Post Covid New Normal: High Tech - No Touch in Hospitality
Hours: 07:30 – 16:30
Location: Online Learning
Company Visit: 6 Hours
Program Adviser
Sanjay Nadkarni
Dr. Sanjay Nadkarni is a Director of Research in Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai. He holds a Master of Science in Manageme. View program adviser
Program Rationale
The impact of Covid has been particularly acute for the hospitality and allied sectors such as restaurants and holiday rentals. As the new normal sets in, the adoption of digital platforms in facilitating recovery in these businesses is witnessing an accelerated growth. Cyprus’s economy is dominated by micro small and medium businesses (MSMBs) many of which are engaged in hospitality-related activities. The overall competitiveness and wellbeing of this sector which has been strongly impacted by Covid-19 is key to ensure sustainable socio-economic growth by way of generating tourism Euros and employment opportunities. The role of digital platforms and technologies hitherto focussed on guest convenience and business efficiency has now expanded to enabling guest safety and hygiene protocols for the businesses in the post-Covid era. High tech-No touch is the new mantra that will ensure long term viability of hospitality and restaurant businesses by instilling confidence in guests to make an informed choice without compromising health and safety. Putting it into perspective, digital disruption on the back on Industry 4.0 is an inherent change in how businesses are able to deliver value to their customers. In addition to leveraging the opportunities of a mix of innovative digital tools for staying ahead of the curve in a hyper-competitive and hyper-personalized environment, Industry 4.0 solutions such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain and Internet of Things will now become part of this mix for providing a non-negotiable layer of safety and hygiene in the post-Covid era. In practical terms, Cyprus’s hospitality and tourism-related businesses will need to embark on a familiarization drive with the eventual objective of adopting these technologies to ensure business continuity and thus continue to strengthen Cyprus’s service-driven economy.
How to apply
Submit your course application online
Target Audience
The primary target segments for this seminar are the private sector owners, managers and supervisory staff of micro, small and medium businesses in the hospitality and tourism sector including the sub-verticals comprising of bars, cafés, car rentals, event organisers, hotels, holiday rentals, tour operators and travel agents.
The key takeaway from the seminar for the participants’ benefit will be the ability to effectively leverage the Industry 4.0 platforms for rejuvenating driving value in their day-to-day operations.
Particularly, this expert seminar will offer valuable insight to industry stakeholders who deal with administration, revenue and marketing operations.
Program Objectives
In the post Covid-19 scenario, high tech-no touch technologies have assumed critical importance for the survival of businesses. In this context, the high level objectives of this expert seminar are to enable owners, operators and managers of MSMBs in the hospitality and allied sectors to (i) gain general understanding of Industry 4.0 platforms (ii) evaluate the suitability of specific technologies for deployment.
The specific objectives pertaining to knowledge, skills and attitude are as follows:
Knowledge related objectives
- Recognize the need to familiarize with Industry 4.0 platforms.
- Identify the suite of platforms best suited for line of business.
- Analyze the resource implications and financial impact of deploying these platforms.
- Revise existing standard operating procedures in line with the adopted platforms.
Skills related objectives
- Use evaluation templates for assessing best-fit technologies.
- Operate cloud-based platforms for capturing and analyzing guest sentiment data with live dashboards.
- Chart real-time asset sanitizing protocols with agile cloud-based PMS tools.
Attitude related objectives
- Adopt the right attitudes about the importance of Industry 4.0 tools.
- Advocate a future thinking culture among internal stakeholders of the business.
Recommend the right culture in the organization that will build and support confidence to self-manage critical digital assets, independent of third-party agents
Program Outline
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Day 1: 7:15-7:45 |
Arrival and registration
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07:45 – 08:15 |
Seminar overview and introduction |
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08:15-10:15
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Post Covid role of Industry 4.0 in hospitality & tourism
Activity 1: Identify Covid induced disruptions in your business and steps towards recovery. |
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10:15-10:30 |
Break |
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10:30-12:30 |
Industry 4.0 Components
Activity 2: Provide one use in the service sector for each of the Industry 4.0 components. Case Study 1: Feasibilities of Industry 4.0 for the Hospitality Sector with the Lens of Management Practice Abstract: Industry 4.0 is discussed in the context of the service sector, by presenting a case study of the hospitality industry. As explained in the previous section, learning, knowledge, and innovation are crucial for successful implementation of Industry 4.0. The hospitality sector is facing the problem of high employee turnover. When an employee leaves the organization, the skills, knowledge, and experience of the employee also goes with the employee who quits. In this way, high turnover affects intellectual capital and the innovative capability of the organization because of knowledge loss. In this scenario, it is very logical to argue that hospitality firms need to have special arrangements for knowledge retention, which is possible through the promotion of knowledge management activities, which is among one of the key requirements of Industry 4.0, along with learning and innovation capability. It is also important for the hospitality sector to enhance customer experience. Knowledge management and innovation have the ability to positively affect service quality, which leads to customer satisfaction and loyalty. Source: Shamim, S., Cang, S., Yu, H., & Li, Y. (2017). Examining the feasibilities of Industry 4.0 for the hospitality sector with the lens of management practice. Energies, 10(4), 499.
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12:30-13:45 |
Lunch Break
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13:45-15:15 |
The Hotel Tech Stack
Activity 3: Identify the shortcoming of your tech stack and the unresolved problems which technology can solve. Case Study 2: How Cloud Computing Enhances Competitive Advantages: A Research Model for Small Businesses Abstract: Cloud computing is perceived as the next step in the evolution of information technology resource distributed systems with the capability to enable businesses and users to access applications from anywhere in the world on demand. Although the term “cloud computing” becomes famous, the research of cloud computing is inadequate and limited to technical aspects only. It is still not clear to businesses how cloud computing can help them improve their competitive advantages. The purpose of this research is to develop a research model of cloud computing from managerial perspective and focus on small businesses. We use the resourced based view theory to propose a research model which explores the influence of cloud computing related resources on a small business’ competitive advantages. Keywords: cloud computing, resourced based view, competitive advantage, small business Source: Truong, D., 2010. How cloud computing enhances competitive advantages: A research model for small businesses. The Business Review, Cambridge, 15(1), pp.59-65. |
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15:15-15:30 |
Break |
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15:30 -16:30 |
Agile PMS demo in post Covid Context
Activity 4: Assess the suitability of the demonstrated PMS to the context of your business. Case Study 3: Touchless tech: How hotels are preparing for a post-COVID guest experience Abstract: For the past few years, one of the biggest buzzwords in travel has been “seamless,” envisioned as a utopian experience in which every moment of a journey - before, during and after a trip - happens effortlessly and yet is customized to the needs and interests of the traveler. Then came COVID-19 – upending the travel industry, the way business is conducted and the expectations of consumers. Source: Sorrells, M (2020). Touchless tech: How hotels are preparing for a post-COVID guest experience. Phocuswire |
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Day 2: 07:15-7:45 7:45 – 8:15
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Arrival and registration Seminar recapitulations IoT- Hotel of Things Demo 1
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8:15 – 10:15 |
Activity 5: Use a pre-existing template in Google docs to create a document with your laptop/tablet Case Study 4: The path to the Hotel of Things: Internet of Things and Big Data converging in hospitality Abstract:The purpose of this study is to explore the use of Internet of Things (IoT) in hospitality and examine its relationship with Big Data. Drawing upon theoretical and practical considerations, it lays a foundation for its adoption in practice and future research. This paper uses a conceptual approach. It demonstrates the use of IoT and its impact on Big Data in hospitality through exemplars. The paper further explores the convergence of IoT, Big Data and hospitality in the context of the literature, value attributes and vendor offerings. Theoretical models from information systems and business are used to support the concepts proposed. The study compiles and contextualizes the applications of IoT in hospitality by applying an input–process–output model, demonstrating the link to Big Data. The resulting value dimensions are represented by the IoT–Big Data triple impact intensity model. An outlook toward the future trajectory of IoT adoption is provided by proposing to extend the prevalent social, mobile, analytics and cloud framework with an IoT component. Practical implications of the use of IoT and Big Data in hospitality on information technology infrastructure, business models, security and standardization highlight the scope for further empirical research. By synthesizing IoT applications in the hospitality and by bringing to light their relationship with Big Data, the study demonstrates how IoT, Big Data and hospitality converge – a synthesis that has thus far been largely unexplored. This study lays the groundwork for increased deployment of IoT and Big Data in hospitality and future academic research in this area. Source: Nadkarni, S., Kriechbaumer, F., Rothenberger, M., & Christodoulidou, N. (2019). The path to the Hotel of Things: Internet of Things and Big Data converging in hospitality. Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology.
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10:15-10:30 |
Break |
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10:30-12:30 |
Covid Protocols Guest Feedback and Satisfaction (demo)
Activity 6: For your specific business, design a survey on guest perceptions on Covid protocols and populate it in Google Forms. Customise the template in line with your company’s logo and colour schemes. Digitally share the survey with the facilitator and group members. Visualize the results. Export to Google Sheets. |
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12:30 – 13:30 |
Lunch Break |
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13:30-15:00 |
IoT Hotel of Things Demo 2
Activity 7: Identify use cases for smart voice assistants specific to your business |
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15:00 -15:15 |
Break |
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15:15-16:15
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Tech Innovations for Food & Beverage Industry
Activity 8: Based on the exposure gained to a multitude of Industry 4.0 applications and platforms, prepare an implementation strategy by identifying tools that are ‘mission-critical’ for your business in the post-Covid scenario. Case Study 5: Marriott Hotels VUI Skill: A Case Study Abstract: With virtual assistants and smart speakers becoming a more integrated, everyday part of our lives, a voice skill and accompanying smart speaker for hotel guests is a very real possibility in the near future. This case study’s design sprint focused on creating a voice skill for Marriott Hotel guests. Source: Murdoch, K. (2018), Marriott Hotels VUI Skill: A Case Study . Medium. |
Program Adviser
Dr. Sanjay Nadkarni is a Director of Research in Emirates Academy of Hospitality Management in Dubai. He holds a Master of Science in Management, M.Sc. in Physics and Mathematics and a Ph.D. He was employed as a Programme Coordinator & Assistant Professor in Faculty of International Tourism of Macao University of Science and Technology from 2005 to 2009 and also as a consultant in Asian Development Bank in China. Furthermore he used to be a Researcher in School of Travel Industry Management in University of Hawaii in Kyrgyz Republic, in School of Development in University of Central Asia/Aga Khan Development Network in China, a director of research in Institute For Tourism Studies in Russia and a Lecturer in Information Systems in Institute For Tourism Studies (IFT) in India. Deputy Manager and Project Coordinator was at the first years of his career.
Subsidy, Attendance, and Cancellation Policy
HRDA Subsidy and Seminar Attendance
- A company’s participant is eligible for subsidy when their Social Insurance and Industrial Training contributions have been settled in full by the time of registration/seminar. In case of ineligibility/disqualification, the company will be invoiced the full amount per participant.
- A company’s participant is eligible for subsidy if he/she completes an obligatory attendance of 75% or more (both during seminar and company visit). In case of failure to complete the attendance, the company will be invoiced the full amount, per participant.
Cancellation and Substitution Policy
- Cancellations can be accepted up to 5 working days prior to the seminar without penalties. For any cancellations received after the deadline (or no-shows) the company will be invoiced the full amount per participant.
- Substitutions can be accepted any time prior to the seminar without penalties.
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