Hospitality Management: Innovation and Challenges

Abstract

This paper aims to provide various insights on innovative practices followed by hospitality industry representing samples of hotels and restaurants operating in Manipal and Udupi, in Karnataka, whereby the industry is transforming itself to the new technological application and digital marketing aspects in day to day operation, revenue management, capacity utilization .The research focuses on the traditional hotels and lodging equipping to the new practices in recent years with different web portal and other marketing aggregators.The paper has facts and from the existing literature and other reports. Primary data collection involving face to face conversations with the Managers of the hotels and the restaurant through questionnaires and in depth interview method. Secondary data includes webpages of online travel aggregators and hospitality firms.Some of the key emerging areas are role of ecommerce, competitive advantage, leverage of technology and change management, operational efficiency. The paper also suggests that it is important to understand how innovations are being managed across different areas of operations in hospitality industry and focuses on aspects of hurdles and barriers faced by the managers towards implementation of innovative ideas and processes. Keyword: New service design, technological adoption, service operational efficiency, capacity utilization, barriers and complexity faced in adopting new technology, revenue managementPractical Implications: Innovation is the order of the day, Udupi district has made a prominent name in the hotel industry all over the world in respect of restaurants and south Indian cuisines and also as a temple place and as an education hub. This paper is of interest to the hoteliers and management students with reference to innovative practices undertaken by hotels and lodging in this location which is categorized into tier 3 cities by adopting technological aspects in day to day operations and also collaboration with online and other marketing aggregators for their revenue management and capacity utilization and over all operational efficiency in general.Originality/Value: This paper has been written after extensive literature references in the related area, further all the papers in this theme issue were written after several rounds of interaction with practitioners to include real-time, relevant and contemporary data.