Smart Hospitality: Goodbye Virus!

ABSTRACT

One of the main impacts of technologies in the tourism sector is traveler empowerment. Technology has allowed travelers to be a lot more informed and to take a proactive role in organizing their own trip. Now, tourists are much more demanding, have several options to choose, and have more bargaining power. Tourist has also become not just a mere visitor, but a content generator sharing their experience with other travelers. This research intends to identify the adoption of technologies in the hotel and restaurant sector and secondly to identify smart technologies that can help to eradicate the virus and normalize the hospitality business. The research question is How COVID-19 could be a trigger for the adoption of new technologies in the hospitality sector? The objectives are (i) to identify new technologies already adopted in the hotel and restaurant areas, (ii) to pinpoint how new technologies could help in health and cleanness protocols, and (iii) to categorize changes in operational areas after the consecutive lockdowns. To achieve these goals, several case studies were collected to show and explain best practices for the future. The results are expected to help identify outcomes to build a survey to apply to hospitality professionals. Also, those outcomes will be useful in improving professionals' tools, resources, and procedures to help to eradicate the COVID-19 virus. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.