Digitalization: A Strategic Approach for Development of Tourism Industry in India

Abstract

Abstract The aim of the present study is to identify the factors that propel tourism industry to opt for digitalization and establish a hierarchical relationship among them. The paper further seeks to address how digitalization impacts various stakeholders in tourism industry. Also, various challenges that are arising in course of digitalization in tourism industry are identified and suggestions have been made to resolve these issues. The study makes use of interpretive structural modelling (ISM) to develop a strategic framework related to digitalization in the industry. MICMAC (cross-impact matrix multiplication applied to classification) analysis is used to identify the nature of the factors identified in the framework developed. The results of strategy adopted conclude that customer demand for digitalization, growing essence of sharing economy and presence of social media are important contributors to the enhancement of digitalization in tourism industry. The study highlights the implications for the strategy makers as the outputs from ISM di-graph will allow them to identify and focus more on factors driving the digitalization system and address the various shortcomings in the process effectively.