Digitization in the Hotel Industry: Sustainability of Contactless Communication

The period during the pandemic, even after the declaration of the end of COVID-19, leaves many unresolved issues in hotel business, among which is the sustainability of contactless communication, which took a large part in that period. This manuscript presents a survey of the attitudes of hotel visitors in Serbia about the preferences of applying digitization and replacement of human labor, as well as attitudes about the future use of modern technology as a defense against business decline in the event of a new crisis period. The research results indicate that tourists positively evaluate the impact of digitization on the prospective and respective travel phase and that there is a statistically significant impact of digitization as a predictor of the increase in contactless communication in the future, after returning to normal following the pandemic. Also, the majority of tourists answered that they are not in favor of complete digitization in hotels and the replacement of human labor. The obtained results can be applied in practice for the purpose of devising a strategy for future business in crisis situations, but respecting the preferences of hotel visitors. Also, innovation and importance are reflected in the application of the results as an informative basis in theory, which is rather scarce on this issue in Serbia. © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2024.