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Successful companies in every age use the most advanced technologies of the time to create value for their stakeholders. In today's knowledge economy, however, technology stands as both a formidable power and challenging dilemma for the hospitality industry. New advances in digital technologies connect the hospitality company within and to a global marketplace with an efficiency that would have been difficult to conceive just decades ago. Yet how much to investand what technologies to invest inare among the most important decisions made by management. The way forward is not always obvious or easy. This globally orientated research project Hospitality 2000: The Technology was designed to investigate technology issues confronting the industry in regards to its marketing and day-to-day operations. Like a prism that captures light from many angles, the study was designed to focus on multi-faceted global issues relating to technology and the hospitality organization. In addition to a comprehensive report on the data, findings and conclusions from the survey research, the full report also further examined hospitality organizations that were found to be pursuing cutting-edge technology innovations. However, the findings contained within this paper are initially focused on the aspects of technology and marketing. The paper then goes on to further examine the issues relating to the management of customer relationships using technology. Methodology The research methodology used in two previous Hospitality 2000 studies (Hospitality 2000: The People and Hospitality 2000: A View To The Next Millennium) was used. Following a review of the literature, a detailed questionnaire was prepared and pre-tested with a small sample of key technology executives within the industry. A convenient stratified sample of hospitality industry executives in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, India, Africa and Asia/Pacific was drawn, and a postal survey was used. A total of over 3,000 surveys were mailed and there were 333 responses. Of these, 87 percent reported responsibility for investments in IT, 41 percent worked at "parent" company headquarters, 7 percent at regional headquarters and 51 percent at individual hotels. Geographically, 84 percent of respondents were based in the Americas, 10 percent in EMEIA (Europe, Middle East, India and Africa) and 5 percent in Asia/Pacific. Global chains were represented by 26 percent of respondents; regional chains by 13 percent; independent management companies by 39 percent, franchisors by 5 percent. Independent operators made up the balance for the most part. Responses were cross-tabulated by type and size of company to allow for the weighting of responses such those relating to planned investment in IT... To read the complete article, click here to download the printable pdf file (104 kb).
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