INTERNET OF THINGS (IOT) IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY: OPPORTUNITIES AND CHALLENGES

Purpose – An increasing number of tourist destinations and hotels are using new technology and solutions to promote their products and services. IoT represents a great opportunity for tourism and hospitality to increase customer satisfaction while simultaneously reducing operational costs. The purpose of this paper is to define what IoT actually is and to find out how it can be of benefit to people in tourism and hospitality. The aims of this paper are to provide an insight into IoT and explore how IoT solutions provide opportunities for tourism and hospitality to better serve customers, increase the efficiency of operations and provide differentiated services. Methodology – Based on an extensive literature review, this study explores the development of IoT and its application in tourism and hospitality. This paper attempts to show the core components of IoT through a case-study analysis of well-established IoT technology. It offers a viewpoint on the current state of development and the future developments that are expected. Findings – The research finds that technology (such as IoT, for example) will continue to impact guest service and customer relationship management in tourism and hospitality. The findings of this study suggest that the adoption of IoT technologies widely redesigns and improves the performance of all the main business processes in hospitality and can also be very useful in the tourism sector. Furthermore, the findings give new insight into the role of IoT, especially with regard to guest satisfaction enhancement and cost reduction. Contribution – The paper provides an overview of IoT functionalities as well as insight into IoT application examples in a tourism and hospitality context. Moreover, the paper examines the practical implications about the role and use of IoT in tourism and hospitality and puts forward future guidelines for hotel (destination) managers, which should enable them to keep up with global tourism trends and put them on an equal footing with other participants in the online tourism and travel market. This paper contributes to the understanding of IoT and highlights the importance of new technology and solutions in tourism and hospitality that bring numerous benefits, starting with cost reduction, improved functionality, greater productivity and increased guest satisfaction. Also, this study provides meaningful new dimensions of important IoT-based features and services and can serve as a basis for further research in this area.