TECHNOLOGICAL ADVANCEMENT & INNOVATIONS IN GOSPITALITY AND TOURISM IN INDIA

Abstract

Innovation in the Travel and tourism Industry is a relatively underexplored area. The advent of internet and online websites and reduced costs of commute over the last 5 decades has led to an ever increasing demand for travel, tourism and hospitality services. This paper aims to analyze the scope and potential of three major transformational innovations in this thriving industry. The paper also tries to understand the changing preferences of Indian respondents towards new travel management techniques and online websites. The results show a strong reliance on conventional methods of booking flight, train and hotel tickets through travel agents. The paper digs deep into the literature review and suggests possible reasons for these findings. There is a strong correlation between various factors related to the choice and preferences of respondents for online websites and travel agents, modes of commute, purpose of travel and accommodation. The correlation matrix helps understand the nature of preferences and offers meaningful insights on demographic characteristics of the respondents. The author has accumulated primary data as well as secondary data from the world bank to conduct a mix of qualitative and quantitative research. To increase the reliability of the study, z tests and Cronbach alpha test is performed over the primary data. The paper also provides a further scope of study to explore the higher reliance of women on travel agents for managing their travel and hospitality services. Finally, the paper concludes that the travel and tourism business in India is still at a growing stage and has a lot of potential. However, the innovations and disruptions need to be tailored to the lifestyle and mindset of Indian customers in order to reap the benefits. The market is competitive, however startups will not be affected severely if they do not incorporate innovations like VR, Smart luggage and voice control in their business model.