connection of tourism and hospitality

• Open access
• Published: 25 November 2023

Systematic review and research agenda for the tourism and hospitality sector: co-creation of customer value in the digital age

• T. D. Dang   ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0930-381X 1 , 2 &
• M. T. Nguyen 1  

Future Business Journal volume  9 , Article number:  94 ( 2023 ) Cite this article

2251 Accesses

1 Citations

Metrics details

A Correction to this article was published on 07 February 2024

This article has been updated

The tourism and hospitality industries are experiencing transformative shifts driven by the proliferation of digital technologies facilitating real-time customer communication and data collection. This evolution towards customer value co-creation demands a paradigm shift in management attitudes and the adoption of cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and the Metaverse. A systematic literature review using the PRISMA method investigated the impact of customer value co-creation through the digital age on the tourism and hospitality sector. The primary objective of this review was to examine 27 relevant studies published between 2012 and 2022. Findings reveal that digital technologies, especially AI, Metaverse, and related innovations, significantly enhance value co-creation by allowing for more personalized, immersive, and efficient tourist experiences. Academic insights show the exploration of technology’s role in enhancing travel experiences and ethical concerns, while from a managerial perspective, AI and digital tools can drive industry success through improved customer interactions. As a groundwork for progressive research, the study pinpoints three pivotal focal areas for upcoming inquiries: technological, academic, and managerial. These avenues offer exciting prospects for advancing knowledge and practices, paving the way for transformative changes in the tourism and hospitality sectors.

Introduction

The tourism and hospitality industry is constantly evolving, and the digital age has brought about numerous changes in how businesses operate and interact with their customers [ 1 ]. One such change is the concept of value co-creation, which refers to the collaborative process by which value is created and shared between a business and its customers [ 2 , 3 ]. In order to facilitate the value co-creation process in tourism and hospitality, it is necessary to have adequate technologies in place to enable the participation of all stakeholders, including businesses, consumers, and others [ 4 , 5 ]. Thus, technology serves as a crucial enabler for value co-creation. In the tourism and hospitality industry, leading-edge technology can be crucial in co-creation value processes because it can facilitate the creation and exchange of value among customers and businesses [ 6 , 7 ]. For example, the development of cloud computing and virtual reality technologies has enabled new forms of collaboration and co-creation that were not possible before [ 8 , 9 , 10 ]. Recent technologies like AI, Metaverse, and robots have revolutionized tourism and hospitality [ 11 , 12 , 13 ]. These technologies are used in various ways to enhance the customer experience and drive business success. AI can personalize the customer experience using customer data and personalized recommendations [ 14 ]. It can also optimize operations by automating tasks and improving decision-making. The metaverse, or virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies, are being used to offer immersive and interactive experiences to customers [ 10 , 11 ]. For example, VR and AR can create virtual tours of hotels and destinations or offer interactive experiences such as virtual cooking classes or wine tastings [ 15 ]. Robots are being used to aid and interact with customers in various settings, including hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions. For example, robots can provide information, answer questions, and even deliver room services [ 12 , 16 ]. The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored the crucial interplay between public health, sustainable development, and digital innovations [ 17 ]. Globally, the surge in blockchain applications, particularly in the business, marketing and finance sectors, signifies the technological advancements reshaping various industries [ 18 ]. These developments, coupled with integrating digital solutions during the pandemic, highlight the pervasive role of technology across diverse sectors [ 19 , 20 , 21 ]. These insights provide a broader context for our study of the digital transformation in the tourism and hospitality sectors. Adopting new technologies such as AI, the Metaverse, blockchain and robots is helping the tourism and hospitality industry deliver customers a more personalized, convenient, and immersive experience [ 22 ]. As these technologies continue to evolve and become more prevalent, businesses in the industry need to stay up-to-date and consider how they can leverage these technologies to drive success [ 23 , 24 ].

Despite the growing body of literature on customer value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality sector, it remains scattered and fragmented [ 2 , 25 , 26 ]. To consolidate this research and provide a comprehensive summary of the current understanding of the subject, we conducted a systematic literature review using the PRISMA 2020 (“ Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses ”) approach [ 27 , 28 ]. This systematic review aims to explore three primary areas of inquiry related to the utilization of AI and new technologies in the tourism and hospitality industry: (i) From a technology perspective, what are the main types of AI and latest technologies that have been used to enhance co-creation values in tourism and hospitality?; (ii) From an academic viewpoint—What are the future research directions in this sector?; (iii) From a managerial standpoint—How can these technologies be leveraged to enhance customer experiences and drive business success?. In essence, this study contributes valuable insights into the dynamic realm of customer value co-creation in the digital age within the tourism and hospitality sector. By addressing the research questions and identifying gaps in the literature, our systematic literature review seeks to provide novel perspectives on leveraging technology to foster industry advancements and enhance customer experiences.

The remaining parts of this article are structured in the following sections: “ Study background ” section outlines pertinent background details for our systematic literature review. In “ Methodology ” section details our research objectives, queries, and the systematic literature review protocol we used in our study design. In “ Results ” section offers the findings based on the analyzed primary research studies. Lastly, we conclude the article, discuss the outstanding work, and examine the limitations to the validity of our study in “ Discussion and implications ” section.

Study background

Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism sector is experiencing significant transformations. Despite the substantial impact on the tourism industry, the demand for academic publications about tourism remains unabated. In this recovery phase, AI and novel technologies hold immense potential to assist the tourism and hospitality industry by tackling diverse challenges and enhancing overall efficiency. In this section, the study provides some study background for the review processes.

The relationship between tourism and hospitality

Tourism and hospitality are closely related industries, as the hospitality industry plays a crucial role in the tourism industry [ 29 ]. Academics and practitioners often examine tourism and hospitality because they are related industries [ 2 , 30 ]. Hospitality refers to providing travelers and tourists accommodation, food, and other services [ 31 ]. These can include hotels, resorts, restaurants, and other types of establishments that cater to the needs of travelers [ 32 ]. On the other hand, the tourism industry encompasses all the activities and services related to planning, promoting, and facilitating travel [ 31 ]; transportation, tour operators, travel agencies, and other businesses that help facilitate tourist travel experiences [ 33 ]. Both industries rely on each other to thrive, as travelers need places to stay and eat while on vacation, and hospitality businesses rely on tourists for their income [ 32 , 33 , 34 ].

In recent years, the tourism industry has undergone significant changes due to the increasing use of digital technologies, enabling the development of new forms of tourism, such as “smart tourism” [ 8 , 10 ]. Smart tourism refers to using digital technologies to enhance the customer experience and improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry [ 1 ]. These technologies, including AI and Metaverse, can be used in various aspects of the tourism industry, such as booking and reservation processes, customer service, and the management of tourist attractions [ 4 , 11 ]. The hospitality industry, which includes hotels and restaurants, is closely linked to the tourism industry and is also adopting intelligent technologies to improve the customer experience and increase efficiency [ 1 , 22 ]. Recent studies have explored the impact of these technologies on the tourism and hospitality sectors and have identified both benefits and challenges for stakeholders [ 10 , 35 , 36 ].

Customer value co-creation in tourism and hospitality

Customer value co-creation in tourism and hospitality refers to the process by which customers and businesses collaborate to create value by exchanging services, information, and experiences [ 2 , 33 ]. This process involves the customer and the business actively creating value rather than simply providing a product or service to the customer [ 37 ]. Studies have found that customer value co-creation in tourism and hospitality can increase customer satisfaction and loyalty [ 2 ]. When customers feel that they can contribute to the value of their experience, they are more likely to feel a sense of ownership and involvement, which can lead to a more positive overall evaluation of the experience [ 5 , 38 ]. In the tourism industry, customer value co-creation can increase satisfaction with the destination, trips, accommodation, services, and overall experiences [ 4 ]. These can be achieved by allowing customers to choose their room amenities or providing opportunities to interact with staff and other guests [ 5 , 39 ]. Customer value co-creation in tourism and hospitality can be a powerful solution for businesses to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. By actively involving customers in creating value, businesses can create a more personalized and engaging experience for their customers.

AI, Metaverse, and new technologies in tourism and hospitality

The impact of AI, the Metaverse, and new technologies on the tourism and hospitality industries is an area of active research and debate [ 2 , 4 , 29 , 40 ]. First, using AI and new technology in tourism and hospitality can improve the customer experience, increase efficiency, and reduce costs [ 13 , 41 , 42 , 43 ]. For instance, chatbots and virtual assistants facilitate tasks like room bookings or restaurant reservations for customers. Concurrently, machine learning (ML) algorithms offer optimized pricing and marketing strategies and insights into customer perceptions within the tourism and hospitality sectors [ 44 , 45 , 46 , 47 ]. However, there are also concerns about the potential negative impact of AI on employment in the industry [ 48 ]. Second, The emergence of the Metaverse, a virtual shared space where people can interact in real time, can potentially revolutionize the tourism and hospitality industries [ 10 ]. For example, VR and AR experiences could allow travelers to visit and explore destinations without leaving their homes [ 15 , 49 ], while online events and social gatherings could provide new business opportunities to connect with customers [ 11 ]. However, it is unclear how the Metaverse will evolve and its long-term impact on the tourism and hospitality industries [ 4 , 10 , 11 ]. Last, other emerging technologies, such as blockchain, AI-Robotics, and the Internet of Things (IoT), can potentially transform the tourism and hospitality industries [ 18 , 45 , 48 ]. For example, blockchain could be used to secure and track the movement of travel documents [ 18 ], while IoT-enabled devices could improve the efficiency and personalization of the customer experience [ 50 ]. As with AI and the Metaverse, it is difficult to predict the exact impact of these technologies on the industry, but they are likely to play a significant role in shaping its future [ 18 , 40 ]. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the healthcare landscape within the tourism and hospitality sector is undergoing significant transformations driven by the integration of cutting-edge AI and advanced technologies [ 38 , 51 , 52 ]. These technological advancements have paved the way for personalized and seamless experiences for travelers, with AI-powered chatbots playing a pivotal role in addressing medical inquiries and innovative telemedicine solutions ensuring the well-being of tourists [ 52 , 53 ].

This study background provides essential context for the subsequent systematic literature review, as it contextualizes the field’s key concepts, frameworks, and emerging technologies. By examining these aspects, the study aims to contribute valuable insights into the post-pandemic recovery of the tourism and hospitality industry, paving the way for future research opportunities and advancements in the field.

Methodology

This study meticulously adopted a systematic literature review process grounded in a pre-defined review protocol to provide a thorough and objective appraisal [ 54 ]. This approach was geared to eliminate potential bias and uphold the integrity of study findings. The formulation of the review protocol was a collaborative effort facilitated by two researchers. This foundational document encompasses (i) Clear delineation of the study objectives, ensuring alignment with the research aim; (ii) A thorough description of the methods used for data collection and assessment, which underscores the replicability of our process; (iii) A systematic approach for synthesizing and analyzing the selected studies, promoting consistency and transparency.

Guiding the current review process was the PRISMA methodology, a renowned and universally esteemed framework that has set a gold standard for conducting systematic reviews in various scientific disciplines [ 27 , 28 ]. The commendable efficacy of PRISMA in service research substantiates its methodological robustness and reliability [ 55 ]. It is not only the rigorous nature of PRISMA but also its widespread acceptance in service research that accentuates its fittingness for this research. Given tourism and hospitality studies’ intricate and evolving nature, PRISMA is a robust compass to guide our SLR, ensuring methodological transparency and thoroughness [ 56 , 57 ]. In essence, the PRISMA approach does not merely dictate the procedural intricacies of the review but emphasizes clarity, precision, and transparency at every phase. The PRISMA methodology presents the research journey holistically, from its inception to its conclusions, providing readers with a clear and comprehensive understanding of the approach and findings [ 58 ].

Utilizing the goal-question-metrics approach [ 59 ], our study aims to analyze current scientific literature from the perspectives of technicians, researchers, and practitioners to comprehend customer value co-creation through the digital age within the Tourism and Hospitality sector. In order to accomplish this goal, we formulated the following research questions:

What are the main types of AI and new technologies used to enhance value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industries?

What are the future research directions in customer value co-creation through AI and new technologies in the tourism and hospitality sector?

How do managers in the tourism and hospitality sector apply AI and new technologies to enhance customer co-creation value and drive business success?

The subsequent subsections will provide further details regarding our search and analysis strategies.

Search strategy and selection criteria

We collected our data by searching for papers in the Scopus and Web of Science databases, adhering to rigorous scientific standards. We included only international peer-reviewed academic journal articles, excluding publications like books, book chapters, and conference proceedings [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]. The research process covered the period from 2009 to 2022, as this timeframe aligns with the publication of the first studies on value co-creation in the tourism industry in 2009 and the first two studies on value co-creation in general in 2004 [ 63 , 64 ]. The selection of sources was based on criteria such as timelines, availability, quality, and versatility, as discussed by Dieste et al. [ 2 ]. We employed relevant keywords, synonyms, and truncations for three main concepts: tourism and hospitality, customer value co-creation, and AI and new technologies in smart tourism and hospitality. To ensure transparency and comprehensiveness, we followed the PRISMA inclusion criteria, detailed in Table 1 , and utilized topic and Boolean/phrase search modes to retrieve papers published from 2009 to 2022. The final search string underwent validation by experts to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness:

A PRISMA diagram was produced to understand better this study’s search strategy and record selection.

Study selection and analysis procedure

The current study utilized the PRISMA framework to document our review process. One hundred two papers were retrieved during the initial search across the databases. Table 1 outlines the criteria for selecting the studies based on scope and quality. The study adhered to the PRISMA procedure (as shown in Fig.  1 ) and applied the following filters:

We identified and removed 17 duplicate records during the ‘identification’ step.

We excluded 27 publications in the ‘Screening’ step based on the title and abstract.

We excluded 31 publications based on the entire text in the eligibility step.

PRISMA flow diagram

As a result, we were left with a final collection of 27 journal articles for downloading and analysis. Two trained research assistants conducted title and abstract screenings separately, and any disagreements about inclusion were resolved by discussing them with the research coordinator until an agreement was reached. Papers not in English, papers from meetings, books, editorials, news, reports, and patents were excluded, as well as unrelated or incomplete papers and studies that did not focus on the tourism and hospitality domain. A manual search of the reference lists of each paper was conducted to identify relevant papers that were not found in the database searches. After this process, 27 papers were left for a full-text review.

This study used the Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool (MMAT) to evaluate the quality of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods research studies included [ 65 , 66 ]. According to the findings, the quality of the study met the standards of a systematic review. Additional information can be obtained from Additional file 1 : Appendix 1.

In this section, we will report the results of our data analysis for each research question. We will begin by describing the characteristics of the studies included in the systematic literature review, such as (1) publication authors, titles, years and journals, topics, methods, and tools used in existing studies. Then each facet was elaborated by the following questions: (i) What are the main types of AI and new technologies used to enhance value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industries? (ii) What are the future research directions in customer value co-creation through AI and new technologies in the tourism and hospitality sector? (iii) How do managers in the tourism and hospitality sector apply AI and new technologies to enhance customer co-creation value and drive business success?

Studies demographics

Figure  2 shows the yearly publication of articles on customer co-creation of value in tourism and hospitality through AI and new technologies. The chart’s data suggests two main findings. Firstly, the research on customer value co-creation in tourism and hospitality through AI and new technologies is still in its early stages (1 paper in 2012). However, the annual number of published articles from 2017 to the present appears to be generally increasing. This trend implies that the application of value co-creation in this field is gaining academic attention and is becoming an emerging research area. Based on this trend, we anticipate seeing more studies on this topic published in the following years.

Publication Years with research methods

Regarding research type, 14 papers (52%) conducted quantitative research, employing statistical analysis, structural equation modeling, and data mining methods. Meanwhile, 11 papers (41%) conducted qualitative research using interviews, thematic analysis, and descriptive analysis. Only two papers (7%) used mixed research (combining quantitative and qualitative methods). The survey and interview methods (both individual and group) were found to be more common than other research methods. This suggests that interviews provide greater insight into participant attitudes and motivations, enhancing accuracy in quantitative and qualitative studies. Additionally, certain studies employed content analysis, big data analysis using UGC, and data from online platforms, social media, and big data.

Regarding the publishing journals, we found that 27 papers were published in 22 journals (refer to Table 2 ), where three journals had more than one paper on co-creation value through AI and new technologies in tourism and hospitality, indicating their keen interest in this topic. Most publications were in the Journal of Business Research, with four studies on co-creation value through AI and new technologies in tourism and hospitality. Two related studies were published in the Tourism Management Perspectives and Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. This distribution indicates that most current research on co-creation value through AI and new technologies in tourism and hospitality was published in journals in the tourism and hospitality management field. However, some journals in the computer and AI field have also published papers on co-creation value through AI and new technologies in tourism and hospitality, including Computers in Industry, Computers in Human Behavior, Computational Intelligence, and Neuroscience.

Regarding data analytics tools, SmartPLS, AMOS, NVivo and PROCESS tools are the 5 most popular software graphic tools used in studies, while Python and R are the two main types of programming languages used. In total, 27 studies, 14 refer to using AI applications and data analytics in this research flow. Metaverse and relative technologies such as AR and VR were included in 8 studies. Three studies used service robots to discover the value co-creation process. There are include two studies that have used chatbots and virtual assistants.

Publication years and journals

In recent systematic literature reviews focusing on general services, tourism, and hospitality, there has been a notable emphasis on traditional factors shaping customer experience [ 26 , 67 , 68 ]. However, this study uniquely positions itself by emphasizing the digital age’s profound impact on value co-creation within this sector. The subsequent part digs more into the specifics of this study, building on these parallels. The detailed findings offer nuanced insights into how value co-creation in tourism and hospitality has evolved, providing a more extensive understanding than previous works.

Result 1—technology viewpoints: What are the main types of AI and new technologies used to enhance value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industries?

Several types of AI and new technologies have been used to enhance co-creation values in the tourism and hospitality industry. Nowadays, AI, ML, and deep learning can all be used to enhance customer value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industry [ 42 , 69 , 70 ]. There are some AI applications identified through the review process:

First, personalization and customized recommendations: AI and ML can be used to analyze customer data, such as their past bookings, preferences, and reviews, to personalize recommendations and experiences for them [ 7 , 69 , 71 , 72 ]. Cuomo et al. examine how data analytics techniques, including AI and ML, can improve traveler experience in transportation services. Applying AI and ML can help customers discover new experiences and activities they may not have considered otherwise [ 13 ]. Relating to data mining applications, Ngamsirijit examines how data mining can be used to create value in creative tourism. Moreover, the study also discusses the need for co-creation to create a successful customer experience in creative tourism and ways data mining can enhance the customer experience [ 73 ].

Second, user-generated content and sentiment analysis: ML and Natural Language Processing (NLP) can be used to analyze user-generated content such as reviews and social media posts to understand customer needs and preferences [ 12 , 37 ]. This can help businesses identify opportunities to create customer value [ 74 ]. NLP can analyze customer reviews and feedback to understand the overall sentiment toward a hotel or destination [ 75 ]. This can help businesses identify areas for improvement and create a better customer experience [ 70 ]. In the study using NLP to analyze data from Twitter, Liu et al. examine the impact of luxury brands’ social media marketing on customer engagement. The authors discuss how big data analytics and NLP can be used to analyze customer conversations and extract valuable insights about customer preferences and behaviors [ 74 ].

Third, recent deep learning has developed novel models that create business value by forecasting some parameters and promoting better offerings to tourists [ 71 ]. Deep learning can analyze large amounts of data and make more accurate predictions or decisions [ 39 , 41 ]. For example, a deep learning model could predict the likelihood of a customer returning to a hotel based on their past bookings and interactions with the hotel [ 72 ].

Some applications of the latest technologies that have been used to enhance co-creation values in tourism and hospitality include

Firstly, Chatbots and virtual assistants can enhance customer value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industry in several ways: (i) Improved customer service: Chatbots and virtual assistants can be used to answer customer questions, provide information, and assist with tasks such as booking a room or making a reservation [ 45 ]. These tools can save customers and staff time and improve customer experience [ 76 ]; (ii) Increased convenience: Chatbots and virtual assistants can be accessed 24/7, meaning customers can get help or assistance anytime [ 50 ]. These tools can be handy for traveling customers with questions or who need assistance outside regular business hours [ 44 ]; (iii) Personalization: Chatbots and virtual assistants can use natural language processing (NLP) to understand and respond to customer inquiries in a more personalized way [ 45 , 70 ]. This can help improve the customer experience and create a more favorable impression of the business. Moreover, this can save costs and improve customers [ 16 ].

Secondly, metaverse technologies can enhance customer value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industry in several ways: (i) Virtual tours and experiences: Metaverse technologies can offer virtual tours and experiences to customers, allowing them to visit and explore destinations remotely [ 77 ]. This technology can be beneficial for customers who are unable to travel due to pandemics or who want to preview a destination before deciding to visit in person [ 49 ]; (ii) Virtual events: Metaverse technologies can be used to host virtual events, such as conferences, workshops, or trade shows, which can be attended by customers from anywhere in the world [ 9 ]. This can save time and money for businesses and customers and increase the reach and impact of events; (iii) Virtual customer service: Metaverse technologies can offer virtual customer service, allowing customers to interact with businesses in a virtual setting [ 25 ]. This can be especially useful for customers who prefer to communicate online or in remote areas; (iv) Virtual training and education : Metaverse technologies can offer virtual training and education to employees and customers [ 41 ]. Metaverse can be an effective and convenient way to deliver training and can save time and money for both businesses and customers [ 7 ]; (v) Virtual reality (VR) experiences: Metaverse technologies can be used to offer VR experiences to customers, allowing them to immerse themselves in virtual environments and participate in activities that would be difficult or impossible to do in the real world [ 77 ]. This can enhance the customer experience and create new business opportunities to offer unique and memorable experiences [ 71 ].

Thirdly, IoT and robots can enhance customer value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality sector in several ways: (i) One way is by providing personalized and convenient customer experiences [ 12 ]. For example, hotels can use IoT-enabled devices to allow guests to control the temperature and lighting in their rooms, as well as access hotel amenities such as room service and concierge services [ 50 ]; (ii) In addition, robots can be used to provide assistance and enhance the customer experience in various ways [ 16 , 40 ]. For example, robots can be used to deliver items to guest rooms, assist with check-in and check-out processes, and provide information and directions to guests [ 12 ]; (iii) Both IoT and robots can be used to gather customer feedback and data in real-time, which can help to improve the quality and effectiveness of tourism and hospitality services [ 76 ]. For example, hotels can use IoT-enabled devices to gather data on guest preferences and needs, which can be used to tailor services and experiences to individual customers. This can help to improve customer satisfaction and loyalty [ 76 ]. Overall, using IoT and robots in the tourism and hospitality sector can help improve the industry’s efficiency and effectiveness and enhance the customer experience.

Result 2—academic viewpoints: What are the future research directions in customer value co-creation through AI and new technologies in the tourism and hospitality sector?

From an academic perspective, there are several potential future research directions in customer value co-creation through the digital age in the tourism and hospitality sector. Some possibilities include: (1) Understanding how different technologies and platforms facilitate co-creation: Researchers could investigate how different technologies and platforms, such as social media, mobile apps, or virtual reality, enable or inhibit co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industry; (2) Investigating the impact of co-creation on business performance: Researchers could examine the relationship between co-creation and business performance in the tourism and hospitality sector and identify the factors that drive success in co-creation initiatives; (3) Investigating the impact of AI and automation on co-creation: As AI and automation technologies become more prevalent in the industry, research could focus on the impact these technologies have on co-creation and value creation, including the potential for AI to facilitate or hinder co-creation; (4) Investigating the impact of the Metaverse on customer behaviour: Research could focus on understanding how the Metaverse affects customer behaviour and decision-making, and how companies can use this information to facilitate co-creation and value creation [ 9 ]; (5) Analysing the use of social media and other digital platforms for co-creation: Researchers could study how companies in the tourism and hospitality sector use social media and other digital platforms to facilitate co-creation with customers, and the impact that these platforms have on value creation [ 7 , 45 , 78 ]. Researchers could investigate how social interactions and communities in the Metaverse enable or inhibit co-creation in the tourism and hospitality industry and the impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty; (6) Examining the ethical implications of the Metaverse and AI: Researchers could explore the ethical considerations surrounding the use of the Metaverse and AI in the tourism and hospitality sector, such as issues related to privacy and data security, and the potential for these technologies to perpetuate or exacerbate societal inequalities [ 48 , 75 , 77 ].

Result 3—Management viewpoints: How do managers in the tourism and hospitality sector apply AI and new technologies to enhance customer co-creation value and drive business success?

There are several ways managers in the tourism and hospitality industry can apply AI and new technologies to enhance customer experiences and drive business success. We suggest four main possibilities: (1) Implementing chatbots or virtual assistants to encourage customer co-creation: Managers can use chatbots or virtual assistants to provide quick and convenient customer service, helping businesses respond to customer inquiries and resolve issues more efficiently [ 76 ]. Then, encourage customer co-creation by inviting customers to participate in the creation of new experiences and products by gathering feedback and ideas through online forums and focus groups [ 45 ]. This can help build a sense of community and engagement and can also lead to the development of new, innovative products and experiences that will attract more customers [ 50 , 79 ]; (2) Leveraging personalization technologies and using predictive analytics: Managers can use AI-powered personalization technologies to analyze customer data and preferences and offer personalized recommendations and experiences [ 42 , 72 , 80 ]. This can help businesses better understand and anticipate customer needs and create more tailored and satisfying experiences that drive co-creation value. Managers can leverage AI-powered predictive analytics technologies to analyze data and predict future customer behavior or trends [ 75 ]. This can help businesses anticipate customer needs and make informed decisions about resource allocation and planning, enhancing co-creation value. Managers can use personalization technologies and predictive analytics to analyze customer feedback and identify areas for improvement [ 37 ]. These can help businesses better understand customer needs and preferences and create more satisfying and valuable experiences that drive co-creation value [ 7 , 36 , 41 ]; (3) Using the Metaverse to facilitate co-creation: Managers can leverage the Metaverse to allow customers to design and customize their own experiences, which can help create value in collaboration with customers [ 25 , 71 , 77 ]. Managers can use VR and AR technologies to create immersive and interactive customer experiences in the Metaverse [ 81 ]. This can help businesses differentiate themselves and stand out in a competitive market. Managers can use data analysis tools to understand how customers behave in the Metaverse and use this information to create more personalized and satisfying experiences [ 9 ]. Managers can leverage the Metaverse to facilitate co-creation with customers, for example, by enabling customers to design and customize their own experiences [ 49 , 81 ]. This can help businesses create value in collaboration with customers; (4) Integrating AI-robotics into operations to support value co-creation: Analyse your business processes to identify tasks that can be automated using AI-powered robotics, such as check-in and check-out, room service, or concierge services [ 12 , 82 ]. Managers can consider using AI-powered robots for tasks such as check-in and check-out or for delivering amenities to guests. Use AI and the latest technologies to streamline the booking and check-in process, making it faster and more convenient for customers [ 16 ]. This can include using virtual assistants to handle booking inquiries or facial recognition technology to allow customers to check in at their hotel simply by showing their faces. These can help businesses reduce labor costs and improve efficiency, enhancing co-creation value [ 16 ]. We summarize three viewpoints in Fig.  3 below.

Summary of value co-creation through the Digital Age in Tourism and Hospitality

Combining these three viewpoints as a research agenda for tourism and hospitality in the AI and digital age holds immense potential. It addresses critical aspects such as customer experience enhancement, leveraging customer-generated content, and exploring cutting-edge technologies to create value co-creation opportunities. Researching these areas allows the industry to stay at the forefront of the digital revolution and deliver exceptional customer experiences that drive business success in the next few years.

Discussion and implications

This study aimed to develop a systematic literature review of customer value co-creation in the hospitality and tourism industry using the PRISMA protocol [ 27 ]. The study findings highlighted that tourism and hospitality should take advantage of AI and new technologies, as it brings significant advantages. Value co-creation in the tourism and hospitality sector refers to creating value through the collaboration and participation of multiple stakeholders, including tourists, employees, and the industry [ 2 ]. AI, Metaverse, and other new technologies can significantly enhance value co-creation in this sector by enabling more personalized, immersive, and efficient tourist experiences [ 40 , 80 , 81 ].

From a technology viewpoint, the study reveals that manifestations of customer value co-creation through the digital age are related to AI and the latest technologies such as Metaverse, robots, IoT, chatbots, intelligence systems, and others that shape co-creation [ 42 ]. AI applications and new technologies can help shape customer value co-creation in this sector. AI can follow the rules, think like an expert, learn from data, and even create virtual and augmented reality experiences [ 4 , 10 ]. Chatbots, personalization, predictive analytics, and robotics are examples of how AI and technology can create unique and fun travel experiences [ 16 , 40 , 74 , 83 ].

From an academic viewpoint, researchers look at ways technology can help people enjoy their travels and stay in hotels by boosting the value co-creation process [ 2 ]. They are looking at how different technologies, like social media, can help people create value for themselves and others [ 45 , 84 ]. They are also looking at how AI and the virtual world can change people’s decisions and how companies can use this information to help people [ 77 , 80 ]. Finally, researchers are looking into the ethical issues of using technology in tourism and hospitality [ 48 , 75 , 77 ].

From the manager’s viewpoint, managers in the tourism and hospitality industry can use AI and new technologies to create better customer experiences and drive success [ 70 , 80 ]. These can include using chatbots or virtual assistants to help customers and get their feedback [ 50 , 76 ], using personalization technologies to understand customer needs [ 69 ], using the Metaverse to have customers design their own experiences [ 10 ], and using AI-robotics to automate tasks [ 16 , 82 ].

In light of the findings from this systematic literature review, policymakers in the tourism and hospitality sectors must revisit and revitalize current strategies. Embracing digital age technologies, especially AI and metaverse tools, can significantly enhance customer value co-creation. This necessitates targeted investments in technology upgradation, capacity-building, and skilling initiatives. While the initial resource allocation may appear substantial, the long-term returns regarding elevated customer satisfaction, increased tourism inflow, and industry-wide growth are undeniable. Policymakers must ensure a collaborative approach, engaging stakeholders across the value chain for streamlined adoption and implementation of these advancements.

Overall, the use of AI, Metaverse, and other new technologies can significantly enhance co-creation value in the tourism and hospitality sector by enabling more personalized, immersive, and efficient experiences for tourists and improving the efficiency and effectiveness of the industry as a whole [ 15 ].

Theoretical implications

The systematic literature review using the PRISMA method on customer value co-creation through the digital age in the tourism and hospitality sector has several theoretical implications.

First, this research paper addresses earlier suggestions that emphasize the significance of further exploring investigations on customer value co-creation in the hospitality and tourism sector [ 2 , 85 ].

Second, the review highlights the importance of adopting a customer-centric approach in the tourism and hospitality industry, in which customers’ needs and preferences are central to the design and delivery of services [ 35 , 86 ]. This shift towards customer value co-creation is driven by the increasing use of digital technologies, such as the IoT, AI, and ML, which enable real-time communication and data gathering from customers [ 1 , 40 ].

Third, the review highlights the role of digital technologies in enabling personalized and convenient customer experiences, which can help improve satisfaction and loyalty [ 87 ]. Using AI-powered chatbots and personalized recommendations based on customer data can enhance the customer experience, while using IoT-enabled devices can allow guests to control and access hotel amenities conveniently [ 12 ].

Fourth, the review suggests that adopting digital technologies in the tourism and hospitality sector can increase the industry’s efficiency and effectiveness [ 88 ]. Businesses use ML algorithms to automate tasks and analyze customer data, which can help streamline processes and identify areas for improvement [ 39 , 80 ].

Overall, the systematic literature review using the PRISMA method sheds light on adopting a customer-centric approach and leveraging digital technologies for customer value co-creation in tourism and hospitality. Over the next five years, researchers should focus on exploring the potential of emerging technologies, developing conceptual frameworks, and conducting applied research to drive meaningful transformations in the industry. By aligning strategies with these implications, organizations can thrive in the dynamic digital landscape and deliver exceptional customer experiences, ultimately contributing to their success and competitiveness in the market [ 2 , 4 , 15 , 29 , 33 , 89 ].

Practical implications

The systematic literature review using the PRISMA method on customer value co-creation through the digital age in the tourism and hospitality sector has several management implications for organizations in this industry.

First, the review suggests that adopting a customer-centric approach, in which customers’ needs and preferences are central to the design and delivery of services, is crucial for success in the digital age [ 40 , 86 ]. Therefore, managers should focus on understanding and meeting the needs and preferences of their customers and consider how digital technologies can be leveraged to enable real-time communication and data gathering from customers [ 15 , 80 ].

Second, the review highlights the importance of using digital technologies like the IoT, AI, and ML to enable personalized and convenient customer experiences [ 40 , 50 ]. Managers should consider how these technologies can enhance the customer experience and improve satisfaction and loyalty [ 36 , 39 ].

Third, the review suggests that adopting digital technologies in the tourism and hospitality sector can lead to increased efficiency and effectiveness in the industry [ 7 , 16 ]. Therefore, managers should consider how these technologies can streamline processes and identify areas for improvement [ 42 ]. Further, regarding privacy concerns, managers must spend enough resources to secure their customers’ data to help boost the customer value co-creation process [ 48 , 77 ].

Fourth, policymakers can foster an environment conducive to value co-creation by incorporating customer-centric strategies and leveraging digital technologies. Effective policies can enhance customer experiences, promote sustainable growth, and drive economic development, ensuring a thriving and competitive industry in the digital age.

The practical implications of applying AI and new technology for managerial decision-making in the tourism and hospitality industry are vast and promising [ 90 ]. Managers can navigate the dynamic digital landscape and drive meaningful co-creation with customers by embracing a customer-centric approach, leveraging personalized technologies, addressing efficiency and data security considerations, and strategically adopting AI-powered tools. By staying abreast of technological advancements and harnessing their potential, businesses can thrive in the next five years and beyond, delivering exceptional customer experiences and enhancing value co-creation in the industry.

Limitations and future research

The research, anchored in the PRISMA methodology, significantly enhances the comprehension of customer value co-creation within the digital ambit of the tourism and hospitality sectors. However, it is essential to underscore certain inherent limitations. Firstly, there might be publication and language biases, given that the criteria could inadvertently favor studies in specific languages, potentially sidelining seminal insights from non-English or lesser-known publications [ 91 ]. Secondly, the adopted search strategy, governed by the choice of keywords, databases, and inclusion/exclusion guidelines, might have omitted pertinent literature, impacting the review’s comprehensiveness [ 57 ]. Furthermore, the heterogeneous nature of the studies can challenge the synthesized results’ generalizability. Finally, the swiftly evolving domain of this research underscores the ephemeral nature of the findings.

In light of these limitations, several recommendations can guide subsequent research endeavors. Scholars are encouraged to employ a more expansive and diverse sampling of studies to curtail potential biases. With the digital technology landscape in constant flux, it becomes imperative to delve into a broader spectrum of innovations to discern their prospective roles in customer value co-creation [ 18 ]. Additionally, varied search strategies encompassing multiple databases can lend a more holistic and inclusive character to systematic reviews [ 27 ]. Moreover, future research could investigate the interplay between political dynamics and the integration of novel technologies, enriching the understanding of value co-creation in a broader socio-political context. Lastly, integrating sensitivity analyses can ascertain the findings’ robustness, ensuring the conclusions remain consistent across diverse search paradigms, thereby refining the review’s overall rigor.

In conclusion, this review highlights the pivotal role of digital technologies in customer value co-creation within the tourism and hospitality sectors. New AI, blockchain and IoT technology applications enable real-time communication and personalized experiences, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty. Metaverse technologies offer exciting opportunities for immersive interactions and virtual events. However, privacy and data security challenges must be addressed. This study proposed a comprehensive research agenda addressing theoretical, practical, and technological implications. Future studies should aim to bridge research gaps, investigate the impact of co-creation on various stakeholders, and explore a more comprehensive array of digital technologies in the tourism and hospitality sectors. This study’s findings provide valuable insights for fostering innovation and sustainable growth in the industry’s digital age. Despite the valuable insights gained, we acknowledge certain limitations, including potential biases in the search strategy, which underscore the need for more inclusive and diverse samples in future research.

Availability of data and materials

The review included a total of 27 studies published between 2012 and 2022.

Change history

07 february 2024.

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-023-00293-2

Abbreviations

• Artificial intelligence

Augmented reality

Internet of Things

Machine learning

Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses

Virtual reality

Pencarelli T (2020) The digital revolution in the travel and tourism industry. J Hosp Tour Insights 22(3):455–476

Google Scholar  

Carvalho P, Alves H (2022) Customer value co-creation in the hospitality and tourism industry: a systematic literature review. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 35(1):250–273

Aman J, Abbas J, Mahmood S, Nurunnabi M, Bano S (2019) The influence of Islamic religiosity on the perceived socio-cultural impact of sustainable tourism development in Pakistan: a structural equation modeling approach. Sustainability 11(11):3039

Buhalis D, Lin MS, Leung D (2022) Metaverse as a driver for customer experience and value co-creation: implications for hospitality and tourism management and marketing. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 35(2):701–716

Grissemann US, Stokburger-Sauer NE (2012) Customer co-creation of travel services: the role of company support and customer satisfaction with the co-creation performance. Tour Manag 33(6):1483–1492

Pham LH, Woyo E, Pham TH, Dao TXT (2022) Value co-creation and destination brand equity: understanding the role of social commerce information sharing. J Hosp Tour Insights

Troisi O, Grimaldi M, Monda A (2019) Managing smart service ecosystems through technology: how ICTs enable value cocreation. Tour Anal 24(3):377–393

Buonincontri P, Micera R (2016) The experience co-creation in smart tourism destinations: a multiple case analysis of European destinations. J Hosp Tour Insights 16(3):285–315

Jung TH, tom Dieck MC (2017) Augmented reality, virtual reality and 3D printing for the co-creation of value for the visitor experience at cultural heritage places. J Place Manag Dev 10:140–151

Koo C, Kwon J, Chung N, Kim J (2022) Metaverse tourism: conceptual framework and research propositions. Curr Issues Tour 1–7

Dwivedi YK et al (2022) Metaverse beyond the hype: Multidisciplinary perspectives on emerging challenges, opportunities, and agenda for research, practice and policy. Int J Inf Manag 66:102542

Zhang X, Balaji M, Jiang Y (2022) Robots at your service: value facilitation and value co-creation in restaurants. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 34(5):2004–2025

Neuhofer B, Magnus B, Celuch K (2021) The impact of artificial intelligence on event experiences: a scenario technique approach. Electron Mark 31(3):601–617

Balsalobre-Lorente D, Abbas J, He C, Pilař L, Shah SAR (2023) Tourism, urbanization and natural resources rents matter for environmental sustainability: the leading role of AI and ICT on sustainable development goals in the digital era. Resour Pol 82:103445

Zhu J, Cheng M (2022) The rise of a new form of virtual tour: Airbnb peer-to-peer online experience. Curr Issues Tour 25(22):3565–3570

Xie L, Liu C, Li D (2022) Proactivity or passivity? An investigation of the effect of service robots’ proactive behaviour on customer co-creation intention. Int J Hosp Manag 106:103271

Wang Q, Huang R (2021) The impact of COVID-19 pandemic on sustainable development goals—a survey. Environ Res 202:111637

CAS   PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Önder I, Gunter U (2022) Blockchain: Is it the future for the tourism and hospitality industry? Tourism Econ 28(2):291–299

Wang Q, Su M (2020) Integrating blockchain technology into the energy sector—from theory of blockchain to research and application of energy blockchain. Comput Sci Rev 37:100275

Wang Q, Li R, Zhan L (2021) Blockchain technology in the energy sector: from basic research to real world applications. Comput Sci Rev 39:100362

CAS   Google Scholar  

Wang Q, Su M, Zhang M, Li R (2021) Integrating digital technologies and public health to fight Covid-19 pandemic: key technologies, applications, challenges and outlook of digital healthcare. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18(11):6053

Abbas J, Mubeen R, Iorember PT, Raza S, Mamirkulova G (2021) Exploring the impact of COVID-19 on tourism: transformational potential and implications for a sustainable recovery of the travel and leisure industry. Curr Res Behav Sci 2:100033

PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Elkhwesky Z, El Manzani Y, Elbayoumi Salem I (2022) Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: a systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era. Tour Hosp Res 14673584221126792

Shah SAR, Zhang Q, Abbas J, Balsalobre-Lorente D, Pilař L (2023) Technology, urbanization and natural gas supply matter for carbon neutrality: a new evidence of environmental sustainability under the prism of COP26. Resour Pol 82:103465

Ahmed KE-S, Ambika A, Belk R (2022) Augmented reality magic mirror in the service sector: experiential consumption and the self. J Serv Manag

Doran A, Pomfret G, Adu-Ampong EA (2022) Mind the gap: a systematic review of the knowledge contribution claims in adventure tourism research. J Hosp Tour Manag 51:238–251

Page MJ et al (2021) The PRISMA 2020 statement: an updated guideline for reporting systematic reviews. Syst Rev 10(1):1–11

Moher D, Liberati A, Tetzlaff J, Altman DG, P. Group* (2009) Preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses: the PRISMA statement. Ann Intern Med 151(4):264–269

So KKF, Li X, Kim H (2020) A decade of customer engagement research in hospitality and tourism: a systematic review and research agenda. J Hosp Tour 44(2):178–200

Han H (2021) Consumer behavior and environmental sustainability in tourism and hospitality: a review of theories, concepts, and latest research. J Sustain Tour 29(7):1021–1042

Medlik S (2012) Dictionary of travel, tourism and hospitality. Routledge

Reisinger Y, Kandampully J, Mok C (2001) Concepts of tourism, hospitality, and leisure services. Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure, pp 1–14

Binkhorst E, Den Dekker T (2013) Agenda for co-creation tourism experience research. In: Marketing of tourism experiences, Routledge, 219–235

Abbas J, Al-Sulaiti K, Lorente DB, Shah SAR, Shahzad U (2022) Reset the industry redux through corporate social responsibility: the COVID-19 tourism impact on hospitality firms through business model innovation. In: Economic growth and environmental quality in a post-pandemic world, Routledge, pp 177–201

Buhalis D, Harwood T, Bogicevic V, Viglia G, Beldona S, Hofacker C (2019) Technological disruptions in services: lessons from tourism and hospitality. J Serv Manag 30:484–506

Sengupta P, Biswas B, Kumar A, Shankar R, Gupta S (2021) Examining the predictors of successful Airbnb bookings with Hurdle models: evidence from Europe, Australia, USA and Asia-Pacific cities. J Bus Res 137:538–554

Gonzalez-Rodriguez MR, Díaz-Fernández MC, Bilgihan A, Shi F, Okumus F (2021) UGC involvement, motivation and personality: comparison between China and Spain. J Dest Mark Manag 19:100543

Abbas J (2020) The impact of coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) epidemic on individuals mental health: the protective measures of Pakistan in managing and sustaining transmissible disease. Psychiatr Danub 32(3–4):472–477

CAS   PubMed   Google Scholar  

Neuhofer B, Buhalis D, Ladkin A (2014) A typology of technology-enhanced tourism experiences. Int J Tour Res 16(4):340–350

Samala N, Katkam BS, Bellamkonda RS, Rodriguez RV (2020) Impact of AI and robotics in the tourism sector: a critical insight. J Tour Futures 8(1):73–87

De Carlo M, Ferilli G, d’Angella F, Buscema M (2021) Artificial intelligence to design collaborative strategy: An application to urban destinations. J Bus Res 129:936–948

Grundner L, Neuhofer B (2021) The bright and dark sides of artificial intelligence: a futures perspective on tourist destination experiences. J Dest Mark Manag 19:100511

Al-Sulaiti I (2022) Mega shopping malls technology-enabled facilities, destination image, tourists’ behavior and revisit intentions: implications of the SOR theory. Front Environ Sci 1295

Alimamy S, Gnoth J (2022) I want it my way! The effect of perceptions of personalization through augmented reality and online shopping on customer intentions to co-create value. Comput Hum Behav 128:107105

Lee M, Hong JH, Chung S, Back K-J (2021) Exploring the roles of DMO’s social media efforts and information richness on customer engagement: empirical analysis on Facebook event pages. J Travel Res 60(3):670–686

Abaalzamat KH, Al-Sulaiti KI, Alzboun NM, Khawaldah HA (2021) The role of Katara cultural village in enhancing and marketing the image of Qatar: evidence from TripAdvisor. SAGE Open 11(2):21582440211022736

Al-Sulaiti KI, Abaalzamat KH, Khawaldah H, Alzboun N (2021) Evaluation of Katara cultural village events and services: a visitors’ perspective. Event Manag 25(6):653–664

Khaliq A, Waqas A, Nisar QA, Haider S, Asghar Z (2022) Application of AI and robotics in hospitality sector: a resource gain and resource loss perspective. Technol Soc 68:101807

Yin CZY, Jung T, Tom Dieck MC, Lee MY (2021) Mobile augmented reality heritage applications: meeting the needs of heritage tourists. Sustainability 13(5):1–18

Buhalis D, Moldavska I (2021) Voice assistants in hospitality: using artificial intelligence for customer service. J Hosp Tour Technol 13(3):386–403

Abbas J (2021) Gestión de crisis, desafíos y oportunidades sanitarios transnacionales: la intersección de la pandemia de COVID-19 y la salud mental global. Investigación en globalización, 3 (2021), 1–7

Micah AE et al (2023) Global investments in pandemic preparedness and COVID-19: development assistance and domestic spending on health between 1990 and 2026. Lancet Glob Health 11(3):e385–e413

Hau LN, Thuy PN (2022) Enabling customer co-creation behavior at a distance: the case of patients using self-monitoring handheld devices in healthcare. Serv Bus 16(1):99–123

Brereton P, Kitchenham BA, Budgen D, Turner M, Khalil M (2007) Lessons from applying the systematic literature review process within the software engineering domain. J Syst Softw 80(4):571–583

Tranfield D, Denyer D, Smart P (2003) Towards a methodology for developing evidence-informed management knowledge by means of systematic review. Br J Manag 14(3):207–222

Lin Z, Rasoolimanesh SM (2022) Sharing tourism experiences in social media: a systematic review. Anatolia 1–15

Page MJ, Moher D, McKenzie JE (2022) Introduction to PRISMA 2020 and implications for research synthesis methodologists. Res Synth Methods 13(2):156–163

PubMed   Google Scholar  

Snyder H (2019) Literature review as a research methodology: an overview and guidelines. J Bus Res 104:333–339

Caldiera VRBG, Rombach HD (1994) The goal question metric approach. Encycl Softw Eng 528–532

Hopfenbeck TN, Lenkeit J, El Masri Y, Cantrell K, Ryan J, Baird J-A (2018) Lessons learned from PISA: a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles on the programme for international student assessment. Scand J Educ Res 62(3):333–353

Kitchenham B, Brereton OP, Budgen D, Turner M, Bailey J, Linkman S (2009) Systematic literature reviews in software engineering–a systematic literature review. Inf Softw Technol 51(1):7–15

Dieste O, Grimán A, Juristo N (2009) Developing search strategies for detecting relevant experiments. Empir Softw Eng 14(5):513–539

Prahalad CK, Ramaswamy V (2004) Co-creation experiences: the next practice in value creation. J Interact Mark 18(3):5–14

Vargo SL, Lusch RF (2014) Evolving to a new dominant logic for marketing. In: The service-dominant logic of marketing, Routledge, pp 21–46

Hong et al QN (2018) Mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT), version 2018. Registration of copyright vol 1148552, no 10

Pace R et al (2012) Testing the reliability and efficiency of the pilot mixed methods appraisal tool (MMAT) for systematic mixed studies review. Int J Nurs Stud 49(1):47–53

Beck J, Rainoldi M, Egger R (2019) Virtual reality in tourism: a state-of-the-art review. Tour Rev 74(3):586–612

Pahlevan-Sharif S, Mura P, Wijesinghe SN (2019) A systematic review of systematic reviews in tourism. J Hosp Tour Manag 39:158–165

Cuomo MT, Colosimo I, Celsi LR, Ferulano R, Festa G, La Rocca M (2022) Enhancing traveller experience in integrated mobility services via big social data analytics. Technol Forecast Soc Change 176:121460

Chiu M-C, Huang J-H, Gupta S, Akman G (2021) Developing a personalized recommendation system in a smart product service system based on unsupervised learning model. Comput Ind 128:103421

Cranmer EE, tom Dieck MC, Fountoulaki P (2020) Exploring the value of augmented reality for tourism. Tour Manag Perspect 35:100672

Lin S (2022) Implementation of personalized scenic spot recommendation algorithm based on generalized regression neural network for 5G smart tourism system. Comput Intell Neurosci 2022

Ngamsirijit W (2014) Value creation in creative tourism: co-creation through data mining. Int J Intell 2(2–3):255–276

Liu X, Shin H, Burns AC (2021) Examining the impact of luxury brand’s social media marketing on customer engagement: Using big data analytics and natural language processing. J Bus Res 125:815–826

Hew J-J, Tan GW-H, Lin B, Ooi K-B (2017) Generating travel-related contents through mobile social tourism: Does privacy paradox persist? Telemat Inform 34(7):914–935

Lalicic L, Weismayer C (2021) Consumers’ reasons and perceived value co-creation of using artificial intelligence-enabled travel service agents. J Bus Res 129:891–901

Hilken T et al (2022) Disrupting marketing realities: a research agenda for investigating the psychological mechanisms of next-generation experiences with reality-enhancing technologies. Psychol Mark 39(8):1660–1671

Brejla P, Gilbert D (2014) An exploratory use of web content analysis to understand cruise tourism services. Int J Tour Res 16(2):157–168

Li Z, Wang D, Abbas J, Hassan S, Mubeen R (2022) Tourists’ health risk threats amid COVID-19 era: role of technology innovation, transformation, and recovery implications for sustainable tourism. Front Psychol 12:769175

PubMed   PubMed Central   Google Scholar  

Liburd J, Duedahl E, Heape C (2022) Co-designing tourism for sustainable development. J Sustain Tour 30(10):2298–2317

Serravalle F, Ferraris A, Vrontis D, Thrassou A, Christofi M (2019) Augmented reality in the tourism industry: a multi-stakeholder analysis of museums. Tour Manag Perspect 32:100549

Xie L, Liu X, Li D (2022) The mechanism of value cocreation in robotic services: customer inspiration from robotic service novelty. J Hosp Mark Manag 31(8):962–983

Huang M-H, Rust RT (2021) Engaged to a robot? The role of AI in service. J Serv Res 24(1):30–41

Mamirkulova G, Mi J, Abbas J, Mahmood S, Mubeen R, Ziapour A (2020) New silk road infrastructure opportunities in developing tourism environment for residents better quality of life. Glob Ecol Conser 24:e01194

Rihova I, Buhalis D, Gouthro MB, Moital MJTM (2018) Customer-to-customer co-creation practices in tourism: lessons from customer-dominant logic. Tour Manag 67:362–375

Rahimian S, ShamiZanjani M, Manian A, Esfidani MR (2021) A framework of customer experience management for hotel industry. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag 33(5):1413–1436

Ameen N, Tarhini A, Reppel A, Anand A (2021) Customer experiences in the age of artificial intelligence. Comput Hum Behav 114:106548

Iranmanesh M, Ghobakhloo M, Nilashi M, Tseng M-L, Yadegaridehkordi E, Leung N (2022) Applications of disruptive digital technologies in hotel industry: a systematic review. Int J Hosp Manag 107:103304

Wang S, Abbas J, Al-Sulati KI, Shah SAR (2023) The impact of economic corridor and tourism on local community’s quality of life under one belt one road context. Evaluat Rev 0193841X231182749

Akhmedova A, Manresa A, Escobar Rivera D, Bikfalvi A (2021) Service quality in the sharing economy: a review and research agenda. Int J Consum Stud 45(4):889–910

Henry BM, Tomaszewski KA, Walocha JA (2016) Methods of evidence-based anatomy: a guide to conducting systematic reviews and meta-analysis of anatomical studies. Ann Anat Anatomischer Anz 205:16–21

Download references

Acknowledgements

Not applicable.

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology (HCMUT), Vietnam National University Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM), Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

T. D. Dang & M. T. Nguyen

Eastern International University, Thu Dau Mot, Binh Duong Province, Vietnam

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Contributions

DTD, conceived the research idea and designed the study in collaboration with NMT. DTD took the lead in writing the manuscript, with significant contributions from NMT. All authors reviewed and edited the manuscript to ensure accuracy and clarity. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to T. D. Dang .

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval and consent to participate.

This material is the authors’ original work, which has not been previously published elsewhere. The paper is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere.

Consent for publication

Competing interests.

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's note.

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

The original online version of this article has been revised: the affiliation is corrected for the co-author “M. T. Nguyen”.

Supplementary Information

Additional file 1..

Quality assessment of included studies.

Rights and permissions

Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ .

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article.

Dang, T.D., Nguyen, M.T. Systematic review and research agenda for the tourism and hospitality sector: co-creation of customer value in the digital age. Futur Bus J 9 , 94 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-023-00274-5

Download citation

Received : 31 May 2023

Accepted : 06 November 2023

Published : 25 November 2023

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s43093-023-00274-5

Share this article

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Customer value co-creation
• Tourism and hospitality

• German Soccer Sensation Finds a Home with the Bobcats
• From Air Force Veteran to the Middle of the Atlantic
• Career Assistance 44 Years After Graduation
• Admissions by Day. Filmmaking by Night.
• Admissions Process
• Alumni Updates
• Bryant & Stratton College News
• Business Degrees
• Career Services
• College Life
• Continuing Education
• Criminal Justice Studies
• Degree Insights
• Education Programs
• Financial Aid
• Healthcare Degrees
• Human Resources
• Military Relations
• Online Education
• Social Media
• Student Services
• Technology & Design
• Video Posts

Tourism vs. Hospitality - Decoding the Differences

Bryant & Stratton College Blog Staff

The hospitality and tourism industries are closely connected, but they are not the same thing. Though both connect to travel and leisure, these two industries have distinct differences that need to be understood if you are considering a degree or career in the field. By knowing how they are different, you can choose the right degree that will help you achieve your desired career path.

What is the Difference Between Tourism and Hospitality?

Hospitality is a field that focuses on providing accommodations to visitors at hospitality-related industries, such as hotels, motels, restaurants, cruise ships, country clubs, casinos, and convention centers, while tourism is focused on providing quality attractions and events in order to entice tourists to come.

For each of these fields to be successful, they focus on specific ways to keep people satisfied so they will return. Hospitality businesses must build strong relationships with their guests to not only prevent them from going to a competitor, but to keep them coming back. Many tourism businesses are classified as hospitality businesses as they must also have meaningful relationships, but they are more focused on traveling activities that may include heavy planning and marketing.

What are the Similarities Between Tourism and Hospitality?

Both the hospitality and tourism industries focus on serving people when they travel. These are highly competitive and always-changing fields that require people to be able to adapt to a changing market and work environment. Both tourism and hospitality professionals need to be good marketers to draw potential clients and customers to their industries.

What Jobs are there in the Travel and Tourism Industry?

The travel and tourism industry focuses on helping people plan and execute their travel arrangements. Some jobs in tourism management include:

Travel Agent

A travel agent is a great career path for people who majored in tourism. Travel agents work with their clients to plan their trips, so they must be highly organized and have a knowledge of the travel industry so they can book resorts, cruise ships, airline travel, and more for their clients.

Travel agents also assist clients with their travel budgets by calculating travel costs and helping clients choose trips and adventures that fit within their budget. They also can assist clients with getting their passports or other paperwork in order so they can legally travel.

The pay for a travel agent varies because they often earn commissions based on the trips and services they book, as well as the setting they work in. Travel agents can work independently or work with a travel agency, depending on the demand in their area.

Flight Attendant

A flight attendant works in an airline to help travelers get to their destination safely and comfortably. While travelers often see the simple work of the flight attendant, such as passing out snacks and collecting garbage, flight attendants are also trained on how to help protect passenger safety if something goes wrong.

Flight attendants need to be good at working with people, even those who are not in a good mood or who face frustration when they travel. One of the main benefits of this profession is getting to travel to and explore many destinations around the world.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates that the demand for flight attendants will increase by 17% from 2019 to 2029, so it is a great time to pursue this career path.

What Jobs Are There in the Hospitality Industry?

Jobs within hotels, restaurants, and event centers tend to fall in the hospitality industry category. Hotel managers, event managers, hotel clerks, bar managers, and chefs are just a few examples in this industry, with details as follows:

Hotel Manager

A hotel manager makes sure that guests are comfortable during their stay in a hotel or resort. They may have to arrange for blankets or other amenities to be taken to hotel rooms, oversee the employees of the hotel, and ensure that supplies, like soap and shampoo, are ordered in a timely manner. On a resort property, the hotel manager may also be in charge of entertainment. The exact setting or location will dictate exact duties and responsibilities for this role. Overall, it is the manager's job to handle customer service needs that pop up during a guest's stay.

Event Manager

An event manager or event planner helps plan large events to ensure all attendees enjoy the experience. These individuals, like others in the hospitality industry, need to be highly organized. Event managers will plan all of the details, gather bids from venues and vendors, coordinate transportation for attendees, arrange for food, and even connect with local hotels to ensure people have a place to stay. They help their clients manage and maximize their budgets and ensure that everything is ready when the special event starts.

The BLS estimates that this career will grow 8% from 2019-2029, which is much faster than average. Approximately 10,800 new jobs will be created in this field, so it is a great time to consider pursuing a position in event management.

A concierge is employed by a resort or event center to help guests book entertainment and enjoy their stay more fully. These professionals need to know their local area well so they can connect guests to the entertainment options that best fit their tastes and desires for their trip.

Concierge professionals tend to be employed by high-end resorts and luxury hotels. Distinguished guests expect to have someone to help them book their services and are willing to tip well for this service.

Restaurant and Catering Professionals

The hospitality industry is also the industry that covers restaurants and catering services. While those interested in opening a restaurant or catering business will also need to explore foodservice training, training in hospitality will help them understand the customer service side of this industry. These professionals can work anywhere where food and beverage are prepared and served, including hotels, resorts, and restaurants.

Start Your Hospitality or Tourism Journey Today!

If the tourism and hospitality industries are appealing to you, then finding a career in these fields or industry may require further education. Bryant & Stratton College has a number of hospitality degree programs , including associate degrees and diplomas, that can help you get started in this field. Reach out to the admissions team at Bryant & Stratton College to learn more about these programs and to determine if they are the right fit for your career path.

Related Articles

• Frontiers in Sustainable Tourism
• Behaviors and Behavior Change in Tourism
• Research Topics

Transformative experiences and well-being of tourism, hospitality, and events stakeholders

Total Downloads

Total Views and Downloads

About this Research Topic

Tourism, hospitality, and events play a significant role in providing transformative experiences that have the potential to positively impact the well-being of individuals and communities. These transformative experiences lead to profound changes in individuals' worldviews, values, and behaviors, promoting ...

Keywords : Transformative experiences, Well-being, Tourism, Hospitality & Events stakeholders, Positive psychology, Transformative Service Research

Important Note : All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.

Topic Editors

Topic coordinators, recent articles, submission deadlines, participating journals.

Manuscripts can be submitted to this Research Topic via the following journals:

total views

• Demographics

No records found

total views article views downloads topic views

Top countries

Top referring sites, about frontiers research topics.

With their unique mixes of varied contributions from Original Research to Review Articles, Research Topics unify the most influential researchers, the latest key findings and historical advances in a hot research area! Find out more on how to host your own Frontiers Research Topic or contribute to one as an author.

The magazine of Glion Institute of Higher Education

• What is tourism and hospitality?

Tourism and hospitality are thriving industries encompassing many sectors, including hotels, restaurants, travel, events, and entertainment.

It’s an exciting and dynamic area, constantly evolving and adapting to changing customer demands and trends.

The tourism and hospitality industry offers a diverse range of career opportunities that cater to various interests, skills, and qualifications, with positions available from entry-level to executive management.

The booming tourism  and hospitality industry also offers job security and career growth potential in many hospitality-related occupations.

What is tourism?

Tourism is traveling for leisure, pleasure, or business purposes and visiting various destinations, such as cities, countries, natural attractions, historical sites, and cultural events, to experience new cultures, activities, and environments.

Tourism can take many forms, including domestic, or traveling within your country, and international tourism, or visiting foreign countries.

It can also involve sightseeing, adventure tourism , eco-tourism, cultural tourism, and business tourism, and it’s a huge contributor to the global economy, generating jobs and income in many countries.

It involves many businesses, including airlines, hotels, restaurants, travel agencies, tour operators, and transportation companies.

What is hospitality?

Hospitality includes a range of businesses, such as hotels, restaurants, bars, resorts, cruise ships, theme parks, and other service-oriented businesses that provide accommodations, food, and beverages.

Hospitality is all about creating a welcoming and comfortable environment for guests and meeting their needs.

Quality hospitality means providing excellent customer service, anticipating guests’ needs, and ensuring comfort and satisfaction. The hospitality industry is essential to tourism as both industries often work closely together.

What is the difference between tourism and hospitality?

Hospitality and tourism are both related and separate industries. For instance, airline travel is considered as part of both the tourism and hospitality industries.

Hospitality is a component of the tourism industry, as it provides services and amenities to tourists. However, tourism is a broader industry encompassing various sectors, including transportation, accommodation, and attractions.

Transform your outlook for a successful career as a leader in hospitality management

This inspiring Bachelor’s in hospitality management gives you the knowledge, skills, and practical experience to take charge and run a business

Is tourism and hospitality a good career choice?

So, why work in hospitality and tourism? The tourism and hospitality industry is one of the fastest-growing industries in the world, providing a colossal number of job opportunities.

Between 2021 and 2031, employment in the hospitality and tourism industry is projected to expand faster than any other job sector, creating about 1.3 million new positions .

A tourism and hospitality career  can be a highly rewarding choice for anyone who enjoys working with people, has a strong service-oriented mindset, and is looking for a dynamic and exciting career with growth potential.

Growth and job opportunities in tourism and hospitality

Tourism and hospitality offers significant growth and job opportunities worldwide. The industry’s increasing demand for personnel contributes to economic and employment growth, particularly in developing countries.

The industry employs millions globally, from entry-level to high-level management positions, including hotel managers, chefs, tour operators, travel agents, and executives.

It provides diverse opportunities with great career progression and skill development potential.

Career paths in tourism and hospitality

There are many career opportunities in tourism management and hospitality. With a degree in hospitality management, as well as relevant experience, you can pursue satisfying and fulfilling hospitality and tourism careers in these fields.

Hotel manager

Hotel managers oversee hotel operations. They manage staff, supervise customer service, and ensure the facility runs smoothly.

Tour manager

Tour managers organize and lead group tours. They work for tour companies, travel agencies, or independently. Tour managers coordinate a group’s transportation, accommodations, and activities, ensuring the trip runs to schedule.

Restaurant manager

Restaurant managers supervise the daily operations of a restaurant. They manage staff, ensure the kitchen runs smoothly, and monitor customer service.

Resort manager

Resort managers supervise and manage the operations of a resort. From managing staff to overseeing customer service, they ensure the entire operation delivers excellence.

Entertainment manager

Entertainment managers organize and oversee entertainment at venues like hotels or resorts. They book performers, oversee sound and lighting, and ensure guests have a great experience.

Event planner

Event planners organize and coordinate events, such as weddings, conferences, and trade shows. They work for event planning companies, hotels, or independently.

vent planners coordinate all aspects of the event, from the venue to catering and decor.

Travel consultant

Travel consultants help customers plan and book travel arrangements, such as flights, hotels, and rental cars. They work for travel agencies or independently. Travel consultants must know travel destinations and provide superb customer service.

What skills and qualifications are needed for a career in tourism and hospitality?

Tourism and hospitality are rewarding industries with growing job opportunities. Necessary qualifications include excellent skills in communication, customer service, leadership, problem-solving, and organization along with relevant education and training.

Essential skills for success in tourism and hospitality

A career in the tourism and hospitality industry requires a combination of soft and technical skills and relevant qualifications. Here are some of the essential key skills needed for a successful career.

• Communication skills : Effective communication is necessary for the tourism and hospitality industry in dealing with all kinds of people.
• Customer service : Providing excellent customer service is critical to the success of any tourism or hospitality business . This requires patience, empathy, and the ability to meet customers’ needs.
• Flexibility and adaptability : The industry is constantly changing, and employees must be able to adapt to new situations, be flexible with their work schedules, and handle unexpected events.
• Time management : Time management is crucial to ensure guest satisfaction and smooth operations.
• Cultural awareness : Understanding and respecting cultural differences is essential in the tourism and hospitality industry, as you’ll interact with people from different cultures.
• Teamwork : Working collaboratively with colleagues is essential, as employees must work together to ensure guests have a positive experience.
• Problem-solving : Inevitably, problems will arise, and employees must be able to identify, analyze, and resolve them efficiently.
• Technical skills : With the increasing use of technology, employees must possess the necessary technical skills to operate systems, such as booking software, point-of-sale systems, and social media platforms.

Revenue management : Revenue management skills are crucial in effectively managing pricing, inventory, and data analysis to maximize revenue and profitability

Master fundamental hospitality and tourism secrets for a high-flying career at a world-leading hospitality brand

With this Master’s degree, you’ll discover the skills to manage a world-class hospitality and tourism business.

Education and training opportunities in tourism and hospitality

Education and training are vital for a hospitality and tourism career. You can ensure you are prepared for a career in the industry with a Bachelor’s in hospitality management   and Master’s in hospitality   programs from Glion.

These programs provide a comprehensive understanding of the guest experience, including service delivery and business operations, while developing essential skills such as leadership, communication, and problem-solving. You’ll gain the knowledge and qualifications you need for a successful, dynamic, and rewarding hospitality and tourism career.

Preparing for a career in tourism and hospitality

To prepare for a career in tourism and hospitality management, you should focus on researching the industry and gaining relevant education and training, such as a hospitality degree . For instance, Glion’s programs emphasize guest experience and hospitality management, providing students with an outstanding education that launches them into leading industry roles.

It would help if you also worked on building your communication, customer service, and problem-solving skills while gaining practical experience through internships or part-time jobs in the industry. Meanwhile, attending industry events, job fairs, and conferences, staying up-to-date on industry trends, and networking to establish professional connections will also be extremely valuable.

Finding jobs in tourism and hospitality

To find jobs in tourism and hospitality, candidates can search online job boards, and company career pages, attend career fairs, network with industry professionals, and utilize the services of recruitment agencies. Hospitality and tourism graduates can also leverage valuable alumni networks and industry connections made during internships or industry projects.

Networking and building connections in the industry

Networking and building connections in the hospitality and tourism industry provide opportunities to learn about job openings, meet potential employers, and gain industry insights. It can also help you expand your knowledge and skills, build your personal brand, and establish yourself as a valuable industry professional.

You can start networking by attending industry events, joining professional organizations, connecting with professionals on social media, and through career services at Glion.

Tips for success in tourism and hospitality

Here are tips for career success in the tourism and hospitality industry.

• Gain relevant education and training : Pursue a hospitality or tourism management degree from Glion to gain fundamental knowledge and practical skills.
• Build your network : Attend industry events, connect with colleagues and professionals on LinkedIn, and join relevant associations to build your network and increase your exposure to potential job opportunities.
• Gain practical experience : Look for internships, part-time jobs, or volunteering opportunities to gain practical experience and develop relevant skills.
• Develop your soft skills : Work on essential interpersonal skills like communication, empathy, and problem-solving.
• Stay up-to-date with industry trends : Follow industry news and trends and proactively learn new skills and technologies relevant to tourism and hospitality.
• Be flexible and adaptable : The tourism and hospitality industry constantly evolves, so be open to change and to adapting to new situations and challenges.
• Strive for excellent guest service : Focus on delivering exceptional guest experiences as guest satisfaction is critical for success.

Tourism and hospitality offer many fantastic opportunities to create memorable guest experiences , work in diverse and multicultural environments, and develop transferable skills.

If you’re ready to embark on your career in tourism and hospitality, Glion has world-leading bachelor’s and master’s programs to set you up for success.

Photo credits Main image: Maskot/Maskot via Getty Images

LISTENING TO LEADERS

BUSINESS OF LUXURY

HOSPITALITY UNCOVERED

WELCOME TO GLION.

This site uses cookies. Some are used for statistical purposes and others are set up by third party services. By clicking ‘Accept all’, you accept the use of cookies

Privacy Overview

Information

• Author Services

Initiatives

You are accessing a machine-readable page. In order to be human-readable, please install an RSS reader.

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited. For more information, please refer to https://www.mdpi.com/openaccess .

Feature papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. A Feature Paper should be a substantial original Article that involves several techniques or approaches, provides an outlook for future research directions and describes possible research applications.

Feature papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and must receive positive feedback from the reviewers.

Editor’s Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to readers, or important in the respective research area. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

Original Submission Date Received: .

• Active Journals
• Find a Journal
• Proceedings Series
• For Authors
• For Reviewers
• For Editors
• For Librarians
• For Publishers
• For Societies
• For Conference Organizers
• Open Access Policy
• Institutional Open Access Program
• Special Issues Guidelines
• Editorial Process
• Research and Publication Ethics
• Article Processing Charges
• Testimonials
• Preprints.org
• SciProfiles
• Encyclopedia

Journal Menu

• Tourism and Hospitality Home
• Aims & Scope
• Editorial Board
• Reviewer Board
• Instructions for Authors
• Special Issues
• Topical Collections
• Article Processing Charge
• Indexing & Archiving
• Editor’s Choice Articles
• Most Cited & Viewed
• Journal Statistics
• Journal History

Editorial Office

Journal browser.

• arrow_forward_ios Forthcoming issue arrow_forward_ios Current issue
• Vol. 5 (2024)
• Vol. 4 (2023)
• Vol. 3 (2022)
• Vol. 2 (2021)
• Vol. 1 (2020)

Find support for a specific problem in the support section of our website.

Please let us know what you think of our products and services.

Visit our dedicated information section to learn more about MDPI.

About Tourism and Hospitality

Tourism and Hospitality (ISSN: 2673-5768) is an international, peer-reviewed, open-access journal that serves as a forum for publishing scholarly papers that advance the broad fields of tourism and hospitality. Academics and professionals with a background in marketing, management science, politics and policy making, economics, geography, sociology, history, psychology, anthropology, events management, recreation, leisure, environmental management, and public administration will find the journal interesting.

The journal seeks to nurture the critical development of the domain of tourism and hospitality, to extend the frontiers of knowledge in the field, and to provide a global forum for the exchange of opinions and ideas.

The journal encourages the submission of applied and theoretical research papers, critical review papers, communication papers, and perspective papers, which analyze a current research topic of substantial contemporary interest in which the author's perspective sheds light on key findings. Comment, rejoinder, and reply papers are also welcomed.

Interdisciplinary approaches are especially welcome, as is the submission of papers that will be of relevance to industry and practitioners.

The scope of Tourism and Hospitality includes, but is not limited to, the following topics:

• Consumer behavior and marketing;
• Human resource management;
• Smart, virtual, and digital innovations;
• Branding and brand management;
• Design, planning, and development;
• Managing environmental, economic, and social impacts;
• Market segmentation, targeting, and positioning;
• Social responsibility, sustainability, and ethics;
• Participatory, e-commerce, and sharing business models;
• Operations management;
• Training and staff development;
• Strategic management and marketing;
• Organizational behavior, values, and culture;
• Networking, partnerships, and collaboration;
• Gender and identity
• Inclusion and accessibility;
• Service, delivery, quality, and recovery;
• Social media marketing and management;
• Risk, safety, security, and crisis management;
• Customer motivations, satisfaction, and intentions;
• Tourism, health, and wellbeing;
• Labor market;
• Visiting friends and relatives;
• Climate change.

MDPI Publication Ethics Statement

Book Reviews

MDPI St. Alban-Anlage 66 CH-4052 Basel Switzerland

Copyright / Open Access

Reprints may be ordered. Please contact for more information on how to order reprints.

Announcement and Advertisement

Announcements regarding academic activities such as conferences are published for free in the News & Announcements section of the journal. Advertisement can be either published or placed on the pertinent website. Contact e-mail address is .

For further MDPI contacts, see here .

Further Information

Mdpi initiatives, follow mdpi.

Subscribe to receive issue release notifications and newsletters from MDPI journals

An official website of the United States government

The .gov means it’s official. Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

The site is secure. The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

• Publications
• Account settings

Preview improvements coming to the PMC website in October 2024. Learn More or Try it out now .

• Advanced Search
• Journal List
• Springer Nature - PMC COVID-19 Collection

Mapping tourism and hospitality research on information and communication technology: a bibliometric and scientific approach

Arturo molina-collado.

1 Department of Business Administration, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Cobertizo San Pedro Mártir S/N, 45071 Toledo, Spain

Mar Gómez-Rico

Marianna sigala.

2 Department of Business Administration, University of Piraeus, Karaoli and Dimitriou 80, 18534 Piraeus, Greece

3 Faculty of Business and Law, Curtin University, Perth, Australia

María Victoria Molina

Evangelina aranda.

4 Department of Applied Economy, University of Castilla-La Mancha, Cobertizo San Pedro Mártir S/N, 45071 Toledo, Spain

Yolanda Salinero

Associated data.

Not applicable.

Technology and information and communication technology (ICT) have been gaining importance in tourism and hospitality with a booming research interest during the last years and specifically recently due to the disruptions of the COVID-19 crisis. Hence it is useful to structure the existing knowledge in this field to better guide directions for future research. To that end, this study synthesizes the academic literature about ‘technology and ICT’ in tourism and hospitality by carrying out a bibliometric analysis. The study identified 2424 documents, including the words ‘technolog*’ and/or ‘ICT’ combined with ‘touris*’, ‘hospitality’, ‘hotel’, and/or ‘travel’ that were published in the period 1988–2021 and collected from tourism and hospitality journals indexed in the Web of Science (WOS) and SCOPUS databases. The analysis was carried out by using SciMAT software, which offers different bibliometric tools and methods in order to achieve consistent results through a keyword co-occurrence analysis and an evolution map. The findings revealed the major research themes, including technology acceptance model, electronic word-of-mouth, user-generated content, self-services technologies, robotics, smart tourism, virtual reality, and trust in technology. The study concludes by identifying and discussing a future research agenda.

Introduction

Technology and ICTs have transformed society, the way services are provided, and so, tourism and hospitality (Zaidan 2017 ; Egger et al. 2020 ; Gössling 2021 ). The development of the internet in the 1990s (Buhalis 1998 ) and the subsequent evolution of websites, social networks, and smartphones have facilitated greater accessibility and generation of tourism content by the users (Hannam et al. 2014 ; Sigala 2015 ), which in turn revolutionized the way tourists dream, plan, book and experience their trips as well as they disrupted and disintermediated the tourism value chain (Foris et al. 2020 ; Sigala 2018 ). Technology has now become a vital part of competitiveness, distribution, and marketing in tourism organizations (Law et al. 2009 ; Xiang et al. 2021 ). As technology continues to evolve, emerging technologies [such as the Internet of Things (IoT), Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Big Data, Location Based Services or Virtual and Augmented Reality Systems] continue to boost innovation and disruption in tourism and hospitality (Stankov and Gretzel 2020 ; Valeri and Baggio 2021 ). Recently, COVID-19 accelerated technology adoption, while ICTs are advocated as necessary for re-starting and rebuilding the tourism and hospitality industries (Sigala 2020 ).

Indeed, the importance of technologies and ICT in tourism and hospitality has attracted great research interest generating numerous publications (e.g., MacKay and Vogt 2012 ; Law et al. 2013 ; Law et al. 2014 ; Ivars-Baidal et al. 2019 ; Law et al. 2019 ; Xiang et al. 2021 ). However, when reviewing the most relevant review analyses in the tourism and hospitality literature (see Table ​ Table1), 1 ), we can observe several limitations. First, there is a lack of a comprehensive view of research examining technology and ICTs in tourism and hospitality, which is essential for guiding future research agendas and directions. Second, most of the review studies are about a specific technology, area, or journal (e.g., website, social media, virtual reality, restaurants, hotels, etc.). Third, most studies develop qualitative than quantitative reviews. In addition, understanding the complexities and relationships between the research topics will allow us to further enhance the required transformations in technologies and ICTs in order to achieve an appropriate and socially constructive use in tourism and hospitality (Gössling 2021 ). Therefore, it is necessary to structure and synthesize our current knowledge about technology and ICT quantitatively to develop a future research agenda that can help us advance research and progress scientific debates. To that end, this study used bibliometric tools to achieve an objective synthesis of the literature (Donthu et al. 2021a ; Zupic and Čater 2015 ) and to identify the critical research areas for future research (Samiee and Chabowski 2012 ).

Relevant literature review analyses on technology and ICT-related in tourism and hospitality in the last ten years

n.a. not available

Bibliometric analysis is a very useful tool for successfully synthesizing large amounts of information (Donthu et al. 2021a ; Zupic and Čater 2015 ). These studies are based on statistical and mathematical techniques (Pritchard 1969 ) and allow to analyze the productivity and quality of scientific production (Koseoglu et al. 2016 ). Bibliometric analysis has become a very popular and powerful method to study the evolution and the structure of scientific knowledge produced within many disciplines (including tourism), academic journals, and scientific concepts (Sigala et al. 2021 ). In this study, we adopted the co-word analysis based on the frequency of the co-occurrence of keywords, because it can provide new insights about research topics.

Specifically, we look at the following research questions (RQs) with respect to technology and ICT research (in this paper, we use the words ‘technology’ and ‘ICT’ because they are the keywords used in the search to identify the documents and conceptualize this research):

RQ1: What are the major research topics of past research? How do they connect with each other?

RQ2: Which are the leading topics based on the number of citations?

RQ3: How has the research field evolved? What topics do they emerge for further research?

Overall, this study also adopts a bibliometric analysis for investigating the intellectual structure of scientific knowledge published in the field of technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality. First, we want to generate a holistic overview of this research field by identifying the themes, their size, and the relationships between them. Second, it is essential to investigate the relative importance of each theme, for instance, through the number of citations. Finally, this analysis also provides an insight about how research has evolved and how it should evolve in the future.

The paper is structured as follows. First, a brief literature review is conducted, providing a general background about technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality as well as about the role and use of bibliometric analysis. The paper continues by presenting the study’s bibliometric methodology, including the process, dataset, and analytical tools that were used. The following sections present the main results organized into two periods and with a content analysis showing the evolution of technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality between the two periods. Finally, the study concludes by proposing a future research agenda.

Literature review

Technology and ict in tourism and hospitality.

Technology and ICT play essential roles in tourism and hospitality and involve significant challenges and business opportunities (Law et al. 2014 ; Gonzalez et al. 2019 ; Stankov et al. 2019 ). The internet has revolutionized tourism for both providers and consumers (Standing et al. 2014 ; Lama et al. 2020 ), contributing to the expansion of e-tourism and its future transformation, based on six pillars, namely historicity, reflexivity, transparency, equity, plurality, and creativity (Gretzel et al. 2020 ). E-tourism consists of the application of ICTs in tourism (Buhalis 2003 ), specifically “ offering travel-related services remotely to the prospective travelers, where they can transact as and when required ” (Singh and Bashar 2021 , p 2516). Consequently, tourism companies and destinations have been forced to use innovative methods and ICT solutions to facilitate e-tourism, maintain their business, and improve competitiveness (Neidhardt and Werthner 2018 ; Valeri and Baggio 2021 ; Buhalis 2022 ). In this line, Berné et al. ( 2015 ) found a cause-effect relationship between the increasing use of ICT by intermediaries in the sector and business performance. Kumar and Kumar ( 2020 ) also demonstrated that through improvements in the quality and coverage of technological structures, destinations could achieve efficiency gains in the tourism sector. Furthermore, ICT development has also affected the operational and strategic management of tourism businesses, with restructuring taking place due to the increased reliance on ICT in the processes and management of the businesses (Law et al. 2014 ).

In the tourism and hospitality industries, investment in technological systems and websites is vital, not only for promoting and distributing tourism services but also for obtaining customer knowledge (Hua 2020 ; Bastidas-Manzano et al. 2021 ). The use of these technologies is key in enabling consumers and service providers to communicate fluently with each other (Law et al. 2014 ), also giving place to the co-creation of value for stakeholders (Buhalis 2019 ) and the co-creation of tourism experiences (Huang et al. 2019 ). Interactions take place when tourists are willing to engage with destinations, hotels, or firms in general (Buhalis 2019 ). Furthermore, Kumar and Kumar ( 2020 ) empirically demonstrate a significant connection between ICT and tourism demand in the most prominent tourism destinations, including China, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Spain, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

However, despite knowing the importance of ICT, the development of technological systems should be examined carefully, as the positive results of investment in ICT capabilities occur in a different timeframe for each action and the impact of tourism enterprises’ investment in technological systems is not immediate (Hua 2020 ). Moreover, these technologies have an added challenge: the speed at which changes occur. This means that companies cannot develop strategies based on technology and online communication in the long term and must develop dynamic innovation strategies based on personal knowledge (Munar 2012 ; Valeri and Baggio 2021 ).

Technological developments have also enabled disintermediation in tourism by connecting suppliers with customers direct (Zaidan 2017 ). As a result, multiple tools such as destination marketing systems (DMS), global distribution systems (GDS), and computer reservation systems (CRS) were developed several years ago, and new electronic intermediaries emerged (Fuchs et al. 2010 ). However, this has brought a significant challenge for traditional tourism intermediaries, many of them small and medium-sized enterprises that cannot invest a large number of resources in developing new technology-based systems (Lin 2016 ). To mitigate this impact, it was essential for intermediaries to create strong relationships and agreements with the other parts of the distribution channels, especially with tourism organizations and suppliers, in order to improve their market position and not disappear due to the emergence of other online intermediaries (Berné et al. 2015 ). In addition, these intermediaries can rely on application service providers, external information providers with whom they can benefit from new technologies at a lower cost than developing their own systems (Lin 2016 ). The adoption of ICT and technological innovations by the tourism is vital for the industry’s future and so, understanding the drivers and obstacles of technology adoption is also vital (Buhalis 2019 ). Understanding technological development and adoption is also critical as it transforms the processes and relationships between tourism suppliers and tourists and affects tourism competitiveness.

Bibliometric analysis

The bibliometrics concept was developed by Pritchard ( 1969 , p. 349) to encompass “the application of mathematics and statistical methods for books and other media”. Bibliometrics is a tool that facilitates the evaluation and study of the evolution of studied topics through statistical techniques, thus enabling the evaluation and analysis of academic quality and productivity (Koseoglu et al. 2016 ). Bibliometrics also helps to analyze a field through big datasets (Callon et al. 1991 ; Coulter et al. 1998 ; Valenzuela et al. 2017 ), making it possible to achieve greater objectivity in literature studies when bibliometric methods are applied correctly (Zupic and Čater 2015 ; Donthu et al. 2021b ).

Bibliometrics draws on information such as concepts, author names, journals, or references provided by studies published daily. It is a tool that assists researchers by providing them with a synthesis of previous studies that allows them to base their opinion on aggregate views on the topics under analysis (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). The results of the bibliometric analysis provide guidance for future lines of research (Samiee and Chabowski 2012 ). It is also helpful for journal editors, as it facilitates the analysis of the productivity of publications and thus helps them to make decisions about new publications (Zupic and Čater 2015 ). Therefore, a significant number of bibliometric studies have been carried out for different purposes, such as identifying the most prolific academics or institutions, classifying knowledge by periods or geographical areas, or identifying the level of maturity of specific topics (Koseoglu et al. 2016 ; Sigala et al. 2021 ).

In addition, bibliometric analysis has been applied in several disciplines and particular journals. Specifically, topics related to consumer, services, business, innovation, and social media have been studied. The number of bibliometric studies in tourism and hospitality has been increasing significantly since 2008 (Sigala et al. 2021 ). Some recent works, such as Kim and So ( 2022 ) about customer experience in hospitality and tourism, Nusair et al. ( 2019 ) about social media in hospitality and tourism; Shin and Perdue ( 2019 ) about self-service technology in hospitality; Palácios et al. ( 2021 ) about trust in hospitality and tourism; or Sigala et al. ( 2021 ) applied to the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management are some among many examples. This interest has gone hand in hand with an increase in the number of academic journals in the fields of tourism and hospitality in the WOS and SCOPUS databases. Furthermore, due to the growing importance of new technologies and ICT in tourism and hospitality, many researchers have conducted bibliometric studies on some topic-specific issues, such as the study by Leung et al. ( 2015 ) on tourism marketing via the internet, or the studies shown in Table ​ Table1. 1 . However, there is no bibliometric analysis focusing on the general analysis of technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality using a quantitative approach so far. Therefore, this study attempts to summarize our existing knowledge on this topic by examining the structure and the evolution of current knowledge. The study also contributes to the field by suggesting a future research agenda and directions that can progress existing knowledge.

Bibliometric methodology

Bibliometrics offers multiple tools and methods to achieve the objective of this work, which is to synthesize and analyze the scientific production of technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality journals. In this paper, we have defined the research methodology following the studies of Donthu et al. ( 2021a ), Paul and Rialp ( 2020 ), and Zupic and Čater ( 2015 ). We selected the domain-based review in our research, because it is prevalent in areas related to business, marketing, or management, among others. This type of review can be classified into the next categories: structured review, framework-based, bibliometric review, hybrid-narrative, and review aiming for model/framework development (Paul and Rialp 2020 ). After that, we used a hybrid type review, combining the method of bibliometric and content analysis. The first one is used to analyze an extensive amount of published research by using statistical tools, and the second one is used to summarize the content (major themes) of the literature and discover future research gaps. Specifically, in this study, bibliometric methods have been used to obtain a descriptive analysis of performance of the scientific production, and the science mapping. Science mapping is a process that requires the next steps: research design, compiling the bibliometric data, analysis, visualization, and interpretation.

The first step has been to define the research questions to be answered in the study and to select the most appropriate bibliometric methods to answer these questions. We selected the co-word analysis, because it allows us to evaluate the topics that have attracted the most attention in academia and, consequently, the most important themes for the research domain (Callon et al. 1991 ). Then, we selected the WOS and SCOPUS databases as comprehensive databases for international tourism and hospitality publications and in order to increase the reliability of the findings. The software SciMAT was selected because, in addition to the network analysis, we can highlight the longitudinal analysis as a benefit versus other software (Cobo et al. 2012 ). Finally, it appeared that the best way to achieve the objective of the study was to adopt a keyword analysis, as this is the most appropriate method for identifying co-occurrence of words. This is also found as a very useful method in social sciences, because it provides a map grouping the terms of the field of study (Marshakova-Shaikevich 2005 ).

Relative to the descriptive analysis of performance, it is essential to locate the relevant information due to the multiple possibilities offered by bibliographic databases. In this study, to develop the descriptive analysis, we used the tools offered by the WOS and SCOPUS to filter documents. Specifically, these databases offer the possibility of grouping documents by year of publication, sources, countries, institutions, etc., but for this study, only the most relevant descriptive information has been considered.

Dataset and standardization

The data used to perform the bibliometric analysis of this study was downloaded from the WOS and SCOPUS databases for the period 1988–2021. In order to obtain quality data, the search was carried out by defining some criteria that delimit the area of interest of the study, following the proposal of Xiang et al. ( 2021 ) by extending information technology in tourism to social sciences. The specific search carried out was a thematic search for the topics “technolog*” and “ICT” together with the terms “touris*” or “hospitality” or “hotel” or “travel”, and it was reasoned in an attempt to cover the main publications in the domain. In this point, we should highlight that we tried several searches, and finally, the option with the broad terms “technolog*” and “ICT” was more accurate. There are two alternatives to make the search: using a high number of keywords could be an alternative (Leung et al. 2017 ); or a more concentrated search on a very few words with direct relation to the exact research topic (Leung et al. 2013 ; Zeng and Gerritsen 2014 ). Both alternatives were tested. The first search that we tried included more than 15 words (e.g., e-Tourism, e-Business, smart tourism, robotics, website, social media, etc.). In the second search, following the work of Leung et al. ( 2013 ) and Zeng and Gerritsen ( 2014 ), the search list was narrowed down to the following words: the terms “technolog*” and “ICT” combined with “touris*”, “hospitality”, “travel”, and “hotel”. We compare the findings and this search leads us to obtain publications related to “e-Tourism”, “smart tourism”, “robotics”, “website”, etc., and also publications related to technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality in general. Finally, we decided to use the last alternative. Nonetheless, we are aware of a need to recognize that there is a current discussion on two alternatives and the final decision depending on the findings.

We refined the search using the following filters. First, we filtered the results by selecting research articles (including research notes), review articles, and early access. Conference papers and book reviews were not included. Second, we selected papers in the English language. Third, we selected the journals into the category ‘Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tourism’ in both databases. Finally, we covered the databases’ whole period, and the first publication appeared in 1988. Many papers were duplicated in both databases. After revising no related articles and deleting duplicates, a total of 2424 were obtained and then exported to the software SciMAT (Cobo et al. 2012 ; https://sci2s.ugr.es/scimat/ ), and it generated 8132 keywords. Figure  1 offers the details of the process to obtain and analyze the information in this bibliometric analysis. The next step is to standardize those words with the same or similar meaning. First, we used an automated term grouping by singular and plurals and another based on distances, detecting terms that differ by a distance of X characters. Second, a laborious process of manually grouping terms was carried out. To do this, the terms have been sorted in alphabetical order, and the search engine has been used to locate those words with similar meanings and reduce the number of concepts. In addition, in such cases where it was not certain that they meant the same thing, it was confirmed by reading the articles to really check that they could be grouped under a single term. This action allows both adding terms to existing groups and creating new groups that encompass the words in the group. For example, ‘ease of use’, ‘perceived ease of use’, and ‘perceived ease’ were grouped under a single concept. The objective is to create groups of words having similar meanings. Once this process ended, we obtained 6299-word groups. The next step is related to the periods to offer a longitudinal analysis. It is possible to specify a cut-off point when there is an extensive dataset, and the recommendation is to find a potential event that caused key changes in the research themes between the first and second periods. In this sense, in our study, we can observe the increase in the number of systematic literature reviews about technology issues from 2017. Thus, the periods were defined as 1988–2016 and 2017–2021.

Framework to develop the bibliometric analysis

Analytical tools and process

SciMAT generates two types of outputs (Cobo et al. 2012 ): (1) performance analysis, which refers to the impact of a research theme through the number of publications (as an indicator of the productivity of the author or theme) and citations (as the influence of the author or theme within the scientific community) (Fetscherin and Heinrich, 2015; Merigó and Yang, 2017); and (2) science mapping analysis, which creates a graphic representation of the structure of research (strategic diagrams and cluster networks) and its evolution over time (Cobo et al. 2012 ). The strategic diagram is a two-dimensional map (four quadrants) built considering two parameters (Callon et al. 1991 ; Cobo et al. 2011 ): centrality and density (see Fig.  2 ). The science mapping analysis is based on the co-occurrence of the keywords, and it has been considered adequate for the purpose of this study. Specifically, the aim is to develop a co-occurrence analysis to synthesize documents (Callon et al. 1991 ). In this way, it is possible to locate relationships between terms since co-occurrence occurs when two terms appear in the same document (Cobo et al. 2011 ). This analysis enables the representation of the relationship and its strength between the different concepts through maps. In these graphic representations, keywords are represented as nodes and appear related when they are in the same documents (Cobo et al. 2011 ). In addition, following Cobo et al. ( 2012 ), we summarize the four analysis phases of the bibliometric method used in this study in Fig.  2 detection of research themes, visualization of research topics through strategic diagrams and thematic networks, the discovery of thematic areas and their evolutions, and performance analysis (see Fig.  2 ).

Phases of bibliometric method and science mapping analysis.

Source: Adapted from Cobo et al. ( 2012 )

Analysis with SciMAT

Once the data had been imported into the software, the aim of the pre-processing was to unify the similar words under a single concept as well as to solve the small errors in the imported data, and the periods have been created, the analysis with SciMAT is executed. The process of analysis with SciMAt is as follows (Cobo et al. 2012 ).

• Selection of the periods. This step consists of indicating the periods to be analyzed. For the study, the two periods have been selected.
• Selection of the unit of analysis. This step is essential, as it defines which aspect of the field is the object of the study. Thus, as this is conceptual research, the unit of analysis selected is the keywords that have been previously pre-processed.
• Data reduction. The aim of this step is to consider the most important information to achieve more precise results. A minimum frequency value of 4 has been established, which means that only those concepts that appear in at least four publications will be considered in the analysis.
• Selection of the type of matrix. As explained above, co-occurrence has been considered to be the most appropriate algorithm to achieve the purpose of the study.
• Network reduction. In this step, a certain limit is selected to consider the strongest or most significant links and to eliminate the less relevant ones. A minimum value of four has been considered; that is, a relationship between two concepts must appear together in at least four documents.
• Normalization. In this step, the similarity measure of the analysis is selected from the different possibilities offered by the program. The one considered most appropriate for the study is the equivalence index, which is used to relativize the relationships between the keywords since it measures their strength.
• Clustering algorithm. Clustering algorithms are a key element in the construction of scientific maps. For the present study, the simple center algorithm has been used. This tool clusters the data in a way that allows generating the desired networks of related words (maximum and minimum network size: 12 and 3, respectively).
• Document mapper. In this step, the software groups the documents according to the user’s selection. For this study, it has been selected the collection of core documents and the union mapper, which incorporates those documents that have at least one element in common with the cluster.
• Quality measures. The total of citations and the h-index have been selected as bibliometric indicators that evaluate performance. These indicators complement other performance measures automatically provided by SciMAT, such as the number of documents.
• Longitudinal. This step is necessary to complete the analysis. Jaccard’s index and inclusion index are selected to carry out a longitudinal analysis.
• Make analysis. Once the previously mentioned steps have been completed, the results are graphically represented to be analyzed and interpreted, leading to the main conclusions of the study.

Data pre-processing

Once all the documents have been loaded into SciMAT, we carried out the data pre-processing explained in the methodology section to improve the quality of the data. The first step consists of the automatic grouping “find similar words by the plural”. With this action, it has been possible to go from the initial 8132 concepts to 7731. Furthermore, in this initial step, to achieve greater rigor, words or symbols that the program included as concepts and did not provide useful information have also been deleted. The next step is the manual grouping of terms as we also indicated the methodology section. Through this manual grouping, it has been possible to reduce the number of word groups from 7731 to 6299. This reduction not only reduces the number of data to be analyzed but also improves the accuracy of the analysis and gives more reliable results.

Results analysis

This section presents the analysis of the 2424 publications. First, a descriptive analysis based on bibliometric performance indicators is presented. The bibliometric performance indicators used for the analysis are the next: the number of publications per year, the most productive journals in the field, and the most cited papers. On the other hand, a strategic map and some parameters such as the number of documents, the citations, the h-index, the centrality, the density, and some keyword networks are presented to analyze the most outstanding topics in this field. Additionally, a structural analysis of the evolution of technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality is also presented.

Descriptive analysis based on bibliometric performance indicators

Firstly, an analysis of the number of papers published per year has been carried out to measure the evolution over time of the productivity of publications in this field of research. Figure  3 shows a remarkable growth in the number of articles published in the period 1988–2021, highlighting the exponential growth of the last five years. It fluctuates from 1 in 1988 to 25 in 2005, to 162 in 2016, and 416 in 2020. There are 299 articles in 2021 when the authors close the analysis at the beginning of November 2021. This growth in the number of publications is related to the increase in the use of new technologies and their application to tourism, which is discussed in the next sections.

Evolution of the number of articles and citations

There is a great variety of journals that have contributed to this field (Table ​ (Table2), 2 ), which reflects the inter-disciplinary role, impact, and diffusion of technologies and ICT in tourism and hospitality. The most productive journals are Tourism Management, Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology, and International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, with 184, 148, and 147 papers, respectively. Another critical question is to identify the leading journals in the field in terms of the number of citations per document. In this case, the top three journals taking into account the average of citations per publication are: Tourism Management (99 citations per document), Annals of Tourism Research (58 citations per document), and Journal of Travel Research (47 citations per document).

Top 10 leading journals ordered by number of documents

On the other hand, concerning the most cited papers (Table ​ (Table3), 3 ), it is worth noting that among the ten most cited papers, 7 of them have been published in the journal Tourism Management , making this journal not only the leader in terms of the number of papers published in the field but also in terms of their popularity. The most cited paper also belongs to this journal, and it is Dimitrios Buhalis and Rob Law’ paper on the state of e-Tourism research, which has been cited almost 1500 times.

Most cited papers

Science mapping analysis of technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality

Through the analysis of the conceptual structure carried out in SciMAT, we will discover the thematic areas in both periods. We identified the themes located in the strategic diagrams and cluster networks for each period. On the one hand, the themes are located in one of four quadrants depending on centrality, which measures the degree of interaction of a network with others, and density, which gauges the internal strength of the network. Both oscillate between 0 and 1. On the other hand, the thematic or cluster network represents a theme and its connections with other topics based on the co-occurrence of the keywords. The most relevant keyword is at the center of the network. The volume of the sphere is related to the number of articles, and the thickness of the link between two keywords represents the association strength (see all the cluster networks in the Appendix). In order to complete the analysis, Table ​ Table4 4 presents the themes ordered by quadrants, and the main performance indicators for each theme are detailed: centrality range, density range, number of documents, number of citations, and h-index.

Clusters ordered by periods and quadrants with their performance indicators

The emerging period (1988–2016)

Sixteen themes emerge from the SciMAT analysis. The internet has the largest number of documents (108), followed by the technology acceptance model (73), competitiveness (71), and customer satisfaction (70). Two of them are motor themes (technology acceptance model and customer satisfaction) together with e-WOM (52) and adoption (40) (see the top right quadrant of Fig.  4 ). The performance measures indicate that the internet and e-WOM were the most relevant themes by the number of citations, with 5993 and 7206 citations and h-index of 39 and 32, respectively (see Table ​ Table4 4 ).

Strategic diagram for the period 1988–2016 (number of documents)

The cluster network of technology acceptance model shows that it has been analyzed from different perspectives, such as online travel shopping or mobile hotel booking (see the Appendix). Amaro and Duarte ( 2015 ) examine online travel shopping and integrate several theoretical models providing advances such as the essential role that perceived risk plays in purchasing travel online. In this sense, they recommend effective ways to reduce perceived risk to enhance willingness to purchase travel online. In addition, Ozturk et al. ( 2016 ) find that the utilitarian value of mobile hotel booking is more important than the hedonic value in relation to usage intentions.

Several themes related to customer satisfaction appear in the cluster network: service quality, commitment, or customer loyalty. The study of Kim et al. ( 2011 ) covered a gap in tourism e-commerce, developing a theoretical model that incorporates trust and satisfaction and their effects on customer loyalty. Several studies conclude that satisfaction is very significant to increase purchase intention of tourism products online (e.g., Bai et al. 2008 ).

e-WOM has been analyzed since social media, user-generated content (UGC), online review, or credibility. e-WOM is one of the most important information sources in the hospitality and tourism industry because consumers cannot evaluate the tourism services prior to their consumption (e.g., Litvin et al. 2008 ). In the context of online reviews, Filieri and McLeay ( 2014 ) identify the antecedents of online reviews adoption, such as information quantity and product ranking. In general, travelers use UGC websites to search for travel information that other consumers have taken because they trust information posted by other travelers more than information from service providers (Herrero et al. 2015 ). For this reason, the analysis of information credibility is a major concern in the online tourism and hospitality industry due to travelers seeking information from various social media platforms, and previous research tries to understand how travelers respond to online reviews and analyze their credibility (e.g., Ayeh et al. 2013 ; Casalo et al. 2015 ).

Finally, adoption, as the last motor theme, presents links with smartphone, mobile apps, mobile commerce, computer technology, e-services, etc. Adoption has been defined as the extent to which consumers modify their behavior by utilizing information technology (Filieri and McLeay 2014 ). The technology adoption model has been studied many times in the context of the tourism and hospitality industry in order to examine the predictors of mobile app use among tourists. For instance, smartphone self-efficacy has been considered as a critical component in tourism and travel app design (e.g., Lu et al. 2015 ; Okumus and Bilgihan 2014 ).

In the second quadrant, themes that have well-developed internal but weak external links emerged (see the top left quadrant in Fig.  4 ): business performance, e-commerce, GPS, climate change, and data envelopment analysis. Their cluster networks results showed that business performance had been analyzed in the hotel industry, and it connects mainly to technological innovation, green technology, or product innovation. E-commerce has been studied in the context of technology and e-business adoption, trust in technology, and analyzing the purchase intention. Bilgihan et al. ( 2014 ) conclude that successful e-commerce strategies must be associated with the creation and management of customer experience, which in turn leads to purchase intention, and loyalty. GPS links to tracking technologies (e.g., Spangenberg 2014 ); climate change has taken into consideration the aviation industry and the ski tourism; and envelopment data analysis links to technical efficiency and productivity (we have included the figures of the cluster networks in the Appendix due to space reasons).

The third quadrant includes the next themes (bottom left of Fig.  4 ): management, technology, and tourism, which is between the third and fourth quadrant. These themes can be considered as less developed, and some of them could emerge in the second period due to their position in the strategic diagram. Management presents links with destination, sustainability, crisis management, co-creation, or growth, among others. In this context, Piccoli ( 2008 ) underlines information technology can provide firms with a sustained competitive advantage in the tourism and hospitality industry. Technology has been studied from smart tourism or food service perspectives related to mobile devices. Some authors point out that the birth of smart tourism happened when destinations considered new technologies involving tourists as active co-creators of their own experiences (e.g., Buonincontri and Micera 2016 ). The third theme is tourism which presents links with promotion technologies, destination image, small business, or qualitative research, among others. An excellent example of the use of promotion technologies is the study of Digiorgio ( 2016 ), who analyzes the relationship between promotional tools and the percentage of bookings received through three different channels (online travel agencies, digital channels, and direct channels).

Finally, the fourth quadrant (bottom right of Fig.  4 ) also presents central themes like in the first quadrant (many connections) but is internally underdeveloped, so they could be considered as potential themes for the next period. The themes and their number of publications are the next: Internet (108), competitiveness (71), model (62), and information technology (61). Internet presents links with websites, ICT, online travel agencies, DMOs, consumer behavior, and segmentation, among others. The paper of Buhalis and Law ( 2008 , p. 619) is a benchmark in the e-tourism literature because they conclude “ how the Internet changed the market conditions for tourism organizations due to ICT provided new tools for tourism marketing and management ”. In addition, these authors advanced that “ the future of e-Tourism will be focused on consumer-centric technologies ”. Competitiveness is related to knowledge management, innovation, strategy, and managerial efficiency. Model refers to e-tourism, theory of planned behavior, task technology fit, and tourist experience. Information technology has been studied considering its usage and variables such as perceived risk, social influence, and intrinsic motivation. It also includes the role of human resource management.

The expansion period (2017–2021)

The main character in the second period is the thematic diversity (twenty-four themes), with UGC and self-service technology standing out as major research topics (see Fig.  5 ). Analyzing these two top motor themes, we can observe that UGC has 133 publications and 2369 citations, and self-service technology has 119 publications and 1559 citations (see Table ​ Table4). 4 ). UGC is linked to social media, e-WOM, online reviews, big data, Facebook, Tripadvisor, and online hotel booking, among others. In the first period, e-WOM was the central theme, and it was related to UGC; however, in the second one, UGC is the central theme. Social media tools such as Facebook and Tripadvisor have been used in the second period of research to examine how hotels and destinations are using them as a marketing tool, how consumers interact, and how tourists’ online engagement has evolved in the hospitality industry (e.g., Gálvez-Rodríguez et al. 2020 ; Gruss et al. 2020 ; Molina et al. 2020 ) or its influence on attitudes and behavioral intentions (e.g., Sharif and Mura 2019 ). The recent paper of Chen et al. ( 2021 ) provides an assessment of the links between social media and big data by examining technologies and different social media platforms. Analyzing the cluster network of self-service technology, we can observe that it is linked to hotels and restaurants, service-dominant logic and value co-creation, adoption, and behavioral intention, among others. Wei et al. ( 2017 ) analyze the impact of self-service technologies on consumers’ service experience. Liu et al. ( 2020 ) examine the usage process of self-service technologies in hotels into three stages: adoption, implementation, and acceptance. Liu and Hung ( 2020 ) investigate the role of self-service technology compared with service employees in hotels.

Strategic diagram for the period 2017–2021 (number of documents)

Other motor themes ordered by the number of publications are the next: customer satisfaction (98), trust in technology (78), business performance (54), and robotics (54) (top right quadrant of Fig.  5 ). The cluster networks (see the Appendix) display the subsequent findings. Related to customer satisfaction, we can observe the relevance of service quality, service experience, customer loyalty, and technology readiness. Hailey Shin et al. ( 2021 ) examine the relationship between travelers’ technology readiness and satisfaction, and loyalty. Trust in technology presents links to the online environment such as e-commerce, sharing economy, technology continuance intention, or Airbnb (e.g., Nathan et al. 2020 ). Research offers evidence of the importance of trust in tourism e-commerce and m-commerce, suggesting that tourism and hospitality firms can benefit by targeting marketing campaigns that emphasize elements that are affected by trust (e.g., Falcao et al. 2019 ). Business performance links to data envelopment analysis, technical efficiency, IT capabilities, CRM, or market orientation. Data envelopment analysis has been useful to determine the drivers of tourism growth and achieving sustainable tourism development, finding some essential components in this process: technological efficiency, technology gap effect, technological progress, among others (e.g., Zha et al. 2020 ). Related to CRM in the tourism and hospitality industry, the literature suggests that the implementation of a successful CRM program requires a combination of people, processes, and technology (e.g., Law et al. 2018a , b ). Tourism literature also explains the role of market orientation in tourism firms for marketing purposes (e.g., Herrero et al. 2018 ). Finally, robotics links to e-services, artificial intelligence, automation, or future tourism, among others. In this line, the recent review of Gaur et al. ( 2021 ) sheds light on future tourism, examining the role of artificial intelligence and robotics in hotels. They consider that “the service automation with service robots’ could boost hotel competitiveness ” (Gaur et al. 2021 , p. 4093). In addition, it is essential to understand the consumers’ perceptions and experiences with the robots’ contactless services and to be aware that artificial intelligence and automation technologies are transforming tourism services as we know them (Webster and Ivanov 2020 ).

Seven themes emerged in the second quadrant (top left in Fig.  5 ). These themes ordered by the number of documents are the next: TAM (82), smart tourism (69), virtual reality (47), GPS (32), managerial efficiency (16), heritage tourism (10), and competitiveness (9). The themes in the second quadrant include highly developed, isolated, and highly specialized topics with high internal links but weak external links with other topics. In this analysis, we can highlight smart tourism and virtual reality. Since the first relevant research on smart tourism (e.g., Gretzel et al. 2015 ), there has been a very extensive development in this field corresponding with the second period (e.g., Jovicic 2019 ; Nam et al. 2021 ). There has been a transformation of e-tourism into smart tourism due to the intensive adoption of ICT, the interaction with stakeholders, and decisions based on big data (Femenia-Serra and Ivars-Baidal 2021 ). The relevance of virtual reality in tourism could be comparable with the importance of social media, and the analysis of the understanding of the factors that affect the consumers’ perceptions is vital (e.g., Lo and Cheng 2020 ).

The third quadrant (bottom left in Fig.  5 ) reveals four underdeveloped themes, which include ordered by the number of articles: management (70), technology (60), tourist experience (58), and tourism (47). These themes are potentially emerging or disappearing themes. Management presents links with smart-hotel (e.g., Wu and Cheng 2018 ); the cluster network of technology presents links with service encounters, human–machine interaction, or hospitality technology (e.g., Yang et al. 2021 ). Tourist experience is related to emotions, involvement, or identity, among other aspects (e.g., Leung and Wen 2021 ). Tourism has been studied from different perspectives (state, educational, advertising, etc.).

Finally, the fourth quadrant (bottom right in Fig.  5 ) shows the central themes in the research field that are weakly developed. They include, ordered by the number of articles: information technology (106), travel (96), model (78), impact (70), hospitality (59), innovation (53), and ICT (44). These themes share links with other topics in the analysis. For instance, the cluster network of information technology presents a variety of topics such as the internet, virtual communities, hotel websites, and the theory of reasoned action, among others (e.g., Purohit and Thakar 2019 ; Zhou et al. 2021 ). Travel relates to computer technology, destination image, or consumer behavior. The links of model are focused on the analysis of usability, value, and preferences of mobile technology (e.g., Law et al. 2018a , b ). In this period, it also analyzes the impact of digital channels or the pricing (Styvén and Wallström, 2019 ). Hospitality, innovation and ICT share the links with themes related to digital technology.

Structural analysis of the evolution of ‘technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality’ research with SciMAT

SciMAT offers two maps relating to the longitudinal results: (1) overlapping map, which shows the number of keywords analyzed in each period. The number of keywords in the first period was 2922 and 4492 in the second one. Moreover, this map indicates the inclusion rate (number of keywords from the first period that maintains in the second one). In this analysis, this rate was 38% (1115 words maintained and moved to the second period), and 3377 new words were incorporated in the second period. (2) The second map is the evolution map, which provides the evolution of the themes over time, obtaining a dynamic perspective of the conceptual structure of published research on technology and ICT in hospitality and tourism. Each column represents a different period, and the lines establish the relationships between the different topics over time. Related to the lines, the following aspects should be considered (Murgado-Armenteros et al. 2015). First, the continuous lines indicate a thematic nexus since both topics share the same main item. Second, the broken lines indicate those topics related because they share specific keywords. Third, the thickness of the lines is an indicator of the inclusion rate. Fourth, the size of the spheres is proportional to the number of publications achieved by each theme.

This map was manually transformed to achieve a more synthesized arrangement of the topics, allowing for their grouping by large thematic areas (see Fig.  6 ). The thematic areas were: (1) modeling in technology acceptance; (2) technology innovation; (3) social media and ICT; and (4) management and competitiveness. The map also allows us to detect the existence of some themes that remain constant over time (e.g., TAM, customer satisfaction, model, technology, GPS, information technology, business performance, management, and competitiveness) and themes that emerge in the second period (e.g., tourist experience, trust in technology, self-service technology, smart tourism, virtual reality, robotics, UGC, ICT, impact, hospitality, travel, innovation, managerial efficiency, and heritage tourism). Next, the subject matter and conceptual composition of each of the four areas will be analyzed.

• Technology acceptance, customer satisfaction, and tourist experience Technology acceptance model and customer satisfaction are highly developed themes in the first (first quadrant) period covering topics such as perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, personal innovativeness, UTAUT, online travel shopping, mobile hotel booking, service quality, and customer loyalty. The technology acceptance models are used to explain technology acceptance in the context of tourism and hospitality. The technology acceptance model and customer satisfaction also have high centrality and density in the second period. The technology acceptance model in the second period incorporates new links such as social influence or perceived enjoyment. In the case of satisfaction, it presents new links to technology readiness, consumer innovativeness, and memorable experience. In the second period, tourist experience emerges, and it analyzes experiences with online destination platforms and their identity and authenticity.
• Adoption of future technology In the first period, adoption is a motor theme (first quadrant), e-commerce and GPS are highly developed and isolated themes (second quadrant), and technology is configured as an emerging or declining theme (third quadrant). In the second period, GPS and technology maintain their position in the second and third quadrant, respectively; and new themes such as smart tourism, virtual reality, or robotics emerge. Adoption and e-commerce are related in the first period, and they present links with technology and e-business adoption in medium sizes enterprises and security. However, technology, in the second period, refers to service encounters, engagement, or human–machine interactions. Related to the themes that emerge in the second period, robotics is a motor theme (first quadrant), and virtual reality and smart tourism are highly developed and isolated themes (second quadrant). Robotics refers to future tourism, virtual reality incorporates interactivity and flow experience as essential topics, and smart tourism focuses on analytics, among other aspects.
• Social media and ICT Information technology is a motor theme (first quadrant) in the first and second periods. E-WOM is also a motor theme in the first period, and the internet is a relevant theme to the field, but it is not sufficiently developed (fourth quadrant). Information technology related to intrinsic motivation, perceived risk, and social influence in the first period, and it evolves in the second one to the analysis of tourist behavior in mobile hotel booking or hotel websites and also links with virtual communities. In the first period, E-WOM related to social media, UGC, online reviews, or credibility; and in the second period, this theme evolves to UGC, which incorporates big data as an essential topic of interest. In the first period, the internet offers great potential due to its position in the fourth quadrant, and it refers to website, digital channels, online travel agencies, and ICT. However, in the second period, ICT gains centrality, and it offers growth potential due to its connections with systems, panel data, sustainable development, or mobility.
• Management and competitiveness Management is considered as an emerging or declining theme (third quadrant) in the first and in second periods because it is an underdeveloped and marginal theme with low centrality and density. Business performance is a highly and isolated theme (second quadrant) in the first period and evolves to a motor theme (first quadrant), presenting links to online CRM or information technology capabilities. Competitiveness and tourism are considered relevant to the field, but they are not sufficiently developed (fourth quadrant), suggesting future lines of research. They evolve to travel and innovation in the second period. Competitiveness is a high and isolated theme in the second period. Its relevance is due to the analysis of the evolution of technology in the supply chain management in tourism and hospitality (e.g., principal–agent relationships). Heritage tourism emerged in the second period related to sustainability, cultural tourism, and 3D technology.

Longitudinal evolution map about research trend on technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality

Future research agenda

This study offers the foundation for identifying future research gaps on technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality. We have described the evolution of the research themes in the two periods, and we have grouped them into four broader areas. Subsequently, we use these areas to discuss the future research agenda and to speculate how these themes might evolve. Specifically, future research areas should include:

• Regarding technology acceptance, customer satisfaction, and tourist experience, issues related to modeling the tourist experience require more research (Gretzel and Stankov 2021 ). During the last years, we can observe that research about the technology acceptance model focused its attention on analyzing drivers such as subjective norms, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, personal innovativeness, or social influence. These concepts have been widely examined from a general point of view and in a broad range of literature from within the generic field and hospitality or tourism. However, although we know what factors drive technology acceptance, we still do not know a lot about which technologies generate the most customer satisfaction and/or which are the critical factors influencing tourist experience. As COVID-19 has accelerated technology adoption and enabled new tourism experiences (i.e., digital and physical experiences representing the increasing demand of tourists for blended experiences), there is currently an increasing need to understand the acceptance of these ‘new’ experiences by the post-COVID-19 tourists as well as the new context and its factors affecting the tourists’ satisfaction of such experiences. Such knowledge will be equally useful for tourism destinations and firm’s managers.
• From the adoption of future technology perspective, more attention must be paid to the emerging new technologies and the processes and factors forming trust in these technologies. As destinations and tourism companies continuously need to use new technologies to provide better services and experiences (Hua et al. 2021 ), research looking into the adoption of the emerging technologies becomes very vital. As technological advances and applications in tourism and hospitality occur in increasing speed, it becomes essential to examine whether travelers seek out new and unusual new technology experiences in the same rate (Koo and Chang 2021 ). Based on our analyses of the two periods, it is also observed that studies in both periods heavily focus on the most heavily adopted technologies (i.e., internet in the first period and UGC and social media in the second period), ignoring and/or paying less attention to technologies that are less adopted and/or used. However, technologies such as virtual and augmented reality as well as robots and AI that have been less adopted and used in the previous period are currently having an exponential adoption rate due to the COVID-19 implications. Hence, it becomes important not only to focus on and examine the adoption and success factors of heavily used technologies but also to understand the context and the factors influencing the adoption and use of less popular technologies. Such knowledge can better help us understand how technology adoption happens and/or not happens and how context and situational factors can play an important role in the former. In addition, it would be relevant to better understand the barriers that do not favor trust in new technology, because although previous research shows that trust in technology significantly influences technology adoption, past studies also provide inconsistent findings regarding the process of forming technology trust (Hua et al. 2021 ).
• Social media and ICT in future research. Based on the analysis of their cluster networks, social media and ICT could be suggesting topics for further research to face their challenges, such as ICTs are consciously used by destinations and businesses to move on specific agendas (Gössling 2021 ). On the one hand, social media and ICTs generate online interactions between tourists, and they could cause information myopia due to the uncertainty of the interactions and online reviews. For this reason, future studies should address the real benefits of social media and ICTs in general and in the tourism and hospitality industry. On the other hand, previous research has identified that “ technological changes increasingly facilitate the concentration of power into certain platforms ” (Mehraliyev et al. 2021 , p.227), such as TripAdvisor, Booking, and Airbnb. As research into the field of the platform economy is currently evolving in tourism, it will be interesting for future research to investigate and challenge the ‘unquestioned’ mantra that the social media ‘empower’ the users versus the ‘platforms. Such research can also focus on the role of ‘big’ data and content in providing ‘empowerment’ and power, as data is declared as the oil of the new economy. As data has always been the lifeblood of tourism, research investigating into the role and implications of data collection, analysis, and use in tourism and hospitality becomes critically important.
• From management and competitiveness perspectives, more research is needed to analyze the factors that contribute to tourism and hospitality competitiveness and how destinations and businesses should manage those factors. Definitions, models, and factors related to tourism competitiveness have been studied in the tourism and hospitality literature. Previous research mainly focused on tourism competitiveness or destination competitiveness from a supply-side approach, and it has shown that there are different competitiveness factors such as information or climate depending on the sector (Cronjé and du Plessis 2020 ). Hence, future studies should explore the demand side and analyze the opinions of tourists regarding what makes a destination competitive. For instance, there are new trends such as sustainability, responsibility, well-being, social/community value, ICTs, and smart tourism that future ICT competitiveness research should examine. COVID-19 has intensified the need to increase the sustainability and responsibility of tourism and hospitality, while the role of ICT for generating social value, sustainability, and well-being is increasing. Future studies should critically include into the operationalization and measurement of competitiveness such soft factors such as community well-being and social value and subsequently examine the role and use of ICT in achieve this type of competitiveness. As competitiveness measured solely on quantitative results such as business profits, visitors’ numbers, and reduced costs becomes obsolete, future research should be able to measure, quantify and provide evidence of the impact of ICTs in such soft constructs in tourism and hospitality. Such research knowledge is instrumental and vital in the tourism industry in order to show firms and destinations the ‘reasons’ to adopt and invest on such ICTs. In addition, as “ only a few studies have tried to understand destination competitiveness from a cultural perspective ” (Kumar and Dhir 2020 , p.9), future studies should also investigate how national cultures and other cultural attributes influence people’s understanding on tourism competitiveness and so, their decision-making to invest on ICT to achieve the latter.

Conclusions, implications, and further research

This study has two major contributions to the field: (1) it synthesizes and critically analyzes research about technology and ICT in tourism and hospitality published in journals during the period 1988–2021; and (2) it provides directions for further research. In contrast to earlier studies using a qualitative approach for reviewing past literature, this study used a quantitative analysis for identifying the themes of past research and examining their contribution. Hence, this paper provides a more precise way to quantify but also visualize the structure and the evolution of our knowledge development in this field. In addition, the paper develops a future research agenda that identifies several suggestions and directions for future research. Finally, the majority of past papers reviewing the evolution of the knowledge in the field of information technology in tourism have focused on specific topics, areas, platforms, or business applications, such as smart tourism, eTourism, social media, artificial intelligence, robotics, hotels, TripAdvisor, Airbnb. On the contrary, several authors (e.g., Xiang et al. 2021 ) have advocated that research on this field should be advanced by studying beyond these narrow focused issues. In this vein, our research contributes to the current literature by: broadening the areas for understanding the knowledge structure and development in the field of ICT tourism and hospitality; and consequently, by identifying directions for future research that go beyond single topics such as management and competitiveness issues, such as sustainability, responsibility, well-being, and social/community value.

Limitations

Despite having worked to achieve a synthesis as accurately as possible of the scientific production in the field of new technologies in tourism, there are some limitations associated with bibliometric analysis. First of all, the compilation of documents may have omitted some relevant articles in the field due to the keywords used in the search. Second, there are articles with a large number of keywords and others with only a single keyword. Third, as mentioned in the methodology, some keywords are written in different ways, an effect that has been tried to alleviate through the pre-processing of the data. Therefore, despite having carried out the process conscientiously and having checked whether specific terms could really be grouped, errors may have been made, or some words may have been omitted when carrying out the grouping.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude both to the editors and to the three anonymous reviewers for all their helpful suggestions.

Cluster networks of the first quadrant (1988–2016)

Cluster networks of the second quadrant (1988–2016)

Cluster networks of the third quadrant (1988–2016)

Cluster networks of the fourth quadrant (1988–2016)

Cluster networks of the first quadrant (2017–2021)

Cluster networks of the second quadrant (2017–2021)

Cluster networks of the third quadrant (2017–2021)

Cluster networks of the fourth quadrant (2017–2021)

This work was supported by the University of Castilla-La Mancha and co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund under Grant 2020-GRIN-28990.

Availability of data and material (data transparency)

Declarations.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The original online version of this article was revised due to a retrospective Open Access cancellation.

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Change history

A Correction to this paper has been published: 10.1007/s40558-022-00230-z

Contributor Information

Arturo Molina-Collado, Email: [email protected] .

Mar Gómez-Rico, Email: [email protected] .

Marianna Sigala, Email: rg.ipinu@alagism .

María Victoria Molina, Email: [email protected] .

Evangelina Aranda, Email: [email protected] .

Yolanda Salinero, Email: [email protected] .

• Amaro S, Duarte P. An integrative model of consumers’ intentions to purchase travel online. Tour Manage. 2015; 46 :64–79. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2014.06.006. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Ayeh JK, Au N, Law R. “Do we believe in trip advisor?” Examining credibility perceptions and online travelers’ attitude toward using user-generated content. J Travel Res. 2013; 52 (4):437–452. doi: 10.1177/0047287512475217. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bai B, Law R, Wen I. The impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions: evidence from Chinese online visitors. Int J Hosp Manage. 2008; 27 (3):391–402. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2007.10.008. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bastidas-Manzano AB, Sánchez-Fernández J, Casado-Aranda LA. The past, present, and future of smart tourism destinations: a bibliometric analysis. J Hospital Tour Res. 2021; 45 (3):529–552. doi: 10.1177/1096348020967062. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Berné C, García-González M, García-Uceda ME, Múgica JM. The effect of IT on relationship enhancement and performance in tourism channels. Tour Manage. 2015; 48 :188–198. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2014.04.012. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Bilgihan A, Okumus F, Nusair K, Bujisic M. Online experiences: flow theory, measuring online customer experience in e-commerce and managerial implications for the lodging industry. Inf Technol Tour. 2014; 14 (1):49–71. doi: 10.1007/s40558-013-0003-3. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Buhalis D. Strategic use of information technologies in the tourism industry. Tour Manage. 1998; 19 (5):409–421. doi: 10.1016/S0261-5177(98)00038-7. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Buhalis D. eTourism: information technology for strategic tourism management. London, UK: Pearson; 2003. [ Google Scholar ]
• Buhalis D. Technology in tourism-from information communication technologies to eTourism and smart tourism towards ambient intelligence tourism: a perspective article. Tour Rev. 2019; 75 (1):267–272. doi: 10.1108/TR-06-2019-0258. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Buhalis D (2022) ETourism. In Encyclopedia of tourism management and marketing. Edward Elgar Publishing
• Buhalis D, Law R. Progress in information technology and tourism management: 20 years on and 10 years after the internet—the state of eTourism research. Tour Manage. 2008; 29 (4):609–623. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2008.01.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Buonincontri P, Micera R. The experience co-creation in smart tourism destinations: a multiple case analysis of European destinations. Inf Technol Tour. 2016; 16 (3):285–315. doi: 10.1007/s40558-016-0060-5. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Callon M, Courtial JP, Laville F. Co-word analysis as a tool for describing the network of interactions between basic and technological research: the case of polymer chemistry. Scientometrics. 1991; 22 (1):155–205. doi: 10.1007/BF02019280. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Casalo LV, Flavian C, Guinaliu M, Ekinci Y. Do online hotel rating schemes influence booking behaviors? Int J Hosp Manag. 2015; 49 :28–36. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2015.05.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Chen J, Becken S, Stantic B (2021) Harnessing social media to understand tourist mobility: the role of information technology and big data. Tour Rev (ahead-of-print)
• Cobo MJ, López-Herrera AG, Herrera-Viedma E, Herrera F. An approach for detecting, quantifying, and visualizing the evolution of a research field: a practical application to the fuzzy sets theory field. J Informetr. 2011; 5 (1):146–166. doi: 10.1016/j.joi.2010.10.002. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cobo MJ, López-Herrera AG, Herrera-Viedma E, Herrera F. SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. J Am Soc Inform Sci Technol. 2012; 63 (8):1609–1630. doi: 10.1002/asi.22688. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Coulter N, Monarch I, Konda S. Software engineering as seen through its research literature: a study in co-word analysis. J Am Soc Inf Sci. 1998; 49 :1206–1223. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1097-4571(1998)49:13<1206::AID-ASI7>3.0.CO;2-F. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Cronjé DF, du Plessis E. A review on tourism destination competitiveness. J Hosp Tour Manage. 2020; 45 :256–265. doi: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2020.06.012. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Digiorgio V. Impact of promotional tools on reservation channels management: a descriptive model of Italian accommodation facilities. Inf Technol Tour. 2016; 16 (4):347–373. doi: 10.1007/s40558-016-0069-9. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Donthu N, Kumar S, Mukherjee D, Pandey N, Lim WM. How to conduct a bibliometric analysis: an overview and guidelines. J Bus Res. 2021; 133 :285–296. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.04.070. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Donthu N, Kumar S, Ranaweera C, Sigala M, Sureka R. Journal of Service Theory & Practice at age 30: past, present and future contributions to service research. J Serv Theory Pract. 2021; 31 (3):265–295. doi: 10.1108/JSTP-10-2020-0233. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Egger I, Lei SI, Wassler P. Digital free tourism—an exploratory study of tourist motivations. Tour Manage. 2020; 79 :104098. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2020.104098. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Falcao RP, Ferreira JB, da Costa Filho MCM. The influence of ubiquitous connectivity, trust, personality and generational effects on mobile tourism purchases. Inf Technol Tour. 2019; 21 (4):483–514. doi: 10.1007/s40558-019-00154-1. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Femenia-Serra F, Ivars-Baidal JA. Do smart tourism destinations really work? The case of Benidorm. Asia Pac J Tour Res. 2021; 26 (4):365–384. doi: 10.1080/10941665.2018.1561478. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Filieri R, McLeay F. E-WOM and accommodation: an analysis of the factors that influence travelers’ adoption of information from online reviews. J Travel Res. 2014; 53 (1):44–57. doi: 10.1177/0047287513481274. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Foris D, Tecau AS, Hartescu M, Foris T. Relevance of the features regarding the performance of booking websites. Tour Econ. 2020; 26 (6):1021–1041. doi: 10.1177/1354816619845790. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Fuchs M, Höpken W, Föger A, Kunz M. E-business readiness, intensity, and impact: an Austrian destination management organization study. J Travel Res. 2010; 49 (2):165–178. doi: 10.1177/0047287509336469. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gálvez-Rodríguez MM, Alonso-Cañadas J, Haro-de-Rosario A, Caba-Pérez C. Exploring best practices for online engagement via Facebook with local destination management organisations (DMOs) in Europe: a longitudinal analysis. Tour Manage Perspect. 2020; 34 :100636. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2020.100636. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gaur L, Afaq A, Singh G, Dwivedi YK. Role of artificial intelligence and robotics to foster the touchless travel during a pandemic: a review and research agenda. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2021; 33 (11):4079–4098. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-11-2020-1246. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gonzalez R, Gasco J, Llopis J. ICTs in hotel management: a research review. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2019; 31 (9):3583–3609. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-07-2017-0470. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gössling S. Tourism, technology and ICT: a critical review of affordances and concessions. J Sustain Tour. 2021; 29 (5):733–750. doi: 10.1080/09669582.2021.1873353. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gretzel U, Stankov U. ICTs and well-being: challenges and opportunities for tourism. Inf Technol Tour. 2021; 23 :1–4. doi: 10.1007/s40558-021-00198-2. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gretzel U, Sigala M, Xiang Z, Koo C. Smart tourism: foundations and developments. Electron Mark. 2015; 25 (3):179–188. doi: 10.1007/s12525-015-0196-8. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gretzel U, Fuchs M, Baggio R, Hoepken W, Law R, Neidhardt J, Pesonen J, Zanker M, Xiang Z. e-Tourism beyond COVID-19: a call for transformative research. Inf Technol Tour. 2020; 22 :187–203. doi: 10.1007/s40558-020-00181-3. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Gruss R, Kim E, Abrahams A. Engaging restaurant customers on facebook: the power of belongingness appeals on social media. J Hospital Tour Res. 2020; 44 (2):201–228. doi: 10.1177/1096348019892071. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hailey Shin H, Jeong M, Cho MH. The impact of smart tourism technology and domestic travelers’ technology readiness on their satisfaction and behavioral intention: a cross-country comparison. Int J Tour Res. 2021; 23 (5):726–742. doi: 10.1002/jtr.2437. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hannam K, Butler G, Paris CM. Developments and key issues in tourism mobilities. Ann Tour Res. 2014; 44 :171–185. doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2013.09.010. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Herrero Á, San Martín H, Hernández J. How online search behavior is influenced by user-generated content on review websites and hotel interactive websites. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2015; 27 (7):1573–1597. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-05-2014-0255. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Herrero A, San Martín H, Collado J. Market orientation and SNS adoption for marketing purposes in hospitality microenterprises. J Hosp Tour Manage. 2018; 34 :30–40. doi: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2017.11.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Hua N. Do information technology (IT) capabilities affect hotel competitiveness? J Hosp Tour Technol. 2020; 11 (3):447–460. [ Google Scholar ]
• Hua C, Cole S, Xu N. Rethinking trust in tourism apps: the moderating effect of age. J Hosp Tour Technol. 2021; 12 (3):548–562. [ Google Scholar ]
• Huang YC, Chang LL, Yu CP, Chen J. Examining an extended technology acceptance model with experience construct on hotel consumers’ adoption of mobile applications. J Hosp Market Manage. 2019; 28 (8):957–980. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ivars-Baidal JA, Celdrán-Bernabeu MA, Mazón JN, Perles-Ivars ÁF. Smart destinations and the evolution of ITs: a new scenario for destination management? Curr Issue Tour. 2019; 22 (13):1581–1600. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2017.1388771. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Jovicic DZ. From the traditional understanding of tourism destination to the smart tourism destination. Curr Issue Tour. 2019; 22 (3):276–282. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2017.1313203. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kim H, So KKF. Two decades of customer experience research in hospitality and tourism: a bibliometric analysis and thematic content analysis. Int J Hosp Manage. 2022; 100 :103082. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.103082. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Kim MJ, Chung N, Lee CK. The effect of perceived trust on electronic commerce: shopping online for tourism products and services in South Korea. Tour Manage. 2011; 32 (2):256–265. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2010.01.011. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Koo C, Chang Y. Guest editorial: new technologies for the tourism and hospitality industry. Ind Manag Data Syst. 2021; 121 (6):1145–1151. doi: 10.1108/IMDS-06-2021-742. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Koseoglu MA, Rahimi R, Okumus F, Liu J (2016) Bibliometric studies in tourism. Ann Touris Res 61:180–198
• Kumar S, Dhir A. Associations between travel and tourism competitiveness and culture. J Destin Mark Manag. 2020; 18 :100501. [ Google Scholar ]
• Kumar N, Kumar RR. Relationship between IT and international tourism demand: a study of major tourist destinations. Tour Econ. 2020; 26 (6):908–925. doi: 10.1177/1354816619858004. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lama S, Pradhan S, Shrestha A. Exploration and implication of factors affecting e-tourism adoption in developing countries: a case of Nepal. Inf Technol Tour. 2020; 22 (1):5–32. doi: 10.1007/s40558-019-00163-0. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Law R, Leung R, Buhalis D. Information technology applications in hospitality and tourism: a review of publications from 2005 to 2007. J Travel Tour Mark. 2009; 26 (5–6):599–623. doi: 10.1080/10548400903163160. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Law R, Leung D, Au N, Lee HA. Progress and development of information technology in the hospitality industry: evidence from Cornell Hospitality Quarterly. Cornell Hospital Quart. 2013; 54 (1):10–24. doi: 10.1177/1938965512453199. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Law R, Buhalis D, Cobanoglu C. Progress on information and communication technologies in hospitality and tourism. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2014; 26 (5):727–750. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-08-2013-0367. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Law R, Chan ICC, Wang L. A comprehensive review of mobile technology use in hospitality and tourism. J Hosp Market Manage. 2018; 27 (6):626–648. [ Google Scholar ]
• Law R, Fong DKC, Chan ICC, Fong LHN. Systematic review of hospitality CRM research. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2018; 30 (3):1686–1704. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-06-2017-0333. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Law R, Leung D, Chan ICC. Progression and development of information and communication technology research in hospitality and tourism: a state-of-the-art review. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2019; 32 (2):511–534. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-07-2018-0586. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Leung XY, Wen H. How emotions affect restaurant digital ordering experiences: a comparison of three ordering methods. J Hosp Tour Technol. 2021; 12 (3):439–453. [ Google Scholar ]
• Leung D, Law R, Van Hoof H, Buhalis D. Social media in tourism and hospitality: a literature review. J Travel Tour Mark. 2013; 30 (1–2):3–22. doi: 10.1080/10548408.2013.750919. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Leung XY, Xue L, Bai B. Internet marketing research in hospitality and tourism: a review and journal preferences. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2015; 27 (7):1556–1572. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-05-2014-0268. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Leung XY, Sun J, Bai B. Bibliometrics of social media research: a co-citation and co-word analysis. Int J Hosp Manage. 2017; 66 :35–45. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2017.06.012. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lin SW. The critical success factors for a travel application service provider evaluation and selection by travel intermediaries. Tour Manage. 2016; 56 :126–141. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2016.03.028. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Litvin SW, Goldsmith RE, Pan B. Electronic word-of-mouth in hospitality and tourism management. Tour Manage. 2008; 29 (3):458–468. doi: 10.1016/j.tourman.2007.05.011. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Liu C, Hung K. A comparative study of self-service technology with service employees: a qualitative analysis of hotels in China. Inf Technol Tour. 2020; 22 (1):33–52. doi: 10.1007/s40558-020-00167-1. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Liu C, Hung K, Wang D, Wang S. Determinants of self-service technology adoption and implementation in hotels: the case of China. J Hosp Market Manage. 2020; 29 (6):636–661. [ Google Scholar ]
• Lo WH, Cheng KLB. Does virtual reality attract visitors? The mediating effect of presence on consumer response in virtual reality tourism advertising. Inf Technol Tour. 2020; 22 (4):537–562. doi: 10.1007/s40558-020-00190-2. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Lu J, Mao Z, Wang M, Hu L. Goodbye maps, hello apps? Exploring the influential determinants of travel app adoption. Curr Issue Tour. 2015; 18 (11):1059–1079. doi: 10.1080/13683500.2015.1043248. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• MacKay K, Vogt C. Information technology in everyday and vacation contexts. Ann Tour Res. 2012; 39 (3):1380–1401. doi: 10.1016/j.annals.2012.02.001. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Marshakova-Shaikevich I. Bibliometric maps of field of science. Inf Process Manage. 2005; 41 (6):1534–1547. doi: 10.1016/j.ipm.2005.03.027. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Mehraliyev F, Choi Y, King B. Theoretical foundations of social media power in hospitality and tourism: a hierarchical model. Cornell Hospital Quart. 2021; 62 (2):215–231. doi: 10.1177/1938965520924650. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Molina A, Gomez M, Lyon A, Aranda E, Loibl W. What content to post? Evaluating the effectiveness of Facebook communications in destinations. J Destin Mark Manage. 2020; 18 :100498. [ Google Scholar ]
• Munar AM. Social media strategies and destination management. Scand J Hosp Tour. 2012; 12 (2):101–120. doi: 10.1080/15022250.2012.679047. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nam K, Dutt CS, Chathoth P, Khan MS. Blockchain technology for smart city and smart tourism: latest trends and challenges. Asia Pacific J Tour Res. 2021; 26 (4):454–468. doi: 10.1080/10941665.2019.1585376. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nathan RJ, Victor V, Tan M, Fekete-Farkas M. Tourists’ use of Airbnb app for visiting a historical city. Inf Technol Tour. 2020; 22 (2):217–242. doi: 10.1007/s40558-020-00176-0. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Neidhardt J, Werthner H. IT and tourism: still a hot topic, but do not forget IT. Inf Technol Tour. 2018; 20 :1–7. doi: 10.1007/s40558-018-0115-x. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Nusair K, Butt I, Nikhashemi SR. A bibliometric analysis of social media in hospitality and tourism research. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2019; 31 (7):2691–2719. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-06-2018-0489. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Okumus B, Bilgihan A. Proposing a model to test smartphone users’ intention to use smart applications when ordering food in restaurants. J Hosp Tour Technol. 2014; 5 (1):31–49. [ Google Scholar ]
• Ozturk AB, Nusair K, Okumus F, Hua N. The role of utilitarian and hedonic values on users’ continued usage intention in a mobile hotel booking environment. Int J Hosp Manage. 2016; 57 :106–115. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2016.06.007. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Palácios H, de Almeida MH, Sousa MJ. A bibliometric analysis of trust in the field of hospitality and tourism. Int J Hosp Manage. 2021; 95 :102944. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.102944. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Paul J, Rialp A. The art of writing literature review: what do we know and what do we need to know? Int Bus Rev. 2020; 29 (4):101717. doi: 10.1016/j.ibusrev.2020.101717. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Piccoli G. Information technology in hotel management: a framework for evaluating the sustainability of IT-dependent competitive advantage. Cornell Hospital Quart. 2008; 49 (3):282–296. doi: 10.1177/1938965508320722. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Pritchard A. Statistical bibliography or bibliometrics. J Document. 1969; 25 (4):348–349. [ Google Scholar ]
• Purohit A, Thakar U. Role of information and communication technology in improving loyalty program effectiveness: a comprehensive approach and future research agenda. Inf Technol Tour. 2019; 21 :259–280. doi: 10.1007/s40558-018-00139-6. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Samiee S, Chabowski BR. Knowledge structure in international marketing: a multi-method bibliometric analysis. J Acad Mark Sci. 2012; 40 (2):364–386. doi: 10.1007/s11747-011-0296-8. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sharif SP, Mura P. Narratives on Facebook: the impact of user-generated content on visiting attitudes, visiting intention and perceptions of destination risk. Inf Technol Tour. 2019; 21 (2):139–163. doi: 10.1007/s40558-019-00140-7. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Shin H, Perdue RR. Self-service technology research: a bibliometric co-citation visualization analysis. Int J Hosp Manage. 2019; 80 :101–112. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2019.01.012. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sigala M. Social media marketing in tourism and hospitality. Inf Technol Tour. 2015; 15 :181–183. doi: 10.1007/s40558-015-0024-1. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sigala M. New technologies in tourism: From multi-disciplinary to anti-disciplinary advances and trajectories. Tour Manage Perspect. 2018; 25 :151–155. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2017.12.003. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sigala M. Tourism and COVID-19: impacts and implications for advancing and resetting industry and research. J Bus Res. 2020; 117 :312–321. doi: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.06.015. [ PMC free article ] [ PubMed ] [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Sigala M, Kumar S, Donthu N, Sureka R, Joshi Y. A bibliometric overview of the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Management: Research contributions and influence. J Hosp Tour Manage. 2021; 47 :273–288. doi: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2021.04.005. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Singh S, Bashar A (2021) A bibliometric review on the development in e-tourism research. Int Hospital Rev (ahead-of-print)
• Spangenberg T. Development of a mobile toolkit to support research on human mobility behavior using GPS trajectories. Inf Technol Tour. 2014; 14 (4):317–346. doi: 10.1007/s40558-014-0005-9. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Standing C, Tang-Taye JP, Boyer M. The impact of the internet in travel and tourism: a research review 2001–2010. J Travel Tour Mark. 2014; 31 (1):82–113. doi: 10.1080/10548408.2014.861724. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Stankov U, Gretzel U. Tourism 4.0 technologies and tourist experiences: a human-centered design perspective. Inf Technol Tour. 2020; 22 (3):477–488. doi: 10.1007/s40558-020-00186-y. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Stankov U, Filimonau V, Slivar I. Calm ICT design in hotels: a critical review of applications and implications. Int J Hosp Manage. 2019; 82 :298–307. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2018.10.012. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Styvén ME, Wallström Å. Benefits and barriers for the use of digital channels among small tourism companies. Scand J Hosp Tour. 2019; 19 (1):27–46. doi: 10.1080/15022250.2017.1379434. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Valenzuela LM, Merigó JM, Johnston WJ, Nicolas C, Jaramillo JF. Thirty years of the Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing: a bibliometric analysis. J Bus Ind Market. 2017; 32 (1):1–17. doi: 10.1108/JBIM-04-2016-0079. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Valeri M, Baggio R. A critical reflection on the adoption of blockchain in tourism. Inf Technol Tour. 2021; 23 (2):121–132. doi: 10.1007/s40558-020-00183-1. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Webster C, Ivanov S. Future tourism in a robot-based economy: a perspective article. Tour Rev. 2020; 75 (1):329–332. doi: 10.1108/TR-05-2019-0172. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wei W, Torres EN, Hua N. The power of self-service technologies in creating transcendent service experiences: the paradox of extrinsic attributes. Int J Contemp Hosp Manage. 2017; 29 (6):1599–1618. doi: 10.1108/IJCHM-01-2016-0029. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Wu HC, Cheng CC. Relationships between technology attachment, experiential relationship quality, experiential risk and experiential sharing intentions in a smart hotel. J Hosp Tour Manage. 2018; 37 :42–58. doi: 10.1016/j.jhtm.2018.09.003. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Xiang Z, Fesenmaier DR, Werthner H. Knowledge creation in information technology and tourism: a critical reflection and an outlook for the future. J Travel Res. 2021; 60 (6):1371–1376. doi: 10.1177/0047287520933669. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Yang H, Song H, Cheung C, Guan J. How to enhance hotel guests’ acceptance and experience of smart hotel technology: an examination of visiting intentions. Int J Hosp Manage. 2021; 97 :103000. doi: 10.1016/j.ijhm.2021.103000. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zaidan E. Analysis of IT usage patterns, benefits and barriers in tourism SMEs in the Middle Eastern countries: the case of Dubai in UAE. J Vacat Mark. 2017; 23 (3):248–263. doi: 10.1177/1356766716654515. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zeng B, Gerritsen R. What do we know about social media in tourism? A review. Tour Manage Perspect. 2014; 10 :27–36. doi: 10.1016/j.tmp.2014.01.001. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zha J, Zhu Y, He D, Tan T, Yang X. Sources of tourism growth in Mainland China: an extended data envelopment analysis-based decomposition analysis. Int J Tour Res. 2020; 22 (1):54–70. doi: 10.1002/jtr.2318. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zhou Y, Kim WG, Okumus B, Cobanoglu C. Understanding online travel communities: a literature review and future research directions in hospitality and tourism. J Travel Tour Mark. 2021; 38 (2):194–212. doi: 10.1080/10548408.2021.1887052. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]
• Zupic I, Čater T. Bibliometric methods in management and organization. Organ Res Methods. 2015; 18 (3):429–472. doi: 10.1177/1094428114562629. [ CrossRef ] [ Google Scholar ]

Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices in the Hospitality and Tourism Sector in Africa

• First Online: 27 April 2021

Cite this chapter

• Portia P. S. Sifolo 5 &
• Unathi S. Henama 5  

Part of the book series: Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management ((THEM))

314 Accesses

New frontiers facing the Hospitality and Tourism Services are dynamic and complex because of the involvement of customers and multiple other stakeholders. Moreover, the rapid developments caused by the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), which includes the emergence of new technologies, the increased use of information and communication technology (ICT), social media, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI) continues to challenge the capabilities in the African continent. This chapter presents supply chain dynamics that exists in the hospitality and tourism sector whilst identifying the opportunities in the African continent. The chapter focuses on the most important driver of the hospitality and tourism business which is to provide excellent service delivery that would lead to repeat business. Theoretical concepts such as tourism systems elucidates the interdependence of tourism offerings whilst the tourism circulation system epitomises the pull and push factors that motivates tourists to visit the destination.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

• Available as PDF
• Read on any device
• Instant download
• Own it forever
• Available as EPUB and PDF
• Compact, lightweight edition
• Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
• Free shipping worldwide - see info
• Durable hardcover edition

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Badenhorst-Weiss J, Nel JD (2011) A conceptual framework to analyse supply chain designs. Acta Commercii, 1-1

Google Scholar  

Barron K, Kung E, Proserpio D (2017) The sharing economy and housing affordability evidence from Airbnb. Source Unknown

Boon-itt S, Pongparanat C (2011) Measuring service supply chain management processes: the application of the Q-sort technique. Int J Innov Manag Technol 2(3):217–221

Council, Q.T.I (2014) The sharing economy: how it will impact the tourism landscape and what businesses can do. Brisbane, Australia, Queensland Tourism Industry Council

Dania WAP, Xing K, Amer Y (2018) Collaboration behavioural factors for sustainable agri-food supply chains: a systematic review. J Clean Prod 186:851–864

Article   Google Scholar  

Department for International Development (DFID) (1999) Tourism and poverty elimination: untapped potential. DFID, London, p 1

Economic, U.G.A. Council S (2018) Progress on the implementation of the New Urban Agenda, report of the secretary-general. A/73/83*–E/2018/62

Ellram LM, Tate WL, Billington C (2004) Understanding and managing the service supply chain. J Supply Chain Manag: Global Rev Purch Supply:17–32

European Parliamentary Research Service (2015) The sharing economy and tourism: tourists accommodation. PE 568:345

Fawcett SE, Ellram LM, Ogden JA (2007) Supply chain management: from vision to implementation. Pearson Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River

Font X, Tapper R, Schwartz K, Kornilaki M (2008) Sustainable supply chain management in tourism. Bus Strategy Environ 17:260–271

Gao J, Wu B (2017) Revitalizing traditional villages through rural tourism: a case study of Yuanjia village, Shaanxi Province, China. Tour Manag 63:223–233

Harrison D (2008) Pro-poor tourism: a critique. Third World Q 29(5):851–868

Henama US (2013) Attracting Indian outbound tourists to South Africa: a BRICS perspective. India Quarterly 69(3):229–247

Henama US (2018) Disruptive entrepreneurship using Airbnb: the South African experience. Afr J Hosp Tour Leis 7(1):1–16

Henama US (2019) Tourism as a neoliberal economic messiah: the case of South Africa. In: Nadda V, Bilan S, Azam M, Mulindwa D (eds) Neoliberalism in the tourism and hospitality sector. IGI Publishers, Hershey

Hillebrand B, Driessen PH, Koll O (2015) Stakeholder marketing: theoretical foundations and required capabilities. J Acad Market Sci 43(4):411–428

Huang CD, Goo J, Nam K, Yoo CW (2017) Smart tourism technologies in travel planning: the role of exploration and exploitation. Inf Manag 54(6):757–770

James T (2012) Smart factories. Eng Technol 7(6):64–67

Jraisat LE (2011) A perspective for supply chain management: building a conceptual framework. Int J Bus Sci Appl Manag (IJBSAM) 6(3):1–14

Ke Q (2017) Sharing means renting: an entire-marketplace analysis of Airbnb

Keane M (2004) Brave new world: understanding China’s creative vision. Int J Cult Policy 10(3):265–279

Lawler R (2014) Airbnb experiments with ‘experiences’, offering everything from bike tours to home-cooked meals. Retrieved from: https://techcrunch.com/2014/05/16/Airbnb-experiences/ . Accessed 11 Dec 2018

Liu MY, Breuel T, Kautz J (2017) Unsupervised image-to-image translation networks. In Advances in neural information processing systems, pp 700–708

Malazizi N, Alipour H, Olya H (2008) Risk perceptions of Airbnb hosts: evidence from a Mediterranean Island. Sustainability 10:1–23

Mbasera M, Du Plessis E, Saayman M, Kruger M (2016) Environmentally-friendly practices in hotels. Acta Commercii 16(1):1–8

Molefe PL, Tauoatsoala P, Sifolo PPS, Manavhela P, Henama US (2018) The effects of tourism supply chain management practices on tourism operations in Pretoria, South Africa. Afr J Hosp Tour Leis 7(2):1–12

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2018) Online work in OECD countries

Oriade A, Cameron H (2016) Logistics and supply chain management in travel operations. Operations Management in the Travel Industry, p 1

Phillips PA (2019) A Framework for sustainable service system configuration: exploring value paradoxes with examples from the hospitality industry. J Serv Manag

Randolph JJ (2009) A guide to writing the dissertation literature review. Pract Assess Res Eval 14(13):1–16

Schwab K (2017) The fourth industrial revolution. Currency

Sifolo PPS (2019) Tourism operations supply chain drivers and barriers in Pretoria. In: 10th International Conference, Sustainable Niche Tourism, 26–28 June 2019. Da Nang, Vietnam

Sifolo PPS (2020) Tourism supply chain management: a catalyst to development in Africa. Gaze: J Tour Hosp 11(1):126–139

Sigala M (2014) Customer involvement in sustainable supply chain management: a research framework and implications in tourism. Cornell Hosp Q 55(1):76–88

Ţigu G, Călăreţu B (2013) Supply chain management performance in tourism. continental hotels chain case. Amfiteatru Econ J 15(33):103–115

Trends G (2017) Challenges and opportunities in the implementation of the sustainable development goals

UNWTO (2019) International tourist arrivals reach 1.4 billion two years ahead of forecasts

Van Wee GP, Banister D (2015) How to write a literature review paper? Transp Rev: Transnatl Transdisciplinary J 36(2):1–13

Van Zyl G (2015) Cape Town is Airbnb’s top African market. Retrieved from: http://www.fin24.com/Tech/News/ . Accessed 25 July 2019

Wagner SM, Neshat N (2010) Assessing the vulnerability of supply chains using graph theory. Int J Prod Econ 126(1):121–129

Walker A (2019) Airbnb believes it has a R10bn impact on South Africa’s economy. Retrieved from: https://memeburn.com/ . Accessed 25 July 2019

WTO (2020) Trade set to plunge as COVID-19 pandemic upends global economy. Press/855 Press Release. https://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres20_e/pr855_e.htm

Yaroson EV, Sharief K, Shah A, Breen L (2018) An assessment of supply chain vulnerabilities to dynamic disruptions in the pharmaceutical supply chain

Zhang X, Song H, Huang GQ (2009) Tourism supply chain management: a new research agenda. Tour Manag 30(1):345–358

Download references

Author information

Authors and affiliations.

Department of Tourism Management, Tshwane University of Technology, Pretoria, South Africa

Portia P. S. Sifolo & Unathi S. Henama

You can also search for this author in PubMed   Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Portia P. S. Sifolo .

Editor information

Editors and affiliations.

Open University Business School, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK

Michael Z. Ngoasong

Lagos Business School, Pan-Atlantic University, Lagos, Nigeria

Ogechi Adeola

School of Hospitality and Tourism, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, UK

Albert N. Kimbu

University of Ghana Business School, University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana

Robert E. Hinson

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2021 Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Sifolo, P.P.S., Henama, U.S. (2021). Sustainable Supply Chain Management Practices in the Hospitality and Tourism Sector in Africa. In: Ngoasong, M.Z., Adeola, O., Kimbu, A.N., Hinson, R.E. (eds) New Frontiers in Hospitality and Tourism Management in Africa. Tourism, Hospitality & Event Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70171-0_8

Download citation

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70171-0_8

Published : 27 April 2021

Publisher Name : Springer, Cham

Print ISBN : 978-3-030-70170-3

Online ISBN : 978-3-030-70171-0

eBook Packages : Business and Management Business and Management (R0)

Share this chapter

Anyone you share the following link with will be able to read this content:

Sorry, a shareable link is not currently available for this article.

Provided by the Springer Nature SharedIt content-sharing initiative

• Publish with us

Policies and ethics

• Find a journal
• Track your research

ABOUT US more

Projects more.

Digital travel service RUSSPASS

An innovative travel planning service.

Moscow City Tourism Committee concludes its first-ever digital roadshow in India to a resounding success

The 4-day panned virtual event was specially curated to present the “City of Moscow” as an attractive travel destination to the vibrant Indian outbound travel fraternity spread across 15 major cities PAN India.

Moscow tops the main category at World Travel Awards

Moscow wins in two categories of world travel awards europe, dear moskvichi: 10 stories about moscow told by its citizens.

The main component of each city is its residents. Moscow City Tourism Committee is launching Moskvichi, a special project that aims at showcasing the city through its residents' stories.  

Sergey Sobyanin proposed voting for Moscow at the World Travel Awards

Natalya Sergunina: City tours in honour of International Tourist Guide Day attracted over 3,500 visitors

Natalya sergunina: five moscow hotels were included in the annual forbes travel guide star award ranking.

For the first time, the Four Seasons Hotel Moscow, opened in 2014, was awarded the highest 5-star rating. In addition, the 4-star rating was awarded to Lotte Hotel, The Ritz-Carlton, and Ararat Park Hyatt in Moscow. The “Recommended” rating was awarded to The St. Regis Nikolskaya Hotel in Moscow.

#valentines: romantic photography locations in Moscow

Over 15 Thousand People Visit Tourist Information Centre During Journey to Christmas Festival

Moscow restaurant listed in the russian book of records.

Birds, a restaurant with a panoramic view of Moscow, has set a record and become officially the highest restaurant and club in Europe. This fact has been registered in the Russian Book of Records. The restaurant is located in Moscow-City (MIBC).

Business meetings, VR travels, and the iconic Moscow ice cream: FITUR tourism trade fair recap

More than 500 people have applied to participate in the Moscow Travel Hack

Moscow to take part in major international tourism trade fair in madrid.

FITUR Madrid 2020 will be the first international event this year where Moscow will present its tourism potential. It will be held from 22 to 26 January.

Tourism Web Portal

About the portal.

A technological tool for effective communication between the leading players in the Moscow tourism market and representatives of the foreign/regional tourism industry through online events. OBJECTIVES: • Building long-term cooperation with foreign/regional representatives • Raising awareness among foreign/regional representatives of the tourism industry of the tourism opportunities, measures and attractiveness of the city of Moscow in the field of tourist infrastructure development

Moscow City Tourism Committee

The Tourism Committee, or Mostourism, is the executive body of the Moscow City Government that oversees tourist activities in the capital. The Committee is responsible for legislative initiatives, congress and exhibition activities, and event and image projects. As the brand manager for an attractive tourism image for Moscow, Mostourism constantly analyses global trends, offers Russian and foreign tourists what they want, and also uncovers new opportunities for the capital in terms of interesting and rewarding leisure activities.

ANO «Project Office for the Development of Tourism and Hospitality of Moscow»

Syundyukova Yulia [email protected] Mezhiev Magomed [email protected]

Video materials about Moscow

UK's one-way ticket: Asylum seekers facing Rwanda flight turn to Ireland

Alzheimer's drug adoption in US slowed by doctors' skepticism

Thailand to take 100,000 migrants fleeing Myanmar, warns against spreading conflict

Haystack to havoc: Relentless fire burns 110 homes in Mahottari

Moscow city tourism committee organizes conference for indian mice market stakeholders.

New Delhi [India], April 24 (ANI): Recognising market demand, the Moscow City Tourism Committee organized a conference for representatives of the Indian MICE industry, to introduce them to the tourism strengths of the Russian capital.

MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, and is a type of tourism in which large groups, usually plan things well in advance.

The event took place on April 19 in Delhi and brought together over 100 participants from MICE agencies of both countries, corporate customers, representatives of the travel industry in Moscow, Aeroflot and the Indian branches of Sberbank.

Business tourism is one of the most promising directions for Moscow.

In 2023, the capital was visited by 3.7 million business tourists - 7 per cent more than in 2022. And India remains one of the leaders among visitors from non-CIS countries in terms of the number of business travellers.

"The Russian capital as a centre of business tourism and corporate events is already an established and a strong brand in the international arena," commented Anastasia Popova, Deputy General Director for International and Industry Cooperation of Project Office for the Development of Tourism and Hospitality in Moscow.

"Now our task is to demonstrate to our Indian partners all the possibilities of organizing high-value MICE events in Moscow in combination with already proven tourist programs," said Popova.

At the Shaping MICE Future Conference, industry experts from Russia and India pronounced statements and speeches on the future of MICE events in these two countries, a presentation of the MICE potential of Moscow was showcased, and an analytical report on the state of the outbound MICE market in India was presented to the visitors.

During the panel discussion, participants assessed the current status and interaction peculiarities with the MICE market in India and developed recommendations for the MICE industry in Moscow during the general brainstorming session.

Representatives of the Indian MICE industry participated in B2B negotiations to find new cross-partners in the Moscow business environment and among representatives of the hospitality industry.

Representatives of the MICE industry took part in the event from Moscow.

Among them were DMC (Grand Rus, Academservice, Headed Goose, Satguru Travel, Isba Rus, Hug the Bear, Mellenium Group) as well as representatives of other partners interested in the development of MICE cooperation between Russia and India: Global transfers provider i'way and hotels Edge Seligerskaya and Edge Vinogradovo Moscow by Rotana.

"In 2024, we have witnessed a significant surge (more than quadruple) in the demand for transfers by Russians visiting India, both for business and leisure purposes. Muscovites are leading the trend, with 80 per cent of transfer bookings originating from the capital since the beginning of the year. Additionally, we observe a growing interest from Indian tourism agencies in exploring Russia, resulting in a substantial increase in our collaboration," commented Dmitriy Saraykin, co-founder of Global Transfer Provider i'way.

The Shaping MICE Future conference allowed the Moscow City Tourism Committee to form a pool of MICE industry representatives in Moscow to prioritize incoming requests for events and clarify India's requirements for business and corporate events to build mutually effective work. Indian colleagues received up-to-date information about Moscow as a safe and attractive MICE destination and were able to find potential partners among representatives of the MICE industry of the Russian capital and were able to present the MICE market in India.

"The event served as a remarkable platform for fostering meaningful dialogue and collaboration within the tourism industry. The event provided us with invaluable opportunities to engage with key stakeholders from the tourism department, as well as tour operators and service providers. The insights gained during the event underscored the Moscow City Tourism Committee's keen interest in the Indian outbound market, and we are optimistic about the promising prospects for Moscow as a destination, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape. We firmly believe that with concerted efforts and strategic initiatives, Moscow has the potential to emerge as a top-choice destination for Indian tourists," said Mudit Mathur, director of Tours Delite India, representing Academ Service - Russia in India.

The conference also assessed the solutions to foreign demand for non-standard venues and elements in MICE programs, such as museums, parks, theaters and others. Holding MICE events at offbeat locations, such as the State Historical Museum, the Moscow Planetarium and Khudozhestvenny Cinema, is becoming popular.

ANI 25th April 2024, 03:27 GMT+10

Read This Next

Big News Network

• Big News Network News Agency
• Midwest Radio Network
• Mainstream Media

BIG NEWS NETWORK.COM

• Contact & Support
• Terms & Conditions

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

• News Releases

Copyright © 1998-2024 Big News Network All rights reserved. ISSN : 2616-6917

The Economic Times daily newspaper is available online now.

Indians among top visitors to moscow from non-cis states.

Moscow sees a rise in business tourism, with 3.7 million visitors in 2023, including 60,000 Indians. A conference in Delhi aimed to strengthen ties between Indian and Moscow's MICE industries, highlighting Moscow's potential for corporate events. The event also discussed collaboration opportunities and innovative MICE venues.

Read More News on

Why Indians would rather eat restaurant food than buy ready-to-cook

As more EVs roll out, here’s what can spoil the party

Google 1-startups 0: This INR2,000 crore ad war is set for a new twist

A treasure trove of renewable energy is hiding beneath Ladakh’s cold deserts

Three reasons why an uptick in Bandhan Bank shares will take time

With spruced-up dives, classy cocktail bars and bigger-than-ever microbreweries, Bengaluru’s drinking scene gets even more spirited

Find this comment offensive?

Choose your reason below and click on the Report button. This will alert our moderators to take action

Reason for reporting:

Your Reason has been Reported to the admin.

To post this comment you must

Log In/Connect with:

Fill in your details:

Will be displayed

Will not be displayed

Share this Comment:

Uh-oh this is an exclusive story available for selected readers only..

Worry not. You’re just a step away.

Prime Account Detected!

It seems like you're already an ETPrime member with

Login using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits

Log out of your current logged-in account and log in again using your ET Prime credentials to enjoy all member benefits.

To read full story, subscribe to ET Prime

₹34 per week

Billed annually at ₹2499 ₹1749

Super Saver Sale - Flat 30% Off

On ET Prime Membership

Unlock this story and enjoy all members-only benefits.

Offer Exclusively For You

Save up to Rs. 700/-

ON ET PRIME MEMBERSHIP

Get 1 Year Free

With 1 and 2-Year ET prime membership

Get Flat 40% Off

Then ₹ 1749 for 1 year

ET Prime at ₹ 49 for 1 month

Stay Ahead in the New Financial Year

Get flat 20% off on ETPrime

90 Days Prime access worth Rs999 unlocked for you

Exclusive Economic Times Stories, Editorials & Expert opinion across 20+ sectors

Stock analysis. Market Research. Industry Trends on 4000+ Stocks

​Get 1 Year Complimentary Subscription of TOI+ worth Rs.799/-​

Stories you might be interested in

Moscow City Tourism Committee organizes conference for Indian MICE market stakeholders

N ew Delhi [India], April 24 (ANI): Recognising market demand, the Moscow City Tourism Committee organized a conference for representatives of the Indian MICE industry , to introduce them to the tourism strengths of the Russian capital.

MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, and is a type of tourism in which large groups, usually plan things well in advance.

The event took place on April 19 in Delhi and brought together over 100 participants from MICE agencies of both countries, corporate customers, representatives of the travel industry in Moscow, Aeroflot and the Indian branches of Sberbank.

Business tourism is one of the most promising directions for Moscow.

In 2023, the capital was visited by 3.7 million business tourists - 7 per cent more than in 2022. And India remains one of the leaders among visitors from non-CIS countries in terms of the number of business travellers.

"The Russian capital as a centre of business tourism and corporate events is already an established and a strong brand in the international arena," commented Anastasia Popova, Deputy General Director for International and Industry Cooperation of Project Office for the Development of Tourism and Hospitality in Moscow.

"Now our task is to demonstrate to our Indian partners all the possibilities of organizing high-value MICE events in Moscow in combination with already proven tourist programs," said Popova.

At the Shaping MICE Future Conference, industry experts from Russia and India pronounced statements and speeches on the future of MICE events in these two countries, a presentation of the MICE potential of Moscow was showcased, and an analytical report on the state of the outbound MICE market in India was presented to the visitors.

During the panel discussion, participants assessed the current status and interaction peculiarities with the MICE market in India and developed recommendations for the MICE industry in Moscow during the general brainstorming session.

Representatives of the Indian MICE industry participated in B2B negotiations to find new cross-partners in the Moscow business environment and among representatives of the hospitality industry.

Representatives of the MICE industry took part in the event from Moscow.

Among them were DMC (Grand Rus, Academservice, Headed Goose, Satguru Travel, Isba Rus, Hug the Bear, Mellenium Group) as well as representatives of other partners interested in the development of MICE cooperation between Russia and India: Global transfers provider i'way and hotels Edge Seligerskaya and Edge Vinogradovo Moscow by Rotana.

"In 2024, we have witnessed a significant surge (more than quadruple) in the demand for transfers by Russians visiting India, both for business and leisure purposes. Muscovites are leading the trend, with 80 per cent of transfer bookings originating from the capital since the beginning of the year. Additionally, we observe a growing interest from Indian tourism agencies in exploring Russia, resulting in a substantial increase in our collaboration," commented Dmitriy Saraykin, co-founder of Global Transfer Provider i'way.

The Shaping MICE Future conference allowed the Moscow City Tourism Committee to form a pool of MICE industry representatives in Moscow to prioritize incoming requests for events and clarify India's requirements for business and corporate events to build mutually effective work. Indian colleagues received up-to-date information about Moscow as a safe and attractive MICE destination and were able to find potential partners among representatives of the MICE industry of the Russian capital and were able to present the MICE market in India.

"The event served as a remarkable platform for fostering meaningful dialogue and collaboration within the tourism industry. The event provided us with invaluable opportunities to engage with key stakeholders from the tourism department, as well as tour operators and service providers. The insights gained during the event underscored the Moscow City Tourism Committee 's keen interest in the Indian outbound market, and we are optimistic about the promising prospects for Moscow as a destination, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape. We firmly believe that with concerted efforts and strategic initiatives, Moscow has the potential to emerge as a top-choice destination for Indian tourists," said Mudit Mathur, director of Tours Delite India, representing Academ Service - Russia in India.

The conference also assessed the solutions to foreign demand for non-standard venues and elements in MICE programs, such as museums, parks, theaters and others. Holding MICE events at offbeat locations, such as the State Historical Museum, the Moscow Planetarium and Khudozhestvenny Cinema, is becoming popular.

This helps to attract conference organizers and creates a unique experience for the participants. Working in this format, many visitors who come to Moscow on a business trip want to return with their families and spend time as regular tourists. (ANI)

• LIVE DISCOURSE
• BLOG / OPINION
• SUBMIT PRESS RELEASE
• Advertisement
• Knowledge Partnership
• Media Partnership

Moscow City Tourism Committee organizes conference for Indian MICE market stakeholders

Recognising market demand, the moscow city tourism committee organized a conference for representatives of the indian mice industry, to introduce them to the tourism strengths of the russian capital..

Recognising market demand, the Moscow City Tourism Committee organized a conference for representatives of the Indian MICE industry, to introduce them to the tourism strengths of the Russian capital. MICE stands for Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Exhibitions, and is a type of tourism in which large groups, usually plan things well in advance.

The event took place on April 19 in Delhi and brought together over 100 participants from MICE agencies of both countries, corporate customers, representatives of the travel industry in Moscow, Aeroflot and the Indian branches of Sberbank. Business tourism is one of the most promising directions for Moscow.

In 2023, the capital was visited by 3.7 million business tourists - 7 per cent more than in 2022. And India remains one of the leaders among visitors from non-CIS countries in terms of the number of business travellers. "The Russian capital as a centre of business tourism and corporate events is already an established and a strong brand in the international arena," commented Anastasia Popova, Deputy General Director for International and Industry Cooperation of Project Office for the Development of Tourism and Hospitality in Moscow.

"Now our task is to demonstrate to our Indian partners all the possibilities of organizing high-value MICE events in Moscow in combination with already proven tourist programs," said Popova. At the Shaping MICE Future Conference, industry experts from Russia and India pronounced statements and speeches on the future of MICE events in these two countries, a presentation of the MICE potential of Moscow was showcased, and an analytical report on the state of the outbound MICE market in India was presented to the visitors.

During the panel discussion, participants assessed the current status and interaction peculiarities with the MICE market in India and developed recommendations for the MICE industry in Moscow during the general brainstorming session. Representatives of the Indian MICE industry participated in B2B negotiations to find new cross-partners in the Moscow business environment and among representatives of the hospitality industry.

Representatives of the MICE industry took part in the event from Moscow. Among them were DMC (Grand Rus, Academservice, Headed Goose, Satguru Travel, Isba Rus, Hug the Bear, Mellenium Group) as well as representatives of other partners interested in the development of MICE cooperation between Russia and India: Global transfers provider i'way and hotels Edge Seligerskaya and Edge Vinogradovo Moscow by Rotana.

"In 2024, we have witnessed a significant surge (more than quadruple) in the demand for transfers by Russians visiting India, both for business and leisure purposes. Muscovites are leading the trend, with 80 per cent of transfer bookings originating from the capital since the beginning of the year. Additionally, we observe a growing interest from Indian tourism agencies in exploring Russia, resulting in a substantial increase in our collaboration," commented Dmitriy Saraykin, co-founder of Global Transfer Provider i'way. The Shaping MICE Future conference allowed the Moscow City Tourism Committee to form a pool of MICE industry representatives in Moscow to prioritize incoming requests for events and clarify India's requirements for business and corporate events to build mutually effective work. Indian colleagues received up-to-date information about Moscow as a safe and attractive MICE destination and were able to find potential partners among representatives of the MICE industry of the Russian capital and were able to present the MICE market in India.

"The event served as a remarkable platform for fostering meaningful dialogue and collaboration within the tourism industry. The event provided us with invaluable opportunities to engage with key stakeholders from the tourism department, as well as tour operators and service providers. The insights gained during the event underscored the Moscow City Tourism Committee's keen interest in the Indian outbound market, and we are optimistic about the promising prospects for Moscow as a destination, particularly in the post-pandemic landscape. We firmly believe that with concerted efforts and strategic initiatives, Moscow has the potential to emerge as a top-choice destination for Indian tourists," said Mudit Mathur, director of Tours Delite India, representing Academ Service - Russia in India. The conference also assessed the solutions to foreign demand for non-standard venues and elements in MICE programs, such as museums, parks, theaters and others. Holding MICE events at offbeat locations, such as the State Historical Museum, the Moscow Planetarium and Khudozhestvenny Cinema, is becoming popular.

This helps to attract conference organizers and creates a unique experience for the participants. Working in this format, many visitors who come to Moscow on a business trip want to return with their families and spend time as regular tourists. (ANI)

Russian city calls for mass evacuations due to rapidly rising flood waters

China helping russia expand its defence base amid ukraine conflict: report, russian armoured assaults ramp up pressure on ukraine's east, army chief says, sanjay singh claims cm kejriwal not being allowed in-person meetings with family in tihar jail.

Reuters US Domestic News Summary

SpaceX targets two Falcon 9 launches this weekend

Circular Computing and Total IT Global Forge Partnership to Drive ESG Excell...

Evion's Vitamin E Cream: Transformed with a Fresh, New Look

Latest news, odisha's heritage, language under threat, warns pm modi, reuters sports news summary, no truth in rahul gandhi's allegation that bjp will abolish quota: bjp mla purnesh modi, israel will 'scale up' amount of aid going into gaza, military says.

OPINION / BLOG / INTERVIEW

Green metropolises: navigating the path to sustainable urban growth globally, the creative frontier: unleashing potential with generative ai, customized minds: the ai revolution in learning and behavioral change, transformative strategies for high-density cities, connect us on.

• ADVERTISEMENT
• KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP
• MEDIA PARTNERSHIP
• Agro-Forestry
• Art & Culture
• Economy & Business
• Energy & Extractives
• Law & Governance
• Science & Environment
• Social & Gender
• Urban Development
• East and South East Asia
• Europe and Central Asia
• Central Africa
• East Africa
• Southern Africa
• West Africa
• Middle East and North Africa
• North America
• Latin America and Caribbean

OTHER LINKS

• Write for us
• Submit Press Release
• Opinion / Blog / Analysis
• Business News
• Entertainment News
• Technology News
• Law-order News
• Lifestyle News
• National News
• International News

OTHER PRODUCTS

Email: [email protected] Phone: +91-720-6444012, +91-7027739813, 14, 15

© Copyright 2024