Disruptive Technology and Innovation in Australian Hotel and Hospitality Industry

Running Head: ENTREPRENEURSHIP 1
Entrepreneurship for Hospitality
Leaders

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 2
Table of Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Australian Hotel and Hospitality Industry....................................................................................................3
Impact of Disruptive Innovation in Australian Hotel and Hospitality Industry.............................................4
Role of Disruptive Technology in Australian Hotel and Hospitality Industry...............................................6
Future Trends of Technology Innovation in Australian Hotel and Hospitality Industry...............................7
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................9

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 3
Introduction
The global hotel and hospitality sector is changing at an extremely rapid speed with n/ew and
innovative trends, products and services keep developing constantly. However, some of them sad
value to the hospitality industry, but some can be disruptive, specifically to the traditional players
in the industry (Dredge, Airey & Gross, 2014). The major objective of this report is to discuss
about the use of disruptive technology and innovation in hospitality industry in Australia.
Disruptive technology refers to the developed and enhanced technology which changes and
disrupts the current technology. It assists a business to increase value of its offerings. As the
disruptive technology is new to the business so it has curtained benefits, developments and
functionalities over competing brands. In today’s competitive business environment, hospitality
organizations need to adopt and implement modern technologies in their routine operations so
that they can provide higher level of customer satisfaction. Considering the importance of
disruptive technology, this report is totally focused on analyzing the effect, role and future trends
of disruptive technology in hotel and hospitality industry of Australia. In past few decades,
Australian hospitality industry has experienced significant growth resulting in enhanced
competition on international level.
Australian Hotel and Hospitality Industry Overview
Hotel and hospitality industry is one of the major contributors to the Australian economy.
According to a report, it can be stated that Australian hospitality industry comprises around 4500
hotels and motels with more than 225,000 rooms. Currently, this sector is generating significant
revenues due to development of tourism in the country. In the future, it is expecting to approach
$167 billion by the year 2025. There is an increase in tourism staying rate due to growth of
tourist arrival from China (Newsroom, 2015). Additionally, another reason is that Australian
hotel and hospitality industry is making huge investment in using modern and innovative
technologies so that hotels can offer best hospitality services to their customers. Australian hotels
prefer to implement digital products and innovative technologies so that they can engage their
guests in hospitality practices and enhance their repeat intention towards their services (Xu &
Gursoy, 2015). Implementation of disruptive technology has a huge impact on the Australian
hotel and hospitality industry which are discussed below:

ENTREPRENEURSHIP 4
Impact of Disruptive Innovation in Australian Hotel and Hospitality
Industry
The hotel and hospitality industry in Australia is fiercely competitive. The rise of craft beer,
quality food, unique customer experiences and convenience have emerged a race in this industry.
With the increase in the standards, rivalry has spread on other aspects and offerings, associated
with the revenue increment, social media and venue technology. Looking at the growth of
Australian hotel sector, it can be stated that this industry is focusing on using the modern
technologies and high-tech products which assist the organizations to increase their profitability.
This is the sector that uses disruptive technology and innovation which assist the hotels to attract
more customers and retain them. There are various organizations in hospitality industry which
are using different disruptive technologies in its routine activities. Some of the organizations
such as Hilton Hotels, Four Points by Sheraton, Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Novotel Sydney Darling
Harbour etc. use disruptive technologies to attract a large customer base and get success in global
hospitality industry (McLaughlin, 2015).
By conducting a research, it can be noted that Australian hotels are making changes in their
processes and routine activities by using effective technologies. Online Travel Agents (OTA) are
considered one of the major forms of disruptive innovation in Australian hospitality industry.
Online Travel Agents are the most successful service operations which operate on World Wide
Web. It includes Expedia Australia, Wotif.com and Lastminute.com that are among major Online
Travel Agencies in Australian hotel sector. They assist the travellers to get easy access to
reservations at hotels and resorts. The introduction of OTA has a great impact on Australian
hospitality and hotel sector. It operations presented price transparency in this sector for first time.
The customers are now able to find the available rooms and room rates at hotels in Australian
market. This innovation in Australian hotel industry had a financially expensive and disruptive
impact on the hotels (Fridman, 2018). In Australia, most of the tourists travel from Chinese
states. Thus, the person from China can book their hotels using the services of OTAs.
In addition to above, one of the common disruptive technologies in hospitality industry is Airbnb
that provides a platform which enables the ordinary people to rent out their residential properties.
This platform has emerged rapidly and disrupts the recent hospitality market by providing
alternative advantages that over time can transfer and catch the majority of customers (Guttentag,