Effects of Industry 4.0 on Tourism Industry – Development from E-Tourism to M-Tourism

Industry 4.0 is a new revolution concerning the technical evolution. Furthermore, the new trend is called the fourth industrial revolution. It involves cyber-physical systems, the internet of things, cloud and cognitive computing. Due to the fact that the technology develops itself almost every day, new inventions are produced daily. Since more and more people book their trip online, companies have to adapt this new method of booking. Otherwise, the hotel would not achieve their goals regarding numbers of sold services e.g. rooms or food. However, different target groups prefer different ways to book their trip.

For consumers nowadays  there are noumerous different way of booking whereas before the digitalization there just was one option: the travel agengy. Mobile phones enlarge the options, epecially when considering the developments with regard to data roaming in the European Community. For example online travel guides offer several advantages: simple updates, links to specific information, search functions, bookmarks or feedback and evaluations  of other travelers.

While the older generation prefers to book their holiday in a travel agency, the younger generation is in favor of online booking portals. Based on this fact, more and more hotels are focusing on online promotion. In contrast to bigger hotels or big hotel chains, small hotels have to expand their online sales features e.g. direct booking via their official website or invest in online travel agencies i.e. booking.com. Otherwise, the hotel will be influenced negatively and suffer from the new evolution called “industry 4.0”.