Why Haven't Egyptian Hotels Embraced Artificial Intelligence, Robots and Automation Services in their Operations (RAISA)?

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Hotel Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotels, University of Sadat City, Egypt

2 Hotels Studies Department, Higher Institute of Tourism & Hotels, King Mariout, Alexandria

Abstract

Large Egyptian hotels have the ability nowadays to be an effective factor in the new global digital economy through their early investment in artificial intelligence, as artificial intelligence achieves great developments in all sectors of the economy, including hotels. Previous studies that artificial intelligence can contribute about 320 billion dollars to the economy of the Middle East by 2030, which means about 11% of the gross domestic product The study's goal is to find out what obstacles and challenges are there in the Egyptian hospitality industry when it comes to successful automation and AI adoption. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to the hotel's directors of information technology systems and general managers also. All Luxor Governorate hotels, as well as some Hurghada hotels, received a total of 163questionnaire forms. The data was transmitted and analyzed, and the most important results were as follows: The results revealed that there are specific factors that had a specific and noticeable impact on the adoption of artificial intelligence and automation. The results showed that there were sub-factors of influence which were government policies and support, followed by ideas and designs, and employee education. Knowledge management, robotic species, and cultural experience with artificial intelligence ranked last. The paper concluded, with a set of recommendations focused on the need to adopt artificial intelligence, robotics techniques, and automate services in the hospitality industry, providing the infrastructure for continuous updates. In addition, provide financial government support for the hospitality sector in the form of facilitating investment procedures, as well as achieving cooperation with international companies for the maintenance of robots to ensure their sustainability, implementing the concept of smart hospitality to gain a competitive advantage, and finally taking into account some other factors such as service, quality, and price for those smart systems in which food and beverage services will be provided where the guest enjoys watching the chef too.

Keywords