such as ocean waves, the physical panorama of the hotel, a
beautiful beach, or a forest view from the terrace are some of the unique experiences
offered to users. Similarly, other hotel businesses use digital tools in hotel services
applications (Kolobkova et al. 2021).
To summarize, today’s tourists want to buy personalized services (which they
only have). It is imperative to focus on details that will make a difference, as the hotel
industry has many substitutes and is easily imitated (Lei et al. 2019). The integration
of technology into the processes within the hotel will enrich the guests’ holidays
while at the same time making them enjoyable. Guests in hotels demand much more
than the comfort and peace of their homes. Therefore, businesses must meet all the
requests of the guests. Technological infrastructure investments to be made in the
hotel sector require a high investment cost at the beginning. However, when a
long-term evaluation is made, the profit maximization of the processes needs to

increase productivity, increase the performance of the employees, and increase
customer satisfaction to the highest level. In this context, businesses will be in an
advantageous position in the long run. Especially the hotel industry is one of the
building blocks that form the basis of tourism. Businesses should get help from
technology to stay up-to-date, respond to the demands and requests of new tourists/
smart tourists, increase performance, facilitate control, and both access and share the
right information with the right method at the right time. In this context, the future of
the sector is hidden in investments in technology and innovation. Businesses with
knowledge and technology are considered to hold the key to success. Technical and
technological advances in the hotel industry, which have a labor-intensive nature, are
among the issues that managers should think about. Hotel businesses can collaborate
with technology developers to lead the way in technology advancement in the field.
By doing this, they will be able to seize increasing opportunities and be pioneers in
developing and using new technologies (Kim et al. 2020).
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Does Virtual Hotel Shifting Realities or Just
Daydreaming? A Wake-Up Call
Aniesa Samira Bafadhal and Muhammad Rosyihan Hendrawan
Virtual commerce (v-Commerce) is one of the latest developments of e-Commerce

in the past two decades, powered by the utilization of immersive technology such as
virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) or its derivative to the commercial
activity conducted in a virtual environment. Besides advertising, virtual social
worlds also offer the possibility of e-Commerce, or, in this virtual channel,
v-Commerce. One common way is to sell digital versions of existing real-life
products and services (Kaplan and Haenlein 2009). As environments, they are
instantly global, and the ever-increasing technological applications are furthering
the capability of users to be online throughout their daily activities, whether in the
office, in their homes, or on the move. When we label them “virtual,” we do not
mean to imply that they are less “real”—only that they are computer-mediated. This
“virtual item trade” or “real-money trade of virtual property,” as it is variously
known, has forced a re-evaluation of the status of imaginary consumption play
(Lehdonvirta et al. 2009). Hence, purchasing virtual products and services in a
virtual environment is a rapidly growing form of online consumer behavior, espe-
cially among digital natives.
Generational cohorts that form shared values, preferences, and beliefs throughout
their lifetime will likely represent long-standing behaviors, including consumption
and travel patterns (Bernini and Cracolici 2015). Generation Z is considered a
significant cohort (Robinson and Schänzel 2019). Generation Z is mostly the
A. S. Bafadhal (✉)
Department of Tourism, Faculty of Administrative Science, Brawijaya University, Malang City,
Indonesia
e-mail: aniesa.bafadhal@ub.ac.id
M. R. Hendrawan
Department of Library and Information Science, Faculty of Administrative Science, Brawijaya
University, Malang City, Indonesia
e-mail: mrhendrawan@ub.ac.id

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_3
38 A. S. Bafadhal and M. R. Hendrawan
offspring of Generation X, and this young generation comprises individuals born in

the year 1995 to 2010 (Chhetri et al. 2014). The importance of this generation and
the broader youth market lies in the fact that it represents the future market (Vukic
et al. 2015). They have been called “post-millennial,” “centennials,” “pivotal,” “Gen
Zers,” “iGens,” or “digital natives,” among other tags for their natural acceptance of
technology as part of their lives. Generation Z has been exposed to various forms of
information technology since their early childhood raised during changes occasioned
by the Internet, smartphones, laptops, freely available network, and digital media
(Tulgan 2013). The Millennials are also another generation that grew up in the era of
new technologies. Millennials are the first generation to have lived in close contact
with ICTs from an early age, which has led this generation to develop a strong
connection to the digital world. The intensive and constant use of ICTs means that
Millennials are permanently connected to the Internet and, through this, to their peers
(Veiga et al. 2017).
Today’s tourism and hospitality managers face new challenges in dealing with
travelers who are part of digital natives, brought up in a three-dimensional
(3D) world of virtual communication, visual complexity, and online identities.
Paul Redmond, a generation cohort expert, said first is Generation Z’s powerful
influence on family holidays as their parents opt to consult therefore booking trips
and second is their preference for experiences rather than possessions, thus increas-
ing their propensity to travel in search of “fun experiences” (Robinson and Schänzel
2019). They expect more engaging, pervasive, and interactive experiences in their
travel journey than standard tourism and hospitality businesses can give them. Wood
et al. (2013) contended that Generation Z could prefer to consume “escapism” goods
such as virtual experiences through the virtual product. Fuggle (2017) argued that
marketing to Generation Z travelers would highly rely on developing short and
compelling digital visual content that grabs their attention. Consider creating 3D
VR/AR and video clips of products, services, and destinations, as this generation is
more visible. Tourism destinations can benefit by employing contemporary princi-
ples and practices to meet the needs of the new generation of tourists who seek rich
virtual and gamified tourism experiences (Skinner et al. 2018).
A promising solution for customers to experience the hotel offers is visual
presentation formats, including pictures, videos, and 3D designs (Grüter et al.
2013). As in many other industries, technological advances rapidly change the
hotel industry (Ivanov et al. 2017). The hotel industry has to provide for the diverse
needs of its clientele. With the young generations becoming independent customers,
the market demand has changed. Hotels are relying on technologies now more than
ever (Kim et al. 2020). Generation Z is poised to become a highly influential group
of future hotel guests. For hotels to cultivate loyal customers in this lucrative market,
hotel managers must step up their immersive technologies and analyze the potential
of VR/AR to deliver an out-of-the-world experience. There are plenty of ways hotels
can incorporate VR/AR into the guest experience, and new ones are coming virtual
constantly. As guests become more tech-savvy, VR/AR can help make sure that their
expectations are met and exceeded (Ristova et al. 2019). Technology has helped
swing the power of influence from hotels to savvy, sophisticated global travelers:
Does Virtual Hotel Shifting Realities or Just Daydreaming? A Wake-Up Call 39
. . .This is a pretty nice place. Like a mid-priced business hotel in the Valley. She never
figured anything like this existed on the Raft. . ., and it was just like a fu**ing hotel in there:
bellhops with white gloves carrying luggage for guys in suits, a registration desk, everything
(Stephenson 2003).
In 1992, US author Neal Stephenson published a science fiction novel titled Snow
Crash, which tells the story of a protagonist named Hiroaki Protagonist. He phys-
ically lived in Los Angeles during the early twenty-first century but mentally spent
most of his time in a 3D virtual world called the Metaverse. They can appear in
personalized avatars and perform activities familiar to their real life, such as visiting
hotels and nightclubs, meeting and making friends, or consuming pseudo goods
(Stephenson 2003).
As the virtual world, known as Metaverse, began to be introduced into present life
rapidly, low-cost and convenient virtual reality equipment, user-friendly Metaverse
software is becoming more and more commonly used in everyday life activities. One
of these days, the human race will vacate the physical-temporal world of “meat”
existence altogether. Then we’ll become pure information and live in these things
calling it “virtual reality,” “electronic nirvana,” or whatever (Coleman and Perriman
1995). Ultimately, this will result in virtual worlds becoming an integral part of
tomorrow’s life, potentially similar to the importance of mobile phones in today’s
society. However, an extreme evolution envisioned in Stephenson’s Snow Crash can
hopefully be avoided (Kaplan and Haenlein 2009).
If we consider the structure of the hotel—a structure with the communal space of
the lobby and then individual rooms connected via walls and a corridor—we are
already presented with the framework of parallel worlds. For some time, the idea of
the hotel as a miniature world or parallel universe in either tension or symmetry with
the city outside has been articulated in theory, literature, and film; operating as it
does in culture and film, the parallel hotel slips between being a real and a virtual
world, thus the slipstream text’s privileged vehicle (or space) (Clarke et al. 2009).
With all that in mind, we envision ideas and some of the possible applications of
the Metaverse in the hospitality industry by building meta-versions of their hotels,
allowing avatars of guests to meet with their friends in the lobby, or brainstorming on
their virtual meeting rooms, of course for a fee. Whether it may be way too early for
the attention that the Metaverse is getting in hospitality?
While offering VR/AR services to the guest base may still feel very sci-fi, for
now, anyone working in hospitality needs to be aware of the waves it’s already
making in the industry. VR is in no way mandatory for hotels, and it doesn’t seem
like it will be, at least not shortly; on the contrary, is it one of those features that can
spice up a guest’s journey and drive a higher level of popularity for a hotel, which
can result in more bookings. These days, VR isn’t something guests expect from
hotels; it’s more of a rare feature that guests are willing to search for actively. Since
not many places have VR headsets and experiences, but many guests are talking
about them, guests are curious. In hospitality, where guests are always looking to be
“wow,” being ahead of the curve with the latest technology can be the difference that
sets a hotel apart from its competitors (Ristova et al. 2019).
Many hotel guests appreciate hotels that continually introduce and offer new
technological amenities that directly impact guest satisfaction and provide hoteliers
with an additional source of revenue (Bilgihan et al. 2016). In a worst-case scenario,
virtual social worlds are just another form of media that your company can use in the
short term to reach a segment of highly creative and technologically advanced users.
But they may also start a whole new area of retailing and dealing with your
customers (Kaplan and Haenlein 2009).
The term “virtual hotel” is increasingly being used in business practice and has
become an issue of contemporary study for academics in the hospitality field. Still,
the virtual hotel definition does not appear to have been established; there is no
single definition that applies to most virtual hotels. Unfortunately, based on the
search of various literature, the concept of a virtual hotel is still vague and
understudied. The virtual hotel does not have one clear definition yet.
Even more, the terms “virtual hotels,” “online hotels,” “digital hotels,” and “smart
hotels” are used interchangeably. Otherwise, not all intelligent hotels are virtual
hotels, even though all virtual hotels’ activities would involve smart hospitality
technologies. Online hotels, digital hotels, and smart hotels are not the same as
virtual hotels, and they are a series of accommodation and hospitality businesses that
are supported by the use of Internet network infrastructure that offers real-time
access to accurate information, metadata, and knowledge about the goods and
services available at the hotel to enable hotel guests to get an effective and efficient
decision and experience before, during, and after visiting a hotel. Examples are the
online hotel room booking application based on the website, online travel agencies
(OTA), or a computer-based delivery system (e.g., mobile device, service robot, and
chatbot), which is facilitated by robots, artificial intelligence, and service automa-
tion (RAISA).
Unfortunately, some researchers still point out the misunderstanding of virtual
hotel use. For example, Cho and Wong (2002) state that virtual hotels are merely
“multimedia hotel websites which compose virtually hotel environment in the text,
audio, video, graph, and animation.” This statement is more appropriate for the
definition of a hotel website rather than for virtual reality technology in hotels. These
“virtual tours” often are panoramic photographs that do not permit any free naviga-
tion, meaning they are not genuine VR, but they importantly have an interest in
VR-type technologies (Guttentag 2010). In addition, if a clear definition of the
virtual hotel is not immediately determined, it is feared that virtual hotels will also
be misinterpreted by the terms Virtual Hotel Organization (Stefanache et al. 2008)
and Virtual Hotel Operators (Esguerra and Arreza 2021), which recently time term is
also widely used in hospitality business practices which do not indicate the use of
virtual reality technology.
On the other hand, some business people seem reckless in using a virtual hotel. In
2029, The Economist claims that a “virtual hotel” is owned by someone else who has
taken out a franchise (Roper 2018). The owner may also be delegating the hotel’s
running, either to the company that owns the brand or to another management firm
altogether. The bricks-and-mortar may be leased from a property firm. In some
cases, yet another company may be supplying most of the staff, and an outside
caterer may run the restaurants. This “virtual hotel” description illustrates how hotel
chains have given up parts of the value chain over time (Roper 2018). Thus, it is
urgent to formulate the definition, clear identification, and grouping of categoriza-
tion, and subjects of the virtual hotel become essential to understand further their
contribution to the economic and social aspects of the development of v-Commerce
in the virtual world.
In an attempt to define a virtual hotel, we can see it literally as a combination of
“hotel” and “virtual.” Gray and Liguori (2004) opined the term “hotel” is derived
from the French word Hôtel, meaning host, which refers to a French version of a
building seeing frequent visitors and providing hospitality as well as a semipublic
gathering place for communities, rather than a place offering accommodation.
However, from the late eighteenth century, a building for overnight accommodation
and meals to travelers known as inns across Britain and North America was
superseded by hotels. The change in name from inn to hotel denotes fashionable
terminology more than a specific correlation to any immediate changes in form or
function. Indeed, many early hotels offering accommodation were old inns with new
names. It is not particularly controversial to state that the early modern inn is the
forebear of the modern hotel (James et al. 2017).
The “hotel life” took one immutable form related to inexorable external processes
encased within a particular building type or service. We need to chip away at the
monoliths of hotel culture and examine the hotel’s capacity (James et al. 2017). A
hotel is formidable in its complexity. It provides “home away from home” and
meals, housekeeping, air quality, reliable plumbing, meeting spaces for businesses
and tourists, accurate accounting, personal service, safety, and host community
transportation. The list is endless. But lists only go so far in unpacking the com-
plexity. Hotel history focuses on its difficult position within travel infrastructures
and within codes and practices of hospitality and economic and technological
systems (James et al. 2017).
Hotels around the globe are feverishly elevating room service to match the needs
of the new breed of discriminating guests (Lucas 2006). We need to understand that
the human form, including human desire and all its external representations, may
change radically and thus be re-visioned. Five hundred years of humanism may be
ending as humanism transforms itself into something that we must helplessly call
post-humanism (Hassan 1977; Hayles 1999) as a player (Dibbell 1998) in the virtual
world:
The hotel room, I well knew, had belonged to a player named Ecco who was a dolphin, but
Ecco had not logged on in several months, and as a consequence, she had been “reaped”—
her account closed, her character erased, her hotel room and other properties and creations
reduced to the electronic bits of which they were made and redistributed to more active
players. That Ecco, the late virtual dolphin, was in real life Jessica, the woman I shared my
home and bed with (Dibbell 1998).
There is a wide range of alternative designations for the term “players” as the
inhabitants of virtual worlds who identify themselves as “owners” few computer
users make a lifestyle (or identity) of being someone who uses computers (Grudin
1993) and generally, people can “own” or inhabit their virtual bodies (Chalmers
2022). Hundreds of thousands of users populate this online society, some being
“tourists,” some long-term “inhabitants” (Coiffet and Burdea 2017).
The term also is commonly used interchangeably with “users” (Castronova
2003), “personas” (Cooper and Reimann 2003), “digital persona” (Kerckhove
1995); “post-tourist” (Franklin 2003), “e-travelers” (Law and Hsu 2005), “virtual
representatives” (Zhou et al. 2014), “online travelers” (Ayeh et al. 2013), “embodied
virtuality” (Weiser 1991), “personal virtual identities” (Munar 2010), “tele-tourist”
(Bafadhal 2021), “Internet tourist or e-tourist” (Stepaniuk et al. 2014), “avatar”
(Burdea and Coiffet 2003), “virtual travelers in hotel” (Björkqvist 2009), “virtual
visitor hotel” (Qian et al. 2020), “e-visitor hotel” (Biełuszko and Grobelna 2014), or
“virtual avatar of the guest hotel” (Choi et al. 2020), and so on.
It can be said that “Avatar hotel guests act as graphic representations and
identities of guests who move and explore from the real world to virtual hotel with
actual individual characteristics and identities or other artificial identities accompa-
nied by realistic human figure or graphical appearance and equipped with binocular
vision or spherical visual and or different sensory abilities to just sightseeing the
particular hotel facilities and amenities from a distance or actually in it.”
Avatars may appear in unique forms by combining different agency-related
technical features. For instance, the appearance and the navigation between the
individual panoramic views of an avatar can be realized with a cartoon image,
animal, or human figure (Wünderlich et al. 2013) or can be textual, 2D or 3D graphic
representations, or live video avatars (Campion et al. 2017) or even with hotspots.
Besides that, within this virtual world, marketers have the potential to combine
visual (sight), auditory (sound), tactile (touch), and vestibular (movement) sensory
information while also enabling gustatory (taste) and olfactory (smell) cues (Wil-
liams and Hobson 1995) to present sensory-rich experiment. However, technology
still has limitations in stimulating the senses in the virtual world; various gadgets
provide multi-sensorial virtual experiences nowadays.
The presence of a spokesperson avatar and technologies featuring avatars (e.g.,
realistic human figures) mimicking the participant’s head movement were more
persuasive and likable than a non-mimicking avatar (Choi et al. 2020). VR systems
generally track the motion of handheld objects or a user’s head or limbs. The
received data is used to determine the user’s view, navigation, interaction with
objects, and possible movement of a virtual body (Burdea and Coiffet 2003; Foxlin
2002), which is essential to encourage providers to emphasize the interpersonal
elements of the service by providing control cues, raising social presence, and
enhancing human trust mechanisms (Wünderlich et al. 2013).
Using human-figured avatars in digitalized services would be a good idea to
increase hotel guests’ technology acceptance. When using avatars, hotels may also
need to consider the combined effects of diverse attributes that determine specific
characteristics and appearance of avatars. It can be dressed either in a casual uniform
or business attire. It can have either a businesslike or caring communication manner.
An avatar can be a male or female character. It can be imposed on different levels of
professionalism and social position (e.g., hotel general manager or receptionist)
(Choi et al. 2020).
Many modern hotel providers seek to provide advanced services and cutting-edge
hotel types using virtual reality technology and its derivatives to answer the desire
not only of the enthusiast, hobbyist, and tech-savvy but fine-tuned to expected
modern guests to new essential hotel amenities and virtual consumption behavior
that continues to change along with emerging the omnipresence technologies. They
can invite users to chat and react to certain stimuli, such as predefined lists of words
or movements of others in the 3D scene. Users can decide where to go in the virtual
scene, with whom they want to interact, and what to say (Segel and Miller 2018).
The virtual hotel can add to the list of the complexity of hotel activities such as
renting virtual property/room; virtual check-in; hosting collaborative virtual or
hybrid meetings, clubs, and parties; managing potential adverse effects (e.g., cyber-
security and cyber sickness, eyestrain), virtual money, or virtual currency; VR sleep
therapy; and other rehabilitation programs.
Researchers state that virtual hotels in the virtual world allow almost all activities
usually carried out in physical hotels. In virtual worlds, avatars don’t have the rich
complex of body awareness: avatars are not yet loci of pain or hunger, or drinking.
But as a biological system, bodies can be simulated. As owners of avatars, the users
can feel hunger and pain, want to move around, touch things with their hands, eat
and drink, and even be aware of physical weight (Chalmers 2022). As depicted in the
sci-fi novel Other, they eat, sleep, breed, and think. Some were designed to be just as
real as guests (Segel and Miller 2018). They could virtually inspect a hotel room,
stroll along a beach, or see the local neighborhood before booking a real trip (Martín
and Román 2017). Virtual customers stayed in the hotel through their avatars and
then evaluated the 3D version of the project. Each virtual customer could use all the
services and rate all the aspects of the hotel (the design, the layout, etc.) (Fyall 2019).
The so-called no longer needed authentic object to confirm their gaze but enjoyed
the fakery, the games of simulation and imagination (Franklin 2003). Will a virtual
thing prove to be a pale imitation of the real thing? It depends on how imaginative we
are and the level of authenticity acceptance (Champion 2021).
It should be noted that not all physical hotel activities can be applied to virtual
hotels. Hybrid actions are needed so that the avatar in the virtual world and users in
the real world can sustain, make repeat visits, and continue both activities. By
visualizing the avatar as a hologram in the real world, they showed it is possible
not only in the forward direction (i.e., from reality to the Metaverse) but also in the
reverse direction (i.e., from the Metaverse to reality). Eating, sleeping, and bathroom
breaks are new expandable possibilities because they are not done in the Metaverse
(Park and Kim 2022). By living the roles and characters in virtual identities from the
virtual world to the real world, the need to eat, sleep, and defecate can be synergized
for a while before finally returning to the virtual world or returning to being their
authentic self in the real world.
Based on Chalmers (2017) description of the meaning of virtual reality where the
notion of “virtual X” is ambiguous between the two readings, in traditional reading,
“virtual X” means something like “as if X but not X” (consider a virtual hotel, which
is not exactly a hotel, but functions as if it were a hotel). On that reading, virtual
reality X would be an as-if reality that is not reality, and virtual realism would be
ruled out by definition. In a more recent and now more familiar meaning, “virtual X”
means something like “a computer-based version of X” (consider a virtual hotel,
which is a computer-based version of a hotel). That reading is neutral on whether
virtual X is X, and the answer may vary case by case. For example, it is plausible that
a virtual kitten is not a kitten, but a virtual hotel in this sense is a hotel. Understand-
ing the term “virtual reality” this way at less open that virtual reality is a form of
reality.
Lévy (1998) suggests that the word “virtual” is derived from the Medieval Latin
virtual, itself derived from virtus, meaning strength or power. So, the virtual tends
toward actualization without undergoing any form of practical or formal concreti-
zation. According to Hayles (1999), virtuality is the cultural perception that infor-
mation patterns interpenetrate material objects. VR technologies are fascinating
because they visually make it the perception that a world of information exists
parallel to the “real” world, the former intersecting the latter at many points and in
many ways. This is because a VR system provides a real-time view head tracking
perspective with a large angle of view, interactive control, and binocular display
(Cruz-Neira et al. 1993).
VR/AR is substantial to prompt customers to “daydream” about service experi-
ences before experiencing them at the provider’s prem; VR/AR should be posited as
shifting realities that complement “real-life experiences.” Shifting is moving con-
sciousness from one reality to another reality. It becomes far from easy to define the
difference between real and virtual. Avid users can spend 20–30 h in a virtual
environment each week (Castronova 2005). With the increasingly pervasive tech-
nology supporting virtual experiences, the digital generation sees no difference
between virtual and real experiences (Kerckhove 1995). Hohstadt and Keast
(2009) describe these experiences as “real-time” and “real-life.” The presence of
phygital (“physical” and “digital”) technology such as VR bridges both of them and
bring reality or even veritable realities or hyper-reality, so there is no longer any
distinction between reality and its synthetic version; there are only the simulacra. Is
it still possible to say what is virtual and what is real?
Virtual reality technologies are fascinating because they visually perceive that a
world of information exists parallel to the “real” world, the former intersecting the
latter at many points and in many ways (Coleman and Perriman 1995). In these
media-constructed, fictional worlds, the user can interact directly with the
represented objects so that the dividing line between the real and virtual worlds
becomes blurred (Guttentag 2021). The correlation between physical and virtual is
often referred to “as two sides of the same coin,” whereas they are considered two
parts of the same thing, which is “reality” (Hendrawan and Bafadhal 2022). Reality
consists of two distinct substances, e.g., physical and mental imagery (virtual)
substances. According to Lévy (1998), the virtual should not be compared with
the actual, for virtuality and actuality are two different ways of being. Virtualization
adds to but does not replace the real, the possible, and the actual.
Based on this mutual understanding, a virtual hotel is defined as “the application
of VR/AR technologies or its derivatives in the hotel business which forms an
immersive virtual environment that replicates the existing physical hotel form or is
synthetic from imagination by prioritizing hospitableness using high resolution

video/photo spherical 360° or realistic animations of 2D, 3D or nD visuals to get
stereoscopic vision where virtual guests by using their avatars seem to be able to
explore and interact partially or simultaneously, perform feeling of being presence
and virtual experience the services and amenities before, during, after and also with
or without visiting the actual hotel for the purposes of education, planning, promo-
tion and gimmick, reservation, shop merchandise, wellness or gathering place with
variations of use such as virtual hotel simulators, virtual hotel showrooms, hotel
add-ons on reality, self-guided virtual tours hotel, hybrid co-working spaces hotel,
meta-version hotels and standalone virtual hotels and being operationalized as the
source of revenue or otherwise free-to-play.”
The current review has demonstrated that virtual hotels could play a significant
role in the hospitality and accommodation business. It need not just be considered “a
gimmick,” but it also contains “hidden gems” that are important to know in doing
future business. Therefore, this paper aims to define and recognize basic insights into
the concept, types, and characteristics of virtual hotels according to virtual hotel
operator objectives that have been implemented. The virtual hotel is categorized into
two main types according to the number of players (users): single user or multiusers.
Furthermore, the group is divided into various virtual hotel forms where the single
user had been identified from (1) virtual hotel simulators, (2) virtual hotel show-
rooms, (3) hotel add-on reality, and (4) self-guided virtual tours, and for multiusers,
it can take several forms such as (1) hybrid co-working spaces, (2) meta-version
hotels, and (3) standalone virtual hotel as seen in Fig. 1.
1 Single-User Virtual Hotel
1.1 Virtual Hotel Simulators
Virtual hotel simulators have been developed by Best Western, Crowne Plaza
Hilton, and Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group, and InterContinental Hotels Group has
taken a completely different approach to VR, using it to create immersive environ-
ments for its corporate staff designed to help them understand what day-to-day life is
like for additional hotel employees or stakeholders. Hilton Garden Inn also uses a
play station-based virtual gaming experience to teach their employees competitively
about guest services (Sturman et al. 2011). When the hospitality company Starwood
Hotels and Resorts considered launching a new range of design hotels under the
brand name “Aloft,” it decided to first build the hotel virtually within Second Life to
obtain a better understanding of which features might be necessary for users (Kaplan
and Haenlein 2009).
Imperial Hotel, a well-known project by Frank Lloyd Wright, to the virtual model
and try to understand better the better quality of the design, the organization of
spaces, and the use of materials in Japan (Sdegno and Masserano 2017). Moreover,
Species Hotel is an open game lab exploring biodiversity, gamified ecology, and
Hotel Add-On Reality

• Web-Based Apps
Virtual Hotel Showrooms • In-Store Apps
• Web-Based • Mobile AR
• Smartphone-Based
Virtual Hotel Simulators Self-Guided Virtual Tours Hotel

• Linier • Non-Immersive VR
• Open-Ended • Semi-Immersive VR
• Massive Online SINGLE • Fully-Immersive VR
USER
VIRTUAL
HOTEL
MULTI-
Standalone Virtual Hotel USER Hybrid Co-Working Spaces Hotel
• Free to Play • Forward Direction
• Fremium • Reverse Direction
Meta-Version Hotels
• MMOGs
• MMORPGs
• MUVEs
• NVEs
Fig. 1 Virtual hotel categorization
habitat restoration, a transmedia ecology of many “species”—plant, animal, human,

technology using VR/AR, social media, 3D printing, etc. (Hornblow 2017). Inter-
estingly, evacuation behavior in a hotel building (Kobes et al. 2010) on fire evacu-
ation and wayfinding suggests that building features influence evacuation behavior
and can be trained using 3D VR replication from hotels.
Furthermore, the interactive games Cesim Hospitality, HOTS Hotel, and DECA
Virtual Business Hotel (as seen in Fig. 2) rank among the widely utilized educational
and training hotel simulations for hotel school students and hotel staff (Poulova et al.
2020). Penfold (2009) state that Virtel is a virtual hotel e-simulation developed by
the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, which is an active learning tool that different
classes and lecturers could use to enhance learning and skills application and help
Fig. 2 Virtual hotel simulator: Virtual Business Hotel. Source: Knowledge Matters (2015)
students to face realistic workplace situations and learn how to respond and prepare
for live situations in a nonthreatening way for pre-internship preparation or Work-
Integrated Education (industrial placement) preparation. Students always have
access to virtual objects such as a phone, fax, reservation book, computers, and
documents internal to the hotel (regulations, menu, price lists, tourist information,
etc.). The students interact with avatars that play different roles (customers, travel
agents, taxi drivers, etc.) (Segond et al. 2005).
Penfold (2009) suggested there are three types of virtual hotel simulations—
linear, open-ended, and massive online—and each has its strengths and weaknesses
and a primary purpose or outcome:
(a) The linear approach of the virtual hotel is suitable for some basic skills training
and also for more advanced skills like analytical and interpersonal skills.
(b) An open-ended approach would be more effective. The virtual hotel provides
isolated event learning.
(c) It can be further improved to allow system thinking with interrelated events and
situations in a massive online approach. This is more closely related to a real-
world scenario. A huge online environment also facilitates peer learning through
knowledge distribution.
Virtual hotel simulation is “an immersive virtual hotel environment in the form of
3D VR or its derivatives which can be accessed in a linear, cyclical or massive online
approach that helps hotel managers, teachers or other professionals to provide
realistic hospitality settings, and provides challenges, illustrations, scenarios that
allow employees or student teachers to practice real hotel tasks, including problem-
solving, customer relations, interpersonal skills and operational procedures that
serve as virtual lab test grounds to build mockups of their new concepts, policies,
designs and prototypes as well as ad complements or additional learning experiences
in tourism education, planning, management and evaluation of performance

appraisal.”
1.2 Virtual Hotel Showrooms
Hotel providers should consider investing in VR as a preview style to showcase their

facilities to positively influence consumers during their journey’s pre-purchase and
post-purchase stages (McLean and Barhorst 2021), offer an interactive tour of the
hotel restaurant, swimming pool, lobby, fitness center, and guest rooms, and fully
represent the entire hotel. Thus, before making a reservation, the guest can first
explore everything from the lobby to the type of chair they will be sitting on
(Poulova et al. 2020); on the other hand, it gives customers an experience of
“walking through” the physical hotel property (Gan et al. 2007).
Virtual hotel showrooms can offer their customers a kind of “try before you buy”
experience that could change hotel marketing and reservation in the future
(Guttentag 2010) and confront a real travel situation (Lee and Oh 2007) that can
affect the likelihood of visiting/booking a real hotel. Many hotel brands such as Ice
Hotel and I’m Hotel use Google Earth or use independent website applications such
as Marriott International, Golden Tulip Hotels, Jarvis Hotels, Wingate Inns Thomas
Cook, Atlantis Dubai, and Holiday Inn Express. Hilton, Choice Hotels, Best West-
ern, Wyndham, Radisson Blu, Hyatt Regency, Shangri-La, Carlson Rezidor, Airbnb,
and Vacasa have recently introduced VR experiences that enable consumers to view
360° virtual showroom of the hotel or resort’s facilities before visiting (pre-purchase
stage) as seen in Fig. 3.
During the post-purchase stage, the Innovation Hotel of the InterContinental
Hotels Group, such as guests at Hotel Indigo Shanghai On The Bund, Crowne
Plaza Beijing Sun Palace, and InterContinental Sanya Resort in China, is provided
Fig. 3 Virtual hotel showrooms: Hyatt Regency Chicago. Source: Hyatt Corporation (2022)
with a virtual hotel in partnership with HTC Corporation, a pioneer in VR technol-

ogies, which established in-room digital experience, to show what a hotel can do to
become eco-friendly sorted by the different parts of the hotel, for example, interior
and reception and bathroom or bedroom (Kis-Orloczki 2012). Virtual hotel show-
room implemented a VR tour function of the hotel facilities’ familiarity with the
physical landscape of the building and the surrounding area.
Virtual hotel showroom is “a part of hotel communication channels which can
generally be accessed based on the website or mobile VR, that provide a complete
picture of the hotel that can be displayed in realistic hotel settings to certain the point
of interest of the hotel room (e.g., size e of bed, view of the balcony, bathtub) or
additional hotel offers (e.g., spa, restaurant, meeting room, sports facilities) using
visual information formats with a combination of animation 3D/4D-panoramas,
360° photo galleries and videos that allowed the Avatar the of the potential guest
to navigate and obtain the feeling of being there that offers a more efficient
information gathering process, create an immersive user experience, and can poten-
tial implemented and planned properly for wide-ranging marketing and new cus-
tomer service opportunities such as virtual reservation, check-in, shop merchandise,
sneak and peek to familiarise with the hotel.”
In general, hotels have implemented virtual hotel showrooms in two forms,
namely, web-based hotel VR (Lee and Oh 2007) and smartphone-based VR (Israel
et al. 2019)
(a) Web-based hotel VR (Web-VR) is a web technology that has enabled many
hotels to offer VR tours. Users of this website can move a mouse to see 360°
angle views of the various parts of the hotel, including its entire interior and
exterior. Web-VR can only be used online by accessing hotel websites. Inde-
pendent websites or Google Earth, Google AR/VR, Google Art and Culture,
360° YouTube, or 360° Facebook can easily acquire editions of hotel
information.
(b) Smartphone-based hotel VR (SBVR) is a remote access hotel view using mobile
devices such as smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, and downloadable apps that
could bring VR to booking, checking, and ordering the hotel facilities. Israel
et al. (2019) state that SBVR is an application that can be used online and on-site
as direct downloads or via established digital distribution channels (e.g., Google
Play Store, Apple Store). At local points of sale (e.g., travel agencies or travel
fairs), cheap VR glasses (e.g., Google Cardboard) could be used as promotional
channels with smartphones. One can be used directly.
1.3 Hotel Add-On Reality
Azuma (1997) proposed the first definition of AR by identifying the three main
elements that characterize it: the combination of real and virtual elements, real-time
interaction, and the reproduction of content/elements in 3D. Hotels can provide
on-site or online add-on reality to hotel guests using AR technology. Some examples
Fig. 4 Hotel add-on reality: Holiday Inn. Source: Holiday Inn UK Ireland (2012)
include being used by hotels to provide experiences with virtual objects; to increase
the wealth of information in menu books, catalogs, hotel magazines, or hotel folders
for prior or during visits and virtual keys to check-in; or to increase interactivity and
entertainment with the establishment of AR game or tour in a hotel. Holiday Inn and
Beachcomber Resorts & Hotels created an add-on reality of their hotel using an AR
hotel experience, which allowed guests to point their smartphones and see realistic
virtual depictions of celebrities in the hotel, as seen in Fig. 4. Best Western
experimented with AR and Disney stars, allowing children to see themselves
alongside characters from Disney films, and other hotels have used AR apps to
allow guests to redecorate virtually.
Hub Hotel from Premier Inn in the United Kingdom started using AR with wall
maps placed in its hotel rooms. Marriott Hotels is pairing a futuristic redesign of its
hotel lobbies with a futuristic AR-packed ad in Wired magazine, collaborating with
Blippar. Besides that, Pepsi LIFEWTR created an engaging AR experience to be
used inside of Marriott Hotel room. AR enables mobile check-in and “keyless” entry
to hotel rooms with AR and Bluetooth. Starwood Hotels used this beacon technol-
ogy with AR to send virtual keys to guests, allowing them to unlock their doors
through their phones. This can also be found at Disney Resorts in Orlando, Florida,
where once you check in using their My Disney Experience app, you can choose to
lock/unlock the door room with your smartphone on the day of check-in.
Hotel add-on reality is “the use of AR or its derivatives (MR/XR) technologies in
the hospitality business that can add-on reality experience in which real and virtual
elements coexisted in the same place both online or on-site visit, for the purposes to
make exploring the hotel or local area is more enjoyable and obtaining a wealth of
information by using several applications inside the computer, portable devices,
mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, and glasses) or specific points of sales by
permitting an interaction in real-time and displaying elements in 3D both marker-
based or marker-less AR with official website facilities, local point of sales or direct
download applications.”
Three major AR applications used by companies were identified: online

web-based, in-store, and mobile apps (Caboni and Hagberg 2019):
(a) Online web-based applications. Permit potential guests at prior visits to have an
immersive experience while seated in front of their computer/laptop. Via web-
cam, hotel guests can use AR web markerless form toucans and track present
virtual objects in the real world, for example, adjusting the choice and theme of
clothing that will be brought with a selection of room themes at thematic hotels
or changing honeymoon room decorations at a personalized hotel.
(b) In-store application. Recently, retailers have been increasingly interested in
using various AR applications in the shopping process to bring life to the point
of sale by personalizing the in-store experience through markerless AR
(Kim-Berman et al. 2019). Hotel guests can use this AR service by accessing
the AR booth inside the hotel or using AR glasses that have been provided as
in-room services to get additional information about the hotel or other
entertainment.
(c) Mobile augmented reality (MAR). Through a handheld device (e.g.,
smartphone, camera, and tablet), MAR applications permit users to explore the
surrounding area (Dacko 2017). Marker-based AR allows hotel guests to get an
added experience and a richness of information when accessing hotel magazines,
restaurant menu books, and evacuation instructions making a whole hotel an
essential part of an established AR game and can be accessed in various parts of
the hotel and so on.
1.4 Self-Guided Virtual Tour Hotel
The Mira Hong Kong offers a “My Mira” portal containing other information related
to popular local destinations such as Disney Land, museums, airport taxis, etc. This
app is most welcome as it enhances virtual interaction between guests and the hotel,
and also the entertainment is centered around it. Marriott has led the way in self-
guided virtual tours with its Teleporter, the first-ever immersive 4D virtual reality
travel experience. Marriott, in cooperation with Samsung, has taken its virtual reality
tours further with “VRoom Service” at several selected rooms, as seen in Fig. 5. In
Las Vegas, in hotel casinos like the Luxor and the Venetian, one can observe
recreated environments from ancient Egypt and Venice. Amadeu allows customers
to look for flights, compare hotel prices, and book rooms through a VR headset.
In virtual tours, static pictures are arranged and linked together into a 360°
panorama, which gives the viewer a feeling of being in space (Kwiatek 2005). The
scope of manipulation ranges from panning horizontally or vertically to zooming in
on a section of the image. By linking different panoramas, the user can understand
the arrangements of rooms or a landscape (Grüter et al. 2013). Arnold et al. (2005)
stated: “virtual tours can also be used to help preserve the heritage and/or improve
opportunity by giving visitors access to a simulation, rather than placing the original
at risk of wear and tear.”
Fig. 5 Self-guided virtual tour: Marriott Hotel. Source: Framestore VR Studios (2016)
Self-guided virtual hotel is “a sophisticated 360°/3D/4D VR tours on-site hotel

services where customers can get different experiences from nature, history, culture,
and entertainment center in specific local destinations and these tours can available
on the hotel website, application or embedded in VR devices that allowing guests to
take a look various destination from their hotel room themself, so they can get
storytelling and ‘travel’ to destinations and break through the limitations of time and
space, eliminate boredom and increase knowledge about attractive local destina-
tions, as it possesses more interactive and vivid multi-sensory information to guest
senses which are expected to enhance satisfaction and even the length of stay at the
hotel.”
Beck et al. (2019) recently conducted a review of VR research in tourism based
on the degree of immersion as complete immersion, semi-emmersion, and
non-immersion:
(a) Non-immersive VR tour technological systems (e.g., those using smartphones or
tablets)—users have a low degree of contact with the physical world.
(b) Semi-immersive VR tour technological systems (e.g., those that use big com-
puter screens or projectors)—users have some degree of contact with the phys-
ical world.
(c) Fully immersive VR tour technological systems (e.g., head-mounted devices,
HMDs)—users are completely isolated from the physical world.
2 Multiuser Virtual Hotel
2.1 Hybrid Co-working Space Hotel
Interconnectivity of hybrid co-working space hotel can happen in both directions,

namely, forward direction (i.e., from the actual hotel to the virtual environment) and
reverse direction (i.e., from the virtual environment to the actual hotel). There are
several hotels that have implemented forward direction co-working spaces. In 2017,
MGM Grand Hotel & Casino and Zero Latency introduced Las Vegas’ first
multiplayer free-roam VR experience inside the Level Up gaming lounge in
September. The arena, “Virtual Reality Powered by Zero Latency,” immerses up
to eight players in a completely interactive digital universe, allowing them to
physically navigate considerable distances through the 2000-square-foot arena
while collaborating with other players (Ristova et al. 2019). Furthermore, Hotel
Hideaway partners with Sony Music for the first time, hosting a virtual concert with
Sam Fischer in 2021.
On the other hand, the form of reverse direction co-working space hotel was also
found. Wakabayashi (2010) reported that male fans of the Japanese dating simula-
tion game LovePlus+ have flocked to Atami, a resort town in Japan, for a romantic
date with their video game character girlfriends. At the real Hotel Ohnoya, which
opened its doors in 1937, the staff is trained to check in LovePlus+ customers as
couples even if there is only one actual guest. The men are real. The girls are cartoon
characters on a screen. Some devoted fans will go so far as to pay twice the rate—
most hotels in Japan charge per guest, not per room—to indulge the fantasy that they
are not there alone. A night’s stay, at most, can cost $500, though many rooms are
cheaper.
Moreover, the Care Hotel is a virtual medicine hybrid model of care implemented
at Mayo Clinic in Florida in July 2020. This temporary accommodation offers
patients a comfortable out-of-hospital environment where they can receive both
in-person and virtual care after a surgery or procedure. One of the strengths of this
hybrid Care Hotel model is the combination of a daytime in-person registered nurse
plus the physical availability of the paramedic staff with the virtual monitoring by
biometric devices and the virtual clinical team (Chadha et al. 2022).
Hybrid co-working space hotel is “a hotel that uses hybrid channels both on-site
or online using AR/VR or its derivatives that offers room space rental services, or
meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions (MICE) space in the form of a
combination of virtual and actual that is used together with another guest, both
forward direction and reverse direction to enhance guest’s on-site experience thereby
enabling the use of hotels that support collaboration, accessibility, participation,
openness, innovation, flexibility, sharing knowledge, communication, and experi-
ences between hotel guests and hotel operators.”
Mainly, during Covid-19 pandemic, hotels survive by crisis management tactics
to limit the harmful consequences by holding virtual events such as offering special
hybrid packages and ancillary such as virtual fashion shows, virtual concerts, self-
Fig. 6 Hybrid co-working space hotel: Atami Resort Town. Source: Atami City Tourism Associ-
ation (2022)
isolation hotels, virtual graduation ceremonies, virtual weddings, and even virtual
honeymoon, as shown in Fig. 6.
2.2 Meta-version Hotels
Access to a visually lifelike hotel environment where participants could visit the
hotel, go to the rooms, review the brands on offer, and choose the meta-version
hotels they preferred was made possible in Second Life, Active Worlds, Horizon,
and others similar Metaverse. Users can enter the virtual world through a download-
able client program in the form of personalized avatars.
According to Wyld (2010), there are four types of virtual worlds: (a) MMOGs
(massively multiplayer online games), (b) MMORPGs (massively multiplayer
online role-playing games), (c) MUVEs (multiuser online virtual environments),
and (d) NVEs (networked virtual environments). An example of MUVEs is
Metaverse called Second Life.
The Second Life is a virtual world developed by Linden Lab, Inc., a media
company in San Francisco, California. Unlike online games, there are no defined
character roles, quests, or missions to be completed in Second Life. Users download
and install a program that connects to the Second Life servers to access the Second
Life virtual world. The users in the virtual world are humans represented by their
avatars. Avatars, which are the graphical representation of the members, engage in
interactions with each other, exchange messages, and use money for their trans-
actions. Second Life experts have enabled users to build and personalize their
Fig. 7 Meta-version hotel: The Ritz Hotel in Second Life. Source: Linden Research Lab (2022)
avatars, private virtual premises (land), and objects (houses and clothing) through a
powerful and easy-to-use interface.
This world can be virtual, but money is real. Companies and banks advertise and
sell natural products and services by creating virtual stores (or hotels) or entering a
link inside (Mennecke et al. 2007). They have their economies and currencies, and
residents can buy and own property, attend events and concerts, go to discos, and
travel to various destinations. They can start their businesses, provide residents with
products and services, or take paid work. They can do various activities, i.e., from
meeting and socializing with friends to attending live concerts; to creating, selling,
and shopping for virtual goods; to learning a foreign language; to attending business
meetings; and much more (Linden Lab 2009).
The Crowne Plaza hotel chain, owned by the InterContinental Hotels Group, even
allows companies to book virtual meeting rooms in its Second Life Crowne Plaza in
the very same way as they can rent space in Crowne Plaza outlets in the United
States, Great Britain, or Switzerland (Kaplan and Haenlein 2009). Starwood Group
promoted engagement and customer feedback when they used Second Life to design
future layouts of their Aloft brand. The Starwood Group used the Second Life as a
testbed for the design of their Aloft brand by inviting visitors to a virtual Aloft in the
Second Life and holding focus group meetings in the virtual hotel to discuss aspects
of the design (Jana 2006).
A Metaverse version has been created in Second Life, inspired by real hotels. The
Ritz Hotel evokes an atmosphere of luxury and relaxation of the highest quality. The
Takai Hotel is a luxurious Japanese hotel located on the cosmopolitan side of Kiyori
in the Second Life, as seen in Fig. 7.
Meta-version hotel is “a form of replicating the actual hotel design and manage-
ment to the virtual world through a 3D graphical user interface where the virtual
hotel that persistence continues to exist in one way or another in the virtual world
(Metaverse) whether a guest is engaged with the virtual hotel or not, which provides
a platform for real-time social interaction and entertainment that can be described as
more of an extension of hotel life-like reality than a fantasy property alone, realize
realistic display of complex network information, services, and hotel room pricing as
an additional component can be considered.”
2.3 Standalone Virtual Hotel
In the future, a virtual hotel can be a virtual extension space of a physical hotel, or it
can exist only in a virtual world. Someday, hotels might only exist on the net. This
network presents texts and images of collections visually made through electronic
tools. As the Metaverse began to be introduced into present life rapidly, some
Metaverse applications have already been used in hospitality. Therefore, it is nec-
essary to understand the concept and types of the Metaverse and examples of its
hospitality applications. The virtual hotel does not possess a real place or space.
A standalone virtual hotel has already been invented and was founded in 2000.
Habbo Hotel is the world’s first virtual independent hotel. Habbo Hotel (now simply
known as Habbo) runs on a web browser; its environment “resembles a giant
contemporary Western indoor space, presented in isometric ‘retro style’ three-
dimensional graphics and populated by blocky cartoon avatars, each controlled by
a user” (Lehdonvirta et al. 2009) as seen in Fig. 8.
Fig. 8 Standalone virtual hotel: Habbo Hotel. Source: Habbo (2022)

Upon entering Habbo Hotel with a web browser, a new user is requested to create
an avatar, one’s digital representation inside the hotel. The avatar can resemble either
a girl or a boy and is customized by choosing a set of clothes, shoes, a hairstyle,
faces, and skin color. After creating an avatar and walking around in the hotel’s
corridors and cafes, the next thing a new user often does is create their own “guest
room.” Guest rooms can be private or open to visitors. They are initially empty but
can be decorated with a wide range of virtual items and furniture. This selection of
appearance, clothing, objects, and furniture sets the landscape for virtual consump-
tion choices in Habbo Hotel (Lehdonvirta et al. 2009). When checking in to the
virtual hotel, one creates one’s own cartoonlike Habbo avatar that can walk, dance,
eat, drink, and chat in the cafés, restaurants, swimming pools, and game rooms.
Virtual furniture, minigames, and membership in the Habbo club are bought with
so-called Habbo credits. These credits can be purchased with prepaid cards, bank
transactions, or text messages that add a specified amount of money to the cus-
tomer’s mobile phone bill (Johnson and Toiskallio 2007). The cost of additions to
the game, such as Habbo Coins, allows players to buy furniture and decorations for
their virtual hotel rooms (Hamilton 2004). Many of these services employ the
freemium business model, i.e., offering free access to the service and trying to
generate revenue from selling premium user accounts with exclusive features or
selling virtual items (Mäntymäki and Salo 2015).
Habbo Hotel also incorporates various nonviolent games and organizes events
regularly, such as celebrity visits, dress-up, and decoration competitions, contests,
organized parties, trading furniture, casinos, dating, dice games, team sports, for-
mula tracks, talk shows, clubs, hotels, orphanages and decorate their rooms within
the hotel as well as socialize with other users and make new friends, etc. Habbo
Hotel has 278 million registered users and is the most popular virtual world for
teenagers, with five million monthly unique visitors from 150 countries in 2013
(Mäntymäki and Salo 2013). Providing the primary product or service for many
users and later selling upgrades and value-added services is the central tenet of the
“freemium” revenue model (Mäntymäki and Salo 2011), which is widely used in
almost all v-Commerce businesses in the Metaverse.
A standalone virtual hotel is “basically free of charge self-personalized virtual
hotel which can only be accessed via social Metaverse (without possessing a
physical hotel) by a virtual guest using their Avatar where they can sleep, eat,
chat, decorate magnificent guest rooms, make parties or exhibition, or competition
and spend time and interact with one another so that using real money that turns to
cost of additions to the packages, amenities, ancillary equipment, premium facilities,
and membership, free access can be considered through particular currencies and
certain credits for prepaid mobile subscriptions, freemium business model, or
another revenue model that based on microtransaction in the virtual item in the
hotel that provides exclusive features that are not available on the standard account
but it can only be consumed and have value inside the virtual hotel.”
This review also explains several components of virtual hotel presence in hospi-
tality business applications that may occur. Thus, this review provides fundamental
insights into the concept of the VR/AR and Metaverse for applying it in the
hospitality industry, as seen in Table 1.
Table 1 Virtual hotel categorizations and components
58
Single-user virtual hotel Multiuser virtual hotel

Self-guided Hybrid
Virtual hotel Virtual hotel Add-on reality virtual tour co-working Standalone virtual
Component simulators showrooms hotel hotel space hotel Meta-version hotels hotel
Scenes Resemble images of Realistic resem- Blend virtual Realistic Blend virtual Resemble images of Imaginary syn-
real hotel bles the image of objects into a resembles the and real hotel real hotel thetic hotel
a real hotel real hotel image of a real
destination
Content Mostly 2D/3D/4D Mostly 360° Mostly Mostly 360° Mostly live Mostly 2D/3D/4D Mostly 2D/3D/4D
forms with VR tech photos/videos 2D/3D/4D photos/videos streaming 360° with VR tech with VR tech
with VR tech with AR tech with VR tech videos to con-
nect with the
actual hotel
User equip- Computer/laptop/VR Computer/lap- Smartphone/ Computer/lap- Computer/lap- Computer/laptop or Computer/laptop
ment needed devices, VR applica- top or AR devices, top or top or smartphone/VR or smartphone/VR
tion/web smartphone/VR AR applica- smartphone/ smartphone/ devices, VR devices, VR
devices, VR tion/web VR devices, VR devices, application application
application/web VR applica- VR applica-
tion/web tion/web
Access On-site Online On-site On-site Online and Online Online
on-site
(hybrid)
Status Complement Complement Complement Complement Complement Complement Alternative
toward
actual hotel
Guest Mostly realistic Mostly hotspot/ Mostly Mostly haptic Real guests Mostly realistic Mostly realistic
embodiment human figures arrow graphical hotspot/arrow sense of touch and live videos human figures or car- human figures or
representations graphical of realistic toon images cartoon images
representations human figures
A. S. Bafadhal and M. R. Hendrawan
Activities Online training/pre- Sightseeing, Knowledge Knowledge Co-creation, Branding, promotion, Microtransaction,
internship program, knowledge shar- sharing, pro- sharing, lei- virtual event/ standard room, the actual product,
evaluation, perfor- ing, promotion, motion, leisure sure activities, meeting, microtransaction, resembles real
mance appraisal, online booking/ activities, divertissement remote merchandise shops, hotel activities and
knowledge sharing, check-in, etc. divertissement collaboration augmented product management
etc.
Monetization Free to play/ Free to play/paid Free to play/ Free to play/ Payment with Free to play/ Free to play/
subscription virtual tour leasehold paid virtual real money freemium freemium
tour
Interaction One to one One to one One to one One to one Many to many One to many One to many
Objectives Education Marketing Entertainment Entertainment MICE busi- Marketing Entertainment and
ness/ business
partnership
Does Virtual Hotel Shifting Realities or Just Daydreaming? A Wake-Up Call
59
However, the virtualization of hotel services has been perceived with a skeptical
viewpoint. Many researchers argue that the human touch elicited from social inter-
actions with human staff is a fundamental element of hospitality and cannot be
replaced by technology (Law and Hsu 2005). VR/AR models will never replace
actual visits. Therefore, in this sense, a virtual hotel can be understood as an
alternative type of service or a way to complement the in-house visit experience
and not as a substitute for the actual visit. A virtual hotel should not be considered a
competitor to a physical hotel. The assimilation of the physical and the digital
environment will reinforce each other. Various thoughts and viewpoints present
important definitions, categorizations, and a component of virtual hotels. This
review discusses the paradigm and practices of a virtual hotel and takes it a step
further to see if the virtual hotel can be regarded as a hotel in its own right. Not all
emerging virtual hotels have come of age yet. Significant futuristic VR/AR technol-
ogies are advanced over the past decade in the hospitality industry.
Generation Z and Millennials’ technological skills also encourage the adoption of
disruptive technologies, which has implications for virtual hotels. These include
these technologies’ contribution toward increasing the adoption of technological
support. They have changed the way to travel, stay, and interact with each other.
VR/AR can help boost hotel digital strategy, improve ratings, and increase bookings.
Today, we glimpse it in its infancy. Yet, this new medium is becoming the lingua
franca (Hohstadt and Keast 2009) of the future and giving the hotel industry
boundless opportunities to engage with guests. The building blocks supporting
virtual hotel activity are expected to be robust as the hotel matures in the concept
and practice of the virtual world. Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus (Haas 2011).
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p 566
Selecting Robots to Take Over Tasks
in Hospitality Settings: Joining Two
Research Fields
Klaas Koerten and David Abbink
1 Introduction
Labour shortages in the hospitality industry have dramatically increased as a result of

the crisis of the COVID pandemic. To guarantee operations and facilitate work
processes, hotels and restaurants are increasingly exploring the potential use of
robots, here defined as mechanical devices, powered by artificial intelligence.
Because of their increased use, hospitality robotics have also grown in popularity
as a research topic. We believe that effective innovation and scientific understanding
of the impact of hospitality robots on work processes requires a close transdisciplin-
ary collaboration. With transdisciplinary research, we mean the close integration of
interdisciplinary academic research (e.g. robotics, design, social sciences) with
knowledge and professional expertise from the hospitality industry, including
those of the workers performing physical work processes. Therefore, we have started
a transdisciplinary initiative powered by the Hotelschool The Hague (including their
Skotel, a hotel that teaches students hospitality work) and the Delft University of
Technology (including their innovation field lab RoboHouse). This collaboration,
made possible by the Impulse Project, aims to enable experimental research and
design towards robot-assisted work processes in the hotel and restaurant environ-
ment of the Hotelschool. Findings from observations in hotel environments can be
used to guide the selection of relevant work processes and the corresponding design
K. Koerten (✉)
Hotelschool The Hague, Hague, Netherlands
Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
e-mail: K.koerten@hotelschool.nl
D. Abbink
Delft University of Technology, Delft, Netherlands
e-mail: D.A.Abbink@tudelft.nl

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_4
66 K. Koerten and D. Abbink
of robot prototypes, and vice versa newly developed robot prototypes can be
evaluated immediately in representative hotel environments.
To kick off this new collaboration, we wanted to implement a robot and use it to
execute tasks in the hotel environment of the Hotelschool The Hague and perform
experiments with it. When selecting this robot and trying to make an overview of
scientific literature on hospitality robotics, we noticed a lack of integrated knowledge
from the literature. Therefore, in this chapter, we aim to integrate the large body of
state-of-the-art literature from both the hospitality world and the robotics research
community, around the potential of using commercially available robots and robots
under development.
In Sect. 2, we will elaborate on the current state of the art of implemented
hospitality robotics, drawing mostly on press publications. In Sect. 3, we review
the literature on hospitality robotics: from the robotics community which develops
prototypes and from the hospitality research community, which typically focuses on
the impact of commercially available robots on guest experience and organisation. In
Sect. 4, we present a conceptual framework to use when understanding the potential
impact and unforeseen consequences of introducing robot systems in hospitality
settings. Section 5 will look at hospitality robotics on a more conceptual level and
will discuss the extent of its possibilities. This section also discusses general findings
and insights on hospitality robotics.
2 State of the Art of Commercially Available Hospitality

Robots
Robots are traditionally used to take over tasks performed by humans and to execute
them in a more constant and reliable manner. The first functional robot, the Unimate,
was implemented in a car factory, where it had to pick hot cast metal parts from an
oven. The main reason for this was the fact that the parts were too hot and too heavy
for human workers to handle, resulting in many injuries (Gasparetto and Scalera
2019). Ever since the successful implementation of the Unimate, robots have been
implemented to take over various tasks normally executed by human workers. The
advantages that robots hold over humans are the following:
1. Robots can work 24 h a day, 7 days a week.
2. Robots work more consistently than humans.
3. Robots can operate in conditions where humans cannot (in a vacuum, in extreme
heat or cold).
4. Robots can operate on scales where humans cannot (extreme small microrobotics
or large robots for handling items that are too heavy for humans to carry).
Robotics have proven extremely efficient in many production applications. The
vast majority of all cars, for example, are nowadays assembled with the help of
robots. Because of this usefulness, the application of robotics nowadays stretches far
Selecting Robots to Take Over Tasks in Hospitality Settings: Joining. . . 67
beyond factory environments. The first robot that was available for consumers to buy
was a robot vacuum cleaner, which vacuums rooms autonomously. In recent years,
robots have also been developed specifically for the field of hospitality, where they
are able to take over tasks such as cooking food, operating a reception or transporting
items through a hotel. A number of recent publications start off by stating how robots
are currently changing the hospitality industry (Belanche et al. 2021; de Kervenoael
et al. 2020; Ivanov and Webster 2017, 2019; Nonaka et al. 2020; Vatan and Dogan
2021; Pitardi et al. 2021; Tuomi et al. 2021; Shin and Jeong 2020; Merkle 2019;
Pizam et al. 2022). Although it is true that robots are being introduced in hotels and
restaurants more often, the range of tasks that are being taken over by them is still
rather narrow. There are three main types of robots developed for hotels and
restaurants nowadays. Out of those three types, only two are commercially available
on a large scale.
2.1 Hospitality Robotics Categories
Type 1: Transportation Robots

The first type is transportation robots. These robots are used in hotels and restaurants
to transport items. The COVID pandemic has seen an increase in the use of these
robots specifically in restaurant settings for transporting dishes from the kitchen to
the restaurant floor and vice versa (Chiang and Trimi 2020). Designs of such robots
have been discussed as early as 2007 (Railhet et al. 2007; Jyh-Hwa and Kuo 2008;
Qing-xiao et al. 2010). When this research was done, the robot was presented as
something to be used inside a robot restaurant. A restaurant like this would serve
entertainment purposes. However, nowadays these robots are implemented to deal
with labour shortages, which increased due to the COVID pandemic. Studies by
Shimmura et al. (2020) and Nonaka et al. (2020) report increased productivity and
employee satisfaction when food delivery robots are introduced. The design of these
robots comes from automated guided vehicles (AGVs), which are normally used in
factories to transport items. Shimmura et al. (2020) also refer to the restaurant robot
as an AGV. Examples of transportation robots are the PuduBot and the BellaBot,
both shown in Fig. 1. AGVs like this are also used to take over other transportation
tasks in hotels. One of these tasks is delivering room service to rooms. Robots
developed specifically for this are the Relay and Flashbot. Because they travel
through a hotel without supervision of a human worker, they have compartments
that can only be opened by the guests for whom the room service is. Relay and
Flashbot are shown in the first row of the table in Fig. 1. AGVs are also used for
transporting luggage. An example is the TUG robot by the Aethon company, which
is usually used in hospitals to transport medical objects (Anna 2018). The TUG also
contains a closed-off compartment and is larger and suited to carry heavier loads
than restaurant or room service robots. Since the robots are adjusted to fit the task
they are used for, their designs vary. Their basic layout, however, is extremely
similar. They all share the following properties:
Fig. 1 Overview of the current state of functional hospitality robotics. The three categories are
(1) transportation robots, (2) reception robots and (3) food preparation robots. Each category
executes tasks from specific categories, as described in Onnasch and Roesler (2021)
1. The robots transport items.

2. The robots move on wheels over flat surfaces.
3. The task and design depends on the items the robot needs to transport.
Type 2: Reception Robots

The second type of hospitality robotics is robots that take over typical reception
tasks. We refer to these robots as reception robots. The robots consist of a user
interface that interacts with guests. This user interface can consist of a tablet or a
speech recognition and production system or a combination of the two. This
interface is mounted on a kart so that the robot can move over flat surfaces. Examples
of these robots are the Pepper, Temi, Sanbot, Alice and Cruzr robot, all displayed in
the second row of Fig. 1. The robots differ in physical complexity. For example, the
Temi robot only contains a tablet that can navigate itself, while the Pepper robot is
designed to look like a caricaturised human that has an actual face and arms that can
move to support the sound that it outputs and make the robot look more human-like.
The only physical task that these robots perform is that of navigating a room. The
robots can therefore be used to show people around. The main tasks that these robots
can execute lie in the category of information exchange (Onnasch and Roesler
2021). This means that the robots provide users with information via either images
shown on their tablet or spoken language. These robots are also able to communicate
with software systems and are therefore able to make (video) calls, check people in
or look up information on the Internet. The development of these robots comes from
the current development of chatbots and AI applications that are able to understand
and process natural language. Reception robots all share the following
characteristics:
1. The only physical task that the robots execute is moving themselves around on
wheels.
2. The tasks consist mostly of interacting with humans through speech or tablet
interfaces.
3. The robots have a humanoid appearance.
4. The robots are designed to interact with guests.
Type 3: Food Preparation Robots
The third type of robots is used for food preparation. Examples include the Pazzi
restaurant that prepares, cooks and sells pizzas without human cooks, the automatic
stir-fry machines from the Spyce Kitchen restaurant and the Burger production robot
by the company Creator. These applications all focus on transforming raw ingredi-
ents into finished meals and the aforementioned examples can be seen in the bottom
row of Fig. 1. Examples of food preparation robots can be found as early as 2007
(Yan et al. 2007). The structures of these robots differ greatly. This is because the
preparation of different meals requires different tasks and therefore the robotic
solutions also differ. The Pazzi kitchen executes tasks such as flattening pizza
dough, applying sauce and toppings and shoving a pizza into an oven, baking it
and taking it out (Ware 2021). The robotic stir-fry pans from the Spyce restaurant fry
ingredients that are put into them and then empty the fried ingredients onto a plate
(Albrecht 2020). Often, these robots execute a variety of tasks. For example, the stir-
fry robot from Spyce also cleans the pans after a meal has been cooked in them.
However, it does not deliver a finished meal; thus, additional toppings need to be
added by a human cook. The Pazzi kitchen does finish completely finished pizzas,
but it does not clean itself. The Creator burger robot cuts its own ingredients, which
is something that neither the Spyce nor the Pazzi do (Troitino 2018). While the tasks
of these robots differ greatly, we have still put them into the same category. This is
because they all share the following high-level traits:
1. The robots operate in a fixed place.
2. The robots take over one or more task in the cooking process.
3. The robots can only cook a limited amount of dishes.
4. The robots increase productivity.
Food preparation robots are ill suited for restaurants and hotels that change their
menu frequently because of the limited amount of dishes that they can autonomously
make. Because of this, the use of these robots is limited to specific types of
restaurants. They all operate in restaurants with some sort of fast food business
model. The robots also do not work in close interaction with human employees.
Looking at the examples as a whole, they serve more as production machines or little
factories than as interactive robots. An exception to this trend is Flippy, a robotic arm
by Miso Robotics that can deep fry food and grill burgers. There was one case of a
restaurant that implemented Flippy, but the robot worked so fast that the employees
had to switch it off from time to time in order to not get overloaded with burgers and
fries. The designers of the robot needed to do a technical iteration to fix this issue
(Kooser 2021).
2.2 Insights on Commercially Implemented Hospitality

Robotics
Although each type of hospitality robot is different, they do share properties that
shed light on the overall concept of hospitality robotics. First of all, it has been
shown that robots generally get designed for specific tasks. This is also confirmed by
Osawa et al. (2017). When tasks are taken over from human employees, robots are
able to execute the tasks for longer periods of time without pause. Robots also
deliver a more constant quality. This is the main advantage that robots hold over
humans. This property can, however, also be seen as their main disadvantage.
Robots do not possess the flexibility that humans do. Where humans are able to
take over tasks from one another, robots cannot execute tasks outside of what they
were designed for. It would seem logical that hospitality robots only bring improve-
ment when there is enough work for them to do. This means that in smaller hotels or
restaurants, where less employees execute the entire variety of hotel and restaurant
tasks, robots would be much less effective than in large-scale hospitality venues. The
known examples of implemented hospitality robotics also underline this statement.
The two studies that have shown the improved production resulting from the
implementation of food delivery robots were both conducted in restaurants with
more than 150 tables (Nonaka et al. 2020; Shimmura et al. 2020). The food
preparation robots also show this. The examples that were shown in the previous
section are all from some sort of fast food restaurant, where the robots are used to
deliver very similar, standardised meals as fast as possible, with a constant quality.
Another interesting thing to mention is the interaction of robots with guests.
Traditionally, robots only needed to interact with workers of the organisations that
implemented them. When workers interact with robots, the interaction might be
awkward at the beginning. However, employees can be trained to operate the robot
properly, and when the interaction is difficult or causes problems, employees can
report feedback to their managers, hoping that this will be solved. For robots
interacting with guests, it is a different story. Guests do not generally do not get
prepared before interacting with a robot. They also do not need to submit feedback
after interacting with one. When guests have had a bad interaction with a robot, they
can choose just not to return to the venue. Because of this, the interaction between
the robot and guest needs to be carefully designed and not be unpleasant for the
guests. Furthermore, there is a large difference in guests’ attitudes towards robots

(Ayyildiz et al. 2022). Some guests like interacting with new technology and some
guests don’t. The food preparation robots that were described do not have much
guest interaction. In some cases, guests can choose what they want from the food
preparation robot, but from a high level, the robot serves as a sophisticated vending
machine. With reception robots, there is almost always a robot–guest interaction,
since the robot communicates with the guest. For the food delivery robots, it is
optional for the organisation that implements them to use robot–guest interaction.
Some restaurants let their robots drive up to the table where guests can take their
plates off of them. In other cases, the robot drives to a fixed station, where an
employee takes items to do the serving part.
What also needs to be considered is the gimmick or novelty effect that robots can
have. For some guests, new technology is interesting, which makes robots have a
positive effect on them. Having a robot implemented can also draw new interested
guests to environment that they are implemented in. That is why the Spyce restau-
rant, the Creator burger robot and the Pazzi pizza robot display their robots for their
guests to see. The long-term benefit that robots have on operations therefore only
becomes clear after this effect has worn off.
3 Scientific Literature on Hospitality Robotics
As hospitality robots get implemented more, they are also more heavily researched.
We have found that the current body of literature on hospitality robotics can be
roughly divided into two categories corresponding to two traditional research fields.
These are the field of robotics and the field of hospitality. The robotics side is
concerned with designs and development of new robots as well as evaluating them
in terms of efficiency and task execution. The hospitality side is concerned with how
implemented robotics influence traditional hospitality.
3.1 Robotics Research on Hospitality Robotics
Hospitality robotics studies from the field of robotics mostly present a novel design
of a robot or robot software. Because there is a large variety of tasks in hotels (this
will be further discussed in Sect. 5), there is also a large variety in the designs of
novel hospitality robotics. Designs consider robots that provide guests with infor-
mation (Pinillos et al. 2016; Ahn et al. 2019), robots specialised in cooking (Sugiura
et al. 2011; Yan et al. 2007), robots that recognise nonverbal cues from guests
(Gaschler et al. 2012), robots that can set and clear tables (Acosta et al. 2006) and
robots for serving items (Hoang and Tran 2022; Jyh-Hwa and Kuo 2008; Hung et al.
2021). However well designed, the majority of these hospitality robots do not get
tested in actual hotel environments. These studies often focus on increased
productivity or efficiency that robots bring, but not on the experience of the
employees or the guests that will need to interact with the robot. Gaschler et al.
(2012) and Acosta et al. (2006), for example, report the accuracy of the robot being
able to recognise nonverbal cues from guests and being able to identify cutlery on a
table, respectively. The guest or employee experience of interacting with the robot is
not evaluated. Also, these examples are evaluated in a lab environment, not in an
actual hotel setting with employees and guests.
In determining the success of the robot, the focus lies on organisational benefits.
With organisational benefits, we refer to benefits that are of interest to the organisa-
tion such as increased efficiency, reduced costs, etc. In the field of robotics, it is
logical for researchers to report on these factors, as in traditional industrial robotic
applications, these things determine the success of the robot. However, in hospitality
settings, as was discussed in the previous section, robots take over specific tasks,
which mean that they will inevitably need to interact with human employees. The
robots will also have an effect on guest experience, either directly because the robots
interact with guests or indirectly, because the tasks of the employees that interact
with the guests have been changed. However, as the majority of the robotics studies
present novel designs, these studies only contain small evaluations of the robot that
are done by the designers most of the time.
Hospitality researchers state that for realistic evaluation of hospitality robotics,
novel robots need to be tested in a representative hotel environment (Tuomi et al.
2021). Robotics studies that have done this are Pinillos et al. z2016) and Ahn et al.
(2019). Ahn et al. (2019) discuss the development of a robot concierge that answers
questions from guests during a conference. The study stresses that when
implementing the robot in a hotel lobby, numerous problems were encountered
that are normally not discussed in academic research. Something similar is reported
by Pinillos et al. (2016), which evaluates the implementation of Sacarino, a robotic
bell boy, of which the design is discussed in Zalama et al. (2014). The robot was
implemented in the lobby of a hotel in Spain for several weeks where it executed a
number of tasks normally left to the hotel staff. This study is highly technical as well
(the robot’s success is expressed in terms of hours that it was active and how many
tasks it executed ‘correctly’, without stating what correctly means). However,
Pinillos et al. (2016) underline the importance of design iteration, meaning that,
however well designed, after some amount of time being operational at a hotel, the
designers of Sacarino found that there were flaws in the robot’s design. They made
an iteration, trying to update the robot so that it would no longer exert these flaws.
After the update, the robot was used much more often and showed improvement in
the metrics that were used to evaluate task execution. This study shows that
successful implementation of a robot will most likely take time and one or more
design iterations. By careful design and a hotel environment suited for the robot, but
also by collecting data and iterating the design on the findings from that data, a much
more realistic image of the efficacy of novel hospitality robots can be presented.
3.2 Hospitality Research on Hospitality Robotics
The second type of hospitality robotics research is from the field of hospitality.
Studies from this field mostly evaluate robots that are already commercially avail-
able, and the focus is on the experiences that guests and employees have with
interacting with these robots. However, hospitality researchers often lack technical
knowledge, and therefore, the more technical aspects of robotics are not studied. For
example, a number of studies solely focus on the attitudes of hotel employees or
guests towards robots. Examples are Choi et al. (2020), Vatan and Dogan (2021),
Pizam et al. (2022) and Piçarra et al. (2016). In these studies, hotel managers,
employees, or guests get interviewed on their perception of robots. These studies
all result in similar conclusions, namely, that service of human employees is
rewarded higher than that of robots and that humans are better in communicating
with guests (Choi et al. 2020; Vatan and Dogan 2021) and that the presumed
capabilities of a robot correlate with people’s eagerness to use them (Pizam et al.
2022; Piçarra et al. 2016). There are also a number of studies that research the
difference between robots and humans executing tasks in hotels and finding differ-
ences in guests’ perceptions of this. Examples of studies that do so are Choi et al.
(2020), Hoang and Tran (2022), Kim et al. (2021) and Shin and Jeong (2020).
However, these studies work with questionnaires where participants are only pro-
vided with images of the human employee and the robot and they need to imagine
the interaction themselves. These studies conclude with statements on whether
guests deem robots or humans better at certain service tasks. The literature reviews
by Shin (2022) and Ivanov et al. (2019) give an overview of current hospitality
robotics research from the hospitality field. The different studies are classified based
on which stakeholder the robot interacts with. The four stakeholders are guests,
employees, the hotel organisation and society. Shin (2022) continues by presenting
28 research questions stemming from the available literature that are still unan-
swered. This study states that many of those questions can be answered by studying
actual implemented robotics in real-world scenarios.
As with research from the robotics field, there are a few exceptions that evaluate
the efficacy of commercially available robots in actual hotel environments. Exam-
ples are Shimmura et al. (2020), Nonaka et al. (2020), Seyitoğlu and Ivanov (2020)
and Odekerken-Schröder et al. (2021). All three of which study food delivery robots
implemented in restaurants. The findings of Shimmura et al. (2020) and Nonaka
et al. (2020) are that food delivery robots improve productivity in a large-scale
restaurant. Odekerken-Schröder et al. (2021) focus on how food delivery robots are
perceived by guests. These studies show that to understand guests’ and employees’
experience with hospitality robotics, actual implemented robotics need to be studied.
3.3 Insights on the Scientific Literature on Hospitality

and Robotics
The main finding from this section is the dichotomy between the robotics field and
the hospitality field in scientific literature. Robotics researchers lack knowledge on
guest experience and hospitality researchers lack technical knowledge on robot
implementation. As a result of this, most of the studies that are mentioned in this
section have not studied robots in actual hotel environments. To study the complete
impact and possibilities of hospitality robotics, the knowledge of these fields needs
to be joined. The few studies that did study robots in a hospitality environment
provide us with knowledge that correct implementation of novel hospitality robotics
takes time and some iteration. The studies by Shimmura et al. (2020), Nonaka et al.
(2020) and Odekerken-Schröder et al. (2021) furthermore show that implementation
of restaurant robots can have a positive effect on sales, employee satisfaction and
guest satisfaction. However, there is no study that has evaluated the effect of robotics
on all three of these factors and there are no similar studies on robots other than food
delivery robots.
4 Interaction Models
We explain the distinction between the fields of robotics and hospitality based on the
different interactions in these organisations that the robot influences when it is
implemented. Figure 2 shows simplified interaction diagrams of an industrial work
environment with robots (left) and a hospitality work environment without robots
(right). The left part of the figure shows the three stakeholders: the organisation
(top), the robot(s) (left) and the pool of employees (right). The dotted lines in this
diagram represent interactions between the stakeholders. The interaction between
the robot and the organisation is an abstract one. It encompasses the organisation
Fig. 2 Conceptual framework of the stakeholders for the robotics field as well as the hospitality
research field. The figure on the left shows the main stakeholders in a traditional work environment
with robots, namely, the robots, the employees and the organisation. The figure on the right shows
the main stakeholders in a hospitality work environment: the guests, the employees and the
organisation
choosing for implementing the robot and the robot, when implemented, having an
influence on production and efficiency, and therefore influencing the organisation
positively or negatively. The interaction between the employees and the robot is
much more direct. Since robots take over certain tasks that used to be human tasks,
the employees need to operate and monitor the robot. In robotics research, these two
interactions are the most important. If a robot does not benefit an organisation, there
is no reason for it to get used, so the robot needs to have clear organisational benefits.
At the same time, the robot needs to be operated by workers, so designing this
interaction well is important for the successful implementation of a robot. The
interaction line between the employees and the organisation is also influenced by
the robot when it enters the work environment. This happens as the robot takes over
tasks, thereby changing the job of the human employees. The job of the employees
might improve, making them happier, or it could become less interesting, making
workers less happy. The result can also be twofold. For example, when a robot takes
over tasks and therefore makes one or more human workers obsolete, the impact is
negative for the employee(s) that are being let go. But the remaining tasks could
result in more interesting and rewarding jobs for the remaining employees. Also, as
an organisation implements robots, there might become new jobs available such as
maintenance jobs to keep the robot operational.
We use a similar interaction diagram to represent hospitality work environments
on the right side of Fig. 2. Here the stakeholders are the organisation (top), the guests
(left) and the employees (right). In this interaction diagram, each stakeholder has
certain needs. The guests need to be treated hospitably. This means the employees
execute tasks to give the guest the best possible experience. The guest in return
patronises the hospitality organisation by spending money. A more enjoyable guest
experience can result in the guest returning to the same venue and spending more,
which keeps the organisation running. The organisation pays the employees salary to
have them execute tasks to satisfy the guests. However, the employees should not
merely be viewed as people that execute tasks for a salary. Employees experience
stress during their job and this should be kept to a minimum. Bakker (2011) states
that as employees are more engaged into their job, they feel motivated and needed.
This is also stated in the JD-R model by Bakker and Demerouti (2007), which states
that organisations put certain demands on their employees, meaning that they expect
some sort of work to be done. Employees have job resources, referring to the energy
and time they have to do work. The JD-R model states that certain types of work
deplete workers of their resources, but that tasks that make employees engaged in
their work, that make them feel valued and feel like they play a valuable role in an
organisation, not deplete but increase job resources. This is also underlined specif-
ically for hospitality organisations by Yang (2010), which found that as hotel
employees have more social contact, autonomy and engagement, their job satisfac-
tion is increased and employee turnover is reduced. It is thus desirable for hospitality
organisations to keep their employees satisfied. We refer to this type of satisfaction
as eudaimonic happiness (Delle Fave et al. 2011), which is also referred to as long
time happiness and refers to people feeling fulfilled and needed in life. This
eudaimonic happiness differs greatly from hedonic happiness. Hedonic happiness
Fig. 3 A conceptual framework to indicate possible impacts of introducing a robot (bottom icon)
into a hospitality environment, consisting of the organisation (top), the guest(s) (left) and the
employee(s). The dashed line might be replaced by an arrow from one element to the other,
denoting a positive or negative impact (hypothesised or empirically observed). Note that this
representation highlights that the introduction of the robots might have different impacts on guests,
employees and organisations, and even on how the upper triangle is organised (e.g. how employees
interact with guests, the kind of jobs the organisation can offer its employees, etc.)
refers to things that give direct pleasure but do not necessarily contribute to long-
term happiness goals. This hedonic happiness is typically what guests expect in a
hotel, in the form of hospitable treatment, quality food and drinks and a
comfortable bed.
To make an interaction diagram that illustrates a hospitality organisation with
robots in them, the two aforementioned diagrams need to be combined, resulting in
the diagram from Fig. 3. There is only one new line, which is the one between the
robot and the guest, something that has been touched upon in the previous section.
However, this model also gives insight on how the different stakeholders have
become connected via each other. Because of this, interactions can influence differ-
ent stakeholders indirectly. We want to show how this interaction diagram can be
used for analysing actual use cases of hospitality robotics by looking at two specific
cases. Both cases are about food delivery robots in restaurants. The first case has
implemented restaurant robots implemented correctly and the second one
incorrectly.
4.1 Food Delivery Robots Implemented Correctly
The first case study comes from a Japanese restaurant that implemented food
delivery robots. The efficacy of these robots is evaluated in Shimmura et al.
(2020) and Nonaka et al. (2020). Both papers discuss the same restaurant with
food delivery robots installed. The restaurant has 441 tables and four robots are
implemented. The robots are customised to match the interior of the restaurant as to
not stand out. The robots do not interact with guests, only with employees who take
the food from the robots and serve it at the tables. The study by Shimmura et al.
(2020) reports increased sales per hour after the robots were introduced. Nonaka
et al. (2020) report increased employee happiness, mostly because waiters needed to
make runs to the kitchen less often after the robots got installed. An interaction
diagram is made of this case study and can be seen in Fig. 4.
This diagram shows a positive interaction of the organisation on the robot,
representing the organisation employing the robot (line 1). The robot only interacts
with employees, and since the employees enjoy the fact that they need to run to the
kitchen less often, this interaction is also positive (line 2). We hypothesise that
because of this, employees have more time to interact with guests, which increases
their hedonic happiness (line 3), resulting in higher sales, which is a positive
interaction with the organisation (line 4). Employees that have more time for the
parts of their jobs that they enjoy have increased eudaimonic happiness, which in
general causes less strain and turnover (Yan et al. 2007), which benefits the organi-
sation employing them (line 5).
Fig. 4 Interaction lines

influenced by a restaurant
robot. (1) The organisation
implements the robot to
transport items from the
kitchen to the restaurant
floor. (2) The employees
need to head to the kitchen
less often for items,
increasing their eudaimonic
value. (3) The employees
have more time to engage
with guests, increasing the
guests’ satisfaction and their
hedonistic happiness.
(4) The guests decide to
return to the restaurant more
often. (5) Increased job
satisfaction makes less
employees quit
4.2 Food Delivery Robots Implemented Incorrectly
The second case study comes from Seyitoğlu and Ivanov (2020). This study
evaluates 582 online reviews of restaurants with robots employed. Most of the
reviews are positive of robots in restaurants, and many of the reviewers went to a
robot restaurant specifically to experience robots. However, in one of the restaurants,
robots sometimes deliver items to the wrong tables. When this happens, employees
need to step in to fix these problems. Reviews about this situation state that guests
don’t enjoy this. An interaction diagram of this situation is shown in Fig. 5. Here
there also is a positive interaction of the organisation implementing the robot (line 1).
The robot decreases the guests’ hedonic pleasure by delivering wrong items (line 2).
Because human employees need to step in and fix the problems, they experience less
eudaimonic pleasure (line 3). Workers having less time for the guests because they
need to fix the robot’s mistake also decrease hedonic pleasure of the guests (line 4),
which could cause reduced sales (line 5). Finally, less happy employees affect the
organisation negatively (line 6).
These are just two examples in which a robot introduced in a restaurant environ-
ment can influence all the stakeholders, directly or indirectly, positively or nega-
tively. This model shows how all stakeholders are connected in a hospitality work
Fig. 5 Interaction lines influenced by a restaurant robot. (1) The organisation implements the robot
to transport items from the kitchen to the restaurant floor. (2) The robot delivers wrong items to
guests, reducing their satisfaction and hedonistic happiness. (3) Employees need to step in to fix the
issue with the robot, reducing their eudaimonic job happiness. (4) The employees have less time for
the guests, lowering the guests’ hedonistic happiness. (5) The dissatisfaction of the guests results in
them not returning to the restaurant. (6) Less happy employees cause more of them to quit
environment with robots. It can therefore be used as a guide to predict the full effect
that implementing a robot might have on a hospitality work environment and it
might assist the implementation of hospitality robots. We want to state that for each
different task, the diagram might look different and that for many task, this diagram
could also be too limited. There might be more stakeholders or more complex
interactions. Consider, for example, the case where a robot relieves employees of
repetitive work to such an extent that one employee is let go. In this case, the fired
employee is affected negatively, while the remaining employees experience
increased job satisfaction. For analysing such cases, more detailed interaction dia-
grams could be needed. Although limited in some cases, this way of looking at
hospitality robotics via interactions can predict a lot about the full effect that a robot
has on a hospitality work environment.
5 The Bigger Picture
We have tried to give an overview of the current state of hospitality robotics, in terms
of applications that are available today as where the current research stands. This
section will elaborate on the possible extent of hospitality robotics in the future. We
will explain how robots could affect hotel organisations, employees and guests.
5.1 Robotising Tasks
As robots are designed to take over tasks from humans, the amount of hospitality
robots that can be developed lies in the same range as the amount of tasks present at a
hotel. It is therefore insightful to find out all physical tasks present in a hotel. We
have made a list of these tasks which can be seen in Table 1. We have made two
distinctions when setting up this list. The first one is the distinction between food and
beverages (F&B) and room division and reception (RD). This is a traditional
distinction made in hotel management. This distinction was made because the vast
majority of jobs in a hotel fall in either one of these categories. The other distinction
was made on whether the task had guest interaction or no guest interaction. This
distinction was made from a robot development perspective. As was mentioned
earlier, a robot that has interaction with guests requires a far more elaborated design,
because the interaction needs to work from the start. The resulting list of tasks
contains four categories. The list has been checked by F&B and RD experts at the
Hotelschool The Hague to make sure that there were no major tasks missing. The
resulting list consists of 38 tasks. Such a list gives insight in how many hospitality
robots could theoretically be developed to robotise work in hotels further.
As was stated in Sect. 2 and in Fig. 1, the currently available robots deal with one
or more task categories from Onnasch and Roesler (2021), which gives an overview
Table 1 Tasks in a hotel

Food and beverages Room division and reception
Guest interaction • Welcoming guests • Welcoming guests
• Checking reservations • Checking in guests
• Showing guests to their table • Taking luggage from guests
• Taking orders • Providing information, handling
• Serving food requests
• Inquiring about service • Answering room service requests
• Making drinks • Serving room service
• Handling payment • Checking out, including payment
• Collecting dirty dishes
• Transporting dishes
• Mise en place
• Operating cash register
No guest • Gathering ingredients • Vacuuming floors
interaction • Preparing ingredients for • Changing beds
cooking • Cleaning furniture
• Cooking food • Cleaning bathroom and toilets
• Plating • Tidying up
• Making drinks • Restocking items in room
• Cleaning up kitchen and floor • Preparing room service
• Cleaning dishes • Transporting luggage to room
• Cleaning floors • Dividing and distributing laundry
• Collect orders from storage
• Cleaning kitchen machines
of human–robot interactions. The eight task categories that robots can execute
presented in this paper are:
1. Information exchange
2. Precision
3. Physical load reduction
4. Transport
5. Manipulation
6. Cognitive stimulation
7. Emotional stimulation
8. Physical stimulation
Looking at this list and at the list of hotel tasks, we can see that certain task
categories are not present in hotels. The categories precision, cognitive stimulation
and physical stimulation are not tasks that are normally executed by human workers
in a hotel. Precision refers to robots taking over tasks that are too precise to execute
for humans. Cognitive stimulation refers to tasks meant to engage a human and
teaching him or her something. Physical stimulation refers to tasks interacting with
somebody physically (Onnasch and Roesler 2021).
5.2 The Difference Between Human and Robot Tasks
It is important to note that what is perceived as one task for a human could consist of
a number of tasks for a robot. For example, clearing a table where guests have had
diner is no difficult challenge for a human waiter. It consists of picking up the items
on a table and putting them on a trolley or carrying them to the kitchen. If a robot
would have to do this, it would need a number of advanced technical capabilities.
First of all, it would need a sensor system that is able to identify the various items on
the table. It would need some sort of arm that can reach towards the items. Then it
needs a gripper to pick up the variety of items without damaging them. Next, it
would need to stack the items on a trolley so that it can be transported to the kitchen.
Building a robot like this comes with new challenges. The robot needs to identify the
items during different times of the day (meaning different levels of sunlight,
affecting camera systems). The arm needs to extend all the way across the table.
The arm needs to reach the items that could be spread over the table in a number of
positions. The gripper needs to be able to pick up a plate, as well as a wine glass and
a piece of cutlery, which are very different items. These are difficult things to build
and when a robot like this would be functional, the question remains if it is faster
than a human waiter. Acosta et al. (2006) present the design of a table clearing robot,
explaining exactly these challenges. The task of clearing a table is divided into
different tasks: identifying the table to be cleared in a restaurant, recognising the
objects on the table and picking up these objects. This study’s aim is to design a
robot that can set and clear tables in a controlled environment. The final prototype
takes 8 s to identify eight pieces of cutlery, and when clearing two tables in a
restaurant without people present, it only picks up 83% of the items it is supposed to
collect. It should be noted that this study is a good start in the direction of designing
robots for these types of tasks, but we were not able to find a publication that designs
a similar robot in the publications that referenced Acosta et al. (2006), meaning that
this research line has not been continued.
We assume that the current examples of hospitality robotics might be the result of
robotising the tasks in a hotel that are easiest to automate. The physical structures of
delivery robots and reception robots are relatively simple. A delivery robot is an
electric wheeled vehicle and a reception robot is similar, but on top of that, it
contains a tablet interface, speakers and a microphone and sometimes a face and
arms for gestures. The food preparation robots have much more complicated struc-
tures, but in their case, these structures are located in one place in the hotel and
closed off from guests, which ensures these structures don’t interact with guests
physically. The food preparation robots therefore act more like advanced vending
machines than like interactive robots, and they don’t have the challenges of naviga-
tion and guest interaction that the transportation and reception robots have. The table
clearing robot from Acosta et al. (2006) is already much more complicated than a
transportation robot, because the structure for picking up items is mounted on
something similar to a transportation robot. The example from Acosta et al. (2006)
illustrates how difficult it is to make a robot that can take over certain more difficult
tasks from human employees.
5.3 Robots and the Infrastructure in Which They Operate
In some cases, for robots to be able to take over tasks from humans, some difficulty
can be taken away by adapting the infrastructure in which humans or robots operate.
The infrastructure in hotels is often designed to be optimal for humans to work
in. Adapting these infrastructures to robots can make implementing robotics much
more easy. A simple task such as opening a door, for example, is an easy task for a
human, but for a robot, grasping a door handle, applying the right amount of force in
the right direction and then pulling or pushing open the door becomes a very
complex series of tasks. Adapting the doors so that they swing open when the
robot is near, or when the robot sends a certain signal to the door lock, makes it
much easier for a robot to get implemented effectively in a hotel. The same goes for
robots that need to an elevator to move from floor to floor. Pushing an elevator
button is difficult for a robot. It needs to identify the button and then move a
mechanical finger to it to apply the right amount of pressure to it. An elevator button
can be regarded as an interface that makes it possible for a human to send a signal
into an elevator control system. So if a robot needs to be able to use an elevator, it
would be much more convenient if it could send a signal directly to the elevator
instead of it having to go through the button interface that was designed specifically
for humans. Another example where adapting the infrastructure is important are
robots that navigate through hotels. If the floor of a restaurant contains steps or
staircases, a robot on wheels becomes unusable. It is much more difficult to design a
robot that can walk on steps than one that drives on a flat floor. So making the floor
flat and adding ramps where necessary makes implementation of transportation
robots much easier. Looking back at the example of robots clearing tables, identi-
fying cutlery and plates correctly can be made possible by attaching electric identi-
fiers to these objects. In doing this, the robot does not need to identify the objects on
the table though the visual way, which works well for humans but contains errors for
robots.
In this section, we have tried to illustrate the range of tasks in hotels and therefore
the range of possible future hospitality robots. We have also presented some general
insights on hospitality robotics and robotics in general. We assume that the next
tasks to get automated will be the ones with the easiest and most readily available
technology. We finally want to state that some tasks that are easy for humans are
extremely difficult for robots and vice versa and that sometimes slight changes to
infrastructure can make successful implementation of a hospitality robot much
more easy.
6 Discussion
In this chapter, we have tried to give an overview of hospitality robotics by

highlighting the current state of implemented robots, the state of the academic
research, a new model to predict the impact that a robot can have on a hospitality
organisation and a view on the near future of hospitality robotics. Looking at news
articles and publications, we see that more robotic applications for the hospitality
industry have been developed in recent years. At the same time, the amount of tasks
that are being automated is still fairly limited and the examples can be divided in as
little as three broad categories.
The scientific literature reviewed here furthermore shows the gap between hos-
pitality research and robotics research, and how researchers have great understand-
ing of the field they are in, and limited understanding of the field they are not
in. Studies from the hospitality field seem to lack technical expertise and sometimes
make conclusive statements on robotics without the participants having even seen
one in action. At the same time, studies from the field of robotics are highly technical
and performance, but seldom focus on the guest or its experience at all (Acosta et al.
2006) and do not test the developed robot in an environment that is representative of
the real world (Gaschler et al. 2012). Pinillos et al. (2016) show us how difficult and
time consuming implementing a robot actually is. It explains how an implemented
robot initially encounters all sorts of unforeseen errors and that an updated design
can fix many of these technical shortcomings. For successful implementation of
hospitality robotics, guest–robot interactions need to be designed that optimise both
the capabilities of robots and humans and that satisfy the needs of the guest as well as
those of the employees.
We advocate that the impact of novel robotic solutions should be investigated
from a transdisciplinary perspective in order to expose how the relationships
between guest, employees and organisations may change, as a function of how the
robot operates in an organisation as a whole. We propose a conceptual framework to
illustrate the potentially affected interactions in Figs. 3, 4 and 5. Implementing a
robot in a hotel or restaurant will inevitably influence more than one interaction line;
even the interactions not directly connected to the robot can be affected. We want to
emphasise that when introducing robots in hotels, all the interactions between the
different stakeholders in hotels need to be considered. We propose this integrated
interaction model to bridge the gap between robotics and hospitality research and to
be able to anticipate the far-stretching consequences that implementing hospitality
robots may have. We argue that technical expertise and experimentation must be
complementary to the understanding of the social context and impacts of the use of
robots in hotels. This combined approach must ensure that beneficial effects of
robotisation are fully explored, while interactions with humans can be understood
and anticipated. When hospitality experts and robotics experts join hands and share
their knowledge in transdisciplinary design processes, the possibility is created to
create human–robot interactions that can be evaluated using experiments with actual
robots in a representative environment that study the benefits of robots while also
remaining focused on the guest and employee experience.
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Mapping Research Trends on Smart
Tourism: A Bibliometric Analysis
Suneel Kumar, Varinder Kumar , Isha Kumari Bhatt,

and Sanjeev Kumar
1 Introduction
Tourism destinations have become intelligent through the use of information and
communication technology (ICT), virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI),
mobile connectivity, cloud computing, and big data (Boes et al. 2015; He et al. 2017;
Wang et al. 2020). From this developing trend came the concept of smart tourism
(ST). In this context, smart tourism is a region that uses ICT-based (information and
communication technology) technologies to positively contribute to tourism-related
offerings, activities, places, and interactions (Akdu 2020; Lee et al. 2020a). In
addition, smart tourism is a kind of tourism industry that usually requires the
inclusion of numerous elements and aspects such as high-level technology
(Almobaideen et al. 2017; Huang et al. 2017) and logical digital infrastructure and
services (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2013), well-trained human resource manage-
ment, appropriate management knowledge (Mandić and Praničević 2019) and gov-
ernance essence (Gretzel and Scarpino-Johns 2018), effective advertising and
S. Kumar
Department of Commerce, Shaheed Bhagat Singh College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: suneel.kumar@sbs.du.ac.in
V. Kumar (✉)
Faculty of Management Studies, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
e-mail: varinder.phd20@fms.edu
I. K. Bhatt
Daulat Ram College, University of Delhi, Delhi, India
S. Kumar
Department of Commerce and Management, Career Point University Hamirpur, Hamirpur,
Himachal Pradesh, India

https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_5
88 S. Kumar et al.
promotion methods (Zhu et al. 2014), shareholder cooperation (Johnson and

Samakovlis 2019), and concern for the environment (Masseno and Santos 2018).
With the spread of the COVID-19 epidemic, the travel and tourism industry has
been hit the hardest of any other industry in the world in recent years. Smart tourist
attractions will now serve as a hub for urban regeneration and help mitigate the
impact of seasonal tourist attractions. Smart tourism helps by creating an atmosphere
in which a tourist can thrive and has been shown to lead to positive user experiences
in tourist attractions.
Many studies have been performed on a bibliometric analysis of smart tourism
research (Table 1). The study by Johnson and Samakovlis (2019) examined the
development of smart tourism understanding, showing the concept’s evolution using
collaborative relationship networks. The study indicates how well a collaborative
network of researcher’s changes and improves understanding of smart tourism. The
next study by Bastidas-Manzano et al. (2021) reviews smart tourism research’s
development, present scope, and possible areas of concern. The study’s findings
suggest the tourism areas, top journals, and issues that demand consideration in
smart tourism destination future research and serve as a reference for potential paths
to explore for both practitioners and academicians. Further, research by Topsakal
et al. (2020) aims to analyze publications concerning smart tourism published
between 1980 and 2019. According to the results, engagement in smart tourism
has grown rapidly since 2015. The majority of publications are articles and confer-
ence proceedings. The research conducted by Ribeiro et al. (2020) highlights the
most evolved concepts in smart tourism (ST). The study’s findings outlined three
interconnected relevant aspects (clusters): the idea of a smart city and the usage of
the Internet in the tourism sector, tourist or visitor experience and choices, and
modern telecommunication technology available to tourists. In addition, the study
presented by Rafael (2020) attempts to examine the scientific productivity on the
subject of smart tourism by researching and bibliometric analysis and examine the
primary research topics on smart touristic destinations and social responsibility and
the interaction with technology. The study includes results from examining smart
tourism and smart travel destinations, as well as examining the impact of technology
and sustainable development on business. So, with the development of modern
technology and sustainability concept in the tourism business, the scope of smart
tourism research is also expanding. However, hardly a research demonstrates a
qualitative or quantitative overview of all the research. There is a clear scarcity of
review research on the smart tourism domain (“smart tourism or “smart hotel”). With
study dispersion related to research patterns developed over time, highly productive
publications, journals, authors, countries, and topics, there is indeed a massive effort
taken by aspiring academics to group it. The researcher (Lee et al. 2021) undertakes
a thorough analysis of existing smart tourism literature to assess the state of the field
and identify research gaps. However, the article’s scope was confined to smart
tourism progress from 2010 to 2017.
As a result, the current study will be of great importance to travel and tourism
scholars and learners. In this study, the main topics and current trends of smart
tourism as well as future research perspectives are identified. To review the study,
Mapping Research Trends on Smart Tourism: A Bibliometric Analysis 89
Table 1 Literature review on smart tourism

Objectives of the Research
Authors study Setting methodology Results/findings
Johnson The study examined The study was car- Bibliometric As per the study’s
and the development of ried out on the ISI analysis findings, research
Samakovlis smart tourism Web of Science reaches in this area
(2019) understanding, (WOS) database increases across
showing the con- from 2000 to 2018 many networks and
cept’s evolution fundamental
using collaborative themes
relationships
networks
Bastidas- Outline of smart A thorough exami- Bibliometric Results demon-
Manzano tourism research’s nation of 258 studies approach strate the tourism
et al. (2021) development, pre- published between sectors, top
sent scope, and pos- 2013 and 2019 in journals, and issues
sible domains of ISI Web of Science- that merit study in
concern indexed journals future smart tour-
ism destination
studies and act as a
reference for prac-
titioners and aca-
demicians to
investigate
Topsakal The research aims to The study was car- Bibliometric Considerable
et al. (2020) investigate publica- ried out on 145 pub- approach growth in interest
tions concerning lications in the ISI in smart tourism
smart tourism Web of Science since 2015
published between database from 1980
1980 and 2019 to 2019
Rafael The purpose of this Between 2010 and Bibliometric The developments
(2020) research is to ana- 2018, the ISI Web approach and dynamism of
lyze the scholarly of Knowledge (Web smart tourism and
output on the issue of Science) database smart destinations
of smart tourism was utilized research,
attempting to
examine the impact
of technology and
sustainable devel-
opment on the
business
Ribeiro Determine the most On 169 publications, Bibliometric Three
et al. (2020) advanced subjects a search was analysis interconnected rel-
in the field of smart conducted in evant aspects
tourism (ST) Scopus and Web of (clusters) were
Science (WOS) outlined
we will look at publication trends, prolific and influential journals, publications,

authors, and countries, with a particular focus on smart tourism research. Future
scientists will benefit from the review as they can better find the most relevant
90 S. Kumar et al.
sources (e.g., journals and authors) and publications. This study aims to fill a
research gap by using bibliometric analysis to provide information on the current
state of the smart tourism field. As a result, the study will use bibliometric analysis to
answer the following research questions:
1. What is the current research trend in smart tourism?
2. Which journals and publications in the domain of smart tourism research are the
most productive and influential?
3. Who are the most prolific and influential (in terms of h-index and total citations)
authors in smart tourism studies?
4. Which are the most referenced (productive) countries in the domain of smart
tourism?
5. Which are the most frequently occurring keywords in the research domain of
smart tourism?
2 Research Methodology
2.1 Data Collection
For the data collection part, we formulated four steps outlined in Fig. 1. The first
stage was to determine the purpose of the study. We included two main keywords
based on the paper’s purpose: “smart tourism” and “smart hotels.” The dataset in the
study has 408 publications; the author carefully handled the study’s title and the
keywords of each document. The examination was conducted using the Web of
Science (WOS) database. The Web of Science, formerly known as Web of Knowl-
edge, is a database of interdisciplinary bibliographical references that encompasses
management, medical, economic, social sciences, and humanities publications
(Mongeon and Paul-Hus 2016; Wang and Waltman 2016); the WoS main collection
contains the scholarly material in this database that has undergone the quality check
(Delgado López-Cózar et al. 2019). As a reason, the Web of Science (WoS)
renowned collection database was chosen as the resource of research data in this
research to assure that the research literature included in the assessment is as
extensive and of great quality as practicable.
In the second step, we filtered the data and included the 2013–2021 publications
in our database and excluded 2022 publications from the database. According to the
keywords “smart tourism” and “smart hotel,” the first publication on smart tourism
in WoS was published in 2013. Further, after reviewing 408 papers, 43 were related
to the year 2022, so they were excluded from the research database.
In the third step, the author filtered the question papers based on the subject area.
We covered three subject areas, namely, business, management, and social science,
in our research database. Furthermore, after reviewing 365 papers, 214 of them were
related to another subject area, so they were excluded from the research database. In
a final step, the authors tried to filter the paper based on the English language, but
none of the studies was written in a non-English language. Therefore, 151 studies
Database search on • Searching

Web of Science Keywords-
(WoS) Database “Smart tourism”
OR “Smart
(n=408) hotels”-
Refining based on • 2022 publication

2013-2021 exclude for
research data
(n=365) (n=43)
• Only Business,
Subjectarea based Management and
Screening Social Sciences
subject topics
(n=151) were considered
Final Data (n=151)
Fig. 1 Inclusion and exclusion criteria. Source: Authors’ Creation
were included in this study as the final database. The following inclusions and
exclusions were used in the study.
1. Search “smart tourism” and “smart hotels” on the WoS database—408
publication
2. The publication year 2013–2021—365 publications (exclude 43 publications
from 2022)
3. Subject area (business, management, and social sciences other topics)—151
publications (exclude 214 publications)
4. Final data—151 publications (only English language)
2.2 Research Tools
In the publications selected above, the researchers use bibliometric analysis. The
WoS database and VOS (viewer) software are used in the bibliometric study.
Bibliometric analysis uses various scientific information and data to determine
research trends, top influencing publications, journals, authors, country, cross-
country collaboration network, co-authorship network, and most frequently occur-
ring research keywords in a specific research domain (Bastidas-Manzano et al. 2021;
Johnson and Samakovlis 2019; Kumar et al. 2022; Mehraliyev et al. 2019; Ye et al.
92 S. Kumar et al.
2020). VOS (viewer) 1.6.16 analyzes co-authorship, co-citation, inter-country, key-

words co-occurrence, and bibliometric coupling (Cavalcante et al. 2021; Rafael
2020). Co-authorship, co-occurrences, citation analysis, and bibliographic and
co-citation analysis are examples of relationship methodologies that can be used to
define the working principles of a research question.
3 Results and Discussion

3.1 Publication Trends on Smart Tourism Research
Figure 2 shows the current status of smart tourism research. The history of research
in this field can be divided into four phases based on the annual number of
publications of scientific work. The first phase will take place between 2013 and
2014. In these past two years, smart tourism research has attracted limited focus,
with only one research-related publication per year. That was only 0.66% (out of
151 publications) of the total number of publications. The second phase occurs
between 2015 and 2016, with 13 (7.29%) releases in those 2 years. During this time,
the number of documents increased from zero (2014) to eight in 2015. However, the
graph of publications decreased again in 2016 (3). The third phase happens between
2017 and 2018. Throughout these 2 years, 25 papers (16.56%) were released. In
terms of individual years, in 2017 a total of 16 papers were published, while in 2018,
the number reduced to only nine publications. Along with the fourth phase
(2019–2021), the number of studies on smart tourism has consistently grown year
after year, with a total of 114 publications in these 3 years. In the last three years,
38 papers have been produced on average, representing 74.50% of overall publica-
tions from 2013 to 2021(Kumar et al. 2022).
Publications Trends in Smart Tourism
No. of Publications % of 151
50
46
40 40
30
28
20
16
10 9
8
1 3
0 0.66% 0.00%
0 5.30% 1.99% 10.60% 5.96% 18.54% 26.49% 30.46%
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Fig. 2 Publishing trends in smart tourism research

Scholars have consistently focused on smart tourism and oriented their efforts to
study related research since 2013. The implication of smart tourism grows to
strengthen as technologies (such as IA, ML, and big data) and tourism evolve, and
its coverage develops. The globalization of smart destinations and smart tourism
research (Katsoni and van Zyl 2021; Ranasinghe et al. 2021) is a powerful factor in
encouraging the speedy scope of research in the fourth stage (2019–2021). Further,
based on the increasing number of annual papers, especially in the previous three
years (2019–2021), the topic of smart tourism is forecast to continue to have a
tremendous research capacity. The sector is concentrated on the marketing and
implementation of smart tourism. As smart tourism gathers momentum, emerging
research concerns and suggestions for further studies might necessitate in-depth
examination. The current COVID-19 scenario has served as a motivator for devel-
oping significant innovative devices in the tourism sector, such as artificial intelli-
gence, smart robotic technology, and virtual reality facilities (Van et al. 2020; Vuong
and Tran 2021).
3.2 Top Productive Journals in the Smart Tourism Research

Domain
The study consists of 151 articles published in their respective 37 journals. Figure 3
shows the top ten journals that have produced the most publications in the field of
smart tourism research. In addition, Table 2 shows the most influential journals in
smart tourism research as determined by the total number of publications, impact
factors, and the h-index. The first two journals with the highest contributors are Asia
Pacific Journal of Tourism Research and Current Issues in Tourism, each with
14 out of 151 publications (18.544% combined contribution). Both journals have an
impact factor of 3.69 and 6.89 and an h-index of 37 and 74. The journal with the
third highest contributors is Journal of Destination with 11 publications (7.285%).
To date, this journal has an impact factor of 7.14 and h-index of 39. In addition,
Tourism Review is the fourth most-contributed journal in a given with ten publica-
tions (6.623%), 4.45 IF, and 32 h-index research area. Technological Forecasting
and Social Change is the fifth most productive journal with 9 out of 151 (about
5.960%) publications. So far, this journal has an impact factor of 8.593 and an
h-index of 117. Regarding the journal with the highest IF (11.06) and h-index (199),
Tourism Management is the most influential journal. The next two most influential
journals in the study are Information Management and Technological Forecasting
and Social Change.
94
14 11 8 7
ASIA PACIFIC JOURNAL OF TOURISM JOURNAL OF DESTINATION MARKETING TOURISM MANAGEMENT JOURNAL OF
MANAGEMENT HOSPITALITY AND
TOURISM
TECHNOLOGY
10
TOURISM REVIEW
6
14 INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
CURRENT ISSUES IN TOURISM
9
TECHNOLOGICAL FORECASTING AND SOCIAL 6
CHANGE
INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF
CONTEMPORARY HOSPITALITY
MANAGEMENT
Fig. 3 Productive journals in the smart tourism

S. Kumar et al.
Table 2 Top ten highest productive journals in the specific research domain
Impact
Total publications % of factor
Field of the publication (out of 151) 151 (2020) H-index
Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism 14 9.272 3.69 37
Research
Current Issues in Tourism 14 9.272 6.89 74
Journal of Destination Marketing 11 7.285 7.14 39
Management
Tourism Review 10 6.623 4.45 32
Technological Forecasting and Social 9 5.960 8.593 117
Change
Tourism Management 8 5.298 11.06 199
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 7 4.636 4.64 31
Technology
Information Management 6 3.974 8.94 162
International Journal of Contemporary 6 3.974 6.52 86
Hospitality Management
Electronic Markets 5 3.311 4.765 35
Note* IF—impact factor
3.3 A Most Influential Study in Smart Tourism Research

(in Respect of Citations)
According to the WoS database, the ten most frequently cited papers are listed in
Table 3. With 517 citations, the most cited document is “Smart tourism: foundations
and developments” by Gretzel et al. (2015). This article outlines smart tourism,
discusses current smart travel patterns, and then points out its technological and
commercial bases. The study also highlights the crucial need for research to inform
smart tourism administration and implementation. The second highest referenced
paper is “COVID-19: potential effects on Chinese citizens’ lifestyle and travel,” with
220 citations. The purpose of this article is to investigate how the pandemic may
affect the lifestyle choices, travel patterns, and tourist choices of Chinese visitors in
the short and long run (Wen et al. 2020). According to the findings, new forms of
tourism such as slow tourism and smart tourism may also fuel forthcoming tourist
experiences. Furthermore, “Tourism analytics with massive user-generated content:
A case study of Barcelona” is the third most highly cited document given by
Marine-Roig and Clavé (2015), with 174 citations. The objective of this research
is to demonstrate the value of big data analytics in supporting smart locations by
investigating the online image of Barcelona as transmitted through social networking
sites. The paper’s results indicate that it helps to better analyze the data from a
reliable source, UGC information, and seems to be very responsible for applying BI
to destination marketing, both in developing and accessing marketing campaigns
and improving branding and positional awareness policies among tourist industry
96 S. Kumar et al.
Table 3 Top ten influencing studies based on the citations

Sr.
no Authors Title TC Year
1. Ulrike Gretzel, Marianna Sigala, Smart tourism: foundations and 517 2015
Zheng Xiang and Chulmo Koo developments
2. Jun Wen, Metin Kozak, Shaohua COVID-19: potential effects on 220 2021
Yang, Fang Liu Chinese citizens’ lifestyle and travel
3. Estela Marine-Roig, Salvador Anton Tourism analytics with massive user- 174 2015
Clavé generated content: A case study of
Barcelona
4. Dan Wang, Xiang (Robert) Li and China’s “smart tourism destination” 157 2013
Yunpeng Li initiative: A taste of the service-
dominant logic
5. Rodolfo Baggio, Chris Cooper Knowledge transfer in a tourism 147 2015
destination: the effects of a network
structure
6. YunpengLi, Clark Hu, ChaoHuang, The concept of smart tourism in the 147 2017
and Liqiong Duand context of tourism information
services
7. Xia Wang, Xiang (Robert)Li, Feng How smart is your tourist attraction?: 128 2016
Zhen, and JinHe Zhang Measuring tourist preferences of
smart tourism attractions via a
FCEM-AHP and IPA approach
8. C. Derrick Huang, Jahyun Goo, Smart tourism technologies in travel 127 2017
Kichan Nam, and Chul Woo Yoo planning: The role of exploration
and exploitation
9. Dimitrios Buhalis Technology in tourism-from infor- 110 2020
mation communication technologies
to eTourism and smart tourism
towards ambient intelligence tour-
ism: a perspective article
10. Josep A. Ivars-Baidal, Marco Smart destinations and the evolution 107 2019
A. Celdrán-Bernabeu, Jose-Norberto of ICTs: a new scenario for destina-
Mazón & Ángel F. Perles-Ivars tion management?
Note: TC—total citations
and marketing groups. “China’s “smart tourism destination“ initiative: A taste of the
service-dominant logic” is the fourth most cited paper by D. Wang et al. (2013), with
157 citations. The study discusses how SDL can assist in explaining China’s “smart
tourism destination” plan. The study’s findings indicate that “big data” could provide
distinct benefits to “smart tourism locations.” With 147 citations, the fifth most
referenced paper is “Knowledge transfer in a tourism destination: the effects of a
network structure (Baggio and Cooper 2013).” The research highlighted the impor-
tance of knowledge transmission, cultural characteristics, and social inclusion in the
tourism business. The sixth most referenced (147 citations) study examines shifting
conceptions of smart tourism in Chinese scholarly literature. The study’s findings
suggest that smart tourism be linked to big data analysis, as well as government
e-commerce regulations (Li et al. 2017). Furthermore, with over 460 citations, the
next four research articles are given by Buhalis (2019), Huang et al. (2017), Ivars-
Baidal et al. (2019), and Wang et al. (2016). It should be noted that the citation
number was collected entirely from the WoS (Web of Science) database. If we
include overall citations from publications indexed in other databases, such as
Scopus, the total citation count can be higher.
3.4 Most Productive Authors in the Smart Tourism Research

Domain
Figure 4 shows the ten most productive and influential authors in the field of smart
tourism. All 151 documents in the study belong to their respective 365 authors. After
analyzing the data, a list of the top ten authors who published the most documents in
the field of smart tourism was compiled. Table 4 lists the authors with the most
contributions (in terms of publications, h-index, and total citations) to smart tourism
research. At the top of our list is Chulmo Koo with 16 releases (about 10.596%),
followed by Namho Chung with 13 (about 8.609%), Ulrike Gretzel with seven, and
Hanna Lee with seven releases. In terms of h-index and total citations, Rob Law tops
our list with 61 h-index and 17,919 Web of Science citations. The most frequently
cited authors are Dimitrios Buhalis with 11,169 WoS citations, Ulrike Gretzel with
4110 citations, Namho Chung with 3057 citations, Chulmo Koo with 2612 citations,
and Choong-Ki Lee with 823 citations. Based on the most influential authors (Prof.
Rob Law) in terms of citations and publications, they belonged to the University of
Macau, Mainland China, which indicates that the subject is well researched due to
the presence of various intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) in
used in the travel and tourism industry.
3.5 Most Productive Country/Territory in the Smart Tourism

Research Domain
The 151 documents in the study represent a total of 43 countries around the world.
Figure 5 shows the country-specific authorship of the analyzed articles. For the
number of authors, South Korea was the most productive country in the field of
smart tourism research with 36 (approx. 23.84%) publications. China came second
with 30 publications, followed by the United States (30), England (20), and Spain
(20). The next five countries with the highest papers are Australia, Italy, Brazil,
Serbia, and Taiwan. It is worth noting that the first five countries produced over
100 papers out of a total of 151. In terms of the total number of citations, authors
from the United States (1389) received the most citations, followed by South Korea
(1156) and Austria (945).
98
16 7 6 6
Koo C Gretzel U Ivars-baidal JA Law R
7
Lee H
5 4
Buhalis D Nam K
13
Chung N
6
Femenia-serra F
4
Lee CK
Fig. 4 Most productive authors

S. Kumar et al.
Table 4 Top ten most productive and influencing authors in the smart tourism
% of Total
Sr. Authors Documents 151 H-index citations Affiliations
1. Chulmo 16 10.596 28 2612 Kyung Hee University Sch
Koo Hotel and Tourism Manage-
ment, Seoul, South Korea
2. Namho 13 8.609 28 3057 Kyung Hee University
Chung
3. Ulrike 7 4.636 32 4110 University of Southern
Gretzel California
4. Hanna 7 4.636 05 221 Kyung Hee University Coll
Lee Hotel and Tourism Manage-
ment, Seoul, South Korea
5. Femenia- 6 3.974 05 133 University of Alicante
Serra,
Francisco
6. Baidal, 6 3.974 12 621 Universitat d’Alacant Tourism
Josep Res Inst, Alicante, Spain
A. Ivars Universitat d’Alacant
7. Rob Law 6 3.974 61 17,919 University of Macau
8. Dimitrios 5 3.311 49 11,169 Bournemouth University
Buhalis
9. Choong- 4 2.649 15 823 Kyung Hee University
Ki Lee Coll Hotel and Tourism Man-
agement, Seoul, South Korea
10. Nam, 4 2.649 04 57 American University of Sharjah
Kichan Sch Business Adm, Sharjah, U
Arab Emirates
Country-wise publications
40
AXIS TITLE
30
20
10
0
PEOPLE
SOUTH ENGLA AUSTR TAIWA
SR USA SPAIN ITALY BRAZIL SERBIA
KOREA ND ALIA N
CHINA
% of 151 23.84% 19.87% 19.87% 13.25% 13.25% 7.29% 5.30% 3.31% 3.31% 3.31%
Publications 36 30 30 20 20 11 8 5 5 5
Fig. 5 Country-wise publications in smart tourism research domain

100 S. Kumar et al.
3.6 Co-authorship Network
In this section, we used the VOS (viewer) software to perform a co-authorship

assessment to determine the author collaborations in the existing study.
Co-authorship is a type of collaboration in which two or more scholars share their
findings and idea on the same issue (Kumar 2015; Savić et al. 2019). As a result,
co-authorship networks can be thought of as social networks containing scholars
who collaborate. In co-authorship networks, scholars are denoted by nodes. Figure 6
depicts the co-authorship network with a minimum of two co-authors and two
citations by one author. This co-authorship network map includes five different
clusters. The network map is made up of large and small groups of circles that are
linked by numerous lines. The authors with a great number of connections with other
authors are given a large circle. The largest cluster includes a total of five authors
such as Namho Chung, Heejeong Han, Sunyoung Hlee, Chulmo Koo, and Hyunae
Lee.
Prof. Chulmo Koo has the highest co-authorship network (with overall connec-
tion strength of 22) in these data with different groups of authors. Table 4 shows that
Chulmo Koo has the highest number of published articles in smart tourism research.
One thing we noted is that most of the connecting authors in the first and largest
cluster are from South Korea and China. Furthermore, this network of co-authors
shows that cross-institutional interactions are limited or that researchers do not often
collaborate with researchers from other institutions on smart tourism. Such a lack of
participation is concerning for academics in less developing and developing coun-
tries like India and Pakistan because when countries/territory researchers engage and
Fig. 6 Co-authorship map

collaborate, the latest research methods and approaches might develop (Chilisa
2019; Tracy 2019).
Note: The following criteria were followed to collect data from VOS (viewer)
software:
(a) Type of analysis and counting methods: co-authorship and authors.
(b) Choose a threshold: minimum number of documents of an author, 2, and
minimum number of citations of an author, 2; out of the 365 authors, 56 meet
the threshold.
(c) Some of the items in the network are not connected to each author, so we
removed these items from our database.
(d) Only 15 authors are connected with each other.
3.7 Most Frequently Occurring Keywords in the Smart

Tourism Research Domain
The word co-occurrence network structure created by the VOS (viewer) software to
determine which keyword occurs most frequently in the search is presented in this
section of the study. The keyword co-occurrence network is often used in research to
identify and analyze patterns in linked literature and studies (Sedighi 2016; Soliman
et al. 2021). The leading 18 frequently used keywords in smart tourism research are
listed in Table 5. With 79 occurrences (180 total link strength), “smart tourism” is at
the top of the list, followed by “tourism,” “social media,” “hospitality,” “travel,”
“management,” “satisfaction,” “information technology,” and “Internet with 24, 23,
21, 20, 20, 19, 18, and 15 occurrences respectively.” The most prominent theme of
the survey is smart tourism, a new buzzword used to characterize the rising reliance
on tourism destinations. The patterns highlight the need for more study to help guide
smart tourism development and implementation (Gretzel et al. 2015). Furthermore,
the study describes smart tourism, discusses current smart tourism trends, and then
outlines its technological and organizational groundwork.
Table 5 Most productive country (in terms of citations)

S. no Country Total citations (WoS)
1. United States 1389
2. South Korea 1156
3. Australia 945
4. China 787
5. Spain 653
6. England 498
7. Taiwan 286
8. Italy 281
9. UAE 245
10. Serbia 165
102 S. Kumar et al.
Fig. 7 Keywords of co-occurrence network analysis
When all of the keywords were added together, 999 keywords were discovered to
be connected to the smart tourism domain. By examining the co-occurrence of
keywords, Fig. 7 depicts the conceptual structure of the paper’s theme. In the
keyword network, a total of six clusters are forming. The first cluster includes
35 keyword items such as adoption, antecedents, augmented reality, behavioral
intention, customer satisfaction, destination image, information system search,
smart tourism technology, revisit intention, word of mouth, technology readiness,
and so on. The second cluster includes 25 keyword items such as artificial intelli-
gence, co-creation, ecotourism, hospitality, location-based services, tourist experi-
ence, social media, smart tourism, truest, value generation, and mobile technology.
The third cluster includes 19 keyword items, such as analytics, big data, experience,
innovations, smart tourism destination, sustainability, tourism destination, etc. Fur-
thermore, the fourth, fifth, and sixth clusters include 15, 12, and 7 keyword items,
respectively. These three clusters include keywords such as destination competitive-
ness, destination management, ICT, smart city, smart hospitality, user-generated
content (UGC), Internet, sharing economy and demand, etc. The aim of this network
is to find out the practical dimensions of the research framework for smart
Table 6 The most frequently used keywords based on their occurrences

Keyword Occurrences Total link strength
Smart tourism 79 180
Tourism 24 61
Social media 23 76
Hospitality 21 83
Travel 20 81
Management 20 78
Satisfaction 19 27
Information technology 18 66
Internet 15 47
Co-creation 14 59
Experiences 14 51
Information 13 51
Behavior 11 26
Big data 11 30
Intention 11 25
Progress 10 47
Customer satisfaction 10 32
Smart tourism destination 10 23
tourism. Table 6 displays the 18 keywords that were most frequently occurring in the
analyzed data set.
The use of keywords indicates several ideas, concepts, and theories that are
frequently utilized in smart tourism studies. “Customer satisfaction concept,” “inten-
tion theory (Jeong and Shin 2020),” and “co-creation theory” (Polese et al. 2018),
“behavioral intention” (Tavitiyaman et al. 2021), and their related forms are
renowned in this discipline in terms of theories/models.
Note: The following steps were followed to collect data from the VOS viewer
software:
1. Type of analysis and counting methods: co-occurrences and all keywords.
2. Choose a threshold: minimum number of occurrence of keywords, 3; out of the
999 keywords, 117 meet the threshold (Table 6).
4 Research Implications
These expanded study perspectives would have substantial implications for a range
of smart tourism stakeholders, such as visitors and service providers. This study
indicates that the accelerated growth of smart tourism will lead to a fundamental
change in the tourism sector, based on the analysis of the results and discussion. At
the current time, blockchain technologies are one of the most innovative
104 S. Kumar et al.
technologies, which are now being used in the tourism industry as well. The research
by Tyan et al. (2020) looked into the potential implications of block chain technol-
ogy in the smart tourism sector, namely, smart tourism destinations. This technology
improves the travel experience by encouraging pro-environmental behavior, provid-
ing community benefits, and decreasing privacy issues. Furthermore, customer
authentication at immigration, hotel check-in periods, and long lines at embassies
will all be shortened, thanks to the blockchain that allows for a more efficient
experience (Caddeo and Pinna 2021).
From the aspect of tourists, the growth of smart tourism will improve their trip
experience. Smart tourist destinations give mobility, priority setting and accessibil-
ity, and a sustainable standard of living while also facilitating tourism with inte-
grated smart environments, boosting visitors’ experiences (smart experience) (Lee
et al. 2020a). Due to the introduction of new technology, the concept of tourism
space is constantly expanding. Thereby, augmented reality and virtual reality are
highlighted as instances of cutting-edge techniques that have a significant percep-
tional impact on tourists due to their ability to merge physical and virtual world
perceptions (da Costa Liberato et al. 2018; Del Vecchio et al. 2018; Kumar et al.
2021; Neuburger et al. 2018). Moreover, smart tourism destinations have the ability
to improve the tourism experience by offering goods and services which are more
customized to every visitor’s specific requirements and desires (Buhalis and
Amaranggana 2015). From the perspective of the tourists, the overall service
model highlights the importance of the service experience in enhancing satisfaction,
price acceptability, and repeat intentions, among other things. In this context, studies
by Chang et al. (2019) and Lee et al. (2020b) highlighted that customers’ perceptions
of physical service experiences are greatly influenced by online experiences, which
also provides a solid foundation for pricing acceptability. Change procedure in the
tourism industry, like the IoT (Internet of things) technology and autonomous robot,
and better analytical tools and rich media (virtual and augmented reality) are
revolutionizing the business landscape, procedures, and routines (Buhalis et al.
2019). Virtual reality has improved the integration of gadgets and human senses
(Flavián et al. 2021). However, tourism 4.0 technologies have immense potential to
enhance the overall experience of tourists, despite the fact that they are still in the
early stages of development (Stankov and Gretzel 2020). Tourism 4.0 technologies’
tremendous powers allow for improved engagement with systems and enrichment of
the tourist experience itself, as well as new means of aiding in behavior modification
and even long-term transformation of consumers (García-Haro et al. 2021; Pencarelli
2020).
Smart tourism can be created as a revolutionary way to generate new worlds of
tourism industry and shared value-creating from the perspective of service providers.
The information and communication technologies’ (ICT) revolution has generated a
new concept in the tourism sector especially in the smart tourism (Gretzel et al. 2016;
Park et al. 2016). Strong Internet and browser programs have aided in the standard-
ization of communication channels, allowing for the easy interchange of operational
information (Naramski 2020; Vermesan and Friess 2013). Further, intelligent tech-
nologies can thus support operators in performing efficient control and maintenance
duties without regard to location limitations (Buhalis and Amaranggana 2013;

Femenia-Serra et al. 2019). The Internet and cloud technology have revolutionized
the way businesses do business. Internal applications and business partners’ systems
can become networked and accessible because of regulated web-based apps that
make data interchange easier (Buhalis and Leung 2018). Furthermore, in hotel and
tourist industry, smart devices and gadgets based on smart tourist industry technol-
ogies, such as self-service equipment, will be widely deployed (Pradhan et al. 2018).
5 Conclusion and Limitations
This paper examined the past research trends in smart tourism and proposed future
research goals using bibliometric analysis. The first article in this area was published
in 2013. However, descriptive statistics show that there has been an increase in
publications on the research topic of smart tourism since 2018. Around 90% of the
publications examined were published after 2018. Topping our list is Asia Pacific
Journal of Tourism Research in terms of most publications (14) and Tourism
Management magazine in terms of highest impact factor (11.06%) and h-index
(199) at the top. In addition, Smart Tourism: Foundations and Developments, as
per total citation, is the most significant publication. The study identified the most
productive and influential authors based on the total number of publications and
other factors such as the h-index and total WoS citations. Prof. Chulmo Koo has the
most publications on smart tourism (about 16 publications), while Prof. Rob Law is
the most influential author in terms of h-index (61) and a total number of WoS
citations (17919). According to the most productive countries, South Korea authored
the most articles (26), while researchers from the United States received the most
citations (1389) in smart tourism. Using the VOS (viewer) program, researchers
discovered a co-author network and the most common articles in the literature. If we
talk about the co-author network result, the largest cluster consists of five different
authors, and Professor Chulmo Ku has the highest link strength (22) in specific
domains. In the last part of the study results, we identified the most frequent
keywords and themes. Moreover, “smart tourism,” “tourism,” “social media,” “hos-
pitality,” “travel,” “management,” “satisfaction,” and “information technology” are
the most frequent and popular research topics.
In addition, this study addressed future research directions in the field of smart
tourism. The investigation uncovered a known flaw in smart tourism studies. The
rapid adoption of new technologies (such as big data, IoT (Internet of things), social
media, AI, cloud technology, and augmented worlds) has brought significant tech-
nical support to smart tourism. However, current work on smart tourism mainly
focuses on theoretical research, while research on the practical application of smart
tourism technology remains limited. Researchers should therefore focus on putting
their research into practice. According to this article, further studies should be
conducted on smart tourism facilities, smart tourism destinations, smart tourism
106 S. Kumar et al.
operations, and smart destination marketing by integrating technological break-

throughs with changes in the social environment.
Despite the study’s shortcomings, we only examined articles in the Web of
Science (WoS) database, which could result in insufficient research results. Studies
from other leading databases such as Scopus and PubMed could be included in
future research. As a result, future relevant studies could expand the number and
scope of literature sources reviewed with a view to improve the breadth and depth of
the results.
Declaration of Conflicting Interest The author(s) declare no conflict of interest in
the publication of this paper
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Big Data in Hotel Companies: A Systematic
Literature Review
Elva Esther Vargas Martínez and Alejandro Delgado Cruz
1 Introduction
The technological revolution in conjunction with the intensive use of data, informa-
tion, and knowledge has transformed the markets’ dynamics, structures, rules, and
productive sectors. However, the Internet and its multiple applications for generat-
ing, recording, storing, and accumulating large-scale data in structured and unstruc-
tured formats continue to stand out among the most innovative technological
developments. Making way for a new era characterized by the emergence of big
data (Del Vecchio et al. 2018; Li et al. 2018; Raguseo and Vitari 2018), an essential
component in the transformation of the environment for the creation of value and the
generation of new opportunities, both for large companies and for small- and
medium-sized companies (Akter et al. 2016; Centobelli and Ndou 2019; Raguseo
and Vitari 2018).
Big data can be conceived as the collection of data in large amounts from
conventional or unconventional sources. The data is analyzed for multiple innova-
tions, decision-making, and strategic management purposes. Moreover, aspects such
as volume, variety, velocity, veracity, validity, and value are added to the concept of
big data, as well as the different ways to access and process data (Centobelli and
Ndou 2019; Li et al. 2018; Raguseo 2018; Wang et al. 2019).
On the one hand, big data has attracted the attention of researchers, entrepreneurs,
professors, and other actors worldwide. For instance, convenience stores can now
quickly predict the sales of new products based on the large amount of information
collected at the cash till and, therefore, optimize their purchases and inventories. In
the tourism sector, big data represents strengthening opportunities for the
E. E. V. Martínez (✉) · A. D. Cruz

Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México, Toluca, Mexico
e-mail: eevargasm@uaemex.mx; adelgadoc@uaemex.mx
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_6
112 E. E. V. Martínez and A. D. Cruz
management of touristic destinations and the organizations involved (Centobelli and

Ndou 2019; Giglio et al. 2019; Sun et al. 2019). Several government administrations
that have put these mechanisms into practice in tourism had economic, social, and
ecological benefits. As a result, governments have created local policies and strate-
gies to apply big data in other tourism management processes and complimentary
services (Li et al. 2018; Yamamoto 2019; Zhang et al. 2019).
On the other hand, compared to other industries, tourism has often been a pioneer
in transitioning from analog to digital channels to manage the interaction with clients
(Raguseo et al. 2017). Some phenomena such as dynamic pricing, information
management, online bookings, and recommendation systems have started in this
industry to spread to other services and retail sectors. This has allowed a change in
business models, competitive strategies, and customer behavior patterns. Therefore,
the study of how big data and the Internet can change the value creation mechanisms
of businesses and companies can have relevant and generalizable implications, even
for other industries.
In addition, the Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey (2019) shows
that enterprises are not ready for this data-based future. Although technology tools
hold strong potential, organizations must first have the right strategy to make the best
of the data and its analysis. Consequently, enterprises need to be better educated than
their competitors, who also intend to enhance their performance by implementing
the same strategy, since the expected value of the benefits will not be the same for all
businesses (Maçada et al. 2020).
Tabesh et al. (2019) claim that implementing big data strategies is a complex
process that is not always executed effectively. Therefore, it is necessary to develop
business skills that impact an analytic organization and bring a new perspective to
problem-solving and decision-making (Duncan 2021), making sense of the data to
not only create business value but also generate competitive advantage (Vidgen et al.
2017).
For this reason, the objective of this chapter is to compile accumulated evidence
of research on big data in the hotel industry, to generate a documentary reference of
its possible applications in business strategy. The systematic literature review plays
an important role in exposing the current state of scientific knowledge on the subject,
and it represents a vital source for managers, academics, and new researchers
(Templier and Paré 2015).
The chapter is structured as follows. First, a conceptual framework on big data
and its relationship with tourism is presented. Second, the process followed by the
research is presented as a systematic literature review, based on a bibliometric and
content analysis according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews
and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology, which determines the stages of identi-
fication, screening, eligibility, and inclusion. Third, the quantitative and qualitative
results of the bibliometric and content analyses are presented. Finally, the discussion,
conclusions, future research lines, and limitations are presented.
Big Data in Hotel Companies: A Systematic Literature Review 113
2 Big Data and Tourism
Big data is defined as “the process of collecting, organizing, and analyzing big data
to discover, visualize, and display patterns, knowledge, and intelligence,” which,
additionally, involves information and multidisciplinary leading communication
technologies (Sun et al. 2016, p. 2). This concept is known for encompassing the
three “V’s” (volume, velocity, and variety) (Emmer and Holešinská 2020). How-
ever, nowadays, there is talk of big data with seven “V’s” (volume, velocity, variety,
veracity, vulnerability, visualization, and value of data), and as time and as time goes
by, more “V’s” are integrated, (viability, validity, and volatility) trying to broadly
describe this phenomenon (EUROSTAT 2017).
The main element of big data is the volume generated continuously, predomi-
nantly via the Internet, through various platforms and devices (Botta et al. 2016).
Another element is velocity, which is determined by the ability to respond to the
users’ different needs, which depends on the real-time data movement (Ducange
et al. 2018). One more aspect is variety, both in the data generated by the users and in
the sources the information is acquired from, which, in some instances, are not
entirely reliable (Pineda 2018). Therefore, veracity has an agreement with
uncertainty—quite present nowadays; information must be verified through the
management of its uncertainty (objectivity, veracity, and credibility), to reach the
highest level of reliability (Lukoianova and Rubin 2014).
In addition, the vulnerability that exists due to the discriminated handling of data
must be considered. Buhalis (2019) argues on issues such as the loss of privacy,
digital exclusion, loss of knowledge, and threats to languages and cultures. Viability
responds to the lifespan of data, which can be either limited or unlimited (Phyu and
Zhao 2017). Meanwhile, the value of big data is because data represents a valuable
and marketable asset, which results in organizations or politicians frequently deny-
ing access to the data they own (EUROSTAT 2017).
Big data has become a dominant scientific paradigm that is changing the lifestyle
of society and organizations, making them more digital (Mayer-Schönberger and
Cukier 2013; Pineda 2018), agile, and smart (Bau-Jung 2018). Facing such a
competitive and changing market, different organizations require practical knowl-
edge about customers, product and service innovation faster, and keeping the
disruptive commercial models (Harvard Business Review 2019). Suppose they
manage to merge all these elements. In that case, a virtuous circle is created,
where the information from the customers drives innovation which, at the same
time, brings forth new business models, attracting customers and offering them
unique, authentic, and memorable experiences (Guttentag 2019).
According to the existing literature, a great dataset is available for the different
human and organizational needs; regarding tourism, it has extensive uses (Volo
2020). Its most widespread use is in marketing, predicting demand (Li et al. 2018)
since, through smart disruptive innovations, tourists are tracked by accumulating
large sets of data (Buhalis 2019). Booking systems and customer relationship
management systems (CRM) are other applications in the hotel industry that use
the information to improve and adapt services (Yallop and Seraphin 2020). In the
same way, with the growth of smart destination, more information is required for
tourism developments (Seraphin and Green 2019).
In this way, the benefits ascribed to big data analysis for tourism are quite broad.
Furthermore, technology trends show that this sector will be affected by powerful
tools and services such as the Internet of things (Pineda 2018), artificial intelligence
(Mariani 2019), blockchains, and big data analysis (Volo 2020). It is predicted that
the big data technologies will speed up along with automation and artificial intelli-
gence in services, especially after COVID-19.
On the other hand, the text has become one of the fastest, most voluminous, and
most diverse formats that the tourism industry possesses (Li et al. 2018). This is
reflected in the diverse digital platforms managed by tourists and hotel corporations.
Among the most popular and prominent platforms, we find those for recommenda-
tions (e.g., Tripadvisor, Booking, Foursquare), reservations and price comparing
(e.g., Trivago, Despegar, BestDay, Hotels, Expedia), photography (e.g., Instagram,
Pinterest), social media (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat), and others
(Al-Kodmany 2019).
Despite this, there is an argument that points to a crisis for the analysis of tourism
activity through data, since for a long time, tourism has been conventionally
measured quantitatively—because of its multiplying effect on the economy—
which has left aside its perspective as a social phenomenon, where the value of
certain human concerns is diminished in the face of the commercial value of the
tourism industry (Weaver 2021). Another argument that raises some questions
claims that big data is an emerging paradigm that is reshaping the theory and practice
of activity (Ardito et al. 2019). About this, Mazanec (2020) points out that empirical
studies about tourism and big data are currently creating data-based research,
questioning if the scientific principles of the theory are being implemented. How-
ever, Weaver (2021) clarifies that empiricism and statistical analysis are becoming
more thorough, bringing forth a more precise and comprehensive awareness of
patterns highly valued among academics and entrepreneurs.
Business trends show that big data can become a valuable strategic tool (Miah
et al. 2017; Li et al. 2018, 2020). In that regard, Plasencia and Anías (2017) identify
applications of big data in the hotel sector: (a) optimal massive data storage in the
cloud and virtual spaces, (b) development of monitoring and security management
systems, (c) process and system analyses for fault detection, (d) data visualization in
order to optimize decision-making processes, and (e) the creation of frameworks to
improve services through the assessment of quality and user experience.
3 Methods
This research opted for a systematic literature review, which reports the body of
knowledge generated in a discipline, topic, or object of study. The purpose of the
review is to identify new and future lines of research that cannot be addressed
Table 1 Data collection criteria (Own elaboration, 2022)

Characteristic Criteria
Search equation (TITLE-ABS-KEY (“big data”) AND TITLE-ABS-KEY (“hotel”))
Database SCOPUS
Total documents 295
Type of document 58.30% Articles
37.62% Papers or conferences
4.08% Chapters
Language English
Period 2013–2022
through individual studies (Page et al. 2021). The Preferred Reporting Items for
Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) methodology was followed. The
PRISMA methodology is applicable in the social sciences, and it makes possible to
evaluate a set of studies by providing quantitative and qualitative results (Page et al.
2021; Yepes-Nuñez et al. 2021). In summary, the systematic review starts from a
research objective and follows a process of identification, screening, eligibility, and
inclusion of relevant studies, which are analyzed and interpreted (Templier and Paré
2015).
The Scopus database was used to search for documents on big data in hospitality.
Scopus is a database with wide coverage in scientific research and provides a
programming interface for the export of documents with bibliographic data (Zupic
and Čater 2014). The search terms “big data” and “hotel” were used, and with this,
295 documents published from 2013 to 2022 were identified. In this identification
step, editorial letters, notes, book reviews, and undefined documents were excluded
(Table 1).
In the second phase, the Scopus database was downloaded to identify duplicate
documents. However, no duplicates were found, but congress and conference papers
were discarded (n = 111), leaving only articles and book chapters (n = 184). The
abstracts of each document were reviewed, and a bibliographic matrix was generated
to organize the documents according to their focus (Gallardo-Gallardo et al. 2015).
As a result, 76 researchers were excluded and eight limited access documents whose
authors did not respond to the submission request.
In the eligibility step, 100 documents were retrieved from the electronic resources
of the university digital library and examined in full text. In this step, 49 documents
were eliminated, leaving 51 selected for further analysis (see Fig. 1). From the
content analysis, two categories were obtained for the presentation of the results:
(a) big data research focus and (b) big data applications in the hospitality industry.
It is worth mentioning that some of the reasons that led to discarding research
during the full-text review were that the search words were only mentioned in the
article once or twice, either as examples or in the references. Under an exhaustive
review, studies whose content was of a technical nature were eliminated, attending to
the needs of computer science, and leaving hotel management aside. Also, any
Fig. 1 Flow diagram of the literature review (Own elaboration, 2022)
contradiction or ambiguity regarding the revision of the publications was discussed

and argued by the authors for their selection.
3.1 Data Processing
VOSviewer version 1.6.5 software was used for data processing and creating net
diagram-based maps (Van-Eck and Waltman 2011, 2014). During this phase, a
clustering LinLog model algorithm was applied, where the normalization is made
in the same way as in the LinLog disposition and the grouping and modeling
technique (Noack 2009). This algorithm possesses a resolution parameter able to
detect small groups or clusters when introducing the correct value for its configura-
tion. It also shows that a higher-resolution parameter implies a parallel increase in
the number of clusters (Van-Eck and Waltman 2011). With these considerations,
maps were used to represent associations by keywords, abstract content, and cross-
country collaborations. Visual maps allow the efficient representation of a network
of themes or conceptual structures (Zupic and Čater 2014). Network analysis is a
method that produces representations of units of analysis which are the nodes and
network links which are the similarity connections (Zupic and Čater 2014). Addi-
tionally, results were plotted using Excel.
4 Results
4.1 Quantitative Analysis
On the whole, scientific production on big data in the hotel industry is low, with
295 publications in the last nine years. As seen in Fig. 2, from 2013, the first
contributions appear and, subsequently, they duplicate in 2016, and there has been
a relatively constant and incremental production in the last three years (2019 to
2021); considering that only the first trimester of 2022 is available, this represents
68% of the total number of publications.
Among the countries that stand out in the subject, six significant clusters are led
by China, the USA, the UK, Spain, India, and Japan. These are shown in the net map
due to their international collaborations (Fig. 3).
The journals with the highest number of publications include the International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management with 4.7% of total publications,
International Journal of Hospitality Management with 4%, Sustainability (Switzer-
land) with 4%, ACM International Conference Proceeding Series with 3.3%, and
Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing with 3.0%. These last two journals
specialize in information and communication technologies and computing (see
Table 2).
The results show the recent development of research in the area and the relevance
of academic events to disseminate the first proposals on big data in hospitality. It is
important to note that the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Man-
agement obtained its highest scientific production regarding the subject (75%)
during the years 2020 and 2021. While the International Journal of Hospitality
Management obtained it (66%) during the years 2019 and 2020. However,
70
59 62
60 59
50
Documents
40
34
30
26 21
20
11
10 12
5 6
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Year
Fig. 2 Production of documents, 2013–2022 (Own elaboration from Scopus 2022)

Fig. 3 Network map based on the scientific production and collaboration among countries (Own
elaboration from VOSviewer, 2022)
Table 2 Journals’ influence ranking (Own elaboration from Scopus database, 2022)
No. of
No. of Citations citations/
Journal publications % Scopus articles Rank
International Journal of Contemporary 14 4.7 226 16.14 4
International Journal of Hospitality 12 4.0 1198 99.8 3
Management
Sustainability (Switzerland) 12 4.0 116 9.7 5
ACM International Conference Pro- 10 3.3 8 0.8 6
ceeding Series
Advances in Intelligent Systems and 9 3.0 3 0.3 7
Computing
Tourism Management 8 2.7 864 108 2
Journal of Travel Research 2 0.6 230 115 1
Sustainability (Switzerland) has achieved 58% of its publications in the last two
years (2021 and 2022), being constant from 2019 onward.
With respect to citations, the International Journal of Hospitality Management
has the most cited articles (1198), followed by Tourism Management (864) and with
a wide distance is Journal of Travel Research, reaching only 230 of the global
citations (see Table 2 and Fig. 4). A relevant result that can be observed in the last
750
700
650
600
550
500
Citations
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
International Journal Of Contemporary Hospitality Management

International Journal of Hospitality Management
Sustainability (Switzerland)
ACM International Conference Proceeding Series
Fig. 4 Most cited journals by year (Own elaboration from Scopus database, 2022)
column of Table 2 is the positions reached by Journal of Travel Research and

Tourism Management with respect to citations per article, since being the ones
that published the least in the list, they are the ones that achieved the highest number
of citations.
Table 3 shows the number of publications per author. Mehrbakhsh Nilashi of
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia stands out as the researcher with the most articles
during the period, followed by Marcello Mariani of the University of Reading,
UK. Both researchers are dedicated to the study of business management and
technologies. There are other researchers who have published five articles as
co-authors, such as Matteo Borghi in collaboration with Mariani, Hak-Seon Kim
from Korea and Rob Law from Hong Kong. Paradoxically, none of them appears in
the list as the most cited.
Examining citations by article and author, the work of Xiang et al. (2015) stands
out with 447 citations. Its quantitative study tests the relationship between guest
experiences and hotel service satisfaction based on website reviews, thereby explor-
ing marketing capabilities that can contribute to hospitality management. Similarly,
the research by Guo et al. (2017) has 395 citations, whose study uses the same
approach. The study reviews Tripadvisor reviews to measure customer satisfaction
and service quality.
Table 3 Publications and citations by author (Own elaboration from Scopus database, 2022)
By number of
publications By citations
No. of No. of
Author publications Author(s) Article title citations
Nilashi, 7 Xiang, Z., What can big data and text analytics 447
M. Schwartz, Z., tell us about hotel guest experience
Gerdes, J.H., and and satisfaction?
Uysal, M.
Mariani, 6 Guo, Y., Barnes, S. Mining meaning from online ratings 395
M. J., and Jia, Q. and reviews: Tourist satisfaction
analysis using latent
Dirichlet allocation
Borghi, 5 Cheng, M., and Jin, What do Airbnb users care about? 195
M. X. An analysis of online review
comments
Kim, H. 5 Li, X., Pan, B., Forecasting tourism demand with 175
S. Law, R., and composite search index
Huang, X.
Law, R. 5 Zhao, Y., Xu, X., Predicting overall customer satis- 169
and Wang, M. faction: Big data evidence from
hotel online textual reviews
Note: Citations to May 2022
This research is interesting because it proposes its own model and method of data
analysis that can be used in the hotel industry to improve management strategies. It is
well-defined that the most cited articles offer their readers new techniques for online
reviews to generate impacts not only on customer satisfaction but also on the
improvement of their products or services.
Co-occurrence analysis by keywords revealed five significant clusters (Fig. 5).
The first group (green) contains the highest content ratio around big data and its
relationship with the hotel industry as the main subject; notably data mining, hotel
management, and data management stand out. The second group (red) is based on
online research reviews, big data analytics, and other automation and digital storage
systems. The third group (yellow) stresses customer satisfaction and how it relates to
service and sales. The fourth (blue) references artificial intelligence and its relation-
ship with decision-making through computer techniques to make online reviews and
the use of software structures and systems such as machine learning, the Internet of
things (IoT), and learning management systems. Finally, the fifth group (purple) is
visibly weak compared to the others, its components are relatively isolated and
merged with the fourth cluster. Sentiment analysis, MapReduce, and forecasting
are used in this group.
Another interesting analysis was about the articles’ abstract textual content. The
content is classified into four groups (Fig. 6). The first one (purple) refers to big data
in hotel industry applications. Research based on tourists’ expressions, feelings,
opinions, and recommendations is observed in this direction. These tourists’ input is
Fig. 5 Keyword co-occurrence map (own elaboration from VOSviewer, 2022)
found on platforms such as Tripadvisor and Booking.com to know the profile, the
behavior, and the search for new and better retention mechanisms. The next group
(blue) lights up the use of mining technologies for data extraction and optimization,
based on customer satisfaction regarding the hotel industry features.
The third group (aqua) considers topics from the healthcare industry and the
managerial implications and business intelligence. Finally, in the fourth group (light
blue), we can appreciate content about distribution channels and prognostics and
their usefulness for big data technology, IoT, and spatial patterns.
4.2 Content Analysis
4.2.1 Big Data Research Focus
Exploring customer satisfaction through online review analysis has been a recurring
objective for big data research in the hotel industry (Arici et al. 2022; Guo et al.
2017; Kim and Kim 2022; Moro et al. 2022; Nilashi et al. 2019; Tang and Kim 2022;
Oh et al. 2022; Wei and Kim 2022; Zarezadeh et al. 2022). Different purposes and
methods have been used in the analyses to measure user satisfaction and identifica-
tion of the most important hosting attributes to achieve repurchase intention, sales
122
Fig. 6 Co-word analysis of abstracts (Own elaboration from VOSviewer, 2022)

E. E. V. Martínez and A. D. Cruz
increase (Kim and Kim 2022; Nilashi et al. 2021), complaint detection, commercial
strategy design, and decision-making (Sann et al. 2022).
Another purpose has been to discover consumption similarities, and different
customers’ cultural origins, that can help hotels offer personalized services, have
word-of-mouth marketing, and reach the customers’ loyalty (Mariani et al. 2019;
Moro et al. 2020; Tang and Kim 2022). Big data studies through review analysis can
be of great use for managers as a marketing tool since they are a significant
foundation to improve and promote services and then get a competitive advantage.
It is argued that initially, hotel brands were created by enterprises, but nowadays,
they are co-created by companies and consumers. As a result, electronic word of
mouth (e-WOM) has increased its effectiveness in informal communications (Yuan
et al. 2020). In that same line, the research on the e-WOM effects on the guests’
behavior has grown (Aakash and Gupta 2020; Kuhzady and Ghasemi 2019; Mariani
and Borghi 2021; Tang and Kim 2022). This is a way of recommendation that avoids
risks since the negative comments have a heavier effect on guests as potential
customers than the positive ones, which determines their future decisions about
booking or hiring hotel services (Yuan et al. 2020).
On the other hand, hotel managers should be aware of the requirements of the
demand. Considering that tourists are getting more and more aware of the pollution
and the decay of our planet, this is why Cheng and Jin (2019), Mariani and
Matarazzo (2021), and Serrano et al. (2021) manage to capture the environmental
concerns of the consumers through online reviews, improving the effectiveness of
e-WOM and adding up to the information needed to make decisions regarding
sustainable management and green marketing. However, Oliveira et al. (2021) did
not manage to identify the references related to environmental topics in their
research, suggesting that it is hard to find a balance between tourism income and
sustainability.
Analyzing the customers’ multisensory experiences is a complex subject of study;
nevertheless, it proves the positive and negative effects on customer satisfaction (Lee
et al. 2019). Some studies have tried to explain the importance of personal interac-
tion with the guest as a highly significant experiential factor (Barnes et al. 2020),
even above other commodities such as the rooms (Hu et al. 2019). In comparison,
Xiang et al. (2015) identified that the interaction between employees and tourists
depends significantly on the facilities, their maintenance, and cleanliness. Moreover,
living in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, when safety and hygiene in food
and facilities are of great interest among consumers, has given rise to a particular
interest among consumers (Nilashi et al. 2021). To this extent, the satisfaction study
turns out to be multidimensional, hence the complex analysis.
Big data has also been considered a tool for knowledge and innovation; conse-
quently, enterprises need to develop their strategic management skills to make the
best of the big data (Lee et al. 2019; Shamim et al. 2021). In this respect, the multiple
actors in the accommodation sector should be able to identify the management and
marketing issues to do some problem-solving-oriented research through technolog-
ical tools. However, there are decisions where the creativity, common sense, and
experience of hotel industry managers allow them to evaluate the multiple warnings
that emanate from information and data analysis, which represent important ele-
ments for the success of the results (Shamim et al. 2021).
Enterprises need to face the big changes in the environment. This is particularly
true when their commercial models and management style are increasingly impulse
by data (Setiadi 2019). Along these lines, the enterprises’ innovation is starting to
lean on the fast technology evolution and the large data availability from multiple
sources, like social media activity, hashtags, online information, mobile phone use,
and the consumers’ preferences posted online. In view of the growing importance of
big data, companies can take advantage of it to exploit new opportunities such as
developing organizational agility to improve hotel performance and renew quickly
(Zhang et al. 2022).
Some authors have been particularly interested in customer relationship
management (CRM) use as a client-oriented strategy (González-Serrano et al.
2020; Talón-Ballestero et al. 2018). In their studies, guests’ profiles are designed
to aim for long-term retention by identifying similarities between new and repeating
clients, analyzing expenditure, stay, place of origin, gender, and loyalty, among
other factors. In another line of research, Han and Lee (2021) propose a social media
data analysis like photographs and hashtags to identify the tourist preferences on the
hotel features defined by their lifestyles and also to identify the spatial distribution of
the social media geotag photographs to show the photo-sharing services’ potential as
an accommodation trends’ identification tool against the traditional holiday
experiences.
Finally, hotel managers experience an information overload that reaches levels
that are exhausting to analyze; consequently, disadvantages are to be considered to
establish strategies to face them. Saxena and Lamest (2018) present a loss of
information control due to public visibility and a bias toward certain tourism
platforms where economic resources are not enough to develop internal technology
solutions (software and platforms). In this direction, interactive boards in coordina-
tion with technology service providers were used, and qualitative data filtration
methods were used due to the excess of information generated.
4.2.2 Big Data Applications in the Hospitality Industry
Nowadays, tourists express themselves through diverse online platforms and social
media, turning them into valuable data sources as long as they are properly managed
and structured. Thus, it is not strange for literature to be of great interest to
researchers to impact the business benefits’ competitiveness and sustainability-
wise (Kim and Kim 2022; Köseoglu et al. 2020).
Consequently, a big part of the analyses has used the text mining and data mining
techniques that have been proposed and applied to develop touristic value models for
both enterprises and destinations (Alotaibi et al. 2021; Bagherzadeh et al. 2021; Gaur
et al. 2021; Kitsios et al. 2021; Lee et al. 2021; Oliveira et al. 2021; Sann et al. 2022).
For instance, Kitsios et al. (2021) inquired about the benefits of this kind of
technique and mentions that they allow to create better touristic recommendation
systems, increase commercial value, and support marketing activities by creating

customers’ tourist profiles. Furthermore, the authors point out that the result could be
better and more successful when the techniques are based on natural language
processing (Gaur et al. 2021), machine learning (Antonio et al. 2019), and lexical,
syntactic, and semantic analysis (Kim and Kim 2022; Ramzan et al. 2019a, b).
In the hospitality industry, several research studies use sentiment analysis (Cheng
and Jin 2019; Gaur et al. 2021; Imane and Abdelouahab 2019; Sharma et al. 2017;
Yussupova et al. 2016), which is a technique for extracting and processing infor-
mation related to customer attitudes, emotions, and opinions. Sharma et al. (2017)
mention that there is a big emotional explosion available on social media that hotels
should use to design strategies. In that sense, Yussupova et al. (2016) applied text
mining, aspect sentiment analysis, data mining, and machine learning on social
media like yelp.com, tripadvisor.com, and tophotels.ru; they were able to effectively
assess the accommodation services’ quality through a new artificial intelligence
technology-based analysis.
Also, techniques such as forecasting, which gives performance value to the hotel
companies, optimize tourists’ digital traces and plan strategies by estimating occu-
pancy levels in the near future. From the digital traces left by tourists, Pan and Yang
(2017) used forecasting, Google Correlate search volume data are assessed, and
using Google Analytics vacancy demand at the Charleston hotel can be predicted.
The empirical evidence shows that Google Trends data and other tourism mar-
keting play the part in tourist prediction providers, ever hotel rooms demand (Yang
et al. 2014). Also, the use of advanced automated learning algorithms of automated
learning has helped predict booking cancellations, although the models must be
designed specifically for each hotel (Antonio et al. 2019). Therefore, big data pre-
sents pertinent and up-to-date information assisting decision-making, especially for
the follow-up of arrivals, overnight stays, or the average stay duration, but above all,
when the market is volatile or there would be a crisis in the sector (Qiu et al. 2021;
Wu et al. 2020).
Other techniques involve the use of MapReduce, Hadoop, and R software when
performing time series analysis since they improve the accuracy, reliability, and
integrity of the information (Blesson et al. 2015; Gaur et al. 2021; Moertini et al.
2017; Ramzan et al. 2019a, b), which are also changing conventional statistical
analysis formats.
The new intermediation processes through the Internet are deprecating the role of
travel agencies and the crowdsourcing logic through which online reviews and
recommendation algorithms are created and shared by travelers, leading to closer
relationships between tourists and hotels (Sann et al. 2022). Meanwhile, Li et al.
(2018) try for the first time to classify tourism data by suggesting three categories:
(a) user-generated data (i.e., online texts and photographs), (b) device data (i.e., from
GPS, roaming, and Bluetooth), and (c) transactional data (i.e., movements, web
search, online booking).
Shared tourism data from social media include not only text data but also photos
and pictures published by the users that can be useful and relevant for tourism
marketing (Han and Lee 2021; Liu and Mattila 2017; Wang et al. 2015; Zhao et al.
2019), to a point where these data provide valuable information about travel routes,
destinations, durations of stays, sights, lifestyle, and touristic origins, among others.
5 Discussion and Conclusion
The systematic review shows that big data is becoming increasingly relevant in
tourism research, and even when most of the studies have focused on customer-
oriented business strategy, some research is beginning to be observed on value
creation in other areas of management in the hospitality industry. However, as this
is an emerging topic, it is expected that future scientific research will broaden its
scope of study.
The quantitative findings give evidence about the growing research on big data
and hospitality in Asian countries. The most connected nodes revealed that China,
the United States, and Great Britain are the countries with the highest collaboration.
The participation of emerging economies such as India is also observed. Regarding
the behavior of the journals, dominance is shared between two fields of knowledge:
those pertaining to tourism and hospitality and those dedicated to informatics and
computing. However, the latter offers results on big data oriented toward a more
technological field. In terms of citations, tourism and hospitality journals stand out.
The most cited articles offer their readers new techniques in the review of online
reviews to generate impacts not only on customer satisfaction but also on the
improvement of their products. The most cited research is interesting since they
propose their own models and methods for data analysis that can be used in the hotel
industry to improve management strategies.
Existing literature shows a strong correlation between big data analysis and client
satisfaction. In the last decade, there have been many instances of Scopus research
(supported by data from Tripadvisor, Booking.com, Expedia.com, and Facebook)
that help understand tourists’ behavior and preferences and highlight which hotel
attributes are key to improve products (Cheng and Jin 2019; Gaur et al. 2021; Kim
and Kim 2022; Nilashi et al. 2021; Wei and Kim 2022; Yussupova et al. 2016). But
the last three years have also been the start of studies on environmental management
and sustainability (Mariani and Borghi 2021; Nilashi et al. 2019, 2021; Serrano et al.
2021).
The ease of extracting textual data online has been the best opportunity to conduct
research, so it is interesting to note that most of the case studies have used big data
techniques such as text mining and sentiment analysis. This, on the one hand,
supplies new information and usable knowledge for strategic decision-making and,
on the other hand, provides us with a way to quickly understand consumer behavior.
Nevertheless, another important discovery that attracts researchers’ interest is the
potential of e-WOM to extract data about consumer intent (Aakash and Gupta 2020;
Mariani and Borghi 2021; Tang and Kim 2022).
Topics oriented toward artificial intelligence (Mariani 2019), sentiment analysis
(Cheng and Jin 2019; Gaur et al. 2021; Imane and Abdelouahab 2019), and big data
analytics (Volo 2020) were evident, among other methods for data analysis that set
the trend for studies. Internationally, with the appearance of the rising technologies
and the hasty Internet evolution, the business context is becoming more demanding,
incidental, and controversial. Consequently, big data’s practical implications for
hotel enterprises should consider the following:
– Strategic implementations of applications focused on recommendation systems to
personalize touristic products based on the visitors’ interests. Thus, the consumer
experience would be improved around the visitors’ preferences (Mariani et al.
2019; Moro et al. 2020).
– The advantages of the business strategy to get customer retentions include
(a) high customer loyalty, as a consequence of covering their personalized service
from a unique accommodation service (Tang and Kim 2022; Mariani and Borghi
2021; Aakash and Gupta 2020; Kuhzady and Ghasemi 2019), (b) the customer
satisfaction that attracts new guests through online platform recommendations,
and (c) the sales process automation which reduces considerably the response
times to clients and transaction costs while providing security for purchase and
sales transactions.
– Lastly, leadership and big data training in tourism specialists because knowledge,
dexterity, and skills are necessary to process and understand data to make
assertive decisions and effective solutions.
The tourism sector represents a complex sphere where enterprises develop vari-
ous activities to stay current and competitive in the market; therefore, they explore
alternatives like big data to enhance strategies (e.g., organizational, technological,
and commercial) and then reach a higher performance. For this reason, the research
lines are linked to the big data use in the online comments to know the customers’
needs, demands, and preferences; likewise, its analysis could work as a loyalty,
relational communication, and value co-creation strategy. On the other hand, com-
parative studies between Latin American tourists are recommended to recognize the
tourists’ and visitors’ profiles that share their experiences on online platforms as they
are the information channels between the hotel and the rest of the people.
Another subject for further research is the prognostic through the predictive
analysis technique, which shows pricing possibilities; natural, material, and financial
resources consumption; and staff performance, among others. Other subjects that
demand deep and thorough research on prevention in tourism are tourism marketing,
touristic product design, and the estimation of tourist reception capacity.
Empirical research helps in decision-making and strategy design, especially in the
case of major chain hotels. However, there is limited research on small independent
hotels. The study of micro and small companies will help to know the benefits of big
data and its applications in the business strategy, a possibility that may not exist
until now.
Finally, this study’s limitations revolve around using a single information source.
We could complement the search in future studies by adding documents from
different databases, like Web of Science or Redalyc, which we consider pertinent
as it contains articles published by journals from Latin America and the Iberian
region. This would allow us to recharacterize the research in Spanish and other
languages other than English. Moreover, it should be considered a limitation to
exclude academic documentation such as dissertations, books, and other published
materials. Therefore, to advance the understanding of big data in tourism, future and
further research should address these identified shortcomings.
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Communication Factors to Increase
Awareness and Sales in the Hotel Industry
Versus Search Platforms
Paula González-Padilla and Francisco Javier S. Lacárcel
1 Introduction
The tourism sector is immersed in a moment of great change and evolution. After its
great development in the 1970s, it has been going through, for some years now,
another crucial moment for each of the companies that are dedicated, in whole or in
part, to this field. The great growth of the sector in recent decades, together with the
technological and social evolution that governs the world today, means that inter-
action between the different businesses that make up the sector and their customers is
no longer conceivable without a tool or application in the middle.
It is necessary to talk about ICTs (information and communication technologies)
in order to put in context the current moment, since they are the cause of the great
revolution that is constantly happening, both in the relationship between company
and customer and from the concept of service and product. The way in which
potential customers relate, in this case, with hotels has changed substantially, and
now this potential customer uses the tools available to them, such as search engines,
web pages, applications, and comparators, to make reservations. But how can the
hotel industry enhance its presence and communication strategies to interact directly
with these potential customers without an intermediary standing between the two?
To be able to talk about strategies, it is necessary to analyze the role of commu-
nication and marketing in order to take actions focused on the user and their
customer experience, with the aim that the industry advances to their needs and
P. González-Padilla
Department of Business Economics, Rey Juan Carlos University, Móstoles, Spain
e-mail: paula.gonzalez@urjc.es
F. J. S. Lacárcel (✉)
University Institute for Tourism Research, University of Alicante, Alicante, Spain
e-mail: francisco@jlacarcel.net
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_7
136 P. González-Padilla and F. J. S. Lacárcel
desires and therefore meets their expectations. In addition, in the tourism sector,
quick access to information is a determining factor in the decision-making process of
a sale or reservation, and for this reason hotels have to optimize their strategies and
technological connection possibilities with their potential customers. The experience
of this particular type of consumer begins long before the reservation itself, and this
point is one of the most critical, as it highlights the need for tools and applications
within this sector that guarantee and optimize the possibilities of success that a hotel
can count on.
The global pandemic of the last 2 years has affected each and every one of the
commercial sectors, so the latest data on the arrival of tourists to one destination or
another has been severely affected. But if we base ourselves on the data obtained by
the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), the general trend of previous years
always revolves around a notorious increase in the mobility of tourists. In an
increasingly global tourism and international trade, it is important to consider the
interests of the members who have their businesses in the sectors that are related and
essential for the tourist activity.
This study will show how innovation is determinant and how it generates interest
in organizations in order to create advantages over the competition, in a current
unstable environment due to the global pandemic that has hit and conditioned this
sector. These technological innovations are already a key strategic resource to be
able to administer and manage everything related to the operations and processes of
lodging reservations, both for the organization and the hotel itself, as well as for the
consumer.
Innovation is one of the topics of greatest interest in the literature on organizations
because it is a determining variable for obtaining competitive advantages in com-
petitive and unstable environments. Technological innovations are one of the main
factors in the economic and social transformation that organizations are undergoing.
The tourism industry is no stranger to this phenomenon, where technological
innovations have become a key strategic resource in the management of its opera-
tions and one of the main sources of competitive advantages due to the central role of
information in this industry. This paper analyzes innovations in information and
communication technologies (ICTs) in a specific type of organization, hotels, with
the aim of gaining a deeper understanding of the variables that determine the
implementation of these innovations.
Marketing strategies in the hotel industry have always been paramount. However,
the rise of external platforms has led to a noticeable decline in direct sales in recent
years. Companies must improve their strategies in digital environments to increase
brand positioning in the consumer.
A key, and increasingly important role in the service sector, is that of innovation
(Miles 2001), being particularly important within the tourism industry within which
the object of study of this research is located (Hjalager 2002). The use of the Internet
has been boosted by the growing tourism activity, being one of the drivers of this
medium, being one of the first to operate through e-commerce with the end con-
sumer, fostering relationships between companies, and betting on Web 2.0 applica-
tions (Mich 2010; Saura et al. 2021a, b). Therefore, it can be said that technological
Communication Factors to Increase Awareness and Sales in the. . . 137
progress and tourism have been going hand in hand for years and will continue to do
so actively and constantly (Buhalis and Law 2008). Moreover, it is precisely ICTs
that have provoked and driven important changes in the organization and manage-
ment of companies and, of course, in the tourism industry and hotel companies
(Longhi 2009).
The use of external platforms facilitates sales in the hotel industry (Cornejo).
However, the commission percentage is an impediment for companies as they have
to adjust the price to become competitive. Prices have been adjusted a lot since the
emergence of the global pandemic, and this has become a negative aspect that has
meant having to adjust the cost further. Hotels should adopt multichannel social
networking strategies to improve retail performance. The hotel industry can realize
strategies to access new markets, creating advantages for customers and increasing
satisfaction and loyalty (Di Gangi et al. 2010; Sawhney et al. 2005). The use of the
Internet as a distribution channel forces tourism companies to continuously manage
and monitor customer relationships. In this way, organizations can obtain greater
benefits by offering their customers greater value and ensuring their loyalty.
The social aspect is one of the strongest points that external platforms have. User-
generated content (UGC) means that experiences and opinions become a crucial
aspect before making the decision to book one hotel or another (Gil et al. 2017; Saura
et al. 2022a, b). In addition, reviews are classified by levels and even by a textual
analysis of the platform itself, which indicates the strong points of the place.
Achieving sales conversion directly through the hotel’s website is a goal for many
companies. Digital communication strategies are very important to achieve this goal.
However, it is also important to take care of the tourists and offer them a unique
experience, which in some cases is related to traditional factors of comfort, relation-
ship, and relaxation. However, digital marketing techniques should be used from the
beginning of the stay, offering not only a unique treatment as a face-to-face expe-
rience but also a virtual experience (Israel et al. 2019; Saura et al. 2021a, b). Digital
marketing techniques can be vital to attract the user using remarketing methods in
which social media, search engine campaigns, and external platforms encourage
sales (Gonzáles Grández 2018). However, strategies must have a focus on innova-
tion that can bypass external platforms (Saura et al. 2020).
Thus, in order to achieve the aforementioned objectives and extract useful ideas,
this research is based on a systematic literature review (SLR) of previous studies
focused on the communication strategies used by hotel chains.
It should be noted that the originality of this study lies in a review of the relevant
scientific literature focused on communication techniques in the hotel sector, a
subject that is not so extensive in terms of literature, since there is a lot of information
in general, but not so much in terms of this specific sector. One of the main
contributions is that our results provide significant implications for hotel managers
and professionals in this field, in addition to filling a gap in the literature.
The remainder of this paper is structured as follows. In Sect. 2, we review the
theoretical framework on the concept of hotel communication strategies. Next,
Section 3 presents the methodology. In Sect. 4, the analysis of results is
presented. Finally, Sect. 5 presents the conclusions.
2 Theoretical Framework
In recent years, the development of new technologies and, in particular, the Internet
has meant that different industries, including the tourism industry, have had to adapt
to the new business models (Bennett 2017) that prevail at this time, also subject to
the digital era that dominates the global landscape. Traditionally, the tourism sector
has been defined as encompassing hospitality, catering, transportation, and other
tourism-related businesses, understood as the trips and stays made by people in
places other than their usual environment for leisure, business, or other reasons.
However, within this framework, different approaches can be discussed and ana-
lyzed, such as economic, technical, and holistic approaches, and five fundamental
elements can be isolated: tourists, the three geographical elements (the generating
region, the transit route, and the destination region), and a tourism industry (Leiper
1979).
With the development of new technologies, companies have had to seek advice
and create partnerships in order to take advantage of all the opportunities offered
(Robson and Bennett 2000). The marketing world has grown exponentially and has
evolved into an ecosystem where products and services are available 24/7 from
almost any geographical location on the planet (Cevik Onar and Ustundag 2018).
All this technological development has also driven a change of habits in con-
sumers, being very active on the Internet and developing key behaviors for each of
the companies that make up the business fabric of a country. Specifically with regard
to the tourism sector, the evolution has been constant, as the options with which
consumers could interact with the companies that would fulfill their desires were
increasingly greater and more decisive for the satisfaction of the same. Digital
marketing strategies are already operating with very high return percentages
(Saura et al. 2019) with the time spent by users on the network, either through a
computer or through a smartphone, being key to the success of a tourism company.
This change in user behavior patterns, along with digital advances, has meant that
in 2021 the average Internet consumption per day will stand at 6 h and 54 min,
according to the Global State of Digital 2021 annual report, which represents that
they are spending more and more time connected to the network (Yousaf and
Xiucheng 2018) and therefore represents an opportunity for companies to take into
account. These companies and industries can exercise their work within these new
digital ecosystems, adapting to the changes that are constantly happening. The
tourism industry is one of those that from very early on had to adapt, since business
models based on the digital environment are the most successful in the sector today.
The user has adapted roles that were previously performed by industry experts and
professionals, such as travel agents or tour operators.
Thus was born the so-called digital tourism business (DTB), which is defined as
businesses that are related to the tourism sector, its main sales channel being the
Internet, in addition to having specific strategies based on digital marketing tech-
niques (Hojeghan and Esfangareh 2011; Saura et al. 2022a, b).
It is important to note that the industry on which this research focuses is

increasingly global, and the investment made by consumers, called tourists in this
case, is growing, without taking into account, of course, these last 2 years in which
the tourism and hotel sector have been so affected by the global pandemic (Škare
et al. 2021). The sector in general relies on the options offered by the Internet to
manage its products and services, highlighting the issue at hand, and that is that hotel
reservations have undergone many management changes in recent years. There are
options to book directly without going through a travel agency, search for specific
offers, compare prices with other search engines, make your own package with
airplane or transportation added to the hotel nights, etc. The ease offered by new
technologies to display all information related to the hotel sector (Acheampong et al.
2020) makes many places of accommodation opt for digital marketing strategies as
an important part of their business development (Alrawadieh et al. 2021). In this
way, they ensure that they reach a very large number of potential consumers, having
the option to increase their sales figures through the Internet.
Within the hotel industry, there is a need for the application of certain digital
technologies with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of services offered,
increasing the competitiveness of hotel companies, reducing the service time, and
also minimizing the costs of services to consumers (Kolobkova et al. 2021). To
achieve those sales conversions that every hotel is interested in, it is paramount to
talk about the role that search engines play in helping to optimize the websites of
these types of businesses. They enhance these sites with videos, images, and other
resources that talk about and showcase the facilities, services, and other features they
offer to their guests. In addition, they also win business with tour operators, travel
agents, and airlines (Parvez et al. 2018).
Hotels have long been aware of, value, and are interested in integrating new
techniques and technologies that allow them to personalize the interaction with their
guests and potential customers. In this way, they understand that in order to develop
an effective competition in the market, it will be essential to improve the satisfaction
of the people who stay in their facilities (Kim and Wang 2019). Within this
environment in which the market finds itself, we can see how social networks play
a fundamental role in the communication of hotel companies. They also act as a
bridge in the marketing of those reservations that the industry feeds on, between
hotels and guests, through mobile devices mostly, or personal computers, which
with the help of applications such as Instagram, Facebook, Google+, Twitter,
YouTube, and others create direct channels between the main actors.
Through these channels and the content that is created on them or on official
profiles or through other influential profiles, attention and the intention to be directed
toward the action of making a reservation and making that sale is driven. It also
encourages commenting, sharing opinions and experiences, which ultimately pro-
vide useful information for potential prospects or future guests. The media, there-
fore, has become a source of marketing in itself and causes the constant evaluation of
the operation and service of the business, which helps in improving the evaluation
capabilities of the service offered and improves commercial capabilities (Kim and
Ko 2012).
One of the needs that hotels continue to have is to keep up to date with new
technologies and digital marketing in order to continue finding new formulas that
help maintain their presence in social networks and the communication environment
(Inversini and Masiero 2014). One of the aspects to take into account in addition to
social networks is the optimization of a hotel’s website, as it will be of great help to
achieve a better return on the investment made in the creation and use of it. It is a
very useful technique to position the business and get the website to appear in search
engine results. This process works on the keywords selected by the hotel and its
expert department and on the frequency of the website in search engine listings. The
higher the ranking and therefore the higher the number of visitors, the more
frequently the website is visited, the higher it appears on the search results page,
seeing how many times a particular page appears in the search results list, all of these
will help to get more visitors to the website, and these visitors will more than likely
convert into hotel guests. SEO can focus on different types of search, such as word
search, local search, video search, image search, hotel search, location search,
facilities search, and some related news, which will generate the right traffic
(Quinton and Khan 2009). Together with the SEM tool, it will be possible to achieve
a more successful joint work for the business. Every hotel needs to have a well-
designed web page, being essential to make the hotel visible through the Internet
being the main goal to attract traffic to that specific web page with the help of online
tools.
There are authors who claim that social networking was hindered by the organi-
zational culture of some companies, which were not able to visualize the possibilities
and saw it more as a threat and not as a competitive advantage for the hotel sector
(Gallaugher and Ransbotham 2010). Sometimes those managers, entrepreneurs, or
senior management of companies are not so knowledgeable about everything that
the network can do for their business, today this has been decreasing, and in general
terms the whole sector is very involved with the benefits that can generate the web
environment, such as social networks (Bailey and Zanders 2008). These sites help to
develop common interests between employers, workers, collaborators, and the end
consumer of the service. In this way there is a greater transfer of information among
all, cooperative work is increased, and it is easier to follow the same line of work,
meeting the needs and expectations generated around the hotel company. These
expectations are especially sensitive within the hotel experience on the part of the
user, since they play a determining role in the fulfillment of their desires, generating
that peace, that feeling of happiness, of arriving at a place that will make their stay at
their destination easier and more comfortable, and everything else that can be
generated. It is therefore important that hotel companies align the new technologies
that arise with the strategies they carry out to be competent in the market.
3 Methodology
The research presented here is based on a systematic literature review (SLR) with the
objective of identifying which communication strategies are used by hotel channels
to increase their notoriety and sales by decreasing their presence in search platforms.
To carry out the methodology, a PRISMA diagram will be made exposing the
advances carried out by means of articles extracted from the following databases:
Web of Science and Scopus (Fig. 1).
The results will be classified according to the sales opportunities and brand reach
that can be achieved through the strategy. In addition, theoretical and practical
implications will be exposed that can be used by future research to better understand
digital communication strategies in the hotel industry.
The SLR methodology is chosen for this analysis. An SLR (systematic literature
review) is a type of literature review that compiles and critically analyzes multiple
studies or research papers through a systematic process (Ramírez and García-
Peñalvo 2018). It is a systematic method for identifying, evaluating, and interpreting
the work of researchers, scholars, and practitioners in a chosen field (Rother 2007).
The goal of an SLR is to provide a comprehensive summary of the available
literature relevant to a research question.
In order to carry out this study, a structure similar to that proposed by Saura
(2021) was followed, where the key terms of the research were first identified and
then searches were carried out in the databases: Web of Science, ScienceDirect, and
Scopus. We have always worked with research cataloged as scientific articles, in
order to obtain more concrete and rigorous results, in addition to filtering and
narrowing the searches as much as possible to generate more precise results.
Systematic reviews are studies that gather information previously generated by
other authors, they come from articles already published, and it is the research on a
specific topic, evaluated through a meta-analysis (Ortiz 2004), which ends with
results that are summarized in the conclusions of the study.
For the optimal execution and results of the research, the systematic review must
be carried out in a rigorous and objective manner, and strategies that limit errors are
usually used (Noble et al. 2019). Some of them are the search for reproducible and
explicit selection criteria (Leonelli 2018), the exhaustive search of all relevant
articles on the subject, evaluation of the synthesis, and interpretation of the results
(Papadopoulos et al. 2019). In this type of research, quantitative and qualitative
points of view are used, and data are collected through primary studies using
mathematical and methodological tools to create a combined effect and thus be
able to conclude with a synthesis of the evidence that is generated.
Fig. 1 Databases. Source:

Web of Science
The authors
Data Bases
Scopus
Hotel Industry AND Digital Communication

Search Terms
Hotel OR Digital Marketing
Fig. 2 Search terms in databases. Source: The authors
Fig. 3 Fields in databases.

Title
Source: The authors
Fields Abstract
Keywords
One of the strengths of this type of study is that they constitute an efficient
research design, have consistency in the generalization of results, are precise in their
estimation, and, as Ortiz (2004) mention, offer a strict evaluation of the published
information. Furthermore, if the aim is to answer the same question through the
integration of different studies, the sample size is increased, which in turn increases
statistical power (Dickersin and Berlin 1992).
Thus, the present study, conducted during the month of March 2022, follows a
literature review as a methodology to classify relevant studies in the most relevant
databases. Therefore, the terms “Hotel Industry” and “Digital Communication” have
been identified in the literature to determine which studies address the research
question. When the results are not conclusive, we have used “Hotel” or “Digital
Marketing.” The results are classified and filtered based on previously established
selection criteria in order to select the accurate articles, conferences, or book
chapters. The articles are then carefully studied to determine whether they contain
terms relevant to the research. In this way, studies that contain irrelevant specifica-
tions are excluded.
Figure 2 shows the fields that have been used to search the databases (Fig. 3).
Since our object of study is data collection techniques, we focused on publica-
tions that include these terms in the following databases, according to the
abovementioned search criteria. Specifically, we used the databases Web of Sciences
(WOS) and Scopus. The searches were carried out focusing on titles, abstracts, and
keywords in order to identify the most relevant contributions in the field. Conse-
quently, a total of 120 related articles were obtained, of which 19 met the established
criteria. Figure 4 shows the PRISMA process by which we have carried out the
methodology.
Figure 4 shows the development of the methodology applied in this research.
First of all, by means of two databases, Web of Science and Scopus, we have related
searches through two key terms “Hotel Industry” and “Digital Communication” with
which we have found 120 articles; then, we have used the keywords “Hotel” or
“Digital Marketing” to focus the results to a greater link with the research objective.
Fig. 4 PRISMA. Source: The authors
The results were then analyzed by means of title, abstract, and keywords, and
67 were eliminated. The remaining articles were then read in detail and 54 were
eliminated as they were not related to the focus of this research. In short, 19 potential
articles were extracted.
Table 1 shows the potential articles differentiating their authors, the journal in
which they were published, and the year of publication.
4 Analysis of Results
The digital divide has meant that companies’ communication strategies have under-
gone a process of adaptation to new technologies (De Pelsmacker et al. 2018). This
section analyzes the results extracted from the methodology, differentiating them
into four sections: digital marketing strategies, social media management, artificial
intelligence, and corporate image.
Table 2 shows the results that have been related to digital marketing strategies.
Table 3 lists some of the tools that are used to implement digital marketing
strategies.
The tools shown in Table 2 are just some of the platforms that can help a
company/hotel implement digital marketing strategies and take care of digital
presence or respond to reviews and comments from the public.
Table 4 shows the results obtained that are related to social networks and their
community.
Table 5 shows the results that are related to artificial intelligence.
Finally, corporate image has been related to the following results shown in
Table 6.
5 Conclusions
The main objective of this research has been to identify which digital communica-
tion strategies are used by hotel channels to increase their brand awareness and
digital presence and, therefore, achieve an increase in sales, progressively ceasing to
Table 1 Included articles

Article Journal Category Main goals
Atasoy et al. Journal of Hospitality Tourism, Lei- To show how hotels can turn a
(2022) and Tourism Insights sure and Hospi- crisis into an opportunity
tality To discuss strategic crisis
Management response
To show different approaches to
crisis communication
Almeida and International Journal of Tourism, Lei- To show the creation and evolu-
Campos Culture, Tourism and sure and Hospi- tion of a community of practice
(2021) Hospitality Research tality to a digital platform
Management To analyze the creation of a
co-designed tourism product
To explore the relationship
between hotel business and
social networks
Balsiger et al. Competition & Change Business, Man- To identify three strategic
(2021) agement and response configurations of the
Accounting hotel digital platform
To explain how hotels learn
techniques to optimize their use
of platform
Campante Marketing and Smart Computer To analyze digital media for the
et al. (2022) Technologies Science improvement of marketing strat-
egies aimed at tourist hotels
Chen et al. Journal of Quality Tourism, Lei- To give practical recommenda-
(2021) Assurance in Hospitality sure and Hospi- tions for eWOM
& Tourism tality To classify customer types to
Management anticipate problems and
improvements
Damnjanović Tourism and Hospitality Tourism, Lei- To explain the need to under-
et al. (2020) Management sure and Hospi- stand the stages of the cus-
tality tomer’s digital journey
Management To show the development of the
right digital marketing strategy
for hotels
De International Journal of Tourism, Lei- To explain how digital marketing
Pelsmacker Hospitality Management sure and Hospi- strategies and tactics affect the
et al. (2018) tality volume and value of online
Management reviews
To show the relationship with
hotel performance
Floričić Civil Engineering Engineering To detail the importance of sus-
(2020) Journal tainable initiatives explains the
need for resource management
To investigate the total of tourist
who would pay more for their
stay in a hotel with sustainable
solutions
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Ilin et al. International Business Business, Man- To explain the importance of the
(2019) Information Manage- agement and implementation of new technol-
ment Association Accounting ogies related to the business
Conference organization of logistics
companies
Kapoor and Worldwide Hospitality Tourism, Lei- To apply electronic marketing
Kapoor and Tourism Themes sure and Hospi- tools and strategies
(2021) tality To show the right mix of digital
Management and traditional marketing plat-
forms
To explain the importance of
managerial decision-making
Leung et al. Journal of Hospitality Tourism, Lei- Application of artificial intelli-
(2020) Management sure and Hospi- gence by improving the user
tality interface and user experience.
Management Example of the application of
virtual reality to improve
services
Leite and Journal of Marketing, Business, man- To provide an evaluation of the
Azevedo Communication and New agement and combination of digital marketing
(2017) Media accounting communications with the luxury
segment of the hotel industry
To suggest recommendations for
improving hotels digital market-
ing performance
Leung et al. International Journal of Tourism, Lei- To show that virtual reality ads
(2020) Hospitality Management sure and Hospi- produce better effects than tradi-
tality tional ones
Management To reveal significant decreases in
the interaction of hotel bookings
promoted by virtual reality
Mahmutović Economic Issues Business, Man- To develop and validate the scale
(2021) agement and for measuring digital marketing
Accounting orientation (DMO) in the hotel
industry
To show the 15 items that make
up the scale in 3 dimensions:
strategic emphasis, digital intel-
ligence generation, and planning
and resource provisioning
Maurer Cultural Tourism in a Tourism, Lei- To raise awareness of the effect
(2015) Digital Era sure and Hospi- of digital platforms that directly
tality affect the tourism industry in
Management general
Nicoli et al. Journal of Business Business, Man- To identify monitoring, rapid
(2017) agement and response, recruitment, and trans-
Accounting parency as key factors
To explain the importance of
reputation management in the
design of a comprehensive com-
munication strategy
(continued)
Table 1 (continued)
Papageorgiou 2020 IEEE Communica- Computer To show that social networks are
et al. (2020) tion Strategies in Digital Science very powerful for the organiza-
Society Seminar tional performance and image of
a hotel company
To explain the need to invest in
professionals who master digital
marketing in the sector
Panas et al. Cultural and Tourism Tourism, Lei- To apply new technologies and
(2020) Innovation in the Digital sure and Hospi- Internet for the improvement of
Era tality clients in tourist hotels
Management
Vrontis et al. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism, Lei- To give an increased use of sus-
(2020) Tourism Research sure and Hospi- tainability reports for communi-
tality cation
Management To explain how to better manage
stakeholder relations and value
creation
To offer areas of improvement
for SE activities and
communication
Source: The authors
have a need for dependence on large intermediary platforms. This article shows how
different digital communication actions can be executed to increase brand reach in
digital environments and achieve brand differentiation from the competition, by
means of a prior marketing strategy.
To achieve these results, a systematic literature review has been carried out in
which 19 potential articles have been obtained with which we have obtained a total
of 32 results, which are specifically separated into digital marketing strategies (15),
social media management (8), artificial intelligence (6), and corporate image (3).
Digital marketing strategies are the first step that brands must take to get to the
top. They must make a marketing plan in which they include one or more of the
strategies extracted in the results to achieve a short-, medium-, and long-term benefit.
The different ways of applying a digital marketing action are very diverse, and the
results obtained in this field are search engine optimization (SEO), search engine
marketing (SEM), display marketing, programmatic advertising, analyzing web
metrics, email marketing, influencer marketing, remarketing, content marketing,
CRM, and video marketing. Each of them shows a way to increase in digital
environments, and in order to manage it, we have managed to extract in the results
of the research some tools or platforms that are key in the management of some of
the above digital marketing strategies: Google Ads, Google My Business, Google
AdSense, and TripAdvisor.
However, carrying out what has been called a digital marketing strategy in this
study is not enough if the company is not present in the social networks, which is
why the following results have been obtained in the Social Media Management
Table 2 Digital marketing strategies

Strategies Definition
Search Engine Optimi- Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a set of actions aimed at
zation (SEO) ensuring that a website is found in the top positions of a search engine
when a user makes a query
Search Engine Market- Search Engine Marketing (SEM) is a way of making investments in
ing (SEM) search engines with the objective of achieving greater reach and
ranking for a fee
Display Marketing Display Marketing is a type of online advertising in which banner
advertisements are displayed on websites
Programmatic Programmatic advertising is a type of online advertising in which you
Advertising buy advertising space on a website
Analyzing Web Metrics Detailed analysis of the interactions made by users within a website to
then carry out strategies based on the conclusions
Email Marketing Sending mass e-mails to potential customers of our website with a
specific target
Influencer Marketing Marketing strategy that consists of carrying out a collaboration
between a public figure and a brand/company
Remarketing Strategy that aims to re-engage a specific target audience that is
already familiar with the brand/company or has interacted with it
before
Content Marketing Content Marketing aims to create valuable content, i.e., content that is
relevant and valuable in order to persuade or attract the attention of
the target audience
CRM Administration and management carried out by a company with the
aim of satisfying its customers
Video Marketing The use of video to promote a product or service as part of a
marketing strategy
Source: The authors
Table 3 Digital marketing strategies

Tools for
strategies Definition
Google Ads Is Google’s online advertising program. Through Google Ads, you can create
ads to reach people exactly when they’re interested in the products and
services that you offer
Google My Is a free online business listing service that is integrated with the Google
Business search engine
Google AdSense Is a free, simple way to earn money by displaying ads next to your online
content
TripAdvisor Is a travel website that assists customers in gathering travel information,
posting reviews and opinions of travel-related content, and engaging in
interactive travel forums
Source: The authors
section of this study: Facebook Ads, Twitter Ads, LinkedIn Ads, Pinterest Ads,
TikTok Ads, YouTube Ads, private groups in social networks, and engagement in
social networks.
Table 4 Social media management

Facebook Ads Advertising campaign manager within the Facebook Application,
Instagram, Facebook Messenger and Audience Network (set of
applications linked to Facebook)
Twitter Ads Advertising campaign manager within the Twitter Application
LinkedIn Ads Advertising campaign manager within the LinkedIn Application
Pinterest Ads Advertising campaign manager within the Pinterest application
TikTok Ads Advertising campaign manager within the TikTok application
YouTube Ads Carrying out campaigns on YouTube with the aim of increasing visits,
engagement in a video, or subscribers on the platform
Private Groups in Social User participation through private groups related to a topic or sector in
Networks a social network
Engagement in Social Interactions carried out by users among others through publications
Networks on social networks
Source: The authors
Table 5 Artificial intelligence

Virtual Reality (VR) Virtual Reality is the term used to indicate simulated reality, usually
using glasses to simulate a new reality
Augmented Reality A set of technologies that allow interaction with parts of the real world
(AR) by means of technological devices
Chatbot Applications that simulate a conversation with a human through
programmed responses
VR Ads Advertising that appears within augmented reality simulating reality
VR commercials Expert sales people appearing in virtual reality showing a service or
product
Computer- Generated Scenes that simulate reality by means of 2D or 3D graphic images
imagery
Source: The authors
Table 6 Corporate image

Branded Content Branded content is the practice of marketing through the creation of
multimedia content financed or produced by an advertiser
Stakeholder engagement The process by which an organization involves people who may be
(SE) affected by the decisions it makes or can influence the implemen-
tation of its decisions
Corporate Social Respon- Refers to practices and policies undertaken by corporations
sibility (CSR) intended to have a positive influence on the world
Source: The authors
Next, some essential techniques for hotel chains have been defined: the use of
artificial intelligence in their digital communication strategies. In this field, the
following results have been obtained: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR),
chatbot, VR Ads, VR commercials, and computer-generated imagery.
Finally, digital communication strategies are of little use if there is no detailed
analysis of how to improve the customer experience or how the customer perceives
our company, which is why the following keys have been found in the brand image
of the entity: branded content, stakeholder engagement (SE), and corporate social
responsibility (CSR).
Theoretical Implications
This study contributes to a broader understanding of a complex subject in which
there are different variables to take into account, helping and simplifying concepts so
that future scholars can establish new research.
Science, technology, and opportunities in the two sectors on which this research
is based, such as the hotel industry and digital marketing, are advancing rapidly and
continuously, so this research will be updated as new formulas and strategies are
developed. In addition, this study reveals several issues already exposed that can be
taken into account in future research, as they are relevant to the business conglom-
erate related to the hotel system.
Practical Implications
Similarly, this study is aimed at all entrepreneurs, managers, marketing profes-
sionals, and the hotel sector who want to deepen their knowledge on the subject,
improve their results, and be more efficient with sales and bookings of their
businesses. In addition to obtaining a greater positive impact with their potential
customers. It should be noted that the implementation of a more effective system in
these organizations will improve not only the processes involved but also the quality
of the services offered.
The results of the present study can be used by hotel and marketing companies to
understand what techniques, methods, and tools can be used to improve the effec-
tiveness of their practices. Therefore, when applied they can have an impact to
improve their strategies, decision-making, actions to be taken, and campaigns,
becoming a success in sales or bookings.
In an era driven by data, measurement, and analytics, these tools enable business
owners to reduce their costs, improve the services they offer, and design better
solutions.
Limitations and Future Research
The limitations of this study are related to the number of studies analyzed and the
time period in which they are analyzed, but this is precisely what makes the study
more interesting, to be able to contribute and analyze how technological progress is
transforming the sector providing opportunities and improvements, filling and
completing the little existing literature.
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Social Media Research in the Hotel
Industry: A Bibliometric Analysis
Marília Durão, Medéia Veríssimo, and Michelle Moraes
1 Introduction
Social media consist of social relationship networks that are used by people world-
wide to communicate, be informed, share their thoughts, and relate with others
online. Applications such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, or Twitter,
to name a few, have become an indispensable part of people’s daily lives (Garg and
Kumar 2021), particularly in the most recent years, with the Covid-19 pandemic
being a catalyst for increasing online activities (Mason et al. 2021).
In the hotel industry, as in other sectors, social media play an increasingly
important role in affecting the consumer journey and, for example, in shaping the
way people search, choose, and book accommodation (Gupta 2019). Besides,
considering the intangible facet of services, hotel businesses benefit from social
media in the sense that they leave impressions of all features that cannot be evaluated
or experienced before the purchase. In that sense, social media is a valuable strategy
to convince potential travelers of the quality, uniqueness, and safety of the service
provided (Kryukova 2021). Furthermore, hotels can widen the benefits of social
media through their integration with customer relationship management (CRM)
strategies to engage customers in active conversations, endowing them with a
prominent position in the value creation process (Garrido-Moreno et al. 2018).
M. Durão (✉) · M. Veríssimo

Portucalense University, REMIT, GOVCOPP-UA, Porto, Portugal
e-mail: mariliadurao@upt.pt; medeia@upt.pt
M. Moraes
Lusíada University, COMEGI, GOVCOPP-UA, Lisboa, Portugal
e-mail: lnsmhl@unife.it
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_8
154 M. Durão et al.
The remarkable growth of social media over the past decade has increased interest
in social media research and the number of publications and citations on this theme
in recent years. As the popularity of social media has grown, several studies have
been approaching topics as the role of social media advertising (Chu et al. 2020), its
use for marketing (Lin et al. 2020), and the use of analytics to collect, examine,
summarize, and interpret big data derived from social media (Mirzaalian and
Halpenny 2019). Although previous studies with the help of bibliometric analysis
attempted to explore the trends and prospects of social media in tourism and
hospitality research, none of them focused on the specific context of the hotel
industry or covered a more recent period (Chu et al. 2020; Leung et al. 2021; Lin
et al. 2020; Lu et al. 2018; Mirzaalian and Halpenny 2019).
To bridge this gap, this study offers an update of the published academic research
into social media applications in the hotel industry. This bibliometric analysis
focuses exclusively on the implications of social media to the hotel industry,
mapping the progress of the latest studies, from 2017 to 2021. Despite merely
indicative, given the scope of the study, the thematic clusters emerging from the
analysis uncover critical management and marketing domains in which the hotel
industry can build up social media strategies for creating value for customers and
achieving organizational objectives. Social media is constantly evolving and so is
the hotel industry, and tourism and hospitality research still lacks a body of knowl-
edge that covers hotels’ particularities. For this reason, this study highlights
advancements in this subfield of research by portraying the current state of the art,
which is expected to continue growing, and at identifying future research
opportunities.
2 Literature Review
Social media is a concept which popularity has been fueled by the growing avail-
ability of high-speed Internet access and may be defined as “a group of Internet-
based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of
Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content”
(Kaplan and Haenlein 2010, p. 61). This definition is underpinned by two other
related concepts: Web 2.0, which refers to new ways of using the World Wide Web
in a participatory and collaborative fashion, and user-generated content, which
typically refers to various forms of media content that are publicly available and
created by end-users (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Based on characteristics such as
media richness, self-disclosure, self-presentation, and social presence, social media
can be classified into six groups: (1) collaborative projects (e.g., Wikipedia),
(2) (micro)blogs (e.g., Twitter), (3) content communities (e.g., YouTube, Flickr),
(4) social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn), (5) virtual game worlds (e.g.,
EverQuest), and (6) virtual social worlds (e.g., Second Life) (Kaplan and Haenlein
2010; Kaplan and Mazurek 2018). Although most social media applications were
Social Media Research in the Hotel Industry: A Bibliometric Analysis 155
initially usable on a personal computer, mobile devices opened up a wide range of

possibilities for both consumers and corporations (Kaplan and Mazurek 2018).
According to recent data, nine out of ten Internet users are on social media, which
means that over half the world is active on these applications/platforms. There are
4.2 billion active social media users worldwide who spend an average of 2.25 h a
day, 15% of their daily time, browsing on social media (Kemp 2022; Statista 2022).
Because of this massive use, social media has turned into an asset for all types of
businesses, not only because social media can be used to influence consumers’
behavior and purchasing decisions but also because, based on social media analytics,
companies can gather and process data for making bold business decisions. Besides,
they can be used for expanding the marketplace, consisting of a cheaper tool for both
SMEs and large businesses to promote their products and services (Kurniawan et al.
2021). Social media have a positive impact on organizational capabilities and
business performance, particularly when multiple social media tools are combined
into one effective social media ecosystem (Smits and Mogos 2013).
The accommodation industry has been one of the pioneering industries in using
digital tools and platforms to communicate with its customers. Hotel websites started
by offering consumers price advantages compared to other distribution channels, and
social media are now widely and actively used to engage with consumers and gain
feedback, monitor trends, promote, and achieve sales objectives (Tatar and Eren-
Erdoğmuş 2016). One of the most critical roles of social media is diffusing infor-
mation by electronic word of mouth (eWOM) based on user-generated content.
Online reviews are one of the most salient forms of eWOM, to the extent that overall
ratings and negative comments or complaints constitute significant predictors of
hotel performance (Kim et al. 2015). A study on the implementation and use of
social media, based on a sample of 320 hotels from Spain and the UK, unveiled that
these tools help hoteliers improve their hotels’ image, gain customer proximity, and
gain customer knowledge to keep innovating and satisfying their needs. The main
challenges in implementing these tools were the difficulty of measuring social media
impact, lack of specific training, privacy concerns, and strategic integration with the
overall marketing strategy (Garrido-Moreno and Lockett 2016).
Incorporating social media into the hotel industry business practices is widely
investigated in extant research, such as the effect of social media use on hotel
performance (Kim et al. 2015; Tajvidi and Karami 2021); marketing and branding
(Choi et al. 2016; Tatar and Eren-Erdoğmuş 2016); human resources management
(Gibbs et al. 2015); corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities (Kucukusta et al.
2019); customer relationship management (Sigala 2018); or hotel crisis manage-
ment, including health-related crisis such as Covid-19 (Liu et al. 2015; Kwok et al.
2021).
In recent years, the number of publications on social media has increased
exponentially, and recently published bibliometric reviews have been focusing on
several perspectives on social media more broadly in the tourism and hospitality
industry rather than more specifically on the hotel industry. Combining co-citation
analysis and co-word analysis, Leung et al. (2017b) offered a systematic and holistic
review of a total of 406 publications related to social media between 2007 and 2016,
identified from 16 business and hospitality/tourism journals. Through keyword

co-occurrence analysis, Nusair et al. (2019) conducted a bibliometric analysis to
review the literature of 439 social media articles published in 51 hospitality and
tourism journals over a 15-year time span (2002–2016). Focusing on 20 journals
indexed in the Web of Science in the tourism, leisure, and hospitality fields, Merigó
et al. (2020) presented an overview of the most cited papers between 1975 and 2016.
Bhaiswar et al. (2021) extended knowledge on the evolution of eWOM over the last
20 years, analyzing a total of 746 papers published between 2000 and 2020 in the top
25 journals from the Web of Science database, using co-citation network analysis
and keyword co-occurrence analysis. Findings from these studies suggested that
social media research has been gaining attention from scholars across several fields
who have an interest in this topic, identifying key themes related to social media
research.
3 Methodology
Bibliometric analysis is used to systematically review scientific literature with the

help of bibliometric indicators, assessing the scientific contribution and impact of
publications in a research field. Although bibliometric analysis has been adopted in
current studies for a deeper understanding of present and future dynamics (Utkarsh
and Sigala 2021), this approach is still scarce in the tourism and hospitality literature
(Koseoglu et al. 2016). Thus, this paper aims to apply a bibliometric approach to
reviewing relevant literature about social media in the hotel industry in the time
frame of 2017–2021. The search was focused on a single database, Web of Science
(WoS), a multidisciplinary database with more than 171 million records, which
belongs to Clarivate (2022). The use of only one database, specifically WoS, is
recurrent in literature review analyses (Serrano et al. 2019; Zopiatis et al. 2021), as
many scholars widely use this global citation database for systematic reviews of the
literature and summative studies.
3.1 Method of Retrieving Data
A systematic electronic search was elaborated based on some of the most relevant
terms related to the analysis. The words are chosen for the search aimed to cover
synonyms and different ways of referring to social media in the extant literature. The
search was done by topic (title, abstract, keywords) with the key search themes:
“hotel,” “social media,” “social network*,” “virtual communit*,” and “online
communit*,” on February 15, 2022. In this step, all the outputs of the systematic
electronic search were considered. The collected articles were then screened using
two additional inclusion criteria. Only studies listed under the category “Hospitality
Leisure Sports Tourism” and studies published between 2017 and 2021, covering a
5-year time span, were retained. This process has totaled 973 documents on which
the analysis of this study focuses.
3.2 Use of Research Tools
A descriptive data analysis and network analysis were performed in this study. The
VOSviewer software was used to map the main trends in this research field. In
previous publications, VOSviewer software was considered a relevant tool for
bibliometric analysis (Shroff et al. 2022). VOSviewer is an open-access program
that focuses on the visualization and construction of bibliometric maps, typically
relatively easy to interpret (van Eck and Waltman 2010). The following parameters
were considered to elaborate the clusters of terms through VOSviewer:
1. Terms used in the title and abstract
2. Minimum ten occurrences of a term
3. Exclusion of academic terms related to the elaboration of scientific studies (e.g.,
questionnaire)
The themes identified emerged from evaluating the keywords with the highest
occurrence. The results were cross-checked by two authors who independently read
and categorized the studies. Furthermore, other bibliometric indicators were used to
deepen the understanding of the field structure. The analysis aims at the classification
of the published documents by journal/publication title, keywords (word frequency),
author details (names, institutions and countries, author numbers), and (co-)citation
count.
4 Bibliometric Analysis: Descriptive Results
4.1 Annual Publications
The number of publications has increased between 2017 and 2020: it represented,
respectively, 15% and 22% of the total publications considered. In 2021, the number
of studies indexed to WoS decreased by two percentage points. Until the database
was extracted, 21 have been indexed to WoS in 2022 (Fig. 1). The countries that had
the highest number of publications were the USA (23% of the total), China (18%),
Spain (12%), and England (11%). The institutions that presented more studies were
the Hong Kong Polytechnic University (7%), State University System of Florida
(5%), and Pennsylvania Commonwealth System of Higher Education (3%).
Fig. 1 Number of publications by year, 2017–2021
4.2 Leading Journals, Authors, and Articles
Regarding the leading journals (Table 1), 22 of them published 10 or more studies
with the keywords considered in this study. The journals that had more studies were
the International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management and Interna-
tional Journal of Hospitality Management.
Concerning the leading authors in terms of the number of publications, there are
14 with 6 or more studies. The authors that presented the highest numbers were Law,
Koseoglu, and Kim (Table 2). However, none of them is an author of the most cited
publications (Table 3). The studies that presented more citations were as follows: A
comparative analysis of major online review platforms: Implications for social
media analytics in hospitality and tourism (309), Bibliometrics of social media
research: A co-citation and co-word analysis (139), and Airbnb: Online targeted
advertising, sense of power, and consumer decisions (134).
4.3 Key Research Themes and Trends
This section approaches key themes and trends emerging from a quanti-qualitative
overview of title, keywords, and abstracts extracted from the articles analyzed. This
examination followed three complementary steps. First, the word frequency query
identified occurring terms frequently used in the author’s keywords (Table 4). For
this phase, terms such as “social media” and “social networks” were excluded—
because they appear in most of the articles—to find other relevant terms. Also,
matches or words with the same stem were grouped and counted together, revealing
Table 1 Leading journal

Source title Records Source title Records
International Journal of Contemporary 65 Annals of Tourism Research 15
International Journal of Hospitality 57 Journal of Hospitality and 15
Management Tourism Research
Current Issues in Tourism 46 Leisure Sciences 15
Tourism Management 42 International Review for the 14
Sociology of Sport
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 30 Journal of Sustainable Tourism 14
Technology
Journal of Hospitality Marketing and 27 Journal of Hospitality and 13
Management Tourism Insights
Journal of Travel Research 25 Sport in Society 13
Journal of Travel and Tourism 22 PASOS-Revista de Turismo y 12
Marketing Patrimonio Cultural
Journal of Destination Marketing and 21 Psychology of Sport and 12
Management Exercise
Tourism Management Perspectives 20 Tourism Review 12
Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism 17 Cuadernos de Turismo 10
Research
Information Technology and Tourism 16 Leisure Studies 10
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism 16
Management
Table 2 Leading authors Authors Record Authors Record

Law R 25 Zhang Y 7
Koseoglu MA 11 Du QZ 6
Kim WG 10 Kirilenko AP 6
Wong IA 8 Lee SA 6
Moro S 7 Rita P 6
Park S 7 Schuckert M 6
Yang Y 7 Xiang Z 6
the most frequent keywords “word of mouth” (413 occurrence times), “perfor-
mance” (192 occurrence times), “online review” (184 occurrence times), “experi-
ence” (177 occurrence times), and “ICTs” (173 occurrence times).
Keywords, titles, and abstracts were further analyzed with VOSviewer, which
classified them into four clusters, illustrated in Fig. 2 in different colors (green, red,
yellow, and blue), with the distance between the spheres indicating the co-citation
links. The green cluster has as leading keywords “social network” and “community,”
the red cluster “social network analysis” and “article,” the yellow cluster “consumer”
and “intention,” while the blue cluster presents as leading terms “hotel” and
“review.”
Table 3 More cited publications

Times
cited,
WoS Publication
Authors Article title core year
Xiang, Z; Du, QZ; Ma, YF; A comparative analysis of major 309 2017
Fan, WG online review platforms: Implications
for social media analytics in hospitality
and tourism
Leung, XY; Sun, J; Bai, B Bibliometrics of social media research: 139 2017
A co-citation and co-word analysis
Liu, SQ; Mattila, AS Airbnb: Online targeted advertising, 134 2017
sense of power, and consumer
decisions
Zhao, YB; Xu, X; Wang, MS Predicting overall customer satisfac- 131 2019
tion: Big data evidence from hotel
online textual reviews
Phillips, P; Barnes, S; Zigan, Understanding the Impact of Online 108 2017
K; Schegg, R Reviews on Hotel Performance: An
Empirical Analysis
Sotiriadis, MD Sharing tourism experiences in social 96 2017
media A literature review and a set of
suggested business strategies
Gao, BJ; Li, XG; Liu, S; How power distance affects online 95 2018
Fang, DB hotel ratings: The positive moderating
roles of hotel chain and reviewers’
travel experience
Tussyadiah, SP; Park, S When guests trust hosts for their 94 2018
words: Host description and trust in
sharing economy
Salas-Olmedo, MH; Moya- Tourists’ digital footprint in cities: 93 2018
Gomez, B; Garcia- Comparing Big Data sources
Palomares, JC; Gutierrez, J
Liu, HB; Wu, L; Li, X Social Media Envy: How Experience 91 2019
Sharing on Social Networking Sites
Drives Millennials’ Aspirational
Tourism Consumption
Three key topics emerged from the analysis of the abstracts, encompassing the
main issues addressed in the literature on social media in the hotel industry. “E-
consumer behavior” approaches how social media influence the customer decision-
making process, customers’ perceptions of the hotel services, and their evaluation of
the hotel experience. “Digital strategies for hotel businesses” describes how social
media can be part of the hotel strategy under different perspectives, such as digital
marketing, brand image, service quality, and innovation, unveiling the effect of
social media on hotel performance. Finally, “Approaches to social media research
in the hotel industry” sheds light on current research approaches as the relevance of
Table 4 Main keywords in Word Count

terms of occurrence
Word of mouth, electronic word of mouth, eWom 413
Performance, hotel performance 192
Online review, consumer review, hotel review 184
Experience 177
Information communications technology, ICTs 173
Satisfaction 163
User generated content 158
Social network analysis 127
Facebook 81
Customer satisfaction 57
Big data 50
Services quality 49
Online community, virtual communities 43
Customer engagement 41
Determinants 41
Antecedent 40
TripAdvisor 35
Destination image 33
Sentiment analysis 32
Content analysis 19
Behavioral intention 18
Perceived value 17
Social media analytics 13
Structural equation model 11
online reviews and the use of sentiment analysis by the hotel industry, as well as the
rise of big data and social media analytics in research.
4.3.1 E-consumer Behavior
Social network sites provoke emotional and cognitive responses in consumers. Thus,
the psychological states behind actions such as viewing, liking, and sharing hotel
content can influence brand attitude and the self-brand connection (Su et al. 2019).
Consumers also tend to rely on social networking sites and online travel review
forums as a valuable source of information, so they can affect consumers’ perception
of what concerns service quality, value, and usefulness (Zhang et al. 2019; Hwang
et al. 2018). Social media are usually related to hotel purchasing intentions; in a
sense, they provide consumers with a set of sources such as videos, visual pre-
sentations, Internet celebrities reinforcement, and valuable and easy-to-use online
reviews that help in their decision-making journey, influencing consumer intention
to book hotels (Amin et al. 2021; Garg and Kumar 2021; Silva et al. 2020; Zhang
et al. 2019).
Fig. 2 Co-occurrence analysis of title, keywords, and abstract and clusters of the main terms
The literature further describes the relationship between social media and con-
sumers’ engagement and attitudes. One relevant aspect of consumer social media
engagement is that active online community participation increases overall satisfac-
tion by developing positive behaviors that benefit hotels (Kang 2018). Another
aspect is when consumers have positive perceptions about the hotel’s social net-
works, this improves their attitudes toward the hotel’s brand and results in the
intention to book, revisit the hotel, and spread the positive electronic word of
mouth (Alansari et al. 2017; Sharipudin and Cheung 2021).
Considering social media has expanded word of mouth (WOM) into a massive
means of online communication and that consumers can now impact the reputation
of a business by spreading WOM worldwide, different studies were dedicated to
analyzing e-complaints (Fernandes et al. 2018) and positive reviews (Lee et al.
2021). Besides, hotel reviews are considered helpful for examining guests’ percep-
tions, preferences, and behaviors, which is crucial to determining guests’ satisfaction
and also identifying the preferences of guests from different origins and cultural
backgrounds (Antonio et al. 2018; Cortez and Mondo 2018; Hwang et al. 2018; Thi
et al. 2021). Therefore, most consumer behavior studies used them as the data
source.
4.3.2 Digital Strategies for Hotel Businesses
Social media has become an indispensable marketing tool for hospitality, emerging
as a critical means of interaction and communication between brands and con-
sumers. Social media marketing activities are crucial to increasing hotels’ visibility
and reputation, boosting direct revenue, and improving brand awareness, trust, and
loyalty (Garrido-Moreno et al. 2018; Ibrahim 2021). Several studies have thus been
focusing on the effectiveness of social media use in the hospitality industry, analyz-
ing hotels’ communication strategies (Aydin 2020; Kapoor et al. 2021), factors
affecting consumers’ acceptance of social media marketing in the hotel industry
(Theocharidis et al. 2019), and the many ways by which hotel makes use of social
networks both as communication and distribution/sales channels (García et al. 2017;
Kapoor and Kapoor 2021). With tourism service providers increasingly partnering
with social media influencers as part of their digital marketing strategies, the role and
characteristics of influential online individuals in shaping hotel customers’ percep-
tions and intentions are also vital to understanding how hotels showcase their brands
and products to new audiences (Kapoor et al. 2022; Szymkowiak et al. 2021; Peres
and Silva 2021).
Extant research also addresses how digital marketing strategies directly or indi-
rectly drive the volume (number of reviews) and valence (numeric ratings or
sentiments) of online reviews, namely, to what extent do the reviews refer to how
hotel attributes impact hotel performance, considering performance metrics such as
occupancy rates, hotel revenue, revenue per available room, or net profit (Phillips
et al. 2017; De Pelsmacker et al. 2018; Ai et al. 2019; Anagnostopoulou et al. 2019).
Despite having received scant attention in the academic literature, the combined
effects of online reviews and management responses (Xiea et al. 2017), sales pro-
motions (Kim and Jang 2021), or pricing (Doğan et al. 2020) on firms’ performance
have also been the subject of several publications. Management monitoring and
response (either its form or impact) to online reputation have attracted substantial
attention from scholars, whose studies emphasize the need for hotel managers to
address online customer reviews, with the potential to affect customer satisfaction,
hotel reputation positively, and service recovery (Perez-Aranda et al. 2018; Aureli
and Supino 2017; Liang et al. 2017).
The rise of social customer relationship management (SCRM) underpinned a
research strand focused on the engagement with hotel quests via social media.
SCRM is a way to obtain valuable feedback on service quality and perceived
value, track customer satisfaction (Wong et al. 2020; Liang et al. 2017), gain
customer trust and loyalty (Dewnarain et al. 2021), and more efficiently determine
customer segmentation (Ahani et al. 2019), thus directing marketing efforts and
tactics to more profitable and desirable audiences (Chan et al. 2018).
4.3.3 Approaches to Social Media Research in the Hotel Industry
Online travel communities are social aggregations emerging on the Internet “that
allow online peer-to-peer communications in a virtual environment including social
networking sites, review sites, and Internet forums” (Zhou et al. 2021, p. 1089).
They have grown exponentially as study settings in recent hospitality and tourism
studies. Within this context, netnography stands out, therefore, as a method to
explore the meanings that participants in these virtual communities attribute to
their experiences through the analysis of member posts, online reviews and com-
ments, or photographs uploaded on travel or social networking websites and the
websites of e-travel agents (Jimura and Lee 2020; Shin and Perdue 2022; Wang et al.
2020).
Electronic word of mouth in the form of user-generated content on social media
plays an essential role in the hospitality industry (Lee et al. 2020), and the online
interaction between customers and companies continues to overgrow, generating a
large volume of unstructured and diverse information. Such information, if properly
used, can be precious in assisting and improving decision-making (Nave et al. 2018).
Several contributions have been made to set efficient methods and processes that can
provide a functional end-user value of such information within time and budget for
hospitality firms. Consequently, new automated data storage, retrieval, and analysis
methods are being developed.
Research using data/text mining techniques directed toward opinion mining,
sentiment analysis, and topic modeling is gaining importance (Bagherzadeh et al.
2021; Marcolin et al. 2021; Luo et al. 2021). Extant literature offers new perspec-
tives on the nature of hotel guest experiences and sentiments, using user-generated
content to many ends, such as predicting negative emotional valence (Amatulli et al.
2019), predicting customer satisfaction (Zhao et al. 2019), or determining to revisit
intentions (Liu and Beldona 2021). Machine learning techniques are being applied to
understand the information value of online hotel reviews, either to compare aspects
of textual content based on natural language processing (Shin et al. 2019) or to
examine the effect of user-provided photos on review helpfulness (Ma et al. 2018).
In tourism and hospitality research, studies have been focusing both on different
types of big data and on the application of artificial intelligence in big data usage,
addressing a wide variety of themes, such as forecasting, industry development,
marketing, performance analysis, and consumer behaviors and attitudes (Lv et al.
2022).
Hotel review forums like TripAdvisor, Expedia, and Booking.com, together with
social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, are the leading
social media platforms from which data has been gathered. TripAdvisor and
Facebook widely stand out as study settings of the publications retrieved from the
database used in this study. Social media analytics applied to TripAdvisor focuses on
the examination of information quality (measured by linguistic and semantic fea-
tures, sentiment, rating, and usefulness) (Xiang et al. 2017), revisit intentions (Liu
and Beldona 2021), determinants of service quality and hotel guest satisfaction
(Alrawadieh and Law, 2019), or guest perceptions of hotel practices (Gil-Soto et al.
2019). Social media analytics applied to Facebook includes research aimed at
assessing factors influencing customer engagement and its effects on social influence
(Lei et al. 2017; Touni et al. 2020), the effectiveness of marketing strategies adopted
by hotels (Leung et al. 2017a; Aydin 2020), and corporate social responsibility
initiatives (Chung et al. 2020; Garcia-De los Salmones et al. 2021). Most studies
only examine a single online platform, but several researchers advocate for the
simultaneous analysis of multi-platform/data sources to improve validity and com-
prehensive understanding of the various themes under investigation (Bandi and
Hämmerli 2018; Mirzaalian and Halpenny 2019; Xiang et al. 2017).
5 Conclusion and Implications
Using bibliometric analysis, a renowned approach for mapping research streams,

the present study provided an overview of relevant literature about social media in
the hotel industry. This study aimed to visualize the network of publications shaping
the structure of the latest research on social media in the hotel industry, allowing to
map clusters of thematically related publications. This study complements earlier
bibliometric analysis, enriching the debate on the numerous implications and chal-
lenges of social media to the hotel industry. As per prior studies (Nusair et al. 2019),
it examines the contributions of leading researchers and journals and highlights main
research trends. Through the analysis of keywords, this study reveals some trends
and clusters the most recent publications in this field of study, which may be
particularly valuable for scholars and researchers looking to identify and support
paths toward developing future scientific projects.
Results were based on data extracted from a single database (Web of Science)
considering the period between 2017 and 2021, thus solely covering a 5-year span.
Considering this methodological option, which can be perceived as both a distinctive
element from other bibliometric analyses in this field and a limitation of this study,
future studies may combine multiple databases in a more consistent bibliometric
analysis. However, both structural and classification differences between platforms
may pose a challenge to integrating information into the analysis. Future research
may also undertake deeper qualitative analyses, such as systematic literature
reviews, to further expand the research findings for each thematic cluster. The
analysis comprised 973 documents as sources, listed under the category “Hospital-
ity, Leisure, Sports, Tourism.” Overall, results indicate that publications in this
research field are fast evolving in terms of number of publications and citations.
This suggests that social media usage within the hotel industry is a significant
research area. The International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
and International Journal of Hospitality Management were the leading journals. The
analysis of the abstracts allowed the identification of three key research groups and
themes, named by the authors as “E-consumer behavior,” “Digital strategies for

hotel businesses,” and “Approaches to social media research in the hotel industry.”
The analysis of publications under the theme “E-consumer behavior” evidenced
that the influence of online reviews originating from travel-related user-generated
content platforms on hotel guests’ perceptions, preferences, and behaviors has been
studied extensively, mainly adopting a customer-centric perspective (Alrawadieh
and Law 2019; Varkaris and Neuhofer 2017; Su et al. 2019). Although less research
has been devoted to the influence of customer reviews on hotel performance, as the
theme “Digital strategies for hotel businesses” portrays, there has been a growing
interest in understating the effects of online reviews on business performance
(De Pelsmacker et al. 2018; Anagnostopoulou et al. 2019). Several studies aimed,
therefore, at making a meaningful contribution to the strategic management of hotel
businesses, but literature is still scarce when it comes to the investigation of the
impact of digital strategies on the online interaction with customers from a mana-
gerial perspective.
An examination of the extant literature listed under the theme “Approaches to
social media research in the hotel industry” also suggests that there is room to
analyze the influence of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) conveyed through social
media networks on consumer’s behavior intention and decision-making in the hotel
industry. Although some research has already been targeting the use of social media
influencers in hotel marketing strategies (Kapoor et al. 2022; Szymkowiak et al.
2021), a deeper understanding of the potential and effectiveness of this tool is
deemed. Future studies may be devoted to examining the profile of individuals
who share user-generated content (including celebrity endorsers), the main networks
within which they operate, or endorsement effectiveness in contributing to booking
intentions or boosting brand image. The pervasive use of social networking sites
such as Facebook or Twitter, and online review sites like TripAdvisor, has changed
hotel managerial practices and their relations with guests. Given the constantly
changing digital landscape in which companies operate nowadays, social media
adoption and use constitute a substantial managerial challenge (Garrido-Moreno and
Lockett 2016), thus highlighting the need for more research that sheds light on how
social media platforms can help the hotel industry create value and improve business
performance, as well as to guide hotels toward their effective implementation.
As data sets emerging from consumer-review networks and social networking
sites are growing in speed and complexity, hotel businesses need to use social media
analytic tools to make more accurate, data-driven decisions. Therefore, looking
further into the potential of big data, tracking the application of methods such as
social media analytics, and exploring different analytical approaches, such as senti-
ment, comparative, or spatial analysis, require much-needed research efforts.
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Digital Transformation in Hospitality:
Identifying Customer Satisfaction Based
on Online Hotel Guests’ Ratings
Fotis Kitsios, Maria Kamariotou, Panagiotis Karanikolas,

and Evangelos Grigoroudis
1 Introduction
A growing focus on digitalization is making more hotels pay more attention to the
opportunities that technological innovation can offer, especially in an industry that is
becoming more complicated and demanding. In reality, digital transformation has
the potential to accelerate the development of new business models by providing a
more enriching experience for hotel guests and visitors. Hotels try to increase their
competitiveness, influence customers to revisit them, and increase their satisfaction
using various tools. In the past, measuring customer satisfaction by researchers or
hoteliers was done using traditional means, for example, written questionnaires in
which customers evaluated the services offered to them (Cantallops and Salvi 2014;
Xiang et al. 2015; Xu 2019). In recent years, as we see in recent literature, the way
we measure satisfaction has been modernized and new instruments are used.
Increasingly, people are using the Internet to book hotels and share their experiences
with other customers, thanks to the rapid growth of information technology and the
rapid development of Internet use (Kitsios and Kamariotou 2020, 2021a, b). Because
F. Kitsios (✉)
Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece
School of Social Science, Hellenic Open University, Patras, Greece
e-mail: kitsios@uom.gr
M. Kamariotou · P. Karanikolas
Department of Applied Informatics, University of Macedonia, Thessaloniki, Greece
e-mail: mkamariotou@uom.edu.gr; mai21024@uom.edu.gr
E. Grigoroudis
School of Production Engineering and Management, Technical University of Crete, Chania,
Greece
e-mail: vangelis@ergasya.tuc.gr
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_9
174 F. Kitsios et al.
of their open structure, the availability of a large amount of data, and the anonymity
of respondents, online comments represent consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction
in a more coherent and complete manner than traditional consumer surveys
(Alrawadieh and Law 2019; Xu et al. 2017).
Following their stay at a hotel, guests often leave comments. These online
reviews are called electronic word of mouth. Compared to traditional word of
mouth, online reviews have a broader approach and create faster interactions and
therefore have a much greater impact on demand (Berezina et al. 2012; Cantallops
and Salvi 2014). Online reviews and their analysis can identify the factors that
influence hotel guests’ satisfaction. Definition of the types and relevance of dimen-
sions that influence consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction with online reviews is
the first step for hotel managers who want to increase demand and enhance their
financial performance by using electronic word of mouth to generate more demand
(Berezina et al. 2016; Sparks and Browning 2011; Xu and Li 2016).
The quality of the hotel offered for products and services influences consumers’
perceptions of their hotel experiences, which reflects and contributes to the different
product and service properties (Zhou et al. 2014). Looking at previous surveys, after
analyzing online reviews, it is observed that there are a variety of factors and there
are several differences between the surveys in which differences may be related to
the country, hotel category, and other factors (Assaker et al. 2019; Guo et al. 2017;
Wu et al. 2016). Therefore, a rich and valid data set is required for decision-makers,
such as hoteliers, policymakers, marketers, and local authorities, to have access to it
in order for it to be transformed into valuable information that can be easily
comprehended and exploited for strategic decision-making (Manolitzas et al. 2021).
From the surveys described above, it is clear that scholars have not focused on
multiple-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) methods to assess online guest reviews
collected from travel-related websites. MCDA are focused on structuring and solv-
ing decision and planning problems (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2002; Manolitzas et al.
2021). MUltiplecriteria Satisfaction Analysis (MUSA) was developed to assist in the
management of semi-structured decision issues in the areas of service or product
quality assessment and consumer satisfaction (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2002). The
core idea of MUSA is the aggregation of individual judgments into a collective value
function, with the assumption that overall satisfaction is dependent on a set of criteria
that determine the features of the service (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2002). There is
hence a need for greater research into how to better use reviews to understand
customers’ expectations and bridge the gap between visitor satisfaction or dissatis-
faction and online reviews (Xu et al. 2017).
The aim of this chapter is to develop a MCDA framework to demonstrate how
MUSA can evaluate the aspects of hotel guests’ satisfaction based on online ratings
from travel platforms and become a significant source of valuable information for
hoteliers and other stakeholders in the hospitality sector.
The rest of the chapter is organized as follows: A brief introduction represents the
motivation and the purpose of the chapter. Section 2 describes the literature review
methodology which was used and the analysis of the existing literature regarding
online reviews and customer satisfaction in the tourism industry. Section 3 presents
Digital Transformation in Hospitality: Identifying Customer. . . 175
the MCDA framework based on the analysis of the current review. Section 4
describes the theoretical and practical contribution of the chapter. Section 5 presents
limitations and suggestions for further research.
2 Theoretical Background
2.1 Literature Review Methodology
To analyze the current literature about online reviews and customer satisfaction in
hotels, a structured literature review was applied to synthesize the MCDA frame-
work. The literature review methodology is based on Webster’s and Watson’s
(2002) guidelines who suggested a three-step methodology. This methodology has
been used in the field of business management (Kitsios and Kamariotou 2016, 2018,
2019, 2020, 2021a, b; Kitsios et al. 2020). A preliminary search of the available
literature reviews was done to figure out which databases and keywords to use for the
main search, which was then done. In order to investigate the references of the
selected articles, a backward search was performed, and then a thorough search was
conducted, which examined the papers’ citations in order to determine which papers
were selected. Following the selection of papers, they were divided into categories
based on their content.
We conducted a thorough search of the existing literature in Scopus and Web of
Science using a combination of keywords such as online reviews OR user-generated
content, hospitality OR hotel OR tourism, and customer satisfaction. Papers
published in peer-reviewed academic journals and conference proceedings were
chosen without regard to whether or not they were published during a certain time
period. A total of 2927 articles were found. 1473 articles were cut down because of
language restrictions and the source of publication. 1438 articles were duplicates and
deleted. Then, after scanning their titles, it was discovered that 373 papers were
relevant to the aim of this chapter. Then, after scanning their titles, it was discovered
that 373 papers were relevant to the purpose of this chapter. Following that, after
reviewing their abstracts, 145 were accepted. Many papers were rejected because the
full text of the studies was not available. A prompt investigation was conducted to
verify them. This second overview emphasizes the importance of including each and
every one of them. As a result, 49 articles were read in their entirety and evaluated
accordingly.
As a result of the backward search, 8 additional articles were added to the total of
49 articles that were found through the initial search. In addition, three more articles
were added as a result of the forward search, bringing the total number of articles
identified to 60. The process of selecting articles is depicted in Fig. 1.
The VOSviewer software was used to identify the most frequently used keywords
among the 60 papers, as well as the relationships between them, in the study. Figure 2
shows the co-occurrence of the most popular keywords in the research field. The
most frequent keywords are in the yellow area, which are “online reviews” and
Search process Papers limited Screening of

based on criteria abstracts
Review scope Concept

analysis
All papers Screening of Screening of

titles full texts
Fig. 1 Article selection process
Fig. 2 Keywords analysis
“social media.” Figure 3 presents a co-citation analysis based on the most popular
cited references. The most cited authors in this field are Vermeulen and Seegers
(2009) and Sparks and Browning (2011).
2.2 User-Generated Content (UGC) and Customer

Satisfaction in Hospitality
Because of the complexity of the customer experience, determining consumer

satisfaction is a significant challenge for hoteliers. When it comes to customer
satisfaction in the hospitality industry, academics have discovered a discrepancy
between hoteliers’ perceptions of the dimensions of guests’ satisfaction and what
exactly visitors believe is important when they book and assess their hotel
Fig. 3 Citation network analysis
accommodations (Lockyer 2005). Traditional survey methods are incapable of

assisting in the better understanding of this area. Because of this, it is critical to
define new measures and models to investigate the dimensions that influence
consumer satisfaction. The use of new data sources and innovative research meth-
odologies to increase knowledge about consumers’ experiences and satisfaction
represents an interesting direction for further investigation (Xiang et al. 2015).
As social media has emerged as a critical marketing, advertising, and customer
service tool in the hospitality industry, an increasing number of surveys have been
implemented on the subject (Kitsios and Kamariotou 2020, 2021b). Online rating
sites are used by prospective customers to search for information and read both
negative and positive reviews before making a booking decision (Ahani et al. 2019;
Llodrà-Riera et al. 2015). Consumers will pay close attention to reviews and ratings
when making a decision on which hotel to stay at. Because the text is unstructured,
online reviews are able to describe consumer satisfaction and dissatisfaction in a
more coherent and comprehensive manner. They provide a large amount of infor-
mation for analysis, and the identities of those who participate are kept confidential
(Berezina et al. 2016; Min et al. 2015; Xu et al. 2017).
The use of online reviews to assess the satisfaction of hotel guests is becoming a
popular research topic (Xiang et al. 2015). Customer reviews of hotels describe the
experiences of guests as well as their levels of satisfaction (Alrawadieh and Law
2019). Diverse types of UCG, which can be found in online communities and can
support hoteliers to become more familiar with their guests’ experiences, needs, and
concerns, are accessible, abundant, credible, and readily available data sources for
hoteliers (Guo et al. 2017; Pezenka and Weismayer 2020). Consumer attitudes and
behaviors can be improved by collecting and analyzing online reviews and reiterat-
ing consumer perceptions (Pahlevan Sharif and Mura 2019). Furthermore, visitors
who make online hotel reservations are more likely to leave positive comments and
higher ratings, which in turn enhance room sales and hotel performance, as well as
increase hotel prices in the process. Customers’ purchasing and intention to purchase
a hotel are strongly influenced by online hotel reviews and ratings, and this is
confirmed by Öğüt and Onur Tas (2012) and Ye et al. (2009).
Stringam et al. (2010) investigated the relationship between customer satisfaction
scores retrieved from the Expedia travel website for city hotels in the United States
and overall guest satisfaction scores. They discovered that customer satisfaction
scores for hotel service and room comfort are most strongly correlated with overall
guest satisfaction in the United States. Furthermore, they provided insight into the
relationship between overall guest satisfaction and the likelihood of recommending a
hotel. In addition, the study conducted by Limberger et al. (2014) and Stringam et al.
(2010) discovered that hotel guests’ overall satisfaction is positively affiliated with
the requirements of service, room, and value (cost-benefit) by using multiple corre-
spondence analysis on ratings data retrieved from TripAdvisor for hotels in Brazil.
Furthermore, Wong et al. (2020) used SEM and IPA to examine the relationships
between the quality of service, value perception, and customers’ satisfaction, using
data from TripAdvisor from 192 hotels in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, to conduct their
research. The findings provided additional evidence of positive interactions between
the quality of service or products and perceived value, as well as the positive
relationships between visitor satisfaction and perceived value. Additionally, the
location was found to be the least important factor in increasing visitor satisfaction,
whereas perceived value was found to be the most important factor.
2.3 Online Reviews and Customer Satisfaction in Tourism
Consumers’ aspirations for their hotel experience are affected by the quality of the
products and services that are provided. The specific attributes of products and
services contribute to the development of service and product quality (Zhou et al.
2014). The elements of the hotel, which include the quality of the rooms, the
Internet, the facilities, and the actual structure of the buildings, have the greatest
effect on the performance of the hotel (Phillips et al. 2017). When it comes to
choosing a hotel, price is not the only factor to consider (Noone and McGuire 2014).
Customer service quality and the overall room experience are widely acknowledged
as the most important factors affecting reviews (Guo et al. 2017). Existing studies
have concluded that the quality of service and the room experience are two signif-
icant factors influencing customer satisfaction, and this statement confirms those
findings in this regard (Choi and Chu 2001; Skogland and Siguaw 2004).
Zhou et al. (2014) analyzed customer reviews and identified key characteristics
that contribute to customer satisfaction. The most important characteristics are the
room facilities, the quality of food, the general hotel facilities, the staff, the price, the
services, and the location. These features were coherent with those found in previous
research (Shanka and Taylor 2004; Tanford et al. 2012). Dong et al. (2014) further
suggested that the following aspects are crucial when evaluating customer satisfac-
tion: location, room, and services, which are all more important than food, facilities,
and price in their opinion. Barreda and Bilgihan (2013) found that hotel cleanliness
is a common source of concern among consumers when it comes to their expecta-
tions of hospitality services. Negative reviews that refer to a lack of cleanliness are
frequently found in these reviews. The majority of guests have demonstrated that
hotels in convenient locations (i.e., near attractions, shops, airports, restaurants, etc.)
are more likely to receive positive feedback (Barreda and Bilgihan 2013).
Choi and Chu (2001) assert that the most common dimensions influencing guest
satisfaction are the quality of staff, the quality of room, and value for money,
whereas Gu and Ryan (2008) discovered that reputation, the external environment,
and cleanliness of the room all influence customer satisfaction. In a similar vein,
Chaves et al. (2012) state that staff, rooms, and location are the most important
service attributes for hotel visitors to consider. In a more recent study, Rhee and
Yang (2015a) reviewed many previous relevant surveys and came up with six hotel
components that were most relevant to customers when assessing their experience
with a hotel. They argued that it could be more reasonable to focus research on a few
key areas of hotel service rather than analyzing a myriad of factors that were not
important to consumers (Rhee and Yang 2015b).
For example, Liu et al. (2013) linked the cleanliness of the room to components
such as size, view and brightness, amenities and design, decoration, and cleanliness
of other areas such as lift/additional stairs and reception area and cleanliness of both
bathroom and bed. The location component refers to the ease with which the hotel
can be reached from and to major city/area points such as the airport, railway/bus
station, the market, bars/restaurants, and the city center, among others (Guo et al.
2017). Service can be defined as, for example, the component or behavior of staff
service, such as being helpful, friendly, polite, and on time (Rhee and Yang 2015a).
Finally, value refers to the value for money or the cost of a room rental (Xie and
Zhang 2014). On online travel platforms, these attributes are typically rated on a
5-point Likert scale, which is the most common. Generally speaking, higher ratings
indicate a more positive consumer experience and satisfaction with the hotel (Rhee
and Yang 2015a, b; Xie and Zhang 2014), whereas overall ratings, according to Kim
et al. (2015), depict the guests’ previous experience or satisfaction with the hotel. In
the last few years, Guo et al. (2017) found that room experience in the hotel is the
most important thing that affects guest satisfaction and then hotel service. According
to reports, the most important thing for people to say about a hotel is the most recent.
Nevertheless, in addition to the dimensions that contribute to customer satisfac-
tion, there are also factors that contribute to visitor dissatisfaction in hotels (Choi and
Chu 2001; Gu and Ryan 2008; Su 2004). Many surveys are implemented on the
topic of consumer dissatisfaction. It appears that the majority of the time, these
dimensions are distinct from the ones that influence satisfaction. According to Xu
and Li (2016), visitor satisfaction and dissatisfaction dimensions are not the same
and differ depending on the type of hotel. In their survey, hotel guests’ satisfaction
dimensions were found to be broadly widespread (e.g., basic services), whereas the
characteristics of consumer dissatisfaction were found to be much more specific such
as issues related to behavior. The following are the specific dissatisfaction dimen-
sions: Wi-Fi, ineffective and hostile staff, parking, facilities, smoking, bathroom,
noise, outdated installation, polluted air, food, and beverage (Xu and Li 2016).
According to Berezina et al. (2016), one of the most common things that guests
don’t like about a hotel is that there are different types of rooms. Satisfaction with
customer service and dissatisfaction with staff service are two of the most common
things customers say about a firm. Furthermore, issues regarding debit, money,
credit, and costs are only mentioned in negative recommendations (Berezina et al.
2016). Consequently, it is suggested that hotel managers address the issues with
surcharges and credit card processing to reduce negative reviews and avoid any
negative impacts on guests’ satisfaction and repurchase intentions (Berezina et al.
2016).
Kim et al. (2016) used UGC to define the attributes of hotel guests’ satisfaction
and dissatisfaction, both for full and limited services hotels. They found a lot of
important things that affect how satisfied people are when they stay at a hotel, like
where it is, how big the rooms are, and how good the staff is. Another study on hotels
in Istanbul, conducted by Alrawadieh and Law (2019), revealed that among the
dimensions of guests’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction in hotels that provide both full
and limited services, the hotel staff and their perspectives on the size and quality of
the rooms were the most important. The findings of the study by Mariani and Borghi
(2018) show that the important attributes of a hotel, such as the service, the comfort
of the room, the staff, the condition of the hotel, and cleanliness, account for most of
the variation in a hotel rating.
The level of service provided by a well-trained and friendly staff can have a
positive impact on the attitudes of hotel guests. When hotel guests are satisfied with
the quality of the service provided by a well-trained staff, they are more likely to be
satisfied with the overall image of the hotel, which results in a positive review
(Barreda and Bilgihan 2013). Finally, Chaves et al. (2012) agreed with the findings
above. They said that the attributes of room, staff, and location are the ones that
customers most often talk about when they recommend a place.
Dissatisfied customers are less likely to recommend a hotel than satisfied cus-
tomers are. They are also more likely to talk about intangible aspects of their hotel
rooms, like the staff and the service. However, dissatisfied guests are more likely to
talk about the tangible aspects of the hotel (e.g., furniture, price, and so on) (Zhou
et al. 2014). To be more specific, they found that the public areas and facilities of
four- and five-star hotels (gym, café lounge, lobby, and swimming pool) can affect
hotel guests’ satisfaction. It should be noted that these dimensions work solely to
enhance satisfaction and are not considered to be a significant dimension in deter-
mining overall satisfaction (Zhou et al. 2014).
It is clear from the studies that have been presented thus far that the relevant
research has been conducted outside of the European continent. In addition, aca-
demics haven’t used MCDA methods to analyze user-generated numerical ratings
data from online travel platforms, which has led to a lack of use of this rich and
reliable source of data. As a result, using MUSA for their analysis can provide an
in-depth understanding of the factors of customer satisfaction as well as valuable
guidelines for effective quality management via an easily understandable visual
representation of outcomes (Glaveli et al. 2022a, b; Manolitzas et al. 2021).
3 Methodology
In the areas of service or product quality assessment and consumer satisfaction,

MUSA is an MCDA method designed to assist decision-makers in the handling of
semi-structured decision problems (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2010). Its central prin-
ciple is the collection of individual judgments into a collective value function, with
the assumption that overall satisfaction is determined by a set of criteria that describe
characteristics of services (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2002, 2010). A multivariate
analysis is used to measure customer satisfaction, because the customer’s overall
(global) satisfaction is based on a set of variables that describe service characteris-
tics. In this case, the set of criteria is denoted as X = (X1, X2, . . ., Xn), where each
criterion i is represented as a monotonic variable denoted by the letter Xi [the
analytical mathematical presentation of the MUSA method can be found in
Grigoroudis and Siskos (2010)]. One of the main benefits of MUSA is that the
outputs are shown in a simple and easy-to-understand (visual) way, which helps
people make decisions about where to improve quality and customer service and
how to spend their limited resources better than they would without it.
When creating a set of useful outputs, MUSA makes use of a model of preference
disaggregation (Grigoroudis and Siskos 2002). The weights given to each criterion
in the study show how important each criterion is to overall customer satisfaction.
Hotel guests’ demanding levels (neutral, demanding, and nondemanding) are deter-
mined by their views of the amount of quality expectation fulfillment [please see the
results section for a more detailed analysis, as well as Grigoroudis and Siskos (2002,
2010)]. Customers can be categorized according to their level of demanding.
Guests’ reviews of hotels will be gathered from the website www.booking.com,
which is a third-party hotel reservation website (Xu and Li 2016; Xu et al. 2017). In
addition to booking hotel rooms, this third-party hotel booking website lets cus-
tomers rate their rooms and write reviews. The number of online reviews this website
has gathered over the years makes it a good choice for this survey because it has so
many. This website was chosen as the source of data for this chapter in part because
it checks the information that people give to it. Booking.com customers will be the
only ones who can give consumer ratings and write online reviews. This will make
sure that all testimonials and reviews are true. Aside from that, this website gathers
information on consumers’ travel intentions (e.g., business vs. leisure), the hotel’s
star rating, and the type of hotel.
Eighty-nine five-star level hotels in the second largest city in Greece
(Thessaloniki) will be used to compile hotel guest reviews. Web crawling will be
used to get data, and the web crawler will be made with the Python 2.7 programming
language. A time limit on the storage of data will not be enforced. All available
reviews will be collected for each of the hotels in the sample. The methodology for
sample selection process is based on the study of Zhou et al. (2014).
The software will compile all of the available ratings for each hotel, which will
include the overall satisfaction rating as well as the satisfaction factors listed by
www.booking.com, such as cleanliness, location, service, and overall value for
money. In order to improve overall satisfaction, these characteristics will be used
as criteria. After that, an average rating for overall customer satisfaction as well as
satisfaction with the location, staff, room, and food will be calculated for each hotel.
In the next step, the data will be imported into the MUSA software. This will help us
figure out how demanding the customers are, as well as which factors (room,
location, staff, and food) contribute to overall consumer satisfaction in the
Thessaloniki’s hotel industry.
Figure 4 presents the MCDA framework based on the review analysis. This
framework includes the dimensions that influence consumer satisfaction in hospi-
tality based on the existing analysis of literature regarding online reviews.
4 Discussion
There are several theoretical contributions in this chapter. First, this chapter presents
how online reviews helped to come up with new ways to study consumer behavior in
the hospitality industry. This chapter highlights that MUSA can be incorporated
using presently offered software and can be used in other research domains related to
hospitality, such as customer and employee satisfaction, spending patterns, hotel
performance, and so on. It was described how consumers reveal their experiences in
reviews, even though the framework of this chapter was based on online reviews
posted on a specific hotel website. Second, because of the open structure of the texts,
analyzing UGC provides researchers with a novel approach to investigating cus-
tomer satisfaction that yields more precise reports of customers’ experiences than
traditional questionnaire methods such as consumer surveys and questionnaires.
When compared to customer ratings, online reviews provide a more coherent and
comprehensive description of customer perception. Both consumers and service
providers can benefit from reading hotel guest reviews because they provide valu-
able information. Customers regard UGC as one of the most accurate data sources,
and they rely on recommendations when making hotel booking decisions. The use of
visitors’ recommendations by service providers, on the other hand, can be used to
gather feedback from customers and to develop and assess marketing strategies.
Reviews provide up-to-date and comprehensive information, and they can be
Fig. 4 MCDA framework

determined a significant channel of communication between consumers and hotel

administrators. Positive and negative reviews have an impact on potential cus-
tomers’ attitudes toward online hotel booking because they have an impact on the
stages of the online transaction that occur during both the information and the after-
sales phase.
Taking a practical approach, this chapter offers important insights for hotel
managers because the usage of MUSA provides a powerful method for analyzing
large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. In many cases, hoteliers can use
MCDA analysis to determine the factors of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction
that occur over a specific period of time. As a result, hotel managers can define the
performance of their properties and develop specific improvement actions in a
dynamic manner. The success of the hotel is not guaranteed if it relies on online
reviews. Complex data must be transformed into valuable information, which is the
responsibility of MCDA analysts. Consequently, hoteliers should be aware of the
ways in which online reviews can be used to add value and how they can be used to
increase the performance and success of their establishments.
According to a managerial perspective, the existing research demonstrates how
the combination of UGC (e.g., attribute and overall satisfaction ratings from travel
platforms, which have emerged as a valuable source of data in the age of social
media) and MCDA methods (such as MUSA) can provide hotel managers with
valuable, easily obtained, cheap, and up-to-date information about consumer pref-
erences and demands as well as their hotel’s performance in the key dimensions of
service and support them to improve their resources.
More specifically, our chapter determines the most significant dimensions that
can improve the consumer experience for hotels in Thessaloniki, ultimately leading
to higher customer satisfaction and, as a result, higher room sales (resales), hotel
ratings, and profit margins for the hotel. This is an important contribution to our
research because the way hotels position themselves and differentiate themselves
from their competitors is critical to defining their long-term success. By defining the
needs and expectations of their customers, hoteliers will be better able to allocate
resources, prioritize tasks, and formulate marketing strategies that are tailored to
each individual customer.
Potential consumers can gain valuable insight from reviews, which helps them
better understand the services and amenities that are provided during their stay. In
order to better understand customer experiences and the dimensions that affect
consumer satisfaction or dissatisfaction, hotel managers can categorize reviews
into the following categories: “positive,” “negative,” and “neutral.” Identifying the
dimensions that contribute to customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction could assist
hoteliers in maximizing the use of eWOM by making improvements to specific
attributes of their services that are receiving negative feedback. Hoteliers should
improve their products or services while also understanding the concerns of their
customers in order to enhance consumer demand by increasing guests’ satisfaction
and decreasing dissatisfaction. Consequently, hoteliers may be better able to make
decisions about segmentation processes and marketing strategies if they have a better
understanding of the profiles, needs, and attitudes of their customers.
5 Conclusion
The primary goal of this chapter was to demonstrate to academic researchers as well
as stakeholders in the hotel sector (such as hoteliers, policymakers, marketers, and
local authorities) the MUSA method’s applicability in the study of online user-
generated data, which might reveal important information on current customer
issues. The purpose of this chapter was to develop a MCDA framework to demon-
strate how MUSA can evaluate the aspects of hotel guests’ satisfaction based on
online ratings from travel platforms and become a significant source of information
for hotel managers and other stakeholders in the tourism sector.
The chapter contributed to a methodological approach. The application of MUSA
supports managers to evaluate customer satisfaction in the hospitality sector. Hotel
managers can use reviews to understand customers’ expectations and bridge the gap
between visitor satisfaction or dissatisfaction and online reviews in order to improve
hotel services.
There are several limitations to this chapter. It is proposed that a model has been
presented based on current literature and it will be tested in hotels in Thessaloniki.
Customer experience in more sparsely populated areas, rural areas, or Greek islands
is not comparable. However, the possibility of limitations in the generalizability of
the outcomes does not reduce the internal validity of the data. Consequently, they do
not affect the purpose of determining the significance of online reviews in the
tourism sector. In addition, only one source of information will be used in this
chapter. While booking.com contains a sufficient number of reviews, the findings of
this chapter may be limited and should be explained in detail before proceeding.
Future researchers may think about using a variety of methods to a variety of data
sources to gain a comprehensive understanding of consumer satisfaction based on
online reviews. Future research into the dimensions that affect consumer satisfaction
and dissatisfaction can be carried out using a variety of data sources, including
customer comment cards, surveys, customer interviews, hotel booking websites, and
several social media websites, among others. UGC can also be used to gather
additional information about consumer perception, such as consumer familiarity,
consumer loyalty, and consumer willingness to pay.
Customers’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction dimensions can be compared between
different types of hotels that provide a variety of services in the future. Future
researchers can investigate the advantages and disadvantages of each type of hotel’s
performance based on the attitudes of their customers by analyzing hotel types and
the importance of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction regarding various types
of hotels in customer rankings. Market segmentation strategies can be developed by
hotel managers to identify the needs of different types of consumers traveling for
different reasons and with different demographics. As a result, service quality can be
improved. Hoteliers can formulate the market segmentation process to meet the
specific needs of consumers for each type of hotel. Therefore, additional research is
necessary to identify whether consumer demographics such as gender, age, type of
traveler (e.g., domestic versus international consumers), and travel purpose (e.g.,
leisure versus business) have an impact on customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction.
Future researchers can investigate whether positive reviews have a significant
impact on the online transaction volumes of hotels and whether negative reviews
have an impact on the personal and professional outcomes of hotel employees, as
well as on the outcomes of the hotels themselves. These factors have a negative
impact on online hotel reservations. As a result, determining the factors of consumer
satisfaction and dissatisfaction based on UGC and offering specific actions for
improvement are significant decisions for hotel managers to make in order to
increase relationships with consumers, their reputations, and hotel performance.
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Influence of Social Networks on the Choice
and Promotions of a Tourist Destination
Teresa Pereira, Vânia Costa, and Alexandra Malheiro
1 Introduction
Constantly growing, social networks have become an increasingly influential means

of communication and information. The number of users continues to grow and they
spend more and more time online, sharing and searching for information.
Social networks are channels of information exchange where their users can
access data that are following their needs. This type of communication and sharing
tool has increasingly established itself as an alternative to traditional means in the
process of choosing a destination. Consumers value more the comments posted and
made by visitors on this type of platform (Amaro and Duarte 2015; Antunes 2014;
Bezerra and dos Santos 2020; Cantante 2018).
The growth of social networks has enabled the tourism industry to undergo many
changes and, consequently, also the process of how the consumer is influenced and
decides to choose his next tourist destination, namely, through the content, com-
ments, and reviews made by other consumers on social networks. These increasingly
encourage the taste for travel and the choice of destination, becoming an essential
tool to fulfil the dreams and desires of those who want to travel (Sousa 2014).
T. Pereira
Master in Tourism Management, Polytechnic Institute of Cávado and Ave, Barcelos, Portugal
V. Costa (✉)
Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA), CiTUR, GOVCOPP and UNIAG, Barcelos,
Portugal
e-mail: vcosta@ipca.pt
A. Malheiro
Instituto Politécnico do Cávado e do Ave (IPCA), CiTUR and UNIAG, Barcelos, Portugal
e-mail: amalheiro@ipca.pt
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_10
190 T. Pereira et al.
Social media have become a very useful advertising phenomenon in the context
of the tourism industry, being an increasingly frequent promotion tool and channel
(Kasim et al. 2019). This type of online promotion plays an important role in
reducing uncertainty about tourist destinations by making tourists aware of them.
Promoters seek to understand how tourists seek information, and in this way, more
effective campaigns are being created to influence the choices of their target
audience.
The exchange of information between consumers and the sharing of travel
experiences are essential to reduce uncertainty when it comes to choosing a tourist
destination, as well as to facilitate the purchase decision (Brito and Freitas 2019).
These shared experiences influence, positively or negatively, consumers, changing
their behavior and mentality, eventually choosing a particular tourist destination
over another.
The tourist is, therefore, just a click away from a huge amount of destinations and
attractions, tourism products and services, with the most varied prices and different
forms of payment, and this whole process of planning your trip can be done through
technological tools.
Given these challenges, it is essential that the various entities, public and private,
and public decision-makers present in destinations understand consumers and the
main reasons that influence their choices, so that efficiently, they can position their
communication and attract more tourists.
According to Pan et al. (2021), although destination image has been recognized as
a significant factor influencing the choice of a tourist destination, few studies have
the influence of social media on the formation of destination image. The present
study has as its object of study the influence of destination image of social network
members on the choice of tourist destination.
To achieve the objectives, the paper is divided into four parts. Firstly, a short
introduction to the topic of the article is presented. Secondly, the literature review
regarding the relationship of tourism with the internet, the functioning of social
media in tourism, as a marketing tool, as well as its influence on consumer behav-
iour. Thirdly, the research method used and the data analysis are discussed, as well as
the presentation and discussion of the results to answer the research questions.
Finally, the paper highlights the main conclusions, as well as its limitations and
recommendations for future research.
2.1 Tourism and the Internet
In recent years, the Internet has developed to such an extent that most of the world’s
population has been using it frequently and regularly.
The Internet is a channel for distribution and dissemination and a means of
communication. Its ease of access, simplicity of use, as well as its speed of
Influence of Social Networks on the Choice and Promotions of a. . . 191
communication with the entire world makes it seen, today, as the main means of
communication existing today. With the evolution of the Internet, it has become a
channel for buying and selling products and services, as well as an important
marketing tool (Carrilho and Vellani 2017).
Tourism has a connection with almost all sectors of human social activity. This
link is facilitated, in today’s world, by the development of new technologies, of
which the Internet stands out. Park and Gretzel (2007) state that the Internet has
revolutionized the way tourist destination marketing organizations provide informa-
tion, communicate, and interact with consumers. Indeed, the tourism sector was one
of the fastest to be integrated into this change, as it assumed a prominent position in
the dissemination and marketing of its products and services through the Internet
(Pizarro 2005).
Increasingly, travel agencies have a closer relationship with customer through
Internet communication. Customers need to decide and plan their trips with reliable
and accurate information (O’Connor 2001). In addition, potential tourists are more
demanding in selecting a destination because they have more and more access to all
kinds of information. However, through the Internet, tourism organizations can
reach them more consistently (Marujo 2012).
Costa (2001) argues that the Internet is a more effective means than traditional
means of communication when it comes to making the destination more attractive in
the eyes of potential tourists. Through the Internet, users become more involved with
what is being promoted, have a personalized service, and can access the information
that interests them. Nowadays, if a destination is not present on the Internet, there is a
risk that the tourist will opt for another one.
Easton and Koo (2007) state that the Internet is mostly used in conjunction with
other traditional information sources. As a tool for distributing information about a
destination, the Internet can support the decision-making process of independent
travelers. With Internet access and at the distance of a click, it is possible to get to
know the destinations one wants to visit, as well as read the opinions of other tourists
that can be relevant at the stage of choosing them. In addition, tourists also have the
advantage of being able to make reservations for lodging, flights, and other com-
plementary services immediately.
For Pizarro (2005), the Internet allows organizations to reposition themselves
vis-à-vis their consumers, but also vis-à-vis their partners, causing their costs and
waiting times to decrease and their efficiency to improve.
Today, what attracts consumers is the fact that they can get information as soon as
they want it. Thus, the question is not whether or not tourism companies should be
part of digital communication channels, but to establish the best strategy for their
presence in these channels. Given this situation, the tourism industry must be aware
of new technologies, as they can bring very positive results.
Given all these issues, it is impossible to imagine tourism without the Internet, as
it would become limited and it would not be possible to stimulate tourists to visit
other destinations that are not so well known.
Tourism feeds on information, and the Internet is an effective means of commu-
nication for the dissemination of this information (Marujo 2012).
2.2 Social Networks in Tourism
Social networks have caused major changes in recent years, and tourism is among
the activities that have been most impacted by this (Silva and Mendes Filho 2013).
In a period marked by online socialization, social networks influence several
aspects of social life and also tourism. Currently, social networks are used as a source
of information, particularly in the way tourists seek information about destinations,
plan their trips, make decisions, and share their experiences. The dissemination of
content on social networks plays an important role in influencing choices, providing
added value to the tourist and increasing the degree of confidence in the information
obtained. These contents have the power to motivate or demotivate consumers
regarding the decision-making process (Cantante 2018). According to Jacobsen
and Munar (2012), the sharing of experiences includes aspects such as the commu-
nication of emotions and feelings through photos, videos, or other types of content
used on the Internet.
The way travelers use social media before the trip (in destination search, trans-
portation, accommodation, catering, activities), during the trip (by creating and
sharing visual content), and after the trip (with recommendations, satisfaction or
dissatisfaction ratings, comments) serves as a platform that influences other trav-
elers’ decisions.
According to several studies, social media are seen as tools that enhance tourism,
due to the importance they assume when choosing a destination and planning a trip
(Amaro and Duarte 2015).
According to Bizirgiannia and Dionysopoulou (2013), potential consumers and
active travelers are part of a series of tourism activities that take place in the world of
social networks, that is, they are not only seen as users of tourism products/services
but also as communicators who express their opinions, needs, and desires.
Social networks allow real-time sharing of opinions and comments, as well as
travel-related experiences that will help other users make the most of this informa-
tion (Xiang and Gretzel 2010). Méndez et al. (2013, p. 4) agree, assuming that
“social networks allow users to share their travel experiences with others, provide
travel tips and recommendations, upload travel photos, or rate hotels and restaurants
to give readers an idea of the destination or hotel they intend to visit.”
According to Kolb (2017), tourists plan their trips, contact tour providers, make
use of social media during the trip, and post their opinions after the trip in greater
numbers than with other types of products and/or services.
As a source of information for the travel decision, social networks enable users to
have at their disposal digital resources that expand their possibilities and opportuni-
ties (Guerra et al. 2014). Thus, the tourism industry was forced to innovate, since
users have, in real time, access to a large amount of online information (Knop and
Machado 2017).
The perception that the user of social networks has regarding their benefits makes
them predisposed to use them in the organization and realization of their trips (Wang
et al. 2002).
The use of social networks with their high number of users who report their
experiences makes the number of tourists increase to a given destination, contribut-
ing to its economic development (Loubach et al. 2019).
According to Hipperson (2010), social networks thus enable two-way communi-
cation with consumers, being part of the development of the destination’s brand
image.
2.3 Social Networks as a Digital Tool
In addition to personal use, social media can also be used at the level of organizations
or companies. Marketers recognize that creating a social media account has become
more effective than developing a website, because in addition to having a lower cost,
they believe that the brand will have greater recognition and the relationship with
customers will become closer (Rooney 2011).
Social media marketing strategies can be seen from two perspectives:
virtualization, which is related to reaching and impacting a large number of people,
and analytical power, which refers to its ability to provide credibility and relevance
(da Silva 2016).
The growth of social media has caused organizations to change their way of
communicating in order to increase the relationship with their users. This type of
interaction stimulates communication, be it through sharing photos, videos, opin-
ions, and recommendations, becoming a source of information propagation that
brings trust to consumers (Rapp et al. 2013).
According to Brake (2010), cited in da Silva and Tessarolo (2016), the fact that
companies are present in several social networks can result in winning consumers
and improving their marketing results. According to Trusov et al. (2009), social
media has become a powerful source of communication and can have a positive or
negative influence on consumers.
Organizations must produce relevant and trustworthy content on social media that
allows for a dialogue with their users, intending to differentiate themselves from the
competition. This type of content that interests the consumer generates empathy and
becomes part of their daily lives, not being tiring, but a form of information and
entertainment (da Silva and Tessarolo 2016). Communication must occur at the
appropriate time and in a quick and precise manner, containing all the appropriate
information (Dina and Sabou 2012).
According to the authors, organizations must survey the profile of users so that
the message is transmitted efficiently. Thus, they must create strategies to determine
what the needs and expectations of their target customers are.
Social media has impacted the way people and organizations communicate with
each other and with customers, with information sharing and collaboration between
these actors. Social media offers a less expensive approach to marketing, leading to a
large reach and many opportunities. Thus, organizations need to modify their
previously traditional strategies (television, radio, billboards) to the web and social
media platforms (de Castro Seabra 2018).
To maintain the influence of social media, organizations decide to adopt as a
strategy the identification of users or groups of users that represent them and
influence other users. In this sense, the recognition of digital influencers as a relevant
source to advertise their products/services emerges. According to McCormick
(2016), an influencer is anyone who can impact the ideas of other users from the
message that is transmitted. For Weinswig (2016), cited by Coelho et al. (2017), the
communication made by these influencers is based on trust, allowing the brand to
reach a more personalized audience and receive intangible benefits.
According to Ferreira (2018), the origin of digital influencer marketing arises
with celebrities, but quickly ordinary people became influencers, starting on blogs
and in the future moving to social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, where
they became popular.
According to Mariano et al. (2017), digital influencers are increasingly present in
people’s daily lives, holding contracts with several brands and having a huge amount
of followers on their social networks. With this, companies that make use of social
media as a marketing strategy have already realized the power of digital influencers
and their impact on users with common interests (Uzunoğlu and Kip 2014).
Despite the risks associated with social media, online promotion plays an impor-
tant role in decreasing the uncertainty tourists have regarding the choice of a
destination. This happens through the promoters’ perception of the tourists’ needs
and wishes, creating more effective campaigns that meet their expectations (Lai and
Vinh 2013).
2.4 The Influence of Social Networks on Consumer Behavior
According to Solomon (1996), cited by Rebelo (2017), consumer behavior is a

process in which individuals select, purchase, and use or enjoy products/services
to satisfy their needs and desires.
Consumer behavior starts with search and goes from acquisition to evaluation of
the products/services and destinations they choose. The whole decision-making
process of traveling is involved by the motivation and intention of the tourist, who
has the opportunity to choose among a set of destinations, which satisfy his needs.
His age, personality, and financial availability are some of the internal factors that
can influence on the moment of choosing a tourist destination (Gnoth 1997).
Regarding external factors, there are the availability of products and services, the
importance of recommendations, and political constraints, among others (Pereira
2005).
Online consumers are connected 24 h a day, using several devices and commu-
nication channels, in real time and simultaneously.
Every year, new social networks emerge and adapt themselves to meet the needs
of consumers. Thus, profiles are created in order to establish interaction with other
people and also to obtain information related to the most varied subjects, more easily
and effectively. These platforms present tools that make it possible to make recom-
mendations and share information.
For Molinillo et al. (2018), increasingly, tourists have used social networks as a
source of information, so one cannot but consider that online information sources
have a lot of influence on their behavior. On the other hand, social media presence
has been a key means for brands and companies to develop a closer relationship with
consumers, as well as increase their awareness (Harris and Rae 2009).
Good communication on social media, with the creation of interesting and also
helpful content, is a way to build a relationship with its users, encouraging them to
share their experiences, making it have a greater impact on the decision process than
a simple communication made by the brand on its pages (Yusuf et al. 2014).
According to Erkan and Evans (2016), people tend to follow influential profiles
that develop content according to their interests and motivations. Thus, social media
have given rise to some changes in consumer behavior. They actively participate by
sharing content and their opinions on companies’ pages (Patterson 2012). However,
according to Kolb (2017), cited by Schardong (2019), many times, the opinions
present in the social networks can be influenced by the good memories one has of the
destination, which are more linked to the personal side than to the destination itself.
Administrative and marketing managers should pay special attention to the way their
organizations use social networks to influence consumers, being able to operate
more assertively, with the necessary knowledge. Thus, it can be determined which
market segments are relevant to promoting a particular product or service (Bezerra
and dos Santos 2020).
Thus, it is believed that social networks, when well used, allow the achievement
of business and help to win potential customers and for brands to relate with them
(Killekar et al. 2012).
3 Research Method
3.1 Method
Considering the complex nature of the study, to find out the influence that social
media has on users in choosing a tourist destination, this study developed an
empirical character and constituted an exploratory research. As such, this research
aims to answer the central question “What is the influence of social networks in the
choice and promotion of a tourist destination?,” and, to this end, the following
objectives are established: to analyze the influence of other tourists’ opinion in the
choice of a tourist destination, to analyze the impact of social networks on tourists’
behavior, and to analyze the influence of social networks as an advertising tool. In
this sense, some hypotheses will be tested, specifically:
H1: Social media is a medium used to search for information about a particular
tourist destination.
H2: The content, comments, and reviews present in social networks influence the
choice of a tourist destination.
H3: Social media is considered an effective means to advertise/promote a tourist
destination.
A quantitative research methodology was used which involved the collection of
primary statistical data. This primary data was obtained with recourse to a data
collection instrument, specifically the application of a self-administered question-
naire designed by the Google Forms program.
The survey was administered in two versions, in Portuguese and English, and was
shared via email and in several social networks, namely, through Facebook groups
for academic questionnaires, and sent by direct message on Instagram, Twitter, and
LinkedIn. An attempt was made to share the questionnaire in Facebook groups
dedicated to travel, but it was not possible because it was not following their
guidelines. This method was chosen because it was easier and faster and had a
wider and more comprehensive reach of people, but also because it fits the theme
under study.
The questionnaire was divided into three sections, the first one related to the use
or not of social networks, the second to the use of social networks in the choice and
promotion of a tourist destination, and the third to sociodemographic questions.
Given the quantitative nature of this study, most of the questions asked are closed-
ended questions, with some multiple-choice and only a few open-ended questions.
The construction of the questionnaire results from the extensive literature review
carried out in the previous parts of the study and, given the central objective of the
study, specifically the study of the influence of social networks on users when
choosing a tourist destination. In the first section of questions, it was sought to
know which of the respondents used social networks to search for information about
tourist destinations. Respondents who answered “yes” would move on to the next
section, while those who answered “no” would automatically be directed to the
sociodemographic questions.
In the second section of questions, it was sought to know which social networks
are most used in the search for information and how often they use them (Likert scale
to measure frequency), how often the person travels for leisure, what type of tourism
they do most often, what are the reasons why they use social networks when
choosing a destination, who they feel most influenced by when choosing a destina-
tion, what type of content they value most when searching for information about a
destination, and a few questions based on the Likert scale to measure the level of
agreement.
The third section is composed of sociodemographic questions, aiming to charac-
terize the sample of respondents. This group includes questions regarding gender,
age group, nationality, marital status, and professional situation.
The final version of the questionnaire was available between 15 July and
18 August 2021, and 300 responses were obtained, with only 250 surveys being
complete and therefore valid. The remaining 50 respondents answered that they do
not use social networks to search for information about tourist destinations.
After data collection was completed, Excel and Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences (SPSS 26.0) software were used to create the database. Data were
processed using statistical techniques such as exploratory descriptive analysis.
3.2 Sample
In order to characterize the sample, we present the results regarding the

sociodemographic data of Portuguese and foreign respondents, with a total of
255 answers in the Portuguese questionnaire and 45 answers obtained in the English
questionnaire. For this research, we will only consider the surveys whose respon-
dents answered that they use social networks to search for information about tourist
destinations. Thus, the final sample consists of 250 (206 in the Portuguese question-
naire and 44 in the English questionnaire).
Regarding the sociodemographic data of the respondents (Table 1), we can see
that most of them are female, aged between 21 and 30 years old and single.
Regarding the origin of the respondents, we obtained answers from 21 different
nationalities (namely, Portuguese, Brazilian, Spanish, Swiss, English, American,
German, French, Canadian, Chinese, Bulgarian, Taiwanese, Indian, Dutch, Thai,
Scottish, Danish, Kenyan, Polish, Croatian, and Vietnamese), with the majority
being Portuguese (76.9%), British (33.3%), and Brazilian (21.1%). Regarding pro-
fessional status, most were employees or students.
Speaking now of the social networks most frequently used to search for infor-
mation about tourist destinations, in the Portuguese sample is Instagram (89.9%),
followed by Facebook (60.7%) and YouTube (38.3%).
In the case of the survey available in English, also Instagram (97.7%), Facebook,
(68.2%) and YouTube (72.7%) are the social networks most used by respondents. In
this sample, Pinterest (25%) and the most recent social network, TikTok (27.3%), are
also used options.
The main reason why respondents use social networks when choosing a tourist
destination is because they can get opinions from people with similar tastes to their
own, have several options, and also have easy access to the content provided.
Table 1 Summary of sociodemographic data

Portuguese version English version
Genre Female (72.5%) Female (84.4%)
Age 21–30 years old (46.3%) 21–30 years old (84.4%)
Nationality Portuguese (76.9%) English (33.3%)
Marital status Single (56.1%) Single (64.4%)
Professional status Worker employee (45.9%) Student (71.1%)
Source: Authors
Table 2 Overview of data I

Portuguese English
Reason for Opinion of people with similar tastes Opinion of people with similar tastes
choice (74.8%) (90.9%)
Who Friends or acquaintances (85.9%) Friends or acquaintances (90.9%)
influences
Type of Photography (88.3%) Photography (84.1%)
content
Source: Authors
In both the Portuguese and English samples, most respondents said that friends or
acquaintances are the people who influence them the most (85.9% and 90.9%,
respectively). In addition, they often use the content provided by family members,
digital influencers, and also agencies and tour operators.
When asked about the type of content they most value when searching for
information about a tourist destination, more than half of the Portuguese sample
has a preference for photography (88.3%) and video (67%). In contrast, audio was an
option for only 4.4% of respondents. Regarding the English sample, most respon-
dents (93.2%) prefer to consume videos to research information about destinations,
followed by photography (84.1%). The audio option was only chosen by four
respondents (9.1%) (Table 2).
This study demonstrates that most respondents agree that other people’s feed-
back/opinion has an impact when choosing a tourist destination.
A significant number of respondents say that they have already chosen a desti-
nation based on what they saw/heard on social networks, but they have also given up
visiting a destination for the same reason. Most of the respondents consider social
networks an effective way to promote a tourist destination and think that it is
important that destinations improve their communication on these platforms.
The type of information that respondents get through social media has more
influence than what is transmitted by traditional media.
Social networks have already allowed respondents to get to know one destination
and have already awakened their interest in another. Moreover, they like to share
their tourist experiences on these platforms. In this sense, most respondents agree
that social networks have changed the way people choose their destinations
(Table 3).
4 Discussion
The sociodemographic profile of the samples (Portuguese and English versions) is

characterized by a young age group (21–30 years old), which is probably related to
the more frequent presence of this public on the social networks where the ques-
tionnaire was distributed. The number of female respondents prevails over male,
respondents are of different nationalities, the marital status is mostly single, and they
Table 3 Summary of data II

Portuguese English
Other people’s feedback/opinion has an impact when choosing Agree (48.5%) Agree
a tourist destination (52.3%)
I have chosen a destination because of what I have seen/heard Agree (53.4%) Agree
on social media (50.0%)
I have already given up visiting a destination because of what I Agree (29.6%) Agree
have seen/heard on social media (31.8%)
I use social networks to search for information about a Agree (49.5%) Agree
destination (59.1%)
I consider social networks an effective way to promote a Strongly agree Strongly agree
tourist destination (50.0%) (52.3%)
I think it is important that destinations improve their commu- Totally agree Agree
nication on social networks (51.0%) (50.0%)
I am more influenced by social networks than by traditional Agree (36.4%) Agree
media (50.0%)
Source: Authors
are students or employees. Concerning tourism practices, the vast majority of

respondents travel between 2 and 3 times a year and use social media to search for
information about destinations. This information is supported by the theoretical
foundation, namely, by Cantante (2018) who states that social networks are used
as a source of information, namely, in the way tourists search for information about
destinations, plan their trips, make decisions, and share their experiences. The main
reason why respondents use social networks for this purpose is to get opinions from
people with similar tastes to their own.
As a source of information, respondents feel more influenced by friends or
acquaintances than by digital influencers. This result may occur because this phe-
nomenon is relatively new, particularly in the tourism sector. In addition, they prefer
to consult publications with photos or videos. This reality makes destinations have to
adapt to these preferences through their publications on social networks.
Regarding the importance of social networks in the choice and promotion of a
destination, it can be seen that most respondents agree or totally agree with the
statements described, which is in line with what was mentioned throughout the
research, which is the importance and influence that the Internet and, specifically,
social networks have been gaining in the tourism sector. The Internet is becoming
the main source of information search about a tourist destination.
Of the 300 surveys collected, 50 answered that they do not use social networks to
search for information about tourist destinations (16.67%). Seventeen of them are
aged between 21 and 30, mostly single and students or working students. In this
case, one can think that they are young people and young adults in the initiation
phase of their independence and, therefore, do not travel. Thirteen of the respondents
are aged over 50 and are mostly married and either employed or retired. It is believed
that perhaps they are not users of social networks or use other methods to make their
trips. Three of the respondents are under the age of 20 and are all students, and
possibly their parents will be the ones organizing their trips.
Given the results obtained, it will be possible to answer the hypotheses:
Hypothesis 1—Social media is a medium used to search for information about a
particular tourist destination.
During consumers’ information search, social media has become one of the main
sources of online travel information, influencing the decision-making process (Xiang
and Gretzel 2010). In a study developed by Wichels, the results proved that the
power of social media is increasing and its use as a source of information for research
is increasingly important. According to the results of the survey conducted by Guerra
et al. (2014), the use of social media is increasing in the dissemination of knowledge
in the tourism sector, due to its proximity to its users.
With the respondents that make up the sample, it was possible to conclude that
they use social networks for this purpose, and the most used are Instagram,
Facebook, and YouTube. Thus, this hypothesis is accepted:
Hypothesis 2—The content, comments, and reviews present on social media influ-
ence the choice of a tourist destination.
Social networks allow sharing of experiences and opinions of other people and
can influence positively if there are satisfied tourists or negatively when they are
dissatisfied (Trusov et al. 2009). In a study conducted by Knop and Machado (2017)
about the influence of publications such as photos, videos, and comments on social
media on the choice of a tourist destination, the majority state that this type of
information had an influence. In addition, a fairly significant amount of the sample
states that from a social media post, they chose a different destination than they used
to travel.
Most respondents like to know other people’s opinions and agree that it influ-
ences the moment of choosing a tourist destination. In fact, according to their
answers, the main reason they use social networks to search for information about
a tourist destination is the possibility of getting opinions from people with similar
tastes. With this, we accept this hypothesis:
Hypothesis 3—Social media is considered an effective means to advertise/promote a
tourist destination.
Social media offers a less expensive approach to marketing, resulting in a large
reach and many opportunities. Thus, organizations must modify their strategies and
bet on Internet campaigns and, more specifically, on social media platforms
(de Castro Seabra 2018). In the study conducted by Wichels, a tourist destination
recognized the importance of online communication and created a model of presence
in social networks such as Facebook and Instagram, with the creation of more varied
and interactive content and publications with its users, as well as the creation of
online promotional channels in different languages. This model was adequate
according to new strategies of image positioning of the destination, opting for the
customization of its promotional and communicational content.
Respondents consider social media an effective means to promote a tourist

destination. Moreover, they agree that it is important for it to improve its commu-
nication at the social media level. Thus, this hypothesis is accepted.
5 Conclusion
The objective that guided this research work was based on the need to understand the
influence of social networks on the choice and promotion of a tourist destination.
Tourism is becoming increasingly technological and digital, and tourists no
longer use traditional means of searching for information. The development of
technology and the consequent emergence of social networks have made tourist
increasingly demanding, leading to changes in the way companies operate in the
market and relate to it. The tourism sector had to adapt, using different and
innovative ways that allow direct and personalized contact.
Internet use has been increasing and, consequently, the number of users in social
networks. In this sense, a destination that does not provide clear information on
social networks will have greater difficulty in attracting a larger number of potential
visitors.
The ease with which information is shared on the Internet is essential to providing
relevant content that meets the needs and motivations of tourists. Thus, there is
already a tendency to share on social networks information and travel experiences
that can positively or negatively influence the tourist’s choice.
The results showed that there are a representative number of people who use
social networks as a tool in the search for information about a tourist destination and
thus can confirm its importance in their decision-making. Since the preferred type of
information content is photography and video, it makes sense that the most used
social networks are Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. On these social networks,
respondents expect to find opinions from people with similar tastes, which will help
them when choosing their destination.
In this study, it was concluded that communication will always be essential for
the promotion of a tourist destination and that social networks are one of the most
important means of online promotion. The latest and future generations assimilate
information through social networks, and, therefore, tourism organizations and
companies must bet on this type of platform to promote a destination. This control
over a destination’s image is one of the most important features of the use of new
media and should be used as much as possible. Given this finding, it is understood
that tourism organizations have much to gain from being present on social networks
in order to face this new paradigm that relies on the independence of tourists.
New technologies, specifically social networks, are here to stay and will continue
to be used by tourists and tourist organizations. It is possible to realize that the way
knowledge and information are shared is constantly changing and evolving and that
the digital world is full of possibilities and choices.
This study has as main objective the analysis of the influence of social networks
in the choice and promotion of a tourist destination, thus contributing with relevant
information for tourism organizations and tourist destinations toward a better stra-
tegic planning of their communication in terms of social networks, since they
consider it an effective means of promoting a destination. The results of this research
have as main contribution the pivotal information that supports in the delineation of a
framework for the strategic planning of tourist destinations, both by private and
public agents of the tourism sector.
One of the limitations of this study is the fact that the sampling method is by
non-probability convenience, meaning that the sample cannot be considered repre-
sentative of the population, despite the diversity of nationalities reached.
The theme of this research is relatively recent, and the little information related to
social networks specifically introduced some difficulty in its development. During
the research, information was often found about social media and not specifically
about social networks, so there were not many studies with which it could be
compared.
The existence of few studies on the influence of digital marketing in the tourism
sector, as it is a recent and constantly evolving theme, makes research difficult, as it
fits a reality that may change from one moment to the next.
Another limitation was the fact that the sample of the English questionnaire was
considerably smaller than the Portuguese sample, because there was difficulty in
finding respondents who were not of Portuguese or Brazilian nationality. Addition-
ally, the study’s limitation refers to the sample profile, which is mostly characterized
by a younger generation audience. In this sense, future studies should expand the
sample with responses from profiles with a greater variety of generations.
The fact that only the quantitative method was used is considered a limitation,
since a qualitative analysis, particularly of companies in the tourism sector, would
allow greater detail and more diversified and detailed information to be obtained.
The present research intends to be an incentive for further research on the theme
addressed in it, focusing specifically on social networks and not only on social
media.
It would be interesting to apply the study from the perspective of tourism
organizations and companies, trying to understand the importance they give to
marketing strategies in social networks in the promotion of their products/services
and the return they achieve.
Another recommendation could be to research what are the best strategies to
adopt in different tourism sectors and how to apply them in the various social
networks, taking into account the objectives and mission of each sector.
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Digital Transformation in the Hotel
Industry: Shaping the Challenges
and Opportunities by the Case of Five-Star
Hotels in Bulgaria
Mariya Stankova and Svetoslav Kaleychev
1 Introduction
Digitalization as an opportunity for dematerialization is especially important for

tourism. In the “new” socioeconomic, political, and cultural environment in which
people are placed, the search for digital solutions for the tourism industry turns out to
be vital. The COVID pandemic proved to be a provocateur in this regard. As Zeqiri
notes, “Over the years, digitalization has changed this sector and is expected to have
even more profound changes on it in the post-COVID world. The future hospitality
will change radically based on increased use of industry 4.0 technologies and
different consumer behavior and preferences.”1 However, the reaction of the sector
is of interest. As a result of digitalization, the supply process in tourism has
accelerated. The companies that have integrated digital technologies are in the
opportunity to offer faster, more convenient, and more efficient service to their
customers, creating new user experiences, loyalty, and higher levels of economic
growth. The processes marked in this way have their origins even before the
pandemic, and this is clearly visible from a 2018 Tech Pro study,2 which found
that 70% of respondents who work in companies have a developed strategy to deal
with traditional problems, based on digital technologies or purposefully working on
creating one. The issue of digitalization has also been addressed by the World
1
Zeqiri et al. (2020).
2
Thiefels (2019).
M. Stankova
South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria
S. Kaleychev (✉)
University of National and World Economy, Sofia, Bulgaria
e-mail: skaleychev@unwe.bg
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_11
206 M. Stankova and S. Kaleychev
Economic Forum at the Davos summit since 2015 and is directly related to Industry
4.0 as a provocateur of “broad-spectrum changes that significantly affect many
aspects of doing business. while creating unparalleled opportunities and creating
risks.”3
Taking into account all the issues and changes connected to tourism and digita-
lization, the research presented here aims to study and explain the manifestations of
the impact of digitalization on the hotel industry in Bulgaria. The focus is on superior
and highest level of accommodation and service five-star hotels, in an attempt to
clarify the extent of penetration and the specific effects of using digital tools to offer
and induce digitalized experiences. The basic statement here is that the use of digital
technologies in the hotel industry is a prerequisite for determining the success of any
company in today’s highly competitive market environment. For the hotel business,
the digital transformation, realized through the introduction of digital tools for the
provision of digitalized tourist products/services and which creates experiences, is
not only a necessity. It is above all a mandatory condition and a necessary strategy
that determines the capacity and ability of the hotel company to respond effectively
to the dynamically changing requirements, needs, and preferences of the market,
partners, tourists, and all other stakeholders.
2 Understanding Digitalization in Tourism
From the middle of 2020, digitalization is becoming more and more important for
the global tourism industry, as well as the increasing use of phrases such as digital
technologies, digital transformation, and digital experiences; digital tourists are also
appearing. Inevitably, the statement of Moreno-Izquierdo, Ramón-Rodríguez, and
Más-Ferrando (2022) that “in the current technological paradigm, the functioning of
the tourism sector cannot be explained without the process of digitalization” should
be taken under attention.4 Of course, the fact that tourism as an industry was among
the first to be influenced by digital technologies, and especially strongly, is indis-
putable. Digitalization is everywhere and in everything—from the marketing prac-
tices of tourist destinations to restaurants and hotels that use voice identifiers and
contactless technologies in serving guests. Also, no less relatable is the position of
Kumar and Shekhar (2020) that in a broad plan “digitization essentially refers to the
process of converting analog information into its digital form. Digitalization
enhances the efficiency of working by improving the operations of business with
the help of digitized data and information.”5 Thus, the consumers, the tourists, and
3
Snabe (2015).
4
Moreno-Izquierdo et al. (2022).
5
Kumar and Shekhar (2020).
Digital Transformation in the Hotel Industry: Shaping the Challenges. . . 207
the tourist companies as partners (in this process) are engaged at the same time, to
make sure of the quality of the time spent traveling and away from home.6
Digitalization as an opportunity for dematerialization is especially important for
tourism and its development as an industry of services, leisure, entertainment, and
pleasure.7 For themselves, digital technology can be defined as a tool to popularize
and promote a large part of the products and services created in tourism. No less
important is that when using digital technologies, tourism companies “. . . can
maintain contacts with foreign tourists and sell their tourism products to them
without serious investments in physical infrastructure in foreign markets.”8 As
well as for “remote” exploration of the natural, cultural, and entertainment potential
of the destinations, from which potential and real tourists can choose for themselves,
those sites that they consider the most desirable and interesting. But also, to
strengthen the desire for these places and sites to be visited, felt and realized as
part of the memory and tourist experience. Because the spread of digital technologies
has completely changed the way we live, work, travel, and do business, and the
effects of this spread affect all areas of human life. With the constant expanding of
the usage of new digital technologies in the tourism sector, they are becoming more
accessible to everyone.9 The ongoing transformations in this regard have provoked
new preferences, desires, and values of real and potential tourists, but have also led
to a change in the ways in which information, products, and services of tourist
companies are perceived by them. And this is a provocation—for the tourism
industry as a whole! The individual person has changed. He is already a different
user and consumer. This requires the industry, in this case the tourism industry, to
reform, to innovate, to be proactive in its reactions to the way in which the modern
consumer-tourist forms an attitude to the efforts he makes to explore, plan, and
experience his free time and consumption of products in tourism. The industry was
also pressed by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has become a major
catalyst for digitalization, changing the principles, strategies, and approaches to
the management and operation of many travel companies. Indicative in this regard
is the comment of Josianne Cutajar, member of the ITRE Committee, European
Parliament: “The pandemic has shown us that tourism, along with other sectors, can
grow rapidly digitally: data shows that we have jumped forward 5 years. The greatest
opportunity in tourism is to build back better and more sustainably, always through
digitization and smart use of data.”10 In this regard, it is reasonable to say that the
tourism industry is one of the leaders in the scope and implementation of digital
technologies, continuing to transform and change according to the requirements of
consumers-tourists. In the short 2-year period of crisis, after 2019, tourism from an
industry operating mainly through physical contacts and interactions transformed the
6
Rațiu and Purcărea (2015).
7
Stankova (2009).
8
Kalabukhova et al. (2020).
9
Natocheeva et al. (2020).
10
Think digita.travel (2021).
philosophy of business strategies and development policies, directing them to digital

technologies. Examples of this are numerous: many restaurants have switched to
using so-called cloud services to take orders and deliver food; the hotel sector
focused on the use of robotic devices that perform processes such as room service,
disinfection, and cleaning of common areas; transport companies, for their part, have
implemented digital applications for receiving travel orders via mobile devices,
allowing them to track the location of the vehicle and its capacity. These innovations
for the industry are, in fact, part of the emerging new marketing and management
concepts that meet the challenges posed by the dependence of modern business on
the implementation and use of digital technologies. They also mark the entry into
tourism of the concept of management strategies outlined by Kotler in the Marketing
5.0 framework and introducing “the application of technologies that mimic man to
create (2 think digital), communicate, deliver and enhance value throughout the
consumer experience.”11
The issues in question have, in fact, their particular expression in the hotel sector
of the hospitality industry. New technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the
Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, sensors, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality
(AR), 3D printing, and various digital platforms are transforming the hotel industry,
replacing traditional relationships. Face to face with those in the digital environment.
Using digital devices and sensors, hotels realize many points of contact with real and
potential customers, providing a specific omnichannel experience. Moreover, as
Zsarnoczky notes, “some specialized digital technologies can offer . . . positive
experience in a searchable and changeable form.”12 It can be rightly argued that
digital technologies have completely changed and modeled the market positioning
and operation of modern hotels, turning them into carriers of completely new and
hitherto unknown digitalized tourism products and services. On the other hand, the
nonuse of digital tools may cause the hotel to be undetectable in the general
information flow. At the same time, it should be borne in mind that an online
presence is not enough. “Digitalization efforts must be adequate to the technical
conditions and attitudes of the consumer, sufficiently informative and convincing.”13
The fact is that the dynamic development of information technology (based mainly
on the Internet) has led to the development of a wide variety of digital tools, allowing
the hotel industry, if desired, to interact with its customers through mobile devices
inherent in modern life. At the same time, the effective application of digital
technologies in the hotel sector is directly related to contextual marketing, used to
identify, profile, and personalize, and extended marketing, which optimizes market-
ing activities and communication with customers.
11
Kotler et al. (2019, p. 6).
12
Zsarnoczky (2018).
13
Baker (2014).
3 Research Methodology
The way in which tourist information is presented and digitized, together with the
use of websites, social media, and online resources in general, is able to influence the
visitor’s choice in terms of length of stay, mode of travel, place of accommodation,
consumption in the destination, etc. It should also be taken into account that COVID-
19 provokes a sharp decline in online sales in the tourism and services sector (events,
tickets, etc.), leading to the maintenance of the overall growth of e-commerce.14
Restrictions have led to changes for the industry as a whole, directing it to digita-
lization as a possible way out of the stalemate. By 2021, serious investments in
digital and omnichannel instruments were made in a short time. As a result,
e-commerce has high hopes, although in tourism it could not fully compensate for
the shortages and losses suffered by the industry.
In the hospitality industry, in particular, additional work is needed to achieve
greater range of supply and efficiency in the use of digital tools. In accordance with
this line of thinking, the present study, using a comprehensive approach that
combines quantitative and qualitative methods, provides an overview of the digital
performance of superior and highest level of accommodation and service hotels in
Bulgaria. The framework constructed in this way presupposes synergy in the
methods of observation, review of primary and secondary sources of information,
analysis of the content (based on online sites) and of the results, personal observa-
tions, and statistical analysis. It covers a study of the websites of 87 five-star hotels
from a total of 111 officially listed in the National Register of places for accommo-
dation on the website of the Bulgarian Ministry of Tourism (https://ntr.tourism.
government.bg/CategoryzationAll.nsf/enmn.xsp). With the clarification that the
reduced number is due to the fact that, on the one hand, similarities are found in
the Register with the enrollment of some of the hotel entities and, on the other hand,
to the real number of the five-star hotels present on the largest Internet platform for
tourist reservations Booking.com. Together, the envisaged methods provide a sys-
tem of rules and regulations sketching the logical research aimed at achieving
effective and practically applicable knowledge about the effectiveness of digital
tools used in the hotel industry in Bulgaria.
In the set framework, as well as in view of the theory and practice in planning
marketing research, the following logical structure is adopted: defining the subject
and object of research, deriving a main goal, establishing a requirement for infor-
mation reliability, and description of methodological construction.
The subject of the study is the digital transformation of the hotel industry in
Bulgaria with focus to the high-end hotels, so as to outline the processes of change
that take place in connection with it, as well as to reveal the opportunities for it.
The derivation of the research focal point and scope are conditioned by the
realization of the localization principle, according to which the object must have a
specific spatial location, allowing to determine the issues of type, place, and
14
EuroCommerce (2021).
connection with the specific demand and supply of hotel objects. That is why the
choice of each of the surveyed hotels was determined by an examination through the
Booking.com information database. Of course, taking into account the requirement
for the credibility of the information in the case of real online spots.
The aim of the present study is focused on research and presentation of the
manifestations of the effect of digitalization on the hotel industry in Bulgaria,
which is realized by analyzing the online sites of the selected five-star hotels for
the availability of specific digital tools. They are expertly selected and individualized
to a total of 9.
An important stage of each survey is its representativeness, ensured by meeting
specific requirements, as it follows: each unit of the general population must have an
equal probability of being included in the sample, the choice should be made
regardless of the studied characteristics of the population, and the choice of unit to
be made from homogeneous aggregates. Of course, we also take into account the fact
that research, which are inherent in marketing, seek opportunities to reach conclu-
sions and offer guidelines for appropriate impact on the development of the studied
objects. Also, the information obtained from conducting a study supports the
decision-making process about the ways, methods, and approaches to improve the
condition of the object of study. That is why the identification of digital tools on the
websites of the surveyed hotels is based on basic interpretations of the processes of
communication management in marketing (in version 5.0)15 and the importance of
digital technologies (on the brand).16
The selection of digital instruments is presumed to be a requirement for them,
assuming that they have specifics and characteristics that provoke positive associa-
tions in the minds of potential and/or real tourists. Thus, the set of digital tools
includes:
1. Chatbot, in its function as a computer program that automatically responds to
customer inquiries but leaves the user with the feeling of talking to a real person
(for options, the dialogue should be done through text, audio, or other visual
elements such as images and emoticons).
2. Virtual or augmented reality
(a) Virtual reality, as an environment that exists physically but is created through
the use of digital technologies and has no physical dimensions (the repro-
duction of the images can be done with different types and forms of technical
means; additional information of the senses is provided through sound, which
may be part of the overall impact).
(b) Augmented reality as a way to provide interactive visualization of graphic
elements, allowing the user to interact more effectively with images
(by scanning an image, users have the opportunity to receive a large amount
of real-time information presented through various video formats).
15
Kotler et al. (2019, pp. 11–12)
16
Tybout and Calkins (2019) and Nielsen (2017).
3. Booking engine application, through which the tourist has the opportunity to
make a reservation for a time and place convenient for him, while receiving
detailed information about the product/service of interest.
4. Video of an inspiring story as a special type of marketing communication, which
provokes an emotional reaction on the part of the consumer, associated with
inspiration, positive emotions, and personification with the brand.
5. A bar for quick access to social networks, allowing tourists to quickly get
acquainted with the information provided by the hotel in various social networks
(Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter), as well as to share comments, opinions,
and recommendations for its tourist experience.
6. Customer reviews, as an information guide for tourists, present positive/negative
opinions of hotel guests about their experience during their stay.
7. Online location, allowing fast and accurate location of the hotel as an object in a
virtual map, while providing various images/key landmarks/landmarks to serve as
a suitable landmark for the tourist.
8. A virtual guide to the area, providing information on tourist attractions or various
opportunities for sports, cultural, and leisure activities near the hotel (presented
through digitalized photo and video material to recreate in the most appropriate
form the attractiveness of the area).
9. Online blog focused on sports, politics, philosophy, economics, science, tradi-
tions, etc. (in the case of the hotel industry, the most commonly used structure is
the organization of information, linked to the visualization of articles and other
information materials, observing the rule of reverse chronological display). Blogs
allow authors to express personal opinions, but also allow readers to get actively
involved, by engaging in discussion or by sharing comments.
Undoubtedly, the nine digital tools identified and described are also associated as
key points of contact along the so-called customer path,17 outlining his digital
experience on the website (of the hotel). Together, they provide an opportunity to
form a satisfying consumer experience and provoke the creation of positive associ-
ations in the minds of consumers of travel services. Even if they represent the
inclusion of new and hitherto unknown experiences for the potential consumer,
changing the understanding of the characteristics and nature of the tourist product.
As it can be seen from researches by leading experts, the number of users using a
combination of online and offline channels is growing, which is noted as an
opportunity to create a specific user experience, combining a high-tech approach
with personal emotions.18 In this regard, it is noteworthy that new ways of
“interacting” with the product offer much more satisfying experiences than the
product itself, as companies focus their marketing strategies on offering innovation
at every point of contact with the consumer.
17
Kotler et al. (2017, p. 62).
18
Kotler et al. (2019, p. 107).
In tourism, as in other economic sectors, the attitude of consumers (how they

evaluate, buy, use, recommend) to the products and services offered is extremely
important for companies. This is because consumer attitudes have already become
part of a mix of competitive advantages that bring companies to market. The attitude
formed by consumers, in turn, is due to the experience in relation to the product/
service, which begins long before customers buy a product and lasts long after they
acquire it. In this regard, the consumer experience can not only be related to the act
of purchase and service, but in the times in which we live (and the parameters of
Marketing 5.0), finds expression in the use of specific technologies, which marketers
call “martech.”19
4 Results and Discussion: Analysis of the Applied Effects

of Digitalization on the Hotels in Bulgaria
The way information about tourists is presented and digitized, together with the use
of websites, social media/channels, and general online resources in general, is able to
influence the visitor’s choice in terms of length of stay, travel, accommodation,
consumption in the destination, etc. Digitalization processes, especially in tourism,
are strongly influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has changed the princi-
ples, strategies, and approaches to the management and operation of many travel
companies. The efforts and hopes of the tourism business in its attempt to counter
and overcome the serious economic and social consequences of the pandemic were
also directed in this direction. In the hospitality industry, in particular, additional
efforts and work have been needed to create digital experiences that form positive
associations in the minds of real and potential tourist users in order to achieve greater
range of supply and efficiency in the use of digital tools.
Globally, the hotel sector is developing in dynamic conditions, which definitely
have their dimensions and features for a destination like Bulgaria. As an economic
activity, the hotel industry “produces and sells a complex, territorially limited
product to meet the basic and additional needs of the tourist clientele within a
specific physical and social environment.”20 In Bulgaria the accommodation places
are subdivided into three classes—“A,” “B,” and “C”—which in accordance with
the Law on Tourism (art. 121) are subject to categorization.21 As a typology of
classes, they are defined as follows: class “A” includes hotels, motels, apartment
tourist complexes, holiday villages, tourist villages, and villas; class “B” includes
family hotels, hostels, boarding houses, holiday resorts, guest houses, bungalows,
and campsites; class “C” includes guest rooms and guest apartments (Art.
123, para. 1).
19
Kotler et al. (2019, p. 110).
20
Dubeva and Lukanova (2017, p. 9).
21
State Gazette (2021).
In the present research, the focus is mainly on accommodation within the

definitions of “hotel” or class “A,” according to Bulgarian law. As it was specified,
sites of category 5 stars are considered, whose total number according to the data of
the National Tourist Register is 111.22 Of these, with temporary certificates for
categorization are 15 sites, and with inactive ones are 36 sites. The database of the
Internet platform for tourist reservations Booking.com includes 87 five-star
Bulgarian hotels. For the purposes of the study, the information available to them
was reviewed and filtered according to the set of identified digital tools. The
resulting report is systematized and presented in the Appendix.
Thereby the gathered information allows a number of analyses to be made to
establish the specifics and peculiarities of the use of digital tools at the five-star
hotels in Bulgaria. The reason for focusing on them is definitely due to the fact that
high-end hotels are most interested in business models based on the implementation
and use of modern technologies that promote a variety of digital experiences.
Each of the nine digital instruments studied can be identified as a separate
indicator, which, based on the study, receives individual values that determine the
possibility of a full analysis. Thus, returning to the data from the survey conducted
on Booking.com, for the whole set of 87 five-star hotels (Appendix, Table 5), it is
noteworthy that all 9 studied digital instruments can be found only on the website of
Grand Hotel Sofia. The finding made on this base allows to claim with reason that
this is the only hotel in Bulgaria that has oriented its marketing policy toward
purposeful brand management. At the same time, taking into account the preferences
and requirements of consumer-tourists and taking into account the effects of ongoing
digitalization processes. Further analysis requires attention to the fact that 2 other
hotels are opening—Holiday Inn Sofia and Apart Hotel Lucky Bansko SPA &
Relax, which are the only ones among the 87 surveyed, using and presenting on
their online sites 8 digital instruments of the 9 studied. Missing from both hotels on
their online sites is the chatbot. Also, a total of six hotels that have provided seven of
the nine digital tools on their online sites are of interest. This group includes the
hotels Marinela Sofia, Hyatt Regency Sofia, Therma ECO, Residence City Garden,
Primoretz, and Pirin Golf & Spa. The fact is that only one of the sites—Cartoon
Razgrad Hotel in the five-star category—has only one of the nine digital instruments
studied. A further review of its website as well as the available photo materials
shows that the hotel has a very modern interior and exterior, and in terms of its
market positioning, it is definitely a leader in the local tourism market. Taking into
account the specifics of its location, as well as the finding made regarding its certain
monopoly position in the region of Razgrad, where it is located, predetermines the
lack of serious interest in a strategy for using the benefits of digital technologies.
Four of the studied hotels: Primorsko Del Sol, Lunar Trail, Planeta Hotel &
Aquapark, and Arboretum Villa & SPA, have only two of the surveyed digital tools
available, which largely also shows the lack of strategic marketing management
policy of communication with consumers in today’s digital world.
22
National Tourist Register (2022).
Virtual or
Online blog, 39 Chat Bot, 6 Augmented reality,
Virtual guide of the 34 Digital application
area, 44
for reservations ,
83
Onlain location, 79
Video of the
inspiring story, 41
Customer reviews,
31 Quick access to
social networks, 77
Fig. 1 Digital tools available on the websites of the five-star hotels by number. Source: Аuthor’s
research
Detailed information on the survey on the set of digital tools for each individual
as the number of hotels that use it is presented in Fig. 1.
Of the 87 hotels surveyed, the digital chatbot tool is available (as a tourist
communication channel) on only 6 of the five-star online hotel sites and is the
least represented by technology. Next, the virtual or augmented reality tool is
available on the online sites of 34 of all hotels surveyed. The third of the researched
tools is the digital booking application. From the obtained results, it is clear that this
digital tool is available on the online sites of 83 of the surveyed 87 five-star hotels,
which gives it a leading role compared to all other tools in the study. The fourth
digital instrument that has been explored is the video of an inspiring story. Similar
material is found available on the online sites of 41 Bulgarian five-star hotels. As a
fifth indicator, the presence of a bar for quick access to social networks was sought.
Specifically, the data obtained from the study show that it can be found in 77 hotel
online sites. The sixth of the surveyed tools is customer feedback, and data analysis
shows that it can be found on the websites of 31 of all 87 hotels surveyed. The
seventh indicator is online location. The results of the study show that this is one of
the most widely used digital tools and can be found in 79 of the 87 hotels surveyed.
The eighth tool is the virtual guide to the area. The data show that a similar element is
found in 44 of the surveyed online sites. The last ninth indicator is the online blog,
which is presented in 39 of the 87 hotel sites surveyed.
In summary, the data shown in Fig. 1 can rightly be said that over 90% of hotels
have at least two of the nine digital tools identified, namely, the digital booking
application and online location. On the other hand, only 6 hotels or 0.68% of the
87 surveyed offer their customers the opportunity to communicate through the
digital tool chatbot on their websites.
For more detail of the present study, the whole set of 87 hotels is divided into
4 main groups, determined by the leading tourist specialization of hotels, taking into
account the manifestations of localization (Fig. 2). The differentiation of these
SPA hotels, 10
Business
hotels, 24 Sea hotels, 46
Mountain
hotels, 7
Fig. 2 Number of surveyed hotels by groups based on main tourist specialization. Source: Аuthor’s
research
groups aims to carry out a more detailed analysis of the availability of the studied
nine digital tools in the online sites of the individual five-star hotels operating on the
Bulgarian tourist market. Also, the grouping of hotels makes it possible to find
certain connections and dependencies, revealing the orientation of individual hotels
to the use of digital technologies, depending on their main specialization, location,
and market positioning. All 87 hotels are divided into the following groups: sea
hotels, mountain hotels, business hotels, and spa hotels.
The first group—the one of the sea hotels, defined in the area of the Black Sea
coast of Bulgaria, covers that part of the studied five-star hotels, which specialize
mainly in the offer of maritime tourism. The group includes a total of 46 of the
surveyed 87 hotels (Table 1), and this is the largest group of the 4.
As can be seen from the tabular systematization, the summarization shows that
none of the surveyed hotels offers to its tourists the whole set of the nine digital tools
identified for the needs of the research. Also, there is no hotel to offer eight of them.
Against this background, most digital tools are available on the online sites of the
two five-star seaside hotels Primoretz and Therma ECO. Seven of the nine
researched digital tools have been identified for them, which site visitors can take
advantage of. On the other hand, for three hotels the online sites contain two of the
nine indicators studied, namely, Primorsko Del Sol Hotel, Lunna Path Hotel, and
Planeta Hotel & Aquapark Hotel. In addition, the analysis of the summarized data
allows to specify that in the group of sea hotels, 17 have 5 digital tools available on
their websites, which is the largest number of hotels in the study group. After them,
with 6 digital tools available, there are 12 hotels. At the next position, with
Table 1 Profile of five-star sea hotels
216
Virtual or Digital Video of the Virtual

augmented application for inspiring Quick access to Customer Online guide of the Online
Hotel name Chatbot reality reservations story social networks reviews location area blog
B44 Apollon * * * *
Complex
Boutique Apart Hotel * * * * *
Versis
Boutique Hotel by * * * * *
BlackSeaRama
Helena VIP Villas and * * * * *
Suites
Hotel Residence Dune * * * *
HVD Reina del Mar * * * * *
Imperial Palace Hotel * * * * *
International Hotel * * * * * *
Casino & Tower
Suites
Paradise Beach * * * *
Residence
Planeta Hotel & * *
Aquapark
Primoretz Grand * * * * * * *
Hotel & Spa
Residence Bilyana * * *
RIU Palace Sunny * * *
Beach
Therma ECO * * * * * * *
Therma Palace * * * * * *
M. Stankova and S. Kaleychev
Villa Chinka by Astor * * * * *
Garden Hotel
Astor Garden Hotel * * * * * *
Barcelo Royal Beach * * * * *
Belvedere Hotel * * * * * *
Holiday Village * * * * * *
St. Thomas
Villa Maria Revas * * * *
Galleon Residence * * * * * *
and SPA
Grand Hotel Pomorie * * * * * *
Grand Hotel Saint * * * * * *
Vlas
Lighthouse Golf and * * * * *
Spa Hotel
Maritime Paradise * * * * *
Blue Hotel & SPA
Riviera Beach Hotel * * * * *
and Spa
Royal Castle Design * * * * * *
& SPA
Siena Premium * * * * *
Digital Transformation in the Hotel Industry: Shaping the Challenges. . .
Retreat
Sol Nessebar Palace * * * *
Resort and Aquapark
Sunset Resort * * * * * *
Thracian Cliffs Golf * * * * *
Resort
(continued)
217
Table 1 (continued)
218

Flamingo Grand * * * * *
Hotel & Spa
Helena Park * * * * *
Helena Sands * * * * *
Admiral Hotel * * * *
Hotel Amelia * * * * *
Blue Bay Hotel * * *
Graphite Gallery * * * * * *
Hotel
Emerald Resort Beach * * * *
Hotel & SPA
Lunna Pateka Hotel * *
Hotel Palace Marina * * * * *
Dinevi
Palace Hotel, Sunny * * * * * *
Day
Pearl Beach Luxury * * * *
Hotel
Hotel Perla Royal * * * *
Hotel Primorsko Del * *
Sol
Source: Аuthor’s research
4 indicators available, 8 hotels are established, while on the penultimate place with
3 indicators available, 4 of the surveyed 46 seaside hotels are ranked.
The second separate group is that of the mountain hotels. It includes only 7 hotels
out of the 87 studied, which is why it is the smallest of the 4 defined.
In the systematization of the data presented in Table 2, it can be seen that the five-
star hotels united in this group, for the most part, have a strong positive attitude
toward technological innovation and digitalization. When visiting their online sites,
tourists have various opportunities to create digital experiences. Although there is no
hotel website in this group to offer the full range of nine digital tools, it should be
noted that eight are available on the website of Aparthotel Lucky Bansko SPA &
Relax. Premier Luxury Mountain Resort and Pirin Golf & Spa resort are among
seven of the nine digital instruments studied. It is also noteworthy that there are two
hotels that have posted on their online sites six digital tools, to which potential and
actual users-tourists have access. In two of the hotels, Samovila and Arboretum Villa
& SPA, the digital tools available on the online sites are 4 and 2, respectively.
Regarding the third identified group, that of business hotels, in the course of the
study, 24 of the 87 five-star hotels surveyed were included in the study. Thus, it
became the second largest after the sea hotels. In the separate group of business
hotels, the following features stand out in terms of the required digital tools
(Table 3): in this group is the only hotel out of 87 which offers its potential/actual
guests the whole set of 9 digital tools that are the subject of the current study, and this
is Grand Hotel Sofia. On the other hand, here is the only hotel from the overall study
of all 87 hotels which has only 1 digital tool available on its website, and that is the
Cartoon Razgrad Hotel.
Also in this group of hotels is one of the two hotels, on whose website are
available eight of the nine studied digital tools, and this is the Holiday Inn Sofia
Hotel. We should not miss the fact that there are three hotels offering seven digital
tools on their online sites, namely, the hotels Marinela Sofia, Hyatt Regency Sofia,
and Residence City Garden. Regarding the other sites in the group of business hotels,
it is noteworthy that the sites providing tourists with access to six of the nine digital
tools surveyed on their online sites are three in number, the hotels offering five
digital tools are seven in number, the hotels with four digital tools available are four
in number, and the hotels with three digital tools out of the nine surveyed on their
websites are five in number.
The last fourth group is divided under the name spa hotels (Table 4) and is formed
on the basis of the main tourist specialization of some of the studied 87 five-star
hotels in the country. The number of hotels included in it is 10, and it is noteworthy
that the location of most of them is in the region of Velingrad, also known as the spa
capital of Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula. In the analysis of the data obtained
during the study, it was found that the hotels grouped in it are not oriented toward a
full offer of specific digital experiences through their online sites.
This conclusion is confirmed by the fact that the largest number of the nine digital
tools surveyed available in the individual sites of the hotels under consideration is no
more than six. Specifically, it is about the hotels: Arte SPA & Park, Spa Hotel Rich,
Villa Vuchev, Grand Hotel Velingrad, and the Palace Spa Hotel. Four other hotels in
220
Table 2 Profile of five-star mountain hotels

Virtual or Digital Virtual
augmented application for Video of the Quick access to Customer Online guide of the Online
Hotel name Chatbot reality reservations inspiring story social networks reviews location area blog
Pirin Golf & Spa * * * * * * *
resort
Amira Boutique * * * * * *
Hotel
Aparthotel Lucky * * * * * * * *
Bansko SPA &
Relax
Arboretum Villa & * *
SPA
Kempinski Hotel * * * * * *
Grand Arena
Premier Luxury * * * * * * *
Mountain Resort
Samovila * * * *
Table 3 Profile of five-star business hotels
Virtual or Virtual
augmented Digital application Video of the Quick access to Customer Online guide of the Online
Hotel name Chatbot reality for reservations inspiring story social networks reviews location area blog
All Seasons Resi- * * * * *
dеnce Hotel
Gallery 37, BW * * *
Premier Collection
Grand Hotel Mil- * * * * * *
lennium Sofia
Residence City * * * * * * *
Garden
Terra Europe Hotel * * *
The Emporium * * *
Plovdiv
Arena di Serdica * * * * *
Hotel
Boutique Hotel * * * *
Casa Boyana
Grand Hotel * * * * *
London
Grand Hotel Sofia * * * * * * * * *
Danube Hotel & * * *

Spa
InterContinental * * * * *
Maison Sofia Hotel * * * *
Park Hotel Stara * * * * *
Zagora
Pirin Park Hotel * * * * * *
221
(continued)
Table 3 (continued)
222
Virtual or Virtual
augmented Digital application Video of the Quick access to Customer Online guide of the Online
Hotel name Chatbot reality for reservations inspiring story social networks reviews location area blog
Sofia Hotel Balkan * * *
Hyatt Regency * * * * * * *
Hilton * * * *
Holiday Inn Sofia * * * * * * * *
Hotel Anel * * * * *
Druster Hotel * * * * *
Emirates Hotel * * * * * *
Cartoon Hotel *
Razgrad
Hotel Marinela * * * * * * *
Sofia
Table 4 Profile of spa hotels five stars
Virtual or Digital Virtual
augmented application for Video of the Quick access to Customer Online guide of the Online
Hotel name Chatbot reality reservations inspiring story social networks reviews location area blog
Casa di Fiore SPA & * * * * *
Medical Hotel
Maxi Park Hotel & * * * * *
Spa
Merit Grand Mosta * * * *
Spa Hotel & Casino
Villa Vuchev * * * * * *
Grand Hotel * * * * * *
Velingrad
Palace Spa Hotel * * * * * *
Medite Spa Resort * * * * *
and Villas
Spa Hotel Persenk * * * * *
Spa Hotel Rich * * * * * *

Hotel Arte SPA & * * * * * *
Park
223
the group offer five of the nine digital tools surveyed on their online websites. The
smallest number of available digital tools which is established during the study is
4, and their offer is carried out in one of the sites in the group—Merit Grand Mosta
Spa Hotel & Casino. The analysis of the data from the research of this group of sites
gives grounds to conclude that the hotels that have a main tourist specialization
oriented to spa tourism take into account the trends of digitalization, but the
placement of various digital tools on their online sites is not yet fully developed.
Therefore, it can be concluded that within the spa industry, the marketing policy of
hotels is not purposefully directed toward the integration of digital tools for creating
tourist experiences. An interesting finding, which is largely due to the specifics of the
product and the role of water and the resulting experience for the tourist. In general,
with regard to the digital tools studied in this way, almost all 87 surveyed hotels,
regardless of their specialization and location, use 3 of them: a booking application, a
bar for quick access to social networks, and an online location. No seaside hotel has
developed a chatbot. Virtual reality is available in 43 of the hotels. The tool that
allows tourists to give their feedback on the stay at the site is also underdeveloped.
Regardless of the fact that Bulgaria has developed a concept for digital transfor-
mation of the Bulgarian industry (Industry 4.0), the entry of digital technologies into
tourism is out of the general focus.23 Against this background, the effect of the
application of digital technologies in general, which has been identified as a strategic
priority in a global and European plan, for Bulgarian tourism, and in particular the
hotel industry, is outside the planned priorities. Definitely, destination Bulgaria and
the hotel sector are facing growing expectations from modern tourists. Therefore, the
digitalization and the development of the concept for its realization as a topic of
conversation during the holding of tourist forums in the country should become an
agenda plan for Bulgarian tourism.24
In the new global market environment of conventionalities, 2022 will be one of
the most important years for the tourism industry, as for the most part the tourism
business has to face the challenges of digital transformation, which is no longer just
mandatory, but rather a matter of survival. Therefore, the introduction and use of
digital technologies is a guarantee to increase their flexibility to consumers-tourists,
competition, and the market. In these conditions, the concept of the workplace is
changing, which is increasingly being replaced by a digitally focused version of the
traditional work environment. As a result, there is a need for a new category of
professionals capable of designing modern Internet sites providing a variety of
digital experiences, as well as employees supporting them both in the digital
environment and in the actual consumption of a tourist product. However, these
new realities reveal new opportunities for management and marketing to develop in
completely different areas so far, business models and innovations. Their implemen-
tation, in turn, is primarily related to the implementation of digital transformation
23
Ministry of Economy (2019).
24
Digitization in tourism: Mission (im)possible (2020).
and application of digital technologies in the full range of tourism products and
services.
5 Conclusion
The study conducted in this way is largely new for Bulgaria and the hotel sector in
the destination. That is why the limitations that make it somewhat difficult should be
noted. They are primarily of an informational nature, as the available information is
located mostly in the online space and there are no official statistics and references.
There are not many studies on the subject within the country. However, the study
provides grounds to draw some conclusions in the range of high-end hotels in
Bulgaria. It is noteworthy that a large part of the Bulgarian five-star hotels have
not yet oriented their business models and marketing strategies toward the full
implementation of digital tools. More specifically, it is a fact that only 1 hotel out
of the 87 surveyed sites can meet the requirements of modern tourists to provide
digital experiences during their client journey. The number of hotels offering their
guests eight or seven of the nine digital tools surveyed is also very small—only eight
hotels out of the total number, which is approximately 1% of the total surveyed set of
five-star hotels in Bulgaria.
It can be concluded that there is a lack of serious investment in the implementa-
tion of digital technologies in the online sites of many of the surveyed hotels. Given
the extremely rapid digitalization of many aspects of the life of modern society,
especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, it should take into account the
changed attitudes toward tourism consumption. That is why the five-star hotels
operating in Bulgaria, and not only them, need to focus their business strategies on
the implementation of various digital technologies, in particular various digital tools,
so as to improve their national and international visibility and competitiveness. It can
be rightly argued that the future of travel companies is related to the use of digital
technologies, and only themselves and their attitude to digitalization will depend on
how they will be able to respond to evolving trends.
6 Findings and Added Value
The increasing use of digital tools gives new scope to individual hotels and the sector
on the whole. Expectations are for new higher levels of sales, as well as for new
behavioral models. That is why it is important to capture the trends, as well as to find
solutions to them. In an attempt to illustrate the processes in Bulgaria, the present
study provides a certain format of the situation by contributing to specific findings,
conclusions, and recommendations on the effects and manifestations of digitaliza-
tion in superior and highest level of accommodation and service hotels in the
country.
Table 5 Five-star hotels for Bulgaria in “Booking.com,” with a description of digital tools available on their websites
226

Appendix
All Seasons Resi- * * * * *

dеnce Hotel
B44 Apollon * * * *
Complex
Boutique Apart Hotel * * * * *
Versis
Boutique Hotel by * * * * *
BlackSeaRama
Casa di Fiore SPA & * * * * *
Medical Hotel
Gallery 37, BW Pre- * * *
mier Collection
Grand Hotel Millen- * * * * * *
nium Sofia
Helena VIP Villas * * * * *
and Suites
Hotel Residence * * *
Dune
HVD Reina del Mar * * * * *
Imperial Palace * * * * *
Hotel
International Hotel * * * * * *
Casino & Tower
Suites
Maxi Park Hotel & * * * * *
Spa
Merit Grand Mosta * * * *
Spa Hotel & Casino
Paradise Beach * * * *
Residence
Pirin Golf and SPA * * * * * * *
resort
Planeta Hotel & * *
Aquapark
Primoretz Grand * * * * * * *
Hotel & Spa
Residence Bilyana * * *
Residence City * * * * * * *
Garden
RIU Palace Sunny * * *
Beach
Terra Europe Hotel * * *
The Emporium * * *
Plovdiv
Therma ECO * * * * * * *
Therma Palace * * * * * *
Villa Chinka by * * * * *
Astor Garden Hotel
Amira Boutique * * * * * *
Hotel
Aparthotel Lucky * * * * * * * *
Bansko SPA & Relax
Arboretum Villa & * *
SPA
(continued)
227
Table 5 (continued)
228

Arena di Serdica * * * * *
Hotel
Astor Garden Hotel * * * * * *
Barcelo Royal Beach * * * * *
Belvedere Hotel * * * * * *
Boutique Hotel Casa * * * *
Boyana
Holiday Village * * * * * *
St. Thomas
Villa Vuchev * * * * * *
Villa Maria Revas * * * *
Galleon Residence * * * * * *
and SPA
Grand Hotel * * * * * *
Velingrad
Grand Hotel London * * * * *
Grand Hotel Pomorie * * * * * *
Grand Hotel Saint * * * * * *
Vlas
Grand Hotel Sofia * * * * * * * * *
Danube Hotel & Spa * * *
Palace Spa Hotel * * * * * *
InterContinental * * * * *
Kempinski Hotel * * * * * *
Grand Arena
Lighthouse Golf and * * * * *
Spa Hotel
Maritime Paradise * * * * *
Blue Hotel & SPA
Medite Spa Resort * * * * *
and Villas
Maison Sofia Hotel * * * *
Park Hotel Stara * * * * *
Zagora
Pirin Park Hotel * * * * * *
Premier Luxury * * * * * * *
Mountain Resort
Riviera Beach Hotel * * * * *
and Spa
Royal Castle Design * * * * * *
& SPA
Samovila * * * *
Siena Premium * * * * *
Retreat
Sol Nessebar Palace * * * *
Resort and Aquapark
Sofia Hotel Balkan * * *
Spa Hotel Persenk * * * * *

Spa Hotel Rich * * * * * *
Sunset Resort * * * * * *
Thracian Cliffs Golf * * * * *
Resort
Flamingo Grand * * * * *
Hotel & Spa
229
(continued)
Table 5 (continued)
230

Hyatt Regency * * * * * * *
Helena Park * * * * *
Helena Sands * * * * *
Hilton * * * *
Holiday Inn Sofia * * * * * * * *
Admiral Hotel * * * *
Hotel Amelia * * * * *
Hotel Anel * * * * *
Hotel Arte SPA & * * * * * *
Park
Blue Bay Hotel * * *
Graphite Gallery * * * * * *
Hotel
Druster Hotel * * * * *
Hotel Emerald * * * *
Resort Beach & SPA
Emirates Hotel * * * * * *
Cartoon Hotel *
Razgrad
Lunna Pateka Hotel * *
Hotel Marinela Sofia * * * * * * *
Hotel Palace Marina * * * * *
Dinevi
Palace Hotel, Sunny * * * * * *
Day
Pearl Beach Luxury * * * *
Hotel
Hotel Perla Royal * * * *
Hotel Primorsko Del * *
Sol
Source: Author’s systematization, based on data from Booking.com
231
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Changing the Rules of the Hotel Business:
The Case of citizenM’s Digital Business
Model Disruption
Alexander Lennart Schmidt
1 Introduction
There is an ongoing debate on how hospitality businesses manage digital transfor-

mation (Tajeddini et al. 2020). This debate can be linked to two literature streams.
First, in times of digitalisation and the corresponding increasing pace of
technological-induced change, recent studies highlight the relevance of business
model innovation in the hospitality industry (Breier et al. 2021; Souto 2015). Indeed,
contributions emphasise that businesses need to design appropriate business models
to materialise on technological innovations and unfold their change potential.
Booking.com’s and Airbnb’s platform models are cases in point underlying the
transformative power of technology-based business model innovation in the hospi-
tality industry (Oskam and Boswijk 2016).
Second, innovation scholars underline the relevance of business model innova-
tion in understanding the disruptive change potential of technological innovation
(Christensen 2006). In fact, the emerging theory of disruptive innovation contributes
to our understanding of how the particular type of disruptive innovation
(i.e. innovations that are initially underperforming in comparison to established
solutions in the mainstream market) enables technology-induced change, eventually
leading to a potential displacement of hitherto successfully established business
models. Thereby, disruptive innovation debates can form a considerable cornerstone
in understanding businesses’ capacity to manage digital transformation.
Early studies understood technological innovation as the decisive component in
unfolding disruptive market dynamics. However, since 2006, researchers have
begun to examine the role of the business model (Christensen 2006; Markides
A. L. Schmidt (✉)
Hotelschool The Hague, Research Centre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
e-mail: a.schmidt@hotelschool.nl; alexanderlennart.schmidt@fh-muenster.de
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_12
234 A. L. Schmidt
2006), which surrounds and builds on a technological basis. Those studies argue for
the business model as the relevant unit of analysis to understand how businesses are
unfolding disruptive potential, ultimately transforming entire industries (Ansari et al.
2016; Cozzolino et al. 2018). In this regard, disruptive innovation is conceptualised
as a process that describes how a new market entrant with fewer resources effectively
challenges established businesses in the mainstream market through introducing and
growing a disruptive business model (Christensen et al. 2018).
Despite the advancements in the literature, recent contributions state that under-
lying business models have only been tentatively specified (Christensen et al. 2018),
and insights on how business model innovation activities are performed are limited
(Breier et al. 2021; Schmidt and Scaringella 2020). Against this background, the
focal study presents in-depth insights into how an entrant in the hospitality industry
challenges the established business model of hotels based on technological innova-
tion and continuous business model innovation. Thus, this study contributes to the
research question: How does an entrant disrupt the hotel business through digital
business model innovation?
This study contributes to an ongoing theoretical exploration of digital business
model disruptions (Cozzolino et al. 2018; Schmidt 2021; Snihur et al. 2018).
Moreover, this study equips practitioners with insights on how to perform business
model innovation to unlock disruptive potential based on digital technologies in the
hospitality industry and beyond. First, this paper presents a theoretical background
on (a) technological change in the hospitality industry and (b) the discussions at the
intersection of business model innovation and digital disruption. Subsequently, the
methodological approach is presented, highlighting the suitability of a secondary
data collection and deductive content analysis for contributing to the research
question. Findings are presented according to the constructed coding scheme before
a discussion and potential for further research are presented.
2.1 Technological Change in the Hospitality Industry
The hospitality industry is of particular economic relevance on a global scale. With a

contribution of 6.1% to the global gross domestic product in 2021, the hospitality
industry is a significant economic sector globally (World Travel and Tourism
Council 2022). Simultaneously, new technologies (e.g. robotics, artificial intelli-
gence and cryptocurrencies), cross-industry partnerships and changing customer
behaviour (e.g. hyper-personalisation, on-demand mentality) are exemplary drivers
for (technology-induced) change. Both established businesses and potential new
market entrants are confronted with these drivers of change. In this context, recent
scholarly contributions underline that technological inventions bear the potential for
a wide spectrum of change. Consequently, there is an ongoing debate on how
hospitality businesses manage digital transformation (Tajeddini et al. 2020).
Changing the Rules of the Hotel Business: The Case of citizenM’s. . . 235
Recent reviews of the discussion on how technology is changing the hospitality

industry find a skewed picture. In fact, the current literature focuses predominately
on questions about how digital technologies are used to fulfil information needs or
optimise operational processes (Khatri 2019; Ruel and Njoku 2021). Such an
incomplete picture of digital transformation hampers our understanding of the actual
change potential of digital technologies. In fact, when observing empirical cases and
industry developments, one can conclude that there is more to the phenomenon of
digital transformation.
Indeed, while recent academic contributions articulate the need for organisational
capabilities for digital transformation (Busulwa et al. 2022), there is a need to further
our understanding of how digital technologies enable changes in value creation and
competitive positioning in the hospitality industry (Khatri 2019). Booking.com’s
and Airbnb’s platform models are cases in point underlying the transformative
power of digital technologies when incorporated in continuous business model
innovation (Oskam and Boswijk 2016).
Nevertheless, the hospitality industry is predominately characterised by
established market structures, thereby bearing potential (or even creating a market
vacuum) for new modes of competitive positioning (Breier et al. 2021). Conse-
quently, current academic discussions are lacking contributions on how digital
technologies enable transformative change beyond incremental innovations in the
hospitality industry.
2.2 Digital Disruption as a Business Model Phenomenon
The theory of disruptive innovation has gained currency to understand transforma-

tive shifts in competitive positioning across industries. Since the mid-1990s, scholars
have been contributing to the debate on why some companies succeed, while others
fail in times of technological change. These contributions highlight how new market
entrants change competitive positioning, ultimately causing established companies
to fail (Christensen 1997; Kumaraswamy et al. 2018).
Disruptive innovation describes a process in which a new market entrant follows
alternative value trajectories, thereby challenging established companies
(i.e. incumbents) in the mainstream market. In contrast to incremental innovations,
which can be considered as the next ‘logical’ step to improve a certain offering,
disruptive innovations initially underperform on established performance character-
istics. This disruptive character (e.g. high risk, low margin, big uncertainty) makes
the related market dynamics unattractive for incumbents (Govindarajan and Kopalle
2006b). In turn, disruptive dynamics present a considerably different strategic
management phenomenon to understand and conceptualise transformative shifts in
competitive positioning.
Early scholarly contributions to the discussions about disruptive innovation had a
clear technology focus. Indeed, scholars conceptualised technological inventions as
being the main driver for disruptive dynamics to occur (Christensen 1997).
236 A. L. Schmidt
However, since 2006, scholars and practitioners have argued that disruptive inno-
vation is indeed more of a strategic management process than a matter of techno-
logical inventions (Christensen 2006; Hopp et al. 2018). Thus, debates have shifted
from a technological to a business model focus when discussing the impact of
disruptive dynamics on market developments (Cozzolino et al. 2018; Schmidt and
van der Sijde 2022; Snihur et al. 2018). Consequently, while digital technologies are
a significant enabler for digital transformation, solely focusing on the technological
aspects misses large parts of the competitive dynamics. Rather, studies integrate
technology and business model aspects in their argumentation to get a more com-
plete understanding of how digital technologies unfold transformative change.
In this regard, a business model can be conceptualised as the ‘design [. . .] of value
creation, delivery and capture’ of an organisation (Teece 2010, p. 172). Disruptive
business models, in turn, position a business model disruptively, i.e. aligned with the
characteristics of disruptive innovation (Govindarajan and Kopalle 2006b). Such a
disruptive positioning makes it difficult and unattractive for incumbents to consider
the corresponding market dynamics. In fact, incumbents’ profit and margin calcula-
tions are unaligned with those of disruptive business models (Christensen et al.
2018). Consequently, entrants benefit from being able to introduce their disruptive
business model in niche markets, bearing the potential for continuous business
model innovation. Schmidt and van der Sijde (2022) contributed an overview
study to classify five archetypes of disruptive business models, thereby providing
an orientation framework to better understand alternative approaches to perform
disruption.
Particularly digital technologies, such as Internet-based technologies, are argued
to be an accelerating enabler for new forms of value creation, delivery and capture
(Afuah and Tucci 2003). Consequently, digital business models formed the empir-
ical context for numerous contributions to further our understanding of disruptive
innovation (Schmidt et al. 2021; Snihur et al. 2018). In this regard, scholars coined
the notion of ‘digital disruption’, i.e. disruptive dynamics induced by digital tech-
nologies ultimately speeding up the corresponding market dynamics and contribut-
ing to a digital transformation of industries (Downes and Nunes 2013).
In light of the advancements in understanding disruptive business models and
digital disruption, researchers underline that corresponding findings should not be
interpreted as success formulas to win in the complex dynamics of disruption
(Kumaraswamy et al. 2018). Rather, new entrants must perform disruptive innova-
tion through continuous (re-)consideration of their strategic management decisions.
In this context, scholars highlight the notion of performing disruptive innovation
under a complex set of influential factors. Recent contributions underline the rele-
vance of strategic adaptability and continuous business model innovation activities
to arrive at disruptive innovations (Schmidt and Scaringella 2020).
Against this background, it appears promising to further shed light on how new
market entrants manage to continuously innovate their business model when
performing digital disruption. Related insights would contribute to the theory build-
ing of disruption (Hopp et al. 2018; Kumaraswamy et al. 2018) while informing
practitioners about how to perform disruption through (re)configuring a business

model based on digital technology.
3 Methodology
3.1 Research Context and Data Collection
To answer the research question, this paper investigates the case of citizenM, a
Netherlands-based hotel developer, investor and hotel chain. citizenM was founded
in 2005 based on the founders’ understanding that the (luxury) hotel business has not
changed for years, even though a new generation of travellers has been growing.
Consequently, citizenM targets so-called mobile citizens (the reason for the ‘M’ in
the brand name), travellers who travel frequently and who are technology-savvy.
The business model of citizenM is designed in a no-frills manner, i.e. provides a
significantly reduced value proposition according to established performance attri-
butes. Thereby, the selected case captures disruptive dynamics based on the logic of
introducing an offering which drastically reduces established performance attributes
(e.g. wide selection of room options, expensive individual services and a large
variety of frill amenities) (Schmidt and van der Sijde 2022). citizenM’s business
model is compliant with the Christensenian conceptualisation of disruptive innova-
tion (Christensen et al. 2018; Govindarajan and Kopalle 2006a). Consequently, it is
argued that the case is a ‘revelatory case’ (Eisenhardt and Graebner 2007) to unravel
how a so-called performance reducer operationalises the disruptive mechanisms
when growing a digital disruption in the hotel industry. The generated insights are
suited to contribute to the formulated research question.
This study follows previous research on digital business model disruption and
collects secondary data from and about the selected case company (Ansari et al.
2016; Snihur et al. 2018). Indeed, secondary data is relatively free of recall bias
while giving insight into the management’s strategic decisions and business model
innovation activities. Secondary data in the form of press releases and company
reports have been collected. The database LexisNexis has been accessed to perform a
complete and systematic data collection. For operationalisation, the search string
‘citizenM AND digital’ has been defined. Further, a filter based on language
(English) and industry (travel, hospitality and tourism) has been applied. The final
data set, which was retrieved from the LexisNexis database, covers the timeline from
01 October 2007 until 08 May 2022 with a total of 247 articles. Duplicates have been
manually filtered. Ultimately, the data collection process led to 169 unique articles.
This database has been complemented with data which were retrieved from the case
company’s website (www.citizenM.com).
238 A. L. Schmidt
3.2 Data Analysis
A qualitative content analysis of the retrieved secondary data has been conducted.
This analysis allows in-depth insights into the disruptive mechanisms underlying the
digital business model disruption, i.e. how the entrant performs business model
innovation activities along the dimensions of value proposition, value creation and
value capture (Miles et al. 2014; Teece 2010).
Based on the characteristics of a business model of a performance reducer
(Schmidt and van der Sijde 2022), a coding scheme for deductive coding has been
constructed. In fact, the following disruptive mechanisms have been defined as the
highest-level categories ex ante to coding the retrieved material: (1) building on
enabling technologies, (2) realising a performance-reducing value proposition,
(3) targeting price-sensitive customers and (4) attracting mainstream customers
through digital customer relationship building. Subsequently, the researchers cycled
through the coding scheme and the retrieved data and coded relevant text elements.
Thereby, in-depth insights have been generated how the entrant operationalises the
disruptive mechanisms of a ‘performance reducer’, i.e. how the management made
strategic decisions and performed continuous business model innovation. Each code
segment has been labelled according to the document and found location to allow a
consistent and transparent back tracing, ultimately ensuring the trustworthiness of
the analysis. The exact found location of the code segments is presented in the
subsequent chapter to ensure transparency of the methodological approach. The
following label logic has been applied to allow back tracing of codes according to
their found location in the material: ‘document ID (for LexisNexis: 1 to 3, for
Website: W1 – W2) _ page number’.
4 Findings
The findings are presented based on the deductively constructed coding scheme.
Thereby, this study presents how citizenM operationalises the disruptive mecha-
nisms of a performance reducer when performing digital disruption. The findings
underline the entrant’s strategic choices and business model innovation activities,
thereby presenting insights into digital disruption of the hotel business.
4.1 Building on Enabling Technology for Digital Business

Model Disruption
According to citizenM’s chief operating manager, ‘Hotels need to be more open.

They should reduce the amount of friction that they’re applying to new types of
technologies. You are in charge of how you want to do your things, so don’t let
anyone take you hostage, in a technology contract or in your commercial distribution

contracts’ (2.209). Based on this principle, citizenM designs its business model
around enabling digital technologies. In other words, technological components
serve as the core basis for their business model.
A relevant technological development which became an integral part of
citizenM’s business model is the so-called Internet of Things (IoT). In fact, IoT
‘has swiftly moved into the hospitality industry. It has facilitated smart automation,
thereby improving the convenience and comfort standards for guests and reduced
costs for the business itself. citizenM hotels [embrace] technological advancements
through smart rooms and hotel services that guests access seamlessly through an
iPad or their smartphones’ (1.299). IoT-related technological opportunities enabled
citizenM to launch a digital smartphone application to offer customers contactless
stays at their hotels. ‘The app helps guests to check-in and out digitally. Guests can
also control lights, blinds and temperature inside their rooms using a smartphone’
(1.280), thereby making the app the central digital technology platform for
citizenM’s digital business model.
citizenM states that they ‘trust in technology to help us deliver the best possible
service to our guests, and a consistently excellent experience no matter which hotel
they visit. Proprietary software connects all our hotels for real-time updates. The
software is fully scalable and easily adapted to include new hotels as we grow our
portfolio’ (W2.4). Accordingly, the management states that they ‘believe in data,
[. . .] like to measure and take full advantage of all the tech opportunities that are out
there’ (1.297). Consequently, technology enables the business to deliver luxury at
affordable prices and at scale, while ‘upending the traditional customer service
delivery model [of luxury hotel businesses], which tends to be top-down and
hierarchical’ (1.297). In accordance with this statement, citizenM starts initiatives
to incorporate blockchain technologies in their business model ‘to foster innovation
in the hospitality industry but also to exchange data and transact in a more straight-
forward, efficient, and transparent way that gets rid of middlemen and associated
fees’ (1.224). Such technology-driven initiatives to innovate the business model are
aimed at realising a low-cost value proposition, a core factor in unfolding disruptive
dynamics in the industry.
With an eye on the future, citizenM launched their first technology-driven
initiatives in the metaverse to bring their affordable luxury hotel business model
into new digital spheres. ‘As a brand that has always pushed the boundaries and
challenged traditional models, this new venture [. . .] fits not only with our brand
strategy but also the commitment we have to the creative community and to our
guests both online and in the real world’ (1.50), says the management of citizenM.
Summarising, citizenM is continuously building on technological innovations, i.e. is
using technological components as enablers for their digital business model, ulti-
mately spurring disruptive dynamics in the hospitality industry.
240 A. L. Schmidt
4.2 Realising a Performance-Reducing, Relatively Low-Cost

Value Proposition
citizenM’s digital business model is based on a drastically reduced value proposition

compared to established hotel models. According to the principle of a performance
reducer, citizenM removes the majority of costly elements of established (luxury)
hotel business models. In fact, citizenM realises a low-cost value proposition based
on digital technologies to deliver a completely digital guest experience. citizenM’s
own digital smartphone app, a centralised mobile tool, allows the guests ‘contactless
stays (register, open doors, adjust the room environment, pay for shopping through
the guest’s own smartphone) and adds dozens of local benefits (such as discounts on
bike and food rentals), bespoke experiences, collectable badges and city guides’
(1.266). Consequently, customer relationships are primarily built digitally, which
also allows for cost-efficient personalisation.
Moreover, citizenM does not offer anything like spa or gym facilities, minibar or
high-end room service, services which are considered established in mainstream
hotel businesses. ‘Instead, rooms come with “superpowers” that include essentials
such as free bottled water, a super-size bed, jetlag-busting power shower, super-
speedy unlimited Wi-Fi and a MoodPad for full room ambience control and at no
extra cost’ (1.297).
Personal services, one of the known attributes of (luxury) hotel models, are only
available in very limited terms. In fact, the booking and check-in processes (pre-stay
activities) are highly automated. Purposefully, guests rely on their own contribution
to access citizenM’s value proposition. The digital ‘check-in kiosks [. . .] make the
experience more seamless and social (and reduce the need for additional staff)’
(2.182), ultimately realising a low-cost value proposition. In fact, guests perform the
check-in procedure themselves. citizenM does not employ traditional front desk
employees. However, so-called ambassadors accompany the check-in processes and
focus on social and individual interactions with the guests (e.g. starting a personal
conversation). These empathetic employees are hired purely based on personality to
carry the brand image of citizenM. Indeed, the ambassadors focus on delivering
experience-centred guest-host interactions, mainly facilitating a connection to the
hotel, to other guests and to the closer environment of the hotel. Thereby, citizenM’s
value proposition is designed predominately based on digital technologies, while
human interactions can take place with a focus on the guest-host relation
(e.g. engaging in personal conversations), which is often not possible in established
hotel models.
From an interior space perspective, the hotel rooms of a citizenM are gradually
becoming smaller. In fact, citizenM manages to realise that their hotels are
‘prefabricated, the rooms are small but impressive’ (1.182). Hotel rooms are pro-
duced in a centralised manufacturing site, where even the majority of the interior is
already installed. According to citizenM, ‘they even make the bed, hang the TV and
lock the doors’ (W2.5). Later in the delivery process, the prefabricated hotel room
containers are ‘stacked’ into the real estate envelop, which makes the construction
process highly efficient, ultimately shaving off several months of usual construction
costs. Such a ‘modular construction approach like high-stakes Lego [is] one reason
the company is able to keep costs low and charge less for rooms than its rivals’
(1.247). This approach results in the fact that all hotel rooms are identical, which
stands in contrast to established hotels, where guests are allowed to choose from a
wide variety pool of hotel room options.
Further, citizenM does not incorporate a conventional lobby in their hotels.
Rather, guests can spend their time in a communal ‘living room filled with art and
designer furniture from Vitra; and multiple zones to relax, meet and work in’ (3.189).
Consequently, the value proposition of citizenM ‘squeezes in a lot into a small space,
but makes it feel like you’re getting all you need’ (1.93). Taking these aspects
together, one can label the designed value proposition as a ‘luxury lite’ (1.93)
version compared to established hotel business models.
citizenM’s value proposition is reduced in its complexity, leaving out frill
options, which are known in established hotel business models. On their own
website, citizenM describes the value proposition in a way that the brand ‘sold the
hotel clichés and used the money to make [the] stay cheaper’ (3.112). In fact,
established (luxury) hotels mainly serve mainstream (premium) market segments
which stand in contrast to citizenM’s bottom-up targeting strategy. Thus, the light,
affordable luxury hotel value proposition is purposefully designed to target price-
sensitive customers—a customer segment which was hitherto overlooked by
established luxury hotel models.
4.3 Targeting Price-Sensitive Guests to Gain a Market

Foothold
In accordance with the drastically reduced value proposition, citizenM primarily

targets price-sensitive customers. In other words, it is ‘luxury for the wise, not the
wealthy’ (W1.1). Consistently, the business model aims to attract so-called mobile
citizens, i.e. a relatively new customer segment compared to the mainstream (pre-
mium) target segments of established (luxury) hotels. citizenM’s target customers
are people ‘who need to be frugal but still want a high-quality travel experience’
(1.25).
Consequently, citizenM primarily targets business travellers who are relatively
cost-conscious. By designing a performance-reducing, relatively low-cost value
proposition, the hotel becomes attractive for travellers ‘with a moderate budget
looking for a sleek urban stay in the heart of [the city] where hotel rooms are
highly-priced’ (2.106). The business model caters to guests who are willing to pay
just good enough for a small hotel room in an affordable hotel. In return, the guests
benefit from luxury hotel linen, free Wi-Fi and the opportunity to connect with other
like-minded guests in the communal areas. Through a philosophy of ‘affordable
luxury for the people’ (1.51), citizenM achieves to gain a foothold in low-end
242 A. L. Schmidt
markets. Due to their limited margin potential, these low-end market niches are
overlooked by the established mainstream hotel businesses. However, the
performance-reduced value proposition combined with slim and technology-enabled
processes results in a ‘higher profitability per square metre than any other hotel’
(W2.1).
4.4 Attracting Mainstream Customers Through

Cost-Efficient and Digital Relationship Building
Building on the market foothold in low-end niches (i.e. price-sensitive customers),

citizenM’s digital business model is designed to continuously attract mainstream
customers through cost-efficient and digital customer relationship building. For
citizenM ‘an affordable, tech-centric experience is part of the brand offering,
targeted towards Millennial customers who often prefer self-service’ (2.66). Conse-
quently, customer relationships are built mainly digitally, too, which in turn contin-
uously pulls mainstream customers to the hotel brand.
From a value creation perspective, standard tasks are shifted to the digital app as
much as possible. Consequently, the digital smartphone app builds the central digital
element in citizenM’s business model. However, ‘having an app to handle [standard]
tasks does not mean a hotel should eliminate staff [. . .] but to shift team members’
responsibilities away from tasks a computer can handle to things no computer can
do’ (1.282). Thus, to create a human experience in a digital business model, citizenM
has 24/7 staff whose responsibility is not to do standard tasks but to make the
customers happy (cf. citizenM’s so-called ambassadors who focus on creating
individual guest experiences).
Such a digital-first approach attracts a new generation of travellers who favours a
new definition of hotel models. According to citizenM’s management, ‘the new
luxury is about efficiency and emotion, about speed and convenience’ (2.182). To
materialise on this statement, customer relationships are mainly digital, too. In
regard to distributing the hotel rooms to their guests, citizen states: ‘Our web-only
distribution strategy allows us to always offer the best available rate to individual
travellers. Rather than selling the bulk of our rooms at a discount to large groups or
corporate accounts, we apply one transparent pricing model for all mobile citizens,
resulting in higher guest satisfaction and a better performance’ (W2.3).
When it comes to fast and convenient marketing and communication, citizenM
uses Twitter to communicate with guests and prospective guests. Moreover,
citizenM has ‘extensive social networks, both offline and online, and we know
how to leverage them to address the target audience’ (W2.2). Thereby, citizenM
uses digital channels to motivate personalised recommendations and word-of-mouth
marketing, ultimately enhancing the trustworthiness of their marketing and commu-
nication activities.
In summarising, citizenM designs a business model around data-centric opera-

tions. The management emphasises that ‘we should not have data discrepancies
between our [. . .] systems’ (2.191), underlying the relevance of a consistent data
structure to realise digital customer relationship building. Consequently, the auto-
mated processes through the digital app allow for high throughput of transactions,
which positively influences the low margin calculations of a performance reducer.
citizenM manages to form target group-specific loyalty through digital channels
while maintaining a high level of personalised experience through their empathetic
personal so-called ambassadors.
5 Discussion and Contribution
This paper started by asking how an entrant disrupts the hotel business through
digital business model innovation. To contribute to this question, the case of
citizenM has been analysed. citizenM is a Netherlands-based hotel business which
is disrupting the hotel business with its digital business model. Qualitative content
analysis has been applied based on a coding scheme in line with the disruptive
mechanisms of a performance reducer (Schmidt and van der Sijde 2022). Thereby
this study joins debates about the hitherto only tentatively specified business models
underlying disruptive dynamics (Christensen et al. 2018). This paper contributes to
the ongoing discussion around digital disruption in the hospitality industry. The
in-depth study contributes insights into how an entrant with a technology-based
business model is currently disrupting the hotel industry. A twofold contribution to
the ongoing scholarly and practical debates is offered.
5.1 Understanding Intertwined Mechanisms of Digital

Disruption in Hospitality
As a first contribution, this study showcases how the disruptive mechanisms of a

performance reducer are intertwined when performing disruption. In particular, the
findings from an entrant who performs digital disruption as a performance reducer
suggest a reinforcing dynamic (Schmidt and van der Sijde 2022). The data show the
enabling character of technological inventions, thereby confirming earlier statements
that technology alone is a crucial component for unfolding. However, when consid-
ered in isolation, it is insufficient to spur disruptive innovation (Christensen 2006).
Indeed, the entrant engaged in continuous business model innovation to materialise
the digital technology. In this regard, it appears that to induce disruptive dynamics,
the entrant builds on existing technology rather than inventing radical new
technologies.
244 A. L. Schmidt
Further, this paper extends our understanding of disruptive innovations, which

follow the logic of a performance reducer. Indeed, through presenting concrete
strategic decisions and business model innovation activities regarding how an
entrant designs a performance-reduced value proposition in the hospitality industry,
the study contributes knowledge on how entrants gain footholds in price-sensitive
niche markets. Moreover, the case study reveals practical ingredients of how an
entrant with a digital, low-cost value proposition continuously attracts mainstream
customers through target group-specific digital customer relationship building. In
turn, the findings suggest that the disruptive mechanisms of a performance reducer
are intertwined. Thereby, this study makes an early contribution to calls from
hospitality researchers to better understand the technology-enabled change in com-
petitive positioning (Khatri 2019).
5.2 Tentative Framework for Understanding Performance

Reducer’s Digital Disruption
As a second contribution, this paper integrates findings regarding the intertwined

disruptive mechanisms of a performance reducer into a tentative framework (see
Fig. 1). Thereby, this paper underlines the reinforcing character of the disruptive
mechanisms, which ultimately enable the entrant to unfold digital disruption. While
extending our understanding of the practical application of the disruptive mecha-
nisms in a hospitality context, this study contributes insights into how an entrant
performs disruption in a complex and highly competitive environment
(Kumaraswamy et al. 2018).
Hence, while this study focuses on the design of a digital business model
disruption, the study adds to the discussions around digital transformation from an
organisational perspective, too. Indeed, current debates highlight the relevance of
organisational capabilities for digital transformation in the hospitality industry
Fig. 1 Tentative framework for understanding performance reducer’s digital disruption (own
illustration)
(Busulwa et al. 2022). By introducing a tentative model of digital disruption for

performance reducers, this study reconfirms the relevance of continual strategic
adaptability. Thereby, the relevance of dynamic capabilities and business model
innovation are re-emphasised when mastering digital transformation in a disruptive
context (Schmidt and Scaringella 2020).
6 Limitations and Further Research
This study is not without limitations. The discussion and contribution are derived
from a single case study. While the case has been purposefully selected based on
theoretical and practical fit, the findings should not be generalised per se. Moreover,
this study is based solely on historical data from secondary sources. Based on earlier
calls for studying disruptive innovation ‘in becoming’ (Burgelman 1994), there are
merits of following the selected case company and studying the continual efforts of
growing the business model along a disruptive trajectory. To overcome limitations
related to a single case study, future research should engage in a more systematic and
larger-scale investigation of the disruptive mechanisms related to the archetypes of
disruptive innovation, such as performance reducers. With an eye on the future, the
entrant’s aspirations to design value propositions in the metaverse appear to be a
promising research avenue. In fact, such a study would contribute to emerging
discussions at the intersection of business model innovation, disruptive innovation
and hospitality (Kraus et al. 2022).
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83513-303
Leading Digital Transformation in Tourism
and Hospitality
Maria José Silva, Marília Durão, and Fernando Florim De Lemos
1 Introduction
Tourism and hospitality is a significantly dynamic sector that needs to operate

globally and is highly dependent on the joint action of a substantial number of
players. This connection and relationship between all players in the tourism value
chain are contingent upon technical, innovative, sustainable and digital tools to
perform its various and complex operations. The inner characteristics of this sector
are quite challenging, as tourism and hospitality organisations operating in a volatile,
uncertain, complex and ambiguous (VUCA) environment urging for new leadership
paradigms (Silva 2016). Considering the profound and continuous changes which
characterise contemporary societies, giving rise to more disruptive phenomena
(Faulkner 2001; Lemos and Farhangmehr 2007), it is of utmost importance to
understand the role of strategic leadership operating in the various subsectors of
tourism.
Digital transformation has become an increasing and essential condition for
modern economies to thrive and has the potential to affect many sectors of the
economy (Kane et al. 2015; Negreiro and Madiega 2019). Technologies have been
responsible for new business models for the hotel industry, as well as for more
M. J. Silva (✉)
University of Aveiro, RAVT, Aveiro, Portugal
e-mail: mariajose@ua.pt
M. Durão
Portucalense University, REMIT-UPT, GOVCOPP-UA, Porto, Portugal
e-mail: mariliadurao@upt.pt
F. F. De Lemos
Polytechnic Institute of Guarda, UDI, GOVCOPP-UA, Guarda, Portugal
e-mail: fernando.lemos@ipg.pt
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-31682-1_13
248 M. J. Silva et al.
innovative networking processes, different contracting procedures and faster and

more efficient tourist operations throughout the tourism value chain, from produc-
tion to promotion, distribution and consumption (Prince 2018; Weber et al. 2022).
This transformation has contributed to economic diversification, including in the
tourism and hospitality sector, boosting high-skilled employment and promoting
development in a more efficient, accelerated and, preferably, more sustainable way
(Fachrunnisa et al. 2020; Kane et al. 2017, 2019; Sow and Aborbie 2018; Venkatesh
et al. 2019).
The theme of leadership influence in digital transformation has been little
explored in the scientific literature, despite a growing interest being perceived
since around 2018 (Berman 2012; Prince 2017; Schrage et al. 2021; Sow and
Aborbie 2018; Venkatesh et al. 2019). Research is even less representative when
cross-referencing these themes within the tourism and hospitality field or when
assessing their impacts on the tourism value chain.
Leadership is the ability to exercise influence, endowed with vision and values
(Yukl and Gardner 2020), even if those led do not resist change. However, the highly
competitive, unstable and constantly changing scenario poses a considerable chal-
lenge to leadership (Gordon and Yukl 2004; Yukl and Gardner 2020). In an
environment where technology, connectivity and globalisation blend, modern hos-
pitality leaders must develop more organic strategies that help their organisations
and employees better deal with the challenges of a digitalised world (Souza and
Ramos 2017).
To implement any strategy, digital or otherwise, which always involves some
degree of change, there must be strong, open, flexible, influential and visionary
leadership (Yukl 2012; Yukl and Gardner 2020). Change, disruption and the impacts
of digitalisation are so widespread that strategy, decision-making and leadership
become critical success factors. The central issue of the various digital transforma-
tion studies, in any area, sector or type of organisation, has leadership as an intrinsic
feature of the process, a type of leadership that Prince (2018) calls “Leadership 4.0”.
Based on the premise that digital transformation in the hospitality industry is of
strategic importance at all levels and contexts, effective strategic leadership plays a
relevant role in managing change, risks and constant internal and external pressures.
Therefore, “only by moving to investigate leadership, beyond management, will
tourism be able to consider different skills, new ways of working, alternative
strategies that will enable the organisational development of the sector overall”
(Benson and Blackman 2011, p. 1149). On the one hand, digital competencies
regarding hotel-specific software and channel management, social media manage-
ment or other digital tools proficiency are highly valued by tourism and hospitality
professionals (Durão 2021). On the other hand, having digitally savvy leaders is
critical to succeeding and is also a strong belief of many workers (Schrage et al.
2021).
This research was based on Howell’s theory of moderating factors (Howell et al.
1986; James and Brett 1984; Villa et al. 2003), integrated into the contingency,
substitutes and transformational theories. Substitutes theory (Kerr and Jermier
1978), in particular, states that several factors, depending on the context, can
Leading Digital Transformation in Tourism and Hospitality 249
enhance, neutralise or even substitute leadership actions and strategies. Neutraliser

variables are barriers to effective leadership strategies and negatively impact all
organisational or sector value chains. Enhancers are moderators with positive influ-
ence, augment probabilities of positive results and protect from adverse impacts.
Leadership moderators theory posits that the success of any strategy depends on the
leader’s capacity to interact and manage moderator variables (Avolio et al. 2009).
This chapter aims, therefore, to contribute to a deeper understanding of the
importance of leadership for an effective digital transformation of tourism and
hospitality. The reflections herein are primarily based on an in-depth literature
review on leadership, particularly in the tourism and hospitality field. This work is
also rooted in wider-scoped doctoral research exploring the moderators influencing
strategic leadership decisions, actions and organisational results.
2 Background
Digitalisation includes the provision of online information that can readily be

accessed from websites, electronic mail, web advertising, blogs and social network-
ing sites, among others (Altexsoft 2022; Venkatesh et al. 2019). The World Tourism
Organization Executive Council (UNWTO 2018) concluded that a considerable
change in business models and consumer behaviour had been witnessed; these are
a consequence of both global crisis and technological advances, such as the emer-
gence of digital platforms, the sharing economy, the Internet of Things (IoT),
artificial intelligence (AI), big data, virtual and augmented realities or geolocation.
Several experts point out that the development of information and information
technologies has been the most significant driver of change in the world, to such an
extent that this new era of digital transformation is referred to as the “Industrial
Revolution 4.0” (Prince 2017, 2018). This Industrial Revolution 4.0 is “without any
doubt (. . .) transforming the tourism value chain, changing the market, the demand
for skills and the character of tourism jobs” (UNWTO 2018).
A substantial number of concepts and variables of digital transformation are
known. However, the consensus seems to be that change only considers technolog-
ical and strategical dimensions (Moreira et al. 2017). More than referring to tech-
nological advancement or extravagant digital tools, digital transformation is a new
way of thinking and, more importantly, a matter of strategic thinking (Rogers 2017).
Digital transformation is a complex term adopted primarily from the private
sector. According to several authors (Berman 2012; Mergel et al. 2019; Schallmo
et al. 2017; Schallmo and Williams 2018; Sow and Aborbie 2018; Vial 2019), digital
transformation can be considered a process of organisational change and the effects
of digitisation and digitalisation. Digitisation is the conversion of analogue data into
digital format, and digitalisation is the application or use of technology and data well
interconnected to do business and satisfy customer needs. Digital transformation
constitutes a severe and complex organisational change, using technologies to enable
products and services to be delivered online and offline, allowing organisations to

remain competitive in the digital era.
Rogers (2017) posits that digital transformation is associated with five main
domains: customer, competition, data, innovation and value. Similarly, Westerman
et al. (2014) advocate for these domains: quality of experience and customer service,
excellence, agility, cost of operations and reinvention of models and business
processes. Perkin and Abraham (2017) also add that digital transformation is nec-
essarily associated with technology, processes, culture, behaviours and people,
which involves strategy and a fundamental, broad-based change, leading to the
reinvention of human activity. Kane et al. (2015, 2019) consider that digital trans-
formation is much more than technology, which is only an enabler, considering that
the real focus and essence lies in strategy. Therefore, the drive for change, the
redesign of processes and redefinition of the business, decision-making and the
implementation of strategies are all responsibilities of top C-level leadership.
Digitalisation is an innovative change in almost all branches of the tourism and
hospitality sector (Buer 2020). Busulwa et al. (2021) highlight the impact of new
non-traditional entrants in the hospitality and leisure industry, such as home-sharing
platforms (e.g. Airbnb, Vrbo), ride-sharing services (such as Uber, LYFT or Cabify)
or food delivery services (such as Uber Eats or Just Eat). Online travel agencies
(OTAs) are now accessible (e.g. Expedia, Booking.com, Trips.com, Priceline,
Agoda, Hotels.com, Momondo), intermediating for all kinds of tourist services.
OTAs are gradually relying on artificial intelligence to run chatbots to improve
customer care by offering travellers more personalised and automated (yet
humanised) customer service (Kelly et al. 2019; Ukpabi et al. 2019).
Today’s digitally advanced consumers expect more technologically driven prod-
ucts and hyper-customised experiences (Zhu et al. 2021; Sutherland 2022). There-
fore, tourism and hospitality organisations are urged to rethink “what the travel
experience means to the customer and reconfigure their operations to live up to the
changed expectations” under penalty of becoming side-lined in the industry and torn
down by online reviews (Busulwa et al. 2021, p. 82). Many hospitality businesses
have started to adopt new approaches to service experience, seeking points of
leverage to transform their businesses, protect margins and remain relevant (Suth-
erland 2022). With advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and service automa-
tion technologies, the use of service robots, chatbots, the IoT, mobile applications,
contactless technologies and virtual reality has become widespread across many
hospitality settings (Ivanov and Webster 2018; Kazandzhieva and Filipova 2019;
Kelly et al. 2019; Ivanov 2020). In the hotel industry, advances are not limited to
service encounters but are also felt across many managerial domains, such as food
and beverage operations or waste management (Buer 2020; Tajeddini et al. 2020).
These advances pose several challenges for leadership and management. The
privileged access to data about customers’ behaviour and preferences that technol-
ogy enables, together with considerable investment efforts, also poses some chal-
lenges and risks to leaders, who should run a careful analysis and take into
consideration the cost-benefit of each investment, the risks of systems failure and
the consequent complaints and negative reviews, security and privacy issues and the
profile of tourist who might not be open to non-human interaction (Buhalis and
Leung 2018; Çeltek 2020; Zhu et al. 2021).
Leaders in the hospitality industry also find themselves struggling with staffing
problems and an ongoing renewal of professional skills, which compels a continuous
rethinking of management and the use of resources. Authors like Mosedale (2018)
believe that digitisation can support repetitive tasks and simplify processes, reducing
the need for constant human intervention. However, Buer (2020) states that the main
objective of digitalisation in the hotel industry is neither to improve rationalisation
nor to make up for the lack of trained human resources. It is instead a new
requirement of all services to be provided to customers, aiming at improving all
the managerial procedures of the hotel and at dealing with the new levels of
complexity, quality, speed and efficiency that customer service requires.
The COVID-19 pandemic forces such decisions to be made in a quite short time
and pushed the adoption of digital technology, not only by the hotel industry but by
the entire tourism value chain, which otherwise would not happen so fast or with so
much investment (LaBerge et al. 2020; Ramalingam and Prabhu 2020). De et al.
(2020) posit that the pandemic COVID-19 had led to inevitably adjust new ways of
working and living, using digital technologies due to strong restrictions from social
distancing to total lockdowns. LaBerge et al. (2020) state that the protracted crisis
pushed companies to transform their business forever with the help of many tech-
nologies, with consumers drastically moving towards online channels.
Organisations and stakeholders of all types and levels in the value chains have
been taking steps towards digital transformation, and the UNWTO is no exception.
Considering the travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, in collaboration with
IATA (International Air Transport Association), the UNWTO created the UNWTO
Destination Tracker (UNWTO 2022). This platform was designed to simulate travel
options and inform travellers about international travel measures, including required
documentation, vaccinations, specific registration on platforms and forms, COVID-
19 up-to-date status, testing requirements, quarantine periods or digital certificate
holding. Consequently, the COVID-19 Green Pass or Digital Travel Pass was
created (UNWTO 2022).
The various drivers of digital transformation are so complex and disruptive that it
requires leaders capable of changing not only their mindset but also that of their
followers and organisational cultures. This highlights the need for a solid capacity to
exert influence, a clear and compelling vision and the use of vital emotional
intelligence to manage a wide range of emotions and different levels of accep-
tance/resistance to change occurring across the organisation (Becker et al. 2021;
Kane et al. 2015, 2019; Prince 2018; Weber et al. 2022). As stated by the World
Economic Forum (2015, p. 54), “we need moral, effective leadership, collaborating
and communicating across boundaries, business-business, non-profit and political
leaders, all have a role to play”.
Leadership has been seen as a core competence in most businesses, essential to
encourage and drive the most diverse changes towards the development and growth
of economic sectors, destinations and countries (Olsen 2004). Leadership plays such
a fundamental role in the success of all players in an organisation or sector that it is

necessary to continue studying and understanding its main characteristics (Bass
1990). Tourism and hospitality leaders must be global-oriented and possess a
broad and complex skill set (Cunha et al. 2010). The effective leader is expected
to gather data to understand a given situation, develop a strategy and an action plan
and inspire employees towards a shared vision of the future (Cunha and Rego 2022).
The UNWTO that presents itself as the leading global agency of the Fourth
Industrial Revolution in tourism considers that tourism leaders will naturally face
numerous challenges such as outdated legislation and regulation, fear of failure, lack
of awareness, lack of cooperation and communication among relevant stakeholders,
lack of technological savviness or lack of funding (UNWTO 2018). However, the
silver lining is that with focus, the right policies, training, knowledge and strong
leadership, the digital transformation of tourism has “the potential to foster new and
better jobs and business opportunities in tourism, improv[ing] the overall wellbeing
and prosperity of our societies and contribute to a more sustainable future”
(UNWTO 2018).
Effective digital leadership is crucial to proceed to changes and changing
mindsets, particularly in face of a changed decision-making context (Kane et al.
2015, 2019). Previous research on tourism leadership (Silva 2016) reveals that
influential leaders have been vital in mitigating the effects of the various crises
that the sector has faced over the last decades, particularly for successfully innovat-
ing across production and distribution processes.
3 Methodology
3.1 Study Context
The discussion hereby presented draws upon qualitative research carried out in the
scope of a doctoral thesis, based on Howell et al. (1986) and James and Brett’s
(1984) moderator variables and factors, grounded on contingency, substitutes and
transformational leadership theories. These seminal works posit that moderators can
enhance, neutralise or even substitute leadership actions and strategies depending on
the context. The original research (Silva 2016) aimed to unveil which factors tourism
and hospitality leaders perceived to have more impact on their decision-making
process and organisational performance. It was also aimed at analysing the extent to
which different moderator variables more strongly impacted this phenomenon.
For this study and aligned with the work of Howell et al. (1986) and Villa et al.
(2003), neutralisers must be understood as variables that constitute a barrier to
effective leadership strategies and negatively impact all organisational or sector
value chains. Moderator variables are enhancers with positive influence, augment
probabilities of positive results and protect from adverse impacts. These moderator
variables and factors were identified based on an extensive literature review
concerning leadership theories, profiles, values, types, actions, organisational cul-

ture, followers, change, disruption and decision-making practices.
3.2 Participants
The discussion hereby presented draws upon qualitative research. The research
method consisted of semi-structured interviews with 29 informants. The individual
interviews were conducted in person and had an average duration of 30 min. Data
collection took place between February and September 2016. Research participants
were purposively selected and chosen according to their status as tourism leaders,
i.e. as holders of high-level decision-making positions in prominent tourism orga-
nisations in Portugal. The 29 interviews were conducted with leaders from different
entities across the tourism value chain, namely:
• Leaders of political offices and official tourism boards (six interviews)
• Leaders of corporate associations (seven interviews)
• Leaders of technical and operational organisations, such as airlines, incoming and
outgoing travel agencies, hotels and car rentals (13 interviews)
• Specialised press representatives (one interview)
• Research and higher education representatives (two interviews)
Of the 29 informants, 25 (86%) were men, and only 4 (14%) were women, with
an average age of 55. Most informants (24; 83%) hold a higher education degree.
3.3 Procedure
The semi-structured interviews included closed and open questions. Open questions
were designed to generate more in-depth information and to identify moderators and
variables which may not have been predetermined through literature review and
could still be relevant to consider. The interview guide was designed to profile
leaders’ characteristics, identify their most valuable contributions to their organisa-
tions and assess their perceptions of Portugal’s tourism and hospitality leadership
landscape. After a brief clarification on the concept and scope of moderator variables
and factors, interviewees were asked to evaluate their impact on effective leadership
and the success of their organisations. A three-anchor scale was used, evaluating
factors as positive, neutral or negative. Interviewees were instructed to classify
positive factors that contributed to capitalising on implementing leadership strategies
for all kinds of organisations and activities in the tourism and hospitality industry.
Neutral moderator factors were presented as not having a direct causal connection,
even if particularly important for leader decision-making. In turn, negative moder-
ator factors were posited as having the potential to inhibit or hinder the implemen-
tation of strategic leadership.
3.4 Data Analysis
The transcripts of the interviews were organised and searched for common and
significant patterns of information. The collected data was subject to content analysis
with the assistance of the qualitative data analysis software NVivo 11. Following
both inductive and deductive approaches, data were then sorted according to cate-
gories and themes. Leadership in the digital era emerged as a sub-theme of leading
change management.
4 Results and Discussion
Leaders’ awareness of the moderator factors of effective leadership is imperative to

successfully play their role in responsible and resolute decision-making (Howell
et al. 1986; Silva 2016; Yukl 2012). Leaders’ ability to implement effective strate-
gies and policies which take advantage of enhancing factors and overcome hindering
factors (neutralisers) is crucial to achieving the digital transformation, increasingly
required across the entire tourism value chain.
Silva’s (2016) research confirmed that moderator factors of leadership in tourism
and hospitality could influence decision-making and strategy choice. It corroborates
the findings of Avolio et al. (2009) and Villa et al. (2003) about the success of any
strategy depending on the leader’s capacity to interact and manage moderator vari-
ables (Avolio et al. 2009).
Concerning the moderator variables and factors which were perceived as critical
in achieving success and effective strategic leadership in tourism and hospitality, the
study participants elect the following: credibility, trust, negotiating ability, produc-
tion capacity, diplomacy, honesty and personal and business ethics. Participants
perceive these factors as a competitive advantage on their own, endowing leaders
and their organisations with strength, influence and power for any purpose, action or
plan they want to attain. These are also crucial for implementing a digital transfor-
mation strategy in tourism and hospitality (Becker et al. 2021; Jakubik and Berazhny
2017; Prince 2018).
Regarding the leaders’ most valuable contribution to the success of the organi-
sations they operate, the interviewed leaders across the value chain and the various
tourism activities were consensual. They stood out by order of importance: knowl-
edge, experience, obtaining results, leadership abilities, managerial abilities, effec-
tiveness, ability to exert influence, academic qualifications, competence, ability to
control, credibility, trust, strategic thinking, diplomacy and honesty. As can be
observed in Fig. 1, the factor to which higher importance was attributed is positioned
at the top of the ranking.
Based on Howell et al. (1986) and Villa et al. (2003) moderator variables and
factors of leadership, the moderator variables are considered to have an overall
higher impact on the implementation of effective leadership strategies, as well as
Fig. 1 Leaders’ most valuable contribution to the success of the organisation
the most valuable contribution to the organisation’s success (Fig. 2). Enhancers
(positively evaluated) are depicted in green colour, neutralisers (negatively evalu-
ated) in red, and neutral factors in yellow.
Considering the moderator factors with a positive impact, hence named
enhancers, leaders focus their view on, from the most important to the least,
competence, profile, decision-making ability, personality and behaviour, experience,
vision and goals of the leader, ability to exert influence, motivation, type of
organisational goals, emotional intelligence and intuition and reasoning.
Neutral factors include leadership style; information and access to timely, rele-
vant and reliable data; type of power; type of followers; and gender. Despite not
being evaluated as positive or negative, these factors are still necessary for sound
decision-making. They are essential elements that leaders must adjust, use and
manage in their daily operations.
As for moderator factors with negative impact, hence considered neutralisers, the
PEST (political, economic, social and technological) environment stands out. This is
because the context in which organisations operate creates disruption that allows and
compels the redesign of structures, plans, teams, procedures, programmes, equip-
ment and actions. The timing for decisions to be made for response and implemen-
tation of strategies is often limited, putting significant pressure on leaders. Emotions,
organisational or national cultures, irregularities or problems and resistance to
change come next in terms of importance in this ranking of factors potentially
hindering the success of strategic leadership.
Results of the study also suggest that the relationship between the various
stakeholders in the tourism value chain often clashes, giving rise to various conflicts
Fig. 2 Factors impacting strategic leadership
that may make strategies and policies unviable, not only for organisations them-
selves but for the entire sector. These relationships are not always peaceful, as the
high service interdependence is contingent on various points of conflict scattered
throughout the value chain, which often end up having repercussions from one end
to end (Cooper 2016; Cooper et al. 1997). Since tourism is a process of aggregation
of products and services, in which the various organisations and stakeholders of the
value chain are rarely able to control and produce the various stages and compo-
nents, from decision-making to servuction (Holloway 2006), the existence of pos-
itive relationships between the value chains is of paramount importance.
The tourism value chain is highly complex and interdependent on people, orga-
nisations, operations, tools and equipment, offline and online, traditional or digital
(Christian 2013). This value chain comprises organisations of all types: public,
private, small, medium and large, specialised, with national and international con-
nections, global, with different forms of administrative organisation, articulated in
formal or informal networks. All of them need to cooperate and develop strategies in
coordination with each other so that, in the end, the consumer is satisfied with the
final tourism and hospitality product.
Aligned with this premise, Silva (2009, 2016) posits that the interests of these
players do not always converge, but success may be found when one tries to
cooperate and collaborate, seeks relationships based on trust and ethics and strives
to find the balance towards a win-win relationship for all parties involved.
The specific relationships of leaders, in their various roles and attributions, are of
great importance to making possible, or not, to redesign any organisation or sector of
activity or to operate deep transformations such as those driven by digitalisation.
These changes often require business leaders, such as those linked to aviation and
hospitality services, the ability to inspire other members of the same sector or
complementary services to implement the necessary changes, aiming at continuous
improvement through the creation of digital and non-digital networks which may
benefit the entire value chain of the sector (Silva 2016).
Findings also suggest that even though relationships are based on respect, mutual
admiration and cooperation, tourism and hospitality leaders frequently confront each
other in fierce public speeches and activities. Influence and power are formally
displayed through hierarchies, excessive reverence and formalism and political
games. Nevertheless, by being highly aware of the instability and complexity of
the sector in which they operate, leaders display a high capacity for dialogue and
joint action, even when ideas, powers or political agendas clash.
In the face of volatile scenarios or at a time of crisis, competition becomes more
intense and complex, especially considering the growth of a global business envi-
ronment, a business environment which has been digitally enhanced. Previous
research by Silva (2009, 2016) has shown that, when in the face of need, tourism
leaders, and particularly those from the hospitality industry, reveal a remarkable
capacity for geographic, hierarchical, social, economic and political interconnection,
complementing each other at the most diverse levels. These leaders are, nowadays,
highly connected, globally based and significantly dependent not only on techno-
logical features, tools and programmes which they use but also on the level of
digitalisation of their stakeholders. From the interviewees’ point of view, it is
consensual that most stakeholders within the tourism value chain have demonstrated,
with great success, that they have been able to keep up with a frequently disruptive
change, particularly when it comes up to taking advantage of digital features that
allow them to meet increasingly demanding consumers in a globalised context.
5 Conclusion
The interconnections between digital transformation and leadership have been little
explored in academic research. However, leadership is a core competence for the
success, growth and development of any organisation, sector, region or country and
therefore an important dimension to consider when striving towards a growing
digitalisation of the tourism and hospitality industry.
Digital technologies have been responsible for faster and more efficient tourist
operations throughout the tourism value chain. The process by which digital trans-
formation is operated is so complex and drives such a disruptive level of change that
it urges influential leaders. Influential leaders are deemed capable of changing not
only their mindset and putting effort into change but also that of their peers and
subordinates. By successfully driving digital transformation, influential leaders have
the potential to transform the culture of their organisations and strategically leverage
tourism businesses.
This chapter was based on an extensive literature review about digital transfor-
mation and digital leadership, particularly in the tourism and hospitality sector. Such
a review offered a deeper understanding of the factors influencing pursuing and
implementing a digitalisation strategy in tourism and hospitality organisations.
Digitalisation can substantially disrupt services, organisational culture and mindsets.
Change is always somehow complex and challenging to manage, especially in crises
like the ones we live in in the twenties of this century. This study focused on first-
hand accounts and perceptions of tourism leaders, i.e. individuals holding high-level
decision-making positions in prominent tourism organisations in Portugal. Semi-
structured interviews allowed informants to express their views on their contribution
to the success of their organisation, particularly when it comes to leading change
management and the factors impacting strategic leadership (including the extent of
this impact, as positive, negative or neutral).
Highly competitive and ever-changing scenarios call out for more complex and
up-to-date leadership skills (Gordon and Yukl 2004), particularly for digital skills,
both in terms of hotel-specific software (training that some study programmes
provide), channel management, social media management or other proficient digital
tools (Durão 2021). Having digitally savvy leaders is critical to succeeding in a firm
belief of a sizeable number of workers (Schrage et al. 2021). Technological devel-
opments have made wide tools and features available to tourists and guests, consid-
erably transforming their habits and routines, as well as the inherent expectations
regarding their tourism experiences and service quality, which have become increas-
ingly complex and challenging to meet. Digital business environments, no longer
limited by geographical borders and operating at a global scale, have also introduced
a substantial number of competitors, particularly in the hotel industry.
The tourism and hospitality industry has been adapting to digital disruption.
Today’s leaders must be well informed about future development trends, new
concepts and types of businesses to take solid strategic positions and lead their
organisations to become world-class digital businesses. In the hospitality industry,
engaging employees, collaborating with managers with strong operational and
technical skills and instilling a transformative vision are critical to the success and
longevity of a leader him-/herself (Silva 2016).
As leaders, through their decisions, attitudes, attributes and strategies, influence
the destiny of their organisations and the tourism sector, they must be aware of the
moderator factors that influence decision-making and the strategy to be
implemented. The more enhancing factors are nurtured, such as competence, a
profile capable of dealing with pressure and risks, flexibility, decision-making
capacity, pleasing personality and behaviour, with experience and neutralisers

mitigated, such as unfavourable context, emotions or resistance to change, the
greater the success of tourism and hospitality value chain.
The research carried out after a literature review based on several studies
published and already cited in this chapter indicates that digital transformation
requires strategic and political leadership endowed with the power to exert influence
and decision-making. This leadership is rooted in a profound sense of purpose and
compelling vision for the future, a complex skill set, willingness to take risks, agility,
flexibility to embrace change and the ability to work in cooperation with other
leaders and stakeholders to operate the necessary changes which will ensure viability
and sustainability of the organisation each leader represents. Aware of the high risks
and complex and comprehensive changes that today’s leaders face (Ireland and Hitt
2005; Kotter 2009), knowledge and experience are of utmost importance for the
Fourth Industrial Revolution.
Digital transformation no longer can be seen as a trend or a fashionable concept,
but rather a reality which is already well established, in continuous evolution, but
still in need of further development aiming at fostering sustainable organisations
through improved managerial practices, control, profitability, performance, effi-
ciency and effectiveness and service quality.
The sustainability and competitiveness of the tourism and hospitality sector
significantly depend on the ability of its leaders to pave the path to successful digital
transformation (Berman 2012; Berman and Marshall 2014; Sow and Aborbie 2018).
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Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management

ISSN 2510-4993 ISSN 2510-5000 (electronic)

on management and leadership processes. The book offers theoretical approaches,

Gonzãllez-Padilla and Francisco Lacárcel, explores the primary communication and

Porto, Portugal Jorge Marques

Ahmet Erdem, Harran University, Turkey

Ali Afshar, Eqbal Lahoori Institute of Higher Education, Iran

Trends in the Hospitality Industry: A Global Perspective . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Inﬂuence of Social Networks on the Choice and Promotions

Jorge Marques and Rui Pedro Marques

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 1

1846 Central heating

Introduction of Front-Office computer systems

POS (point of sale) systems and keyless locks

Interactive television in rooms (shopping, visitor’s guide, fax delivery, guide

Introduction of legislation that monitored hotel ownership through real estate

which differentiating and qualifying factors have assumed high importance

2 Latest Trends Impacting Hospitality

Today’s travellers have a wide variety of accommodation options. Besides tradi-

offer an element of novelty is beneﬁcial. Increasingly, travellers and guests are

3 Digital Transformation in the Hotel Industry

Digital technologies combine information, computing, communication and connec-

patterns (Hollander 2022). Another concept related to the use of AI is business

customised to include critical guest information, such as check-out time or pool

Ahmet Erdem and Mahmut Barakazı

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 17

relevant literature. The innovations brought by the technological change process in

3 Technologies Used in Hotel Businesses

Recent advances in technology have led to the emergence of innovative smart

Blockchain technology (BCT) is an online platform that records transactions chro-

6 Internet of Things (IoT)

control with self-awareness, self-prediction, self-optimization, self-conﬁguration,

11 Face Recognition Technology

Face recognition is a biometric technology based on image and pattern recognition.

12 Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Metaverse

13 Sample Applications Used in Hotel Businesses

kiosks supported by a cloud-based management system. Visitors checking into the

long-term evaluation is made, the proﬁt maximization of the processes needs to

on cybernetics (Cybermatics). IEEE, pp 198–203. https://doi.org/10.1109/iThings-GreenCom-

Aniesa Samira Bafadhal and Muhammad Rosyihan Hendrawan

Virtual commerce (v-Commerce) is one of the latest developments of e-Commerce

© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 37

offspring of Generation X, and this young generation comprises individuals born in

synthetic from imagination by prioritizing hospitableness using high resolution

1 Single-User Virtual Hotel

1.1 Virtual Hotel Simulators

Hotel Add-On Reality

Virtual Hotel Simulators Self-Guided Virtual Tours Hotel

Fig. 1 Virtual hotel categorization

habitat restoration, a transmedia ecology of many “species”—plant, animal, human,

in tourism education, planning, management and evaluation of performance

1.2 Virtual Hotel Showrooms

Hotel providers should consider investing in VR as a preview style to showcase their

with a virtual hotel in partnership with HTC Corporation, a pioneer in VR technol-

1.3 Hotel Add-On Reality

Three major AR applications used by companies were identiﬁed: online

1.4 Self-Guided Virtual Tour Hotel

Self-guided virtual hotel is “a sophisticated 360°/3D/4D VR tours on-site hotel