۱- Introduction

۲- Literature review

۳- Methodology

۴- Result

۵- Contributions

۶- Limitations and future research

References

Abstract

Hotels need to go through digital transformation to meet the changing demands of customers in the experience age and stay ahead of both traditional competitors and industry disruptors in an exponentially-evolving competitive environment. This requires hotels to have the right approach to technology, innovation, supported by the right working culture, be data-focused and customer-centric. A qualitative study was done to investigate the readiness of hotels in Asia for digital transformation. The findings, practical implications and future research ideas are presented.

Introduction

The current era of digital connectivity, propelling the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Deloitte Touche Tomahtsu Limited, 2018), is characterized by ubiquitously connected mobile devices, enhanced computing power, abundant digital storage capacity, and easy access to digitized information. All of these contribute to exponential change and disruption to society (Schwab, 2015). This phenomenon has altered the ways by which people access information, communicate with one another, buy and sell products, and interact with businesses. This change in consumer behavior has changed customer expectations and significantly affected many industries, including the hospitality industry. As customers transition from the information age into the experience age in a leveled playing field of mobile connectivity (Wadhera, 2016), they look for more than the ability to search and book hotels directly, and expect personalized, differentiated, and unique experiences from their travel service providers through any channel, medium, and device of their choice. This phenomenon has forced travel organizations to become more customer-centric, responsive, and relevant to their customers at every stage of the customer journey because failure to do so has led to losses in market and channel share. To meet evolving customer expectations, grow market share and retain profit margins, hoteliers have had to defend their digital competitive positioning against not only other hotels but also other players and disruptors in the tourism and accommodation arena. In the hotel industry, distribution by online travel agents (OTAs) now accounts for 70% of the overall online market in Asia Pacific (Hutchison, 2018).