Week 10 discussion questions for the readings PDF

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Week 10 discussion questions for the readings:

Blockchain by Kizildage et al. (2019)

1. What is blockchain? How does it work? -

Blockchain mechanisms use cryptography to secure transactions with digital authentication protocols Blockchain combines several computer technologies, including distributed data storage, point-topoint transmission, consensus mechanisms and encryption algorithms. transactions are coded into blocks and these blocks are connected to each other in the form of chains by a network of computers in the entire blockchain communication system It can authenticate transactions chronologically, including but not limited to facilitating transactions for products and services, reservation and booking activities, payment clearing, supply chain management, entering into contractual agreements, cryptocurrency.

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How it works: + The decentralized technology is the distributed ledger protocol (DLP) + Transactions are coded into blocks, these blocks are connected into chains + Blockchain consensus processes are composed of participants, who perform transactions, and peer-to-peer network nodes, which are designated to validate those transactions. + Transactions are grouped into blocks that are submitted to a network of validating nodes. + Every time a new block is validated, it is broadcasted to the network and added on top of the blockchain. + Each node verifies the new block and synchronizes its local and real-time synchronized copy of the database, adding a new block to the chain. + Blocks store records of transactions chronologically with timestamps and a unique reference number (hash number) to previous blocks

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Blockchain platforms govern interactions among companies, organizations, communities, stakeholders and even nations. For example: + Establishes the element of trust in transactions + Records of transactions or ownership status of assets + Autonomous transactions in blockchain platforms are verified through a consensus, which are predetermined by the participating members without an involvement of thirdparty arbitrators such as banks + eliminate fraud and errors, increase efficiency and security, reduce cost associated with paperwork and build sustainable inventory management, control systems and vendor transactions to facilitate more efficient supply chain management

2. What areas can Blockchain help in the hospitality and tourism industry, discuss them in detail? -

Payment and cryptocurrencies + Has the potential to attract a new generation of travelers who are attuned to using this form of virtual payment + Easy interchange of money without the need for trusted third parties + Emergence of new forms of customer-to-customer transactions in primary and secondary markets for tourism products.

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Tracking and service customization + Provide tracking functions and customization services for guests + Help to provide seamlessly integrated guest services and management without intruding guests’ privacy + Customers have the freedom to determine the level of disclosure of their private information with hospitality companies or others in the networks + provide more accurate information with personalized and customized tracking capacities + Help to provide better and more trustworthy customer service + Increase overall customer experience and guest satisfaction for the hospitality and tourism companies and/or individual entities.

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The disintermediation of hospitality and tourism operations + A reduced cost of distribution for travel providers, along with increased security for travelers + reimagining how loyalty programs operate and travel payments get handled + faster, direct access to higher-quality inventory and price data + quicker, more secure and transparent payment reconciliation through smart contracts + reducing distribution costs + raising additional revenue

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Innovative loyalty programs + Blockchain technology allows lodging companies to issue loyalty tokens as rewards in their loyalty programs + Guests can freely exchange, trade and/or redeem loyalty tokens in an open forum with others to increase the monetary value of the rewards. + increase the competitiveness, transparency and the efficiency of the loyalty programs + improve service quality, yielding higher efficiency and effectiveness in service operations due to transparency and open market exchange

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Smart contracts

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Rules of the contract are embedded into a specific code deployed in the blockchain system Provisions to be executed autonomously and immediately or at a specific time. The transactions are broadcasted to all parties involved and these records are immutable. digital IDs also play a prominent role in the prevention of cyber identity thefts transactions are trackable and irreversible eliminating conflict of interest and reducing transaction costs associated with contracting increasing efficiency and trust in business transactions, negotiations and performance

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Integrated property management systems (PMS) + advance companies’ content delivery + improve customer and inventory data storage + improve other “back-office” functionalities (i.e. revenue and accounting practices, auditing and pricing packages)

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Verified rating and review systems + creating a unique private key for each identity (traceable identities) with multiple independent verification processes built into review and rating platforms + The manipulation or duplication of reviews can be greatly avoided + Increase the trustworthiness of consumer reviews and ratings + Address the increasing concerns of the review credibility

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Collaborative initiatives and due diligence + providing strong foundations and suitable measures for the healthy business collaboration initiatives + Appropriate data construction, analysis and transparency + security of investors and stakeholders + Establishing a solid circle of business collaboration among different partners

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Smart cities and smarter tourism + City becoming a cryptocurrency-friendly tourism destination => easy to use and to protect vendors from the notorious fluctuations in the currencies + provides consumers direct access to transparent, real-time pricing along with smart contracting allows travelers to create more tailored journeys + better understanding of tourist preferences, which enables more effective product design and innovation

Mobile Usage in Travel by Linton, H. & Kwortik, R.J (2018) 1. What is the supplier-user gap in Mobile usage? -

Traveler use + one-third of consumers use mobile devices more when traveling + wants to stay connected to home and work and enhance their travel experiences + consumers want to communicate through calls and text messages + connect with online social networks + search for information + be entertained and track the data needed for their life

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the response from travel and hospitality providers to demand for real-time interaction and information has been mixed. The uncertainty this creates can result in a less positive experience for both guests and service providers.

2. What do travelers want to use for mobile devices? What services do you want for your mobile device when traveling? -

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receiving notifications when a hotel room is ready (5.98), requesting amenities (5.53), checking in to (5.17) and out of (5.48) a hotel, viewing menus of hotel restaurants (5.26), looking at a map of the hotel and property (5.23), ordering room service (5.18), upgrading their room before checking in (4.90), requesting hotel restaurant reservations (4.84), requesting off-site recommended restaurant reservations (4.71), having the valet bring their car (4.55), scheduling a taxi (4.43), translating content (4.36), reserving a spa appointment (4.09) and scheduling a tour (4.03). Connecting with other hotel guests received the lowest score I want a scheduling app that combine all the information and notes about the things i planned

travelers want more than basic information; they want customized and personalized recommendations and communication

3. Why can’t suppliers provide the service, what are the barriers and challenges? -

Suppliers barriers + not enough funding + limitations of information technology systems + unclear roles and responsibilities + lack of urgency, vision, and leadership skills + unclear business case + business units implementing independently

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an organizational culture not amenable to change regulatory concerns

Challenges + propensity to jump on the app bandwagon early on, without a clear, consistent strategy + figure out what guests want in terms of functions and features + the difficulty of developing the right mobile solution on the right platform + questions remain about the needs of customer segments + hotels do not have the infrastructure to connect with guests at key touch points + difficult to find candidates with expertise in mobile development + collaboration between departments + hospitality providers do not have the resources (issue of cost) to monitor the latest technology and constantly update apps + staff unwillingness to work with new technology is often due to lack of understanding and resistance to change + apps need to focus more on customer experience than revenue generation + customers are cautious about social media connections– they’re not convinced about the value of sharing social data and hesitant to share certain personal information due to privacy issues. + rapid technological change and difficulty in keeping up + As technology progresses, it is difficult for hotels to decide where to focus resources.

4. How was this research conducted? -

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Survey data from travelers is used to examine what they seek from mobile technology while traveling and how willing they are to share personal information in exchange for more customized experiences. Qualitative data from travel executives is used to explore the barriers faced in implementing mobile technology solutions and the readiness of service providers to address travelers’ needs. The outcome of this comparative analysis is identification of a disconnect between how travelers want to use mobile technology and how suppliers are adopting mobile solutions to satisfy consumers and enhance the travel experience

Service Robots by Xu, S. et al. (2020) 1. How is this research conducted? Discuss the process of Delphi technique. -

This study used a Delphi methodology to find consensus opinion about hospitality leadership in the context of robotized hotels and to bring clarity as to how robotic technology can in"uence leadership and HRs in the future workplace.

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The Delphi method is considered a qualitative analysis by which a group of experts anonymously share their opinions on a complex issue over several rounds of questionnaires and is particularly useful for forecasting emerging issues. + During the !rst round of a Delphi study, experts are presented with open-ended questions soliciting their opinions about the issue (s) of interest. The experts’ responses are then summarized into a series of statements. + In the second round of the Delphi survey, experts indicate their level of agreement with each statement (typically using Likert scales) and to provide comments supporting their decisions. + In the subsequent rounds of a Delphi survey, the experts’ aggregated opinions are presented and individual respondents are given the opportunity to re-evaluate and revise their agreement with each statement and provide additional comments

2. What consensus are among the experts to address the five themes that hotel HR managers need to understand? Discuss them in detail.

Themes ways service robots will impact HR management in hotels;

Expert opinions -

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skills or practices successful hotel managers will need to master to work with service robots;

service robots in hotels would disenfranchise employees due to perceived threat to jobs hotel service robots will increase the efficiency and productivity of HR administration and a majority agreement that service robots would diminish the quality of service delivery service robots would reduce recruitment costs and would cause an increase in staff grievances.

major challenges hotel managers will have in capturing any potential benefits of service robot technologies;

strategies hotel managers will use to deal with any potential challenges brought about by service robot technologies;

ways hotel managers will establish a culture that empowers employees to thrive alongside service robots.

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Consensus was achieved for the idea that “eliminating menial/boring tasks” can empower hotel employees to thrive alongside service robots ideas did not achieve a majority agreement: “involving staff in the planning of service robot implementation” and “creating initiatives for improving IT skills of employees.”

Sabre Lab (2017) Radar Report 1. Please share your understanding of Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Autonomous Delivery, and Blockchain? -

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“Artificial” is the easy part–in the context of AI it means “digital” or “computer.” Defining “intelligence” is the hard part–and a problem which existed long before computers. AI as any program with the capacity to learn new information and apply it to new problems as they emerge Augmented reality (AR) is turning the world we live in into a multiverse— countless simultaneous, overlapping realities Drones are autonomous delivery systems, used across the world to deliver messages, capable of delivering goods across great distances without the need for human intervention. On a global scale, regional differences in regulation and infra- structure are showcasing different future paths for an always and everywhere on-demand economy of physical things. blockchain is transforming whole spheres of society: finance, security, trans- portation, public information and beyond

2. Please share your understanding of Neural Interfaces, Quantum Computing, Space Tourism, Trusted Presence and VR gets Physical? -

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neural interfaces—implanting something inside the body—have been in development and use for decades in medicine, helping people with disabilities or neural conditions to function more normally. Quantum computers utilize “qubits,” which have a state of superposition that is both 1 and 0 at the same time. The most obvious need for quantum computers is to address problems of scale. Huge data sets are tough to analyze Commercial space flight, hotels in low earth orbit and lunar fly-bys are all inching towards viability shopping without registers, checkout lines, or credit card scanners. Instead, every item and identity is tracked, providing instantaneous verification and resolution when a customer walks out the door. At its root, the narrative is not just about seamless commerce—it’s about trusted presence as a fundamental shift in security, privacy and identity When we enter into a virtual world, we bring with us our real experiences from the physical world. The closer the virtual experience aligns to physics and our human perspective, the more “natural” the experience feels, and the stronger the immersion. Spark opportunities for travel without even moving....