Introduction
\nDigital transformation offers significant potential for building effective and sustainable societies by enabling radical changes in services aimed at various stakeholders (Abdelaziz & Naama, 2023). This has allowed hoteliers to seek new competitive advantages by using these technologies. Many see this as “digital transformation”, a process that aims to improve an asset by triggering significant changes through the combination of information, computing, communication and connectivity technologies. The increasing accessibility and use of digital technologies has increased the challenges for hoteliers. The search for the most appropriate strategy for investing in new systems and technologies in the digital age has become a critical issue for the sector (Wynn & Jones, 2022; Vial, 2021)
\nProblem Statement
\nAs digitalization rapidly spreads across the industry and society, hotel companies face a variety of challenges in developing and implementing their IT strategies. (Wynn & Jones, 2022). The acceleration of digital transformation supports the resilience and sustainable development of the hospitality industry. However, although digital transformation holds great potential, many companies face significant challenges during implementation. This challenge is especially prevalent in small and medium-sized businesses, which often face limitations in terms of their level of digitalization and resources. (Ka et al, 2023). Small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) hotels in Turkiye face significant challenges related to digital transformation in order to remain competitive in the dynamic hospitality sector. This study aims to uncover the digitalization problems specific to SME hotels operating in Turkiye, identify and categorize the primary challenges faced by SME hotel managers. This study also intends to analyze the frequency and emphasis of these challenges through thematic analysis and offer theoretical and practical contributions to improve problem-solving in the hospitality industry.
\nMethodology and Analysis
\nThis study adopts a qualitative research approach to explore the challenges faced by hotel managers. The research design is grounded in thematic analysis, a method widely used for identifying, analyzing and interpreting patterns of meaning within qualitative data. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 17 SME hotel managers across the country. Python was used for data analysis and visualization due to its robust capabilities in handling qualitative data.
\nFindings
\nThe results reveal that SME hotels encounter a range of challenges including technological barriers, dependency on online travel agencies (OTAs), limitations in staff skills and resistance to change, difficulties in digital marketing, operational inefficiencies, budget constraints, data privacy and security concerns and issues related to guest personalization.
\nTheoretical Contributions
\nThis study contributes to the field of hospitality management by employing a systematic approach to qualitative data analysis, leveraging Python for thematic exploration and visualization. It addresses gaps in the existing literature by identifying critical challenges faced by SME hotels.
\nPractical Contributions
\nThis study offers a comprehensive exploration of the challenges associated with digital transformation in SME hotels, providing an in-depth understanding of hotel managers’ experiences and perceptions. By identifying key barriers, the study enhances understanding of the practical obstacles to digitalization within the hospitality industry.
\nACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This study is supported by REMODEL project which is funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation program under grant agreement No 101079203. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
REFERENCES
Abdelaziz, M., & Naama, A. (2023). The Impact of Digital Transformation Dimensions on the Employees Job Performance: Applying on Four and Five Star Hotels in the Red Sea Governorate. Journal of Association of Arab Universities for Tourism and Hospitality, 24(1), 436-466.
Ka, X., Ying, T., & Tang, J. (2023). A Conceptual Model for Developing Digital Maturity in Hospitality Micro and Small Enterprises. Journal of Theoretical and Applied Electronic Commerce Research, 18(3), 1511-1528.
Vial, G. (2021). Understanding digital transformation: A review and a research agenda. Managing digital transformation, 13-66
Wynn, M., & Jones, P. (2022). IT strategy in the hotel industry in the digital era. Sustainability, 14(17), 10705.
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The EU Open Research Repository serves as a repository for research outputs (data, software, posters, presentations, publications, etc) which have been funded under an EU research funding programme such as Horizon Europe, Euratom or earlier Framework Programmes.
\nThe community is managed by CERN on behalf of the European Commission.
\nZenodo’s general policies and Terms of Use apply to all content.
\nThe EU Open Research Repository accepts all digital research objects which is a research output stemming from one of EU’s research and innovation funding programmes. The funding programmes currently include:
\nHorizon Europe (including ERC, MSCA), earlier Framework Programmes (eg Horizon 2020) as well as Euratom.
\nIn line with the principle as open as possible, as closed as necessary both public and restricted content is accepted. See note on how Zenodo handles restricted content.
\nEU programme beneficiaries are eligible to submit content to the community. The community supports three types of content submissions:
\nSubmission via an EU Project Community (through user interface or programmatic APIs).
\nSubmission directly to the EU Open Research Repository.
\nAutomated harvesting from existing Zenodo content.
\nA representative of an EU project may request an EU Project Community and invite other project participants as members of the community. The project community is linked to one or more European Commission grants. All records in the project community are automatically integrated into the EU Open Research Repository immediately upon acceptance into the project community.
\nAny user may submit a record directly to the EU Open Research Repository. The submission will be moderated by Zenodo staff for compliance with the minimal required metadata requirements and its correctness.
\nRecords found among Zenodo’s existing content will on a regular basis automatically be integrated if they are found to comply with the requirements. The submissions through this method are integrated into the EU Open Research Repository with delay in a fully automated way.
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\nSubjects: Records SHOULD specify one or more fields of science from the European Science Vocabulary.
\nThese metadata requirements comes from the related open science requirements in Horizon Europe which are detailed in each project's grant agreement.
\nAll submissions undergo automated curation checks for compliance with the policy. Submissions through project communities are in addition reviewed by the project community. Submission directly to the EU Open Research Repository is in addiotn reviewed by Zenodo staff.
\nCommunity curators may at any point edit metadata of the records in the community without notice through human or automated processing. The curators may at their sole discretion remove records from the community that are deemed not to comply with the content and curation policy or which are deemed of insufficient quality.
\nThe content and curation policy is subject to change by the community owner at any time and without notice, other than through updating this page.
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\nThe EU Open Research Repository serves as a complementary platform to the Open Research Europe (ORE) publishing platform. Open Research Europe focuses on providing a publishing venue for peer-reviewed articles, ensuring that research meets rigorous academic standards. The EU Open Research Repository provides a space for all the other research outputs including data sets, software, posters, and presentations that are out of scope for ORE. This holistic approach enables researchers to not only publish their findings but also share the underlying data and materials that support their work, fostering transparency and reproducibility in the scientific process.
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\nZenodo’s general policies and Terms of Use apply to all content.
\nThe EU Open Research Repository accepts all digital research objects which is a research output stemming from one of EU’s research and innovation funding programmes. The funding programmes currently include:
\nHorizon Europe (including ERC, MSCA), earlier Framework Programmes (eg Horizon 2020) as well as Euratom.
\nIn line with the principle as open as possible, as closed as necessary both public and restricted content is accepted. See note on how Zenodo handles restricted content.
\nEU programme beneficiaries are eligible to submit content to the community. The community supports three types of content submissions:
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\nSubmission directly to the EU Open Research Repository.
\nAutomated harvesting from existing Zenodo content.
\nA representative of an EU project may request an EU Project Community and invite other project participants as members of the community. The project community is linked to one or more European Commission grants. All records in the project community are automatically integrated into the EU Open Research Repository immediately upon acceptance into the project community.
\nAny user may submit a record directly to the EU Open Research Repository. The submission will be moderated by Zenodo staff for compliance with the minimal required metadata requirements and its correctness.
\nRecords found among Zenodo’s existing content will on a regular basis automatically be integrated if they are found to comply with the requirements. The submissions through this method are integrated into the EU Open Research Repository with delay in a fully automated way.
\nRecords in the EU Open Research Repository are required to comply with the following minimal metadata requirements:
\nVisibility: Both public and restricted (with or without embargo and/or access request)
\nResource types: All resource types.
\nLicenses: Public and embargoed records MUST specify a license. The chosen license SHOULD be compliant with the Horizon Europe open science requirements (see Open Science in Horizon Europe)
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\nCreators: Creators SHOULD be identified with a persistent identifier (e.g. ORCID, GND, …), and affiliations SHOULD be identified with a persistent identifier (e.g. ROR, ISNI, …)
\nSubjects: Records SHOULD specify one or more fields of science from the European Science Vocabulary.
\nThese metadata requirements comes from the related open science requirements in Horizon Europe which are detailed in each project's grant agreement.
\nAll submissions undergo automated curation checks for compliance with the policy. Submissions through project communities are in addition reviewed by the project community. Submission directly to the EU Open Research Repository is in addiotn reviewed by Zenodo staff.
\nCommunity curators may at any point edit metadata of the records in the community without notice through human or automated processing. The curators may at their sole discretion remove records from the community that are deemed not to comply with the content and curation policy or which are deemed of insufficient quality.
\nThe content and curation policy is subject to change by the community owner at any time and without notice, other than through updating this page.
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\nThe mission of the repository is to support the implementation of the EU's open science policy, providing a trusted and comprehensive space for researchers to share their research outputs such as data, software, reports, presentations, posters and more. The EU Open Research Repository simplifies the process of complying with open science requirements, ensuring that research outputs from Horizon Europe, Euratom, and earlier Framework Programmes are freely accessible, thereby accelerating scientific discovery and innovation.
\nThe EU Open Research Repository serves as a complementary platform to the Open Research Europe (ORE) publishing platform. Open Research Europe focuses on providing a publishing venue for peer-reviewed articles, ensuring that research meets rigorous academic standards. The EU Open Research Repository provides a space for all the other research outputs including data sets, software, posters, and presentations that are out of scope for ORE. This holistic approach enables researchers to not only publish their findings but also share the underlying data and materials that support their work, fostering transparency and reproducibility in the scientific process.
\nThe EU Open Research Repository is funded by the European Union under grant agreement no. 101256740 (HORIZON-ZEN Plus). For more information about the project see https://about.zenodo.org/projects/horizon-zen/.
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