Looking at the tourism industry through the lenses of industry 4.0: a bibliometric review of concerns and challenges
Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights
ISSN: 2514-9792
Article publication date: 29 March 2023
Issue publication date: 26 January 2024
Abstract
Purpose
The technological and digital revolution has introduced important changes in the tourism industry. However, capturing the extent of the new tourism 4.0 paradigm is still difficult. This study aims to assess the dimensions related to the concepts of industry 4.0 in tourism and hospitality, tourism innovation and tourism ecosystem when considered simultaneously, and their role in promoting a new wave of competitiveness in the tourism industry.
Design/methodology/approach
A bibliometric study was conducted based on tourism 4.0, hotel 4.0, tourism innovation and tourism ecosystem using 120 eligible articles published between 2008 and 2021 from the Web of Science database.
Findings
This study demonstrated the advances in industry 4.0 in tourism and hospitality publications over 13 years and identified five interconnected dimensions: (1) knowledge transfer in tourism; (2) networking tourism innovation; (3) sources of tourism innovation; (4) smart tourism ecosystem and (5) innovation research in tourism. It was also concluded that tourism development should be a regional competence based on strategic networking and externalisation of regional knowledge flows.
Research limitations/implications
This bibliometric review provides important implications and recommendations for several players of industry 4.0 in tourism and hospitality and policymakers. Not only did it make it possible to create a state of art, but also to categorise the existing interconnections between the dimensions of Tourism 4.0, Hotel 4.0, Tourism innovation and Tourism ecosystem to optimise its implementation and generate greater value. In addition, practical implications were inferred that improve the tourism sector’s competitiveness, helping strategic decision-making at the level of policymakers and actors in this sector.
Practical implications
Apart from state of the art, this bibliometric review made it possible to categorise the existing interconnections between the dimensions of tourism 4.0, hotel 4.0, tourism innovation and tourism ecosystem to optimise its implementation and generate greater value. Practical implications were inferred that improve the tourism sector’s competitiveness, helping strategic decision-making at the level of policymakers and several players in this sector.
Originality/value
This study addresses the existing literature gap in the interconnection of industry 4.0 with tourism and hospitality by describing the most relevant conceptual interconnections and setting practical implications for improving the competitiveness of the tourism industry. Furthermore, it integrates previous studies and outlines future lines of investigation.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
NECE-UBI, Research Centre for Business Sciences, Research Centre and this work are funded by FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia, IP, project UIDB/04630/2020.
Citation
Gomes, S., Lopes, J.M. and Ferreira, L. (2024), "Looking at the tourism industry through the lenses of industry 4.0: a bibliometric review of concerns and challenges", Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 436-457. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHTI-10-2022-0479
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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