Essay on Factors & Challenges Shaping Innovation in Hospitality

This essay examines the factors and challenges shaping innovation in the hospitality industry, particularly focusing on the hotel sector in the UK. It highlights the adoption of technologies like cloud services and mobile devices for improved communication, marketing, and customer service. The essay discusses how these innovations facilitate international marketing and personalized customer experiences. However, it also addresses the challenges that arise from technology adoption, such as cybercrimes, data breaches, and physical crimes, which can damage the industry's reputation. The essay emphasizes the importance of security measures to mitigate these risks and maintain customer trust. Desklib offers similar essays and resources for students.

Running head: FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
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1FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
Abstract:
The study focuses on the innovative and creative strategies used by the hospitality industry and
the challenges faced by them. The study will give a brief definition about the latest technology
the hospitality industry is using in the present days. The technology advancement and the use of
such technology is benefitting the industry. The study also hi-lights the challenges faced by the
industry due to introduction of such technology. The growing generation is bringing new
techniques to easy the work of this industry and their workers. However, an infinite number of
cyber crimes and ill practises has also involved in this practise. The study will discuss about
these advantages and ill practises that are followed in the society and this industry. It will also
recommend few steps to avoid such circumstances and make a better use of the technology.

2FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
Introduction:
The United Kingdom’s attracts a great number of tourists from worldwide to enjoy their
scenic beauty. The hospitality and tourism industry has open door for all business investors.
There are high scopes for the business operators to get high profit from such investors. The
tourism industry is one of the growing industries in UK(Xie, Zhang and Zhang 2014). They are
highly fragmented with a huge number of businesses involved in it. There are different sectors in
tourism industry including the hotels industry, safari industry, travelling industry, scenic viewing
industry and many more. The various aspects in tourism industry is growing and innovating
themselves to make an easily approach to the customers and seek their attention to get a better
prosperity in their business. The different sectors are trying to modify themselves to create their
own market in the country and attract customers from worldwide(Nagy 2014). The study will
focus on one of the sector of tourism industry. The study will give a detailed result on the
innovation made by the hotel industry to attract the customers. It will also highlight the issues
faced by the customers due to these innovations. The hi use of technology, power and economy
has led the evolution happen and has made a change in the hotel industry however, due to such
changes there are few issues faced by the industry and the customers in the market.
Discussion:
The hotel industry consists of the most important aspect in tourism industry. The hotels
provide the shelter to the tourist who get attracted to the place, a well designed shelter or hotel is
a must for attracting the customer to a particular place. The tourists are completely dependent on
the hotel industry as that determine the changes for customers to come to that place. The hotel

3FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
industry is trying to innovate themselves on further future to create a better scope for the hotel
industry to expand their business and tourism in the global market. the innovations that the hotel
industries have adopted are as such cloud or Saas. It determines the use of technology and
internet to do the official and marketing of the business(Nicolau and Santa-María 2013).
Technology advancement:
Earlier these works were done manually that took a lot of time and were not as prominent
as now. The processes in the early period that took a lot of manual force, hardware system can be
easily sorted by the mere technology application in the present time. The use of technology has
enabled the business to create a cloud record system that records the data in the cloud system
and is easily accessible by the users or owners. The company can easily reach the data
anywhere anytime and transact the business easily from any corner of the world. This
advancement in technology has made the life and job role of the workers easier and faster.
The businesses are reaching new heights and re able to provide the best quality to the customers.
It reduces the administrative system pressure, IT sector pressure and reduces the total cost
on this system. It offers lower capital and becomes easier to upgrade system and information’s.
The technology advancement has also introduced the advantages in mobility. The use of mobile
and smart devices has made the life of the businessperson to be more easy and swift. The
mobile technology is making the life of the businesspersons to be more easy and comfortable.
Communication ease:
Communication and marketing has become easier than ever. The employees, customers,
owners can communicate with each other at any time of the day thus clearing any issue or
queries required by the hotel industry. There might be workers who are looking after the business
on behalf of their owners and thus it becomes very difficult if they are not being able to

4FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
communicate with the owners regarding decision making, client handling, facing issues and
meeting the clients requirements. The use of smart phone has made this easier. The workers can
easily communicate with the owners and customers. The pre booking of hotels are easily
available by mere access of internet. Sometimes advance payments are also done with the use of
technology and internet. This has made the job of the employees easier. The technology
advancement has helped the organization to keep record of the customers with their address
details and picture. This helps to prevent crimes and help to maintain the authenticity of the
place. The customers can easily trust the organization, as they are available in internet and can be
easily tracked if required, at the same time the hotel managers can also track the customers as
they also have a detailed record of the customer staying in the hotels. The hotel booking and
payment system has been enhanced by the use of internet and smart technology.
International marketing:
Customers enjoy the privilege of pre booking on internet even during a peak season in
the tourism spots. The company also enjoys the marketing advantage that they get from internet.
This makes the company worldwide famous and the global consumers can approach them if
required. The social media plays a vital role to create a position in the market. The social
media works as a thread that connects the hotel management and the customers and creates a
communication system between the business sources. The social media spreads the business
name and strategies in the global market thus attracting customer from worldwide. The role of
social media is extremely important in the present days. The social media expands the business
into the international market and thus the tourists coming from outside the country get to know
about the hotels thus supporting the tourism organization in that nation or culture. The hotels
have also started making personalised system to attract the customer and create a demand for

5FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
them. They use personalized message system, welcoming gifts, complimentary food course,
discounts and offers, package system and many more. The personalized systems helps the hotels
to compete in the international market and create a brand name for the hotels. They also
provide complimentary services like gym, swimming pools, spa, meditation room, prayer room
for the customers who are coming to stay. These facilities attract the customers to come and stay
in these hotels. It is very obvious that people come to a tourist spot for relaxation and fun if they
are provided with such facilities then they can enjoy their stay in such places for a longer time.
The facilities will help the customer to find a better reason to stay back at such places or repeat
their visit to such places. These facilities helps the hotels to compete in the international markets
where all the nations are competing to provide the best innovation strategies and creativity in
their hotel culture and organization(Mok, Sparks and Kadampully 2013).
Challenges faced by the industry:
Cyber crimes:
However, along with the facilities and advantages that the companies are getting from the
latest technologies, they are also facing few major issues that are hampering the brand image of
the nation, state or culture. Just like the dual face of a coin the advantages of the technology is
followed by the disadvantages faced due to them the hotel business also faces few striking
challenges in the market that hampers the brand image or name. Few major challenges that are
faced by the hotel organization are such as the technology used by the hotels can create is
problems like the access to internet can be hacked and thus the personal information can be
easily used by other sources for unethical purpose. The use of credit cards can reveal the
personal details of the customers that will cause a huge damage to the customers who come to
reside in the hotels. There can be an identity theft that will make the customer’s lode their

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personal information’s thus causing severe damage to them. Card information’s can be easily
identified and used by the hacker for illegal purpose. The increase in cyber crimes can expose the
personal details of the hotel to the outer world(Dzhandzhugazova et al 2015). The hotel networks
can be jammed and hacked and the data of the customers and workers can be easily identifies
and retrieved from the hotels dictionary. The electronic attack can impose a serious threat to the
hotel industry. There are already incidents where the hackers have hacked the security system in
a hotel and retrieved the personal information about the hotel and the customers. The hackers
have used the information system to steal the money and information about the customers(Sun
2014). The increase in hotel chain is increasing the scope for cyber crimes and general crimes
in the market. the longer chain of hotels are reducing the scope of maintaining proper record and
regulation of security check in the system thus allowing the hacker s and criminal to enter the
market. However, there are few hotels that have started taking up self audit cycle using qualified
people to maintain the security system.
Physical crimes:
Illegal practices:
The most common crime that is present in the world are the physical crimes. Hotels are
residential areas where staying is an easy method and it is very difficult to identify who is
residing unless proper identification documents are present. Nowadays the legal documents are
also duplicate and fake thus misguiding the legal system and hotel organization. Theft,
burglary, rapes, murders are few common crimes that occur in hotels and has been more
implemented with the use of latest technology where people are easily fooled with the help of
updated systems and programs. The crimes include injecting drugs to the customers to murdering
the customer without the knowledge of the hotel authority.

7FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
Downfall in security system:
A high rise in the hotel industry has led to the downfall in the security system. The crime
rates have also increased and due to this, the tourists are getting a negative impact about the
location or spot. It is quite evident that once the image has gone down for a business it becomes
difficult for the business to stand back once again. The guest will have a negative impression
about the business once the market name has gone down for this business. The data risk always
prevails in this market, apart from this there can be few other issues. The unethical workers in
the organization can use the cameras and technologies that are used for keeping a watch on the
customer behaviour in the personal rooms of the customers. These data are used as illegal
information thus hampering the brand name of the company or organization. Sometimes there
are corrupted workers in the system itself who implement the negative work strategy in the hotel
to cause damage to the hotel name and customers.
Risk in marketing:
The use of internet for marketing can again be a risk. Many times, it happens that the
images given in the social media sites do not match will the real image of the hotel. The
customers who have selected the place based on the image are disappointed and created a fuss
about the whole issue. The social sites misguides the customers and thus they get a negative
impression about the hotels(Kim and Qu 2014). Hence, it is often seen that there are few
customers who prefers to directly visit the hotels and confirm their stay there. The chances of
being misguided are very less in such a situation. The latest technology and equipments make the
staffs lazy and careless, thus they tend to treat the customers in a careless manner. This also has a
negative impact in the brand name of the hotel. The branding and advertisement through internet

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can be risky as the hotel might be completely different from inside and the advertisement has
created a different impact about the hotel.
Personal details lost:
Another major issue that can be faced by the people are the social site also allows the
customers to pay the advance or full fair of the stay in the hotel. There are chances for the cyber
criminals to hack the account who can take advantage and steal the money. There are high
chances that the company was not aware and the criminals have already taken the money(Casaló
et al 2015). This leads to a lot of confusion and misunderstanding among the organization and
the customers. It is difficult to track the criminals as they have very swift strategy to continue the
crime. This affects the relation with the customers and thus gives a negative impression about the
business in the global market. The customers lose their trust in internet access and thus affecting
the technical usage in the management system.
Risk for stakeholders:
The stakeholders in this company can face a huge risk if they are not selecting the correct
organization. Fraud cases and illegal practise has become a common issue thus the stake holders
has to consider the drawbacks of technology advancement and make their decision accordingly.
The customers can be at risk any time as they are sharing their personal details with the
organization for payment and can be the victim of cyber crime. The management, PR agency,
Franchise are all directly related to the risk incurred to the organization. The ill use of technology
to with details, use of technology to enter in the confidential areas of the hotels, the risk to
destroy the brand name are serious threats that the stakeholders might face if proper steps are not
taken by the organization.

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Conclusion:
Thus to conclude it can be said that the use of latest technology and innovations have
increased the strategic planning and management system on hotel organization. However, they
have imposed few sever threats on the management system and people related to this. The threats
that are introduced through this technology can be serious threat to the customer and business
organization. The study has discussed about all the related and possible threats to the society that
might affect the society if steps are not taken by the management authority. The technology
advancement has given a better scope to the hotel business in the global market, thus supporting
the tourism industry. It has made the management system easier than before and has
implemented new strategies that have helped the organizations to rise further. The organizations
have reached a new level and have attracted customers from a wide range. The number of
customers have also increased thus giving a new hike to the trade system. At the same time the
business imposes a serious threat to the system. The business has high possibilities to become a
victim of cyber crimes and unethical steps that might hamper the market image of the business
organization, tourism organization and the nation. Thus, measures must be taken to improve the
technology use, security breaches should be prevented and a well framed data storage system
software should be used to prevent such crimes. The employees should be more careful to handle
the data and maintain a record in the security check of the company.
References:

10FACTORS AND CHALLENGES IN SHAPING INNOVATION
Casaló, L.V., Flavián, C., Guinalíu, M. and Ekinci, Y., 2015. Avoiding the dark side of positive
online consumer reviews: Enhancing reviews' usefulness for high risk-averse travelers. Journal
of Business Research, 68(9), pp.1829-1835.
Dzhandzhugazova, E.A., Zaitseva, N.A., Larionova, A.A., Petrovskaya, M.V. and Chaplyuk,
V.Z., 2015. Methodological aspects of strategic management of financial risks during
construction of hotel business objects. Asian Social Science, 11(20), p.229.
Kim, M. and Qu, H., 2014. Travelers' behavioral intention toward hotel self-service kiosks
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Mok, C., Sparks, B. and Kadampully, J., 2013. Service quality management in hospitality,
tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Nagy, A., 2014. The orientation towards innovation of spa hotel management: the case of
Romanian spa industry. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 124, pp.425-431.
Nicolau, J.L. and Santa-María, M.J., 2013. The effect of innovation on hotel market
value. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 32, pp.71-79.
Sun, J., 2014. How risky are services? An empirical investigation on the antecedents and
consequences of perceived risk for hotel service. International Journal of Hospitality
Management, 37, pp.171-179.
Xie, K.L., Zhang, Z. and Zhang, Z., 2014. The business value of online consumer reviews and
management response to hotel performance. International Journal of Hospitality
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