Applying RFID Technology in Tourism Industry: The Case Study of Hotel in Taipei

Abstract

The study analyzes Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology developments reported in tourism industries, methods used, contexts covered, and provides an overview of the wide range of ways that RFID is being applied to improve tourism processes in hotel. The study develops a research framework: RFID Technology Application Model and stresses that RFID application brings many benefits for hotel, the study summarizes their readiness on different attributes into the two approaches: operations-centric approach and technology-centric, and evaluates the major applications of the two approaches for the case study of hotel in Taipei. The findings show that different RFID applications in tourism industry lead the different benefits. The study offers hotel some managerial implications of how to gain benefits, and make suggestions for internal operating management, as well as recommendations for future research directions. It would be beneficial for future research to study similarities and differences in best practices for RFID implementations not only between different sectors within tourism, but also across industries.