Relationship between information and communication technology (ICT) adoption and hotel productivity: An empirical study of the hotels in Phuket, Thailand

The tourism industry in Thailand has been growing rapidly and generating considerable income for the country during the last decade. Many hotels have faced severe competition, so they have adopted information and communication technologies (ICT) to increase their productivities, one of the hotel performance indicators. This paper investigates the relationship between ICT adoption and hotel productivity. The level of ICT adoption was measured by three elements: (i) ICT component availability; (ii) ICT component integration; and (iii) intensity of ICT component usage. Hotel productivity comprising operational and customer productivities was calculated by using data envelopment analysis (DEA). Multivariate analysis was used to assess the relationship between levels of ICT adoption and hotel productivity. Data was collected through a questionnaire survey of both hotel managers and customers from three classes of hotels in Phuket, Thailand. Results reveal that in some categories of hotel, ICT adoptions have a positive relationship with either operational / customer productivity. It suggests that the hotel should adopt ICT selectively depending on their category. Further, the intensity of ICT use has more impact than simply having the number of ICT, for increased productivity.