Innovation
This report helps to know about the innovation. It defines role of innovation and technology to obtain the competitive advantage of tourism industry. It also defines challenges faced by TLE businesses in Australia and the strategy to overcome those challenges. It also discusses about THOFU (Technology for the hotels of the future) technology, which is used to innovate hotels and restaurants along with the advantages and disadvantages of THOFU.
Innovation is a method, process, or idea to make something new. It provides solution, which meets requirement, needs and wants of customers in the market. Innovation can be done in any segment. Any creative idea, which is beneficial for the organization is called innovation (Matthews and Brueggemann, 2015). Innovation is also crucial in tourism industry because behavior of people is continuously changing from time to time and they want something new, which can inspire them to come again (Meneses and Teixeira, 2011). Innovation helps to enhance the reputation of tourism business by improving, altering or developing the new services, which increase footfall of the customers (Alsos et al., 2014).
There are various challenges in business of tourism industry. Australian tourism industry is also faced with challenges. In Australia, there is problem related to safety and security of the tourist. The people of Asian countries are afraid to visit Australia because there is lack of safety and security for Asian people (Hall et al., 2012). The political condition is also challenging for tourism industry because it makes very strict rules and regulations to stop terrorism, which also hinders tourism. Australian tourism industry is also suffering from shortage of staff, accommodation and investments as compare to Asian tourism industry (Haden, 2012).
Australia is a developed country and advanced in technology and communication. Therefore, it has opportunities to take advantage of this. As such, Australian tourism industry can make strong and well-organized digital marketing campaigns by which it can achieve competitive advantage in the tourism market (Tourism Australia, 2011). Tourism industry can highlight innovative features in their services like electronic luggage tags, smart phone boarding passes, hotel service optimization systems, guest device connectivity tools, wearable devices to identify guests, etc. in their marketing campaigns. These innovations and technologies may attract tourism in the country.
Innovation and technology are very important to achieve competitive advantage in the field of tourism industry. By the help of innovation and technology, Australia can establish digital marketing which can improve revenue, attract customers and create competitive advantage for Australian tourism industry. Innovation and technology can fulfill the needs of companies, tourist and destination (Schermerhom et al., 2012). Technologies like smart phone boarding passes, electronic luggage tags, and wearable devices to identify guests help to reduce cost and provide better services to their travelers.
THOFU is an automation technology, which is used for making technologically advances and sustainable hotels. It creates projects with the help of research and development. It helps to develop and direct new technological concepts, which provides special and exclusive services. THOFU make plan and design of the hotel according to preference of customers such as security, internet, etc. The aim of this technology is to increase overall efficiency of hotel management. THOFU is organized in six sub-projects, which help the organisation to achieve its goals and objectives. These six sub-projects are construction, conceptual motor, safety & security, interior, interaction with user and internet (GPDS Politecnica, 2010).
Specific Challenges Faced by Tourism, Leisure, and Events (TLE) Businesses
THOFU technology is very important for the purpose of tourism industry, because it helps to apply new technologies for hotels, which is beneficial by providing new services and comfort to customers. THOFU is applicable at different levels such as safety & security, construction, interior, interaction with user, conceptual motor and the hotel and the internet. In safety and security level, company can modify its safety and security features with the help of innovation and technology. THOFU is also used in interior designing and construction because it facilitates development of forward-looking interiors and infrastructure, which may be leveraged to attract the customers. This technology can be used to raise the standard of Australian tourism industry. THOFU is also includes Augmented Reality (AR) technology. Museum of London is also used AR technology to provide information of old London to visitors (Bernardos et al., 2011).
There are various advantages of THOFU technology, which are beneficial for hotel industry. THOFU is a technology, which is used to improve hotel infrastructures. The main advantage of THOFU technology is improving energy efficiency and developing sensor network communication by which, hotel management can improve its services and enhance the business of tourism industry. Energy efficiency is very beneficial for hotels because it helps to control and monitor water circulation system and electric charges of hotel along with keeping a check on operation costs. THOFU also provides security and safety benefits by using sensor network communication (CeDint-UPM, 2017). Sensor network communication provides benefits to hotels by offering strong communication protocol, platform to interact with customers and managers with the help of smartphones, and tablets.
THOFU technology has its own set of disadvantages too. THOFU technology is very expensive technology. It provides various unwanted facilities, which increases cost of goods and services of the hotel industries. Only limited customers can afford to stay in such hotels, which can hamper the tourism industry because most of the Asian tourists want economical hotel for their stay. This technology is very time consuming and difficult to maintain.
There are various resources required in setting up a new technology. For completion of these projects, hotels want resources. These resources are human resources, financial resources and information technology (Marsch et al., 2014). For construction and interior designing, the company requires human skills to construct and design the hotel. For safety and security, company requires technical’s resources such as cameras, computers, sensors and hotel management’s softwares.
Conclusion
From above report, it can be concluded that innovation and technology are very important for improving tourism industry of Australia. It can overcome the challenges and obstacle by innovation and technology. It also concludes THOFU technology, provides overall development in hotel industry but is costlier too.
References
Alsos, G. A., Eide, D. and Madsen, E. L. (2014) Handbook of Research on Innovation in Tourism Industries. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Bernardos, A.M., Corredera, C., Ramon, J. and Cano García, J., (2011) Mobile Indoor Augmented Reality. Exploring applications in hospitality environments.
CeDint-UPM (2017) THOFU [Online] Available at: https://www.cedint.upm.es/en/project/thofu (Accessed: 17 March 2017).
GPDS Politecnica (2010) THOFU Technologies of Hotel Del Futuro. [Online] Available at: https://www.grpss.ssr.upm.es/index.php/en/technologies-and-systems-for-ambient-intelligence-mobile-computing-ami?view=project&task=show&id=45 (Accessed: 16 March 2017).
Haden, L. (2012) Australia’s Tourism Industry Faces a Glut of Challenges, TTG Asia, [Online]. Available at: https://ttgasia.com/article.php?article_id=4343 (Accessed: 16 March 2017).
Hall, C. M., Timothy, D.J. and Duval, D. T. (2012) Safety and Security in Tourism: Relationships, Management, and Marketing. Abingdon: Routledge.
Marsch, L., Lord, S. and Dallery, J. (2014) Behavioral Healthcare and Technology: Using Science- Based Innovations to Transform Practice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Matthews, C. H. and Brueggemann, R. (2015) Innovation and Entrepreneurship: A Competency Framework. Abingdon: Routledge.
Meneses, O.A. and Teixeira, A.A. (2011) The innovative behaviour of tourism firms. Economics and Management Research Projects: An International Journal, 1(1), pp.25-35
Schermerhom, J. R., Davidson, P., Poole, D., Simon, A., Woods, P. and Chau, S. L. (2012) Management, Google eBook. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
Tourism Australia (2011) Tourism 2020, [Online]. Available at: https://www.tourism.australia.com/documents/Tourism_2020_overview.pdf (Accessed: 16 March 2017).
