Digital Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism

Guest Editors

Prof. Xusen Cheng

School of Information

Renmin University of China, China

Email: [email protected]

 

Prof. Jian Mou

School of Business

Pusan National University, South Korea

Email: [email protected]

 

Prof. Yonggui Wang

College of Business Administration

Capital University of Economics and Business, China

Email: [email protected]

 

Dr. Triparna de Vreede

College of Business Administration

University of South Florida, USA

Email: [email protected]

 

Editor-in-Chief

Prof. Fevzi Okumus

University of Central Florida, USA

Email: [email protected]

 

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a devastating impact on tourism and hospitality sectors globally. The border closures, travel restrictions, quarantine requirements, events cancellations and fear of spread, have brought a sharp decline in the market performance of typical tourism and hospitality industries (Gössling, Scott, & Hall, 2020; Wang et al., 2020). For example, sharing economy sectors like Airbnb and Uber encourage encounter with strangers (Cheng, Fu, Sun, Bilgihan, & Okumus, 2019), which results in a significant increase in the risk of exposure to infection and the enhanced the risk perceptions of consumers (Wang, Ma, and Wang, 2020). Individuals are more likely to fall into nervousness and fear since sharing activities usually necessitates proximity and contentedness between two parties, which increases the risk of infection. Therefore, hotel occupancies have been lower than ever, and most traditional tourism and hospitality sectors have been experiencing weak markets.

While the pandemic placed extreme challenges on most tourism and hospitality sectors, new and disruptive adaptations and digital innovations may find a very fertile ground in this global crisis (Assaf, Kock, & Tsionas, 2021). Digitization has a subversive impact on how tourism and hospitality industries delivery their quality services safely and quickly (Fu, Cheng, Su, Bilgihan, & Okumus, 2020; Cheng, Su, Luo, Benitez, & Cai, 2021). Digital innovation refers to “the use of information and communication technology as a driving force for innovation that has an impact on the structure, processes and organizational landscape” (Rönnbäck & Eriksson, 2012).

Recently, digital innovations including robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), and human-robot interactions play an important role in helping reduce human contact and slow the spread of COVID-19 in most traditional tourism and hospitality industries such as hospitals, airports, transportation systems, recreation and scenic areas, hotels and restaurants (Zeng, Chen, & Lew, 2020). Specifically, intelligent robots have great potential to provide concierge, housekeeping, food and other tasks in typical tourism and hospitality settings. Furthermore, technology-enabled big data analytics also afford precision marketing for most tourism and hospitality organizations. In short, the challenges from the COVID-19 crisis and digital innovations are jointly reshaping the structure of most traditional tourism and hospitality sectors. The broad impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and digital transformation give rise to novel and important research questions. Researchers should seize this opportunity to promote digital innovation in tourism and hospitality sectors.

 

Submissions related to the following topics are particularly welcome but not limited to:

• Digital transformation practices in hospitality and tourism industries

• Digital business strategy in tourism and hospitality

• Service innovation during the new normal of COVID-19

• Online marketing strategies for tourism and hospitality organizations

• Metaverse applications for hospitality and tourism sectors

• Technology changes and digital innovation for hospitality and tourism sectors

• Live streaming business innovation in the digital world

• Technology-enabled organization resilience during the new normal of COVID-19

• Bright side and dark side of AI in hospitality and tourism sectors

• Digital innovation and its impact in traditional hospitality and tourism industries

• Service robot design and Human-robot collaboration in the new normal of COVID-19

• Service marketing innovation during the new normal of COVID-19

• Personalization and customization in the digital world

• Trust, privacy, safety and security in hospitality and tourism sectors

• Communication, destination image, and destination marketing

• Crisis recovery and digitization in tourism and hospitality sectors

• Development of sharing economy business in tourism and hospitality industries

• Big data analysis (e.g., machine learning and deep learning) for strategic decision making in tourism and hospitality sectors

• Tourists' risk perception, emotion and behavior as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic

• Information dissemination and tourists/consumers’ sentiment regulation in the post COVID-19 pandemic

• Adoption, deployment, and implementation of digital technology enabled innovation for elderly

 

Submission Procedure

Prospective authors are strongly encouraged to contact the special issue editors regarding potential topics of interest or any questions/suggestions regarding the special issue.

Abstracts (up to 750 words) can be submitted directly to the guest editors via email: [email protected] by March 1st, 2023. Abstracts must be concise and to the point, with appropriate references.

Abstracts will be reviewed and invitations to submit full papers will be sent out by March 15th, 2023. Acceptance of abstract does not guarantee acceptance of paper.

Full papers must be submitted by July 31th 2023 through ScholarOne Manuscripts, the online submission and peer review system. Please select the correct issue to submit to: “Digital Innovation in Hospitality and Tourism”.

Registration and access are available at: http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/ijchm

Author guidelines for IJCHM can be found at: http://emeraldgrouppublishing.com/products/journals/author_guidelines.htm?id=ijchm

 

Review Process

Each paper submitted to this special issue will be subject to the following review procedures:

1. It will be reviewed by the guest editors for general suitability for this special issue.

2. If it is judged suitable, three reviewers will be selected for a rigorous double-blind review process.

3. Based on the recommendation of the reviewers, the guest editors, Associate Editor for special issues and the Editor-in-Chief of IJCHM will decide whether the particular paper should be accepted as it is, revised and re-submitted, or rejected.

 

Timeline

Abstracts Submissions: March 1st, 2022

Abstract Decisions: March 15th, 2023

FULL Paper Submissions: Open June 1st, Deadline July 31st, 2023

Revisions and Decisions: December 2023

Publication: In 2024

 

Bibliography

Assaf, A. G., Kock, F., & Tsionas, M. (2022). Tourism during and after COVID-19: An expert-informed agenda for future research. Journal of Travel Research, 61(2), 454-457.

Cheng, X., Fu, S., Sun, J., Bilgihan, A., & Okumus, F. (2019). An investigation on online reviews in sharing economy driven hospitality platforms: A viewpoint of trust. Tourism Management, 71, 366-377.

Cheng, X., Su, L., Luo, X., Benitez, J., & Cai, S. (2022). The good, the bad, and the ugly: Impact of analytics and artificial intelligence-enabled personal information collection on privacy and participation in ridesharing. European Journal of Information Systems, 31(3), 339-363.

Fu, S., Cheng, X., Su, L., Bilgihan, A., & Okumus, F. (2020). Designing collaboration process facilitation in hotel management teams to improve collaboration performance. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 88, 102527.

Gössling, S., Scott, D., & Hall, C. M. (2020). Pandemics, tourism and global change: A rapid assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, 29(1), 1-20.

Rönnbäck, Å., & Eriksson, H. (2012). A case study on quality management and digital innovation: Relationship and learning aspects. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 4(4), 408-422.

Wang, S., Ma, S., & Wang, Y. (2021). The role of platform governance in customer risk perception in the context of peer-to-peer platforms. Information Technology for Development, 27(4), 760-778.

Wang, Y., Hong, A., Li, X., & Gao, J. (2020). Marketing innovations during a global crisis: A study of China firms’ response to COVID-19. Journal of business research, 116, 214-220.

Zeng, Z., Chen, P. J., & Lew, A. A. (2020). From high-touch to high-tech: COVID-19 drives robotics adoption. Tourism geographies, 22(3), 724-734.