Emerging Technology Trends in Hospitality and Tourism

This chapter explores how technology has radically reshaped the tourism industry in the last few decades. In particular, IT applications such as the internet since the 1990s, and more recently smartphone Apps, have contributed to that change. Today, travelers and tourists use the internet to explore the many options available to them in terms of transport, lodging and entertainment at popular tourist destinations. Therefore, many local brick and mortar agencies have disappeared and have been replaced by large, platform-based players such as Expedia, AirBnB or Booking.com. The many pictures they upload constantly while traveling, and the feedback collected immediately after service delivery by actors such as Booking.com, inform the choices of those searching for tourism services online. The chapter also discusses how the tourism experience occurs mainly at destinations, which are clusters, were many actors offering services such as transport, lodging and entertainment converge. At these destinations, the existence of many options enriches the attractiveness of the cluster itself. Finally, many examples are provided showing how Apps and emerging technologies such as virtual reality (VR) are reshaping the tourism experience in ways that we are only beginning to imagine