Transforming Hotel Supply Chain Using Intelligent Decision Support System: Prospects and Challenges

Modern technological innovations are driving the trends to digitalize the hotel supply chains. The most famous and used technologies are artificial intelligence, robotics, blockchain, and advanced predictive analytics. These technologies provide the tools that will inevitably redesign and transform many aspects of the hotel supply chains. Thus, this study aims to investigate the opportunities and chart the path to adopt the Intelligent Decision Support System (IDSS) in hotel supply chain management. IDSS is a computerized information system that facilitates the decision-making process by creating alternatives, which can then be evaluated using a set of predetermined patterns to make reliable and fact-based decisions. To that end, this study engaged in 12 Delphi survey with hotel managers and key industry experts in Egypt and received additional inputs from 70 structured surveys conducted amongst four and five-star hotels located in Cairo, Giza, Alexandria, Sharm El-Sheikh, and Hurghada which allow a deeper insight into the prospective scenarios of how IDSS could be applied in hotel supply chain management. The results unveiled that the hotel supply chains in Egypt are moving towards digital transformation, albeit with slow steps. Also, the results revealed that data quality, analytical decision-making capabilities, and transformational impacts appear to be critical factors that influence the adoption of IDSS. A key finding of this study is that Egyptian hotels cannot reap the integration advantage of IDSS technology without additional engagement with supply chain partners.