Technology Adoption in Tourism to Deal with Global Health Crisis: A Narrative Review
Abstract
Reviewing the research trends of technology adoption in tourism in reaction to the recent global health crisis provides insights into the evolution of the academic discourse of this topic and the role of technology adoption, especially in terms of attaining sustainability. This narrative review was conducted to explore the patterns of technology adoption in tourism in response to the health crisis. The findings reveal a growing scholarly focus on this topic, as well as geographical, methodological, and theoretical concentrations. Technology adoption was seen as the immediate reaction to the crisis and a tool to ensure sustainability by facilitating resilience and recovery after the pandemic. The review highlights the dual role of technology in emergency response and long-term sectoral resilience. However, ethical and structural challenges remain, necessitating better governance of tech integration in tourism.
1. Perez C (2010). Technological revolutions and techno-economic paradigms. Camb J Econ, 34 (1): 185–202.
2. Rogers EM (1962). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
3. MacVaugh J, Schiavone F (2010). Limits to the diffusion of innovation: A literature review and integrative model. Eur J Innov Manag, 13 (2): 197–221.
4. Mohsin R, Abu BakarH, Luigi Pio Leonardo C (2021). The e-tourism beyond COVID-19: A call for technological transformation. J Lib Int Aff, 7 (3): 118–39.
5. Elkhwesky Z, El Manzani Y, Elbayoumi Salem I (2024). Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: A systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era. Tour Hosp Res, 24 (1): 115–33.
6. Balli F, Shahzad SJH, Uddin GS (2018). A tale of two shocks: What do we learn from the impacts of economic policy uncertainties on tourism? Tour Manag, 68: 470–5.
7. Torabi ZA, Rezvani MR, Hall CM, Allam Z (2023). On the post-pandemic travel boom: How capacity building and smart tourism technologies in rural areas can help-evidence from Iran. Technol Forecast Soc Change, 193: 122633.
8. Tuan LT (2022). How and when does hospitality employees’ core beliefs challenge foster their proactive coping for technostress? Examining the roles of promotion focus, job insecurity, and technostress. J Hosp Tour Manag, 52: 86–99.
9. Schiopu AF, Hornoiu RI, Padurean MA, Nica AM (2021). Virus tinged? Exploring the facets of virtual reality use in tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemat Inform, 60: 101575.
10. Kim SS, Kim J, Badu-Baiden F, Giroux M, Choi Y (2021). Preference for robot service or human service in hotels? Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Hosp Manag, 93: 102795.
11. Zhong L, Coca-Stefaniak JA, Morrison AM, Yang L, Deng B (2022). Technology acceptance before and after COVID-19: No-touch service from hotel robots. Tour Rev, 77 (4): 1062–80.
12. António N, Rita P (2021). COVID-19: The catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry? Tour Manag Stud, 17 (2): 41–6.
13. Lu J, Xiao X, Xu Z, Wang C, Zhang M, Zhou Y (2022). The potential of virtual tourism in the recovery of tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Curr Issues Tour, 25 (3): 441–57.
14. Trunfio M, Pasquinelli C (2021). Smart technologies in the COVID-19 crisis: Managing tourism flows and shaping visitors’ behaviour. Eur J Tour Res, 29: 2910.
15. Varelas S (2022). Virtual immersive platforms as a strategic innovative destination marketing tool in the COVID-19 era. Sustainability, 14 (19): 12867.
16. Omarova A, Nurumov A, Karipova A, Kabdullina G, Aimurzina B, Kamenova M (2021). Analysis of the development of innovative activities of the tourism industry in the influence of pandemic. J Environ Manag Tour, 12: 1442–53.
17. Buhalis D, Papathanassis A, Vafeidou M (2022). Smart cruising: Smart technology applications and their diffusion in cruise tourism. J Hosp Tour Technol, 13 (4): 626–49.
18. Marques J, Khoshkam M, Kiumarsi S (2022). Perceived impacts of Covid-19 in conference tourism: A partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Event Manag, 26 (7): 1565–76.
19. Ivanov SH, Webster C, Stoilova E, Slobodskoy D (2022). Biosecurity, crisis management, automation technologies and economic performance of travel, tourism and hospitality companies–A conceptual framework. Tour Econ, 28 (1): 3-26.
20. Saputra FE, Anggarawati S (2022). Will self-service technologies be widely adopted in travel, tourism, and hospitality industries during and after COVID-19? Int J Sustain Dev Plann, 17 (6): 1937–42.
21. Pinto AS, Abreu A, Costa E, Paiva J (2022). Augmented reality for a new reality: Using UTAUT-3 to assess the adoption of mobile augmented reality in tourism (MART). J Inf Syst Eng Manag, 7 (2): 14550.
22. Wong IA, Lin SK, Lin ZC, Xiong X (2022). Welcome to stay-at-home travel and virtual attention restoration. J Hosp Tour Manag, 51: 207–17.
23. Oncioiu I, Priescu I (2022). The use of virtual reality in tourism destinations as a tool to develop tourist behavior perspective. Sustainability, 14 (7): 4191.
24. Viñals MJ, Gilabert-Sansalvador L, Sanasaryan A, Teruel-Serrano MD, Darés M (2021). Online synchronous model of interpretive sustainable guiding in heritage sites: The avatar tourist visit. Sustainability, 13 (13): 7179.
25. Siddiqui MS, Syed TA, Nadeem A, Nawaz W, Alkhodre A (2022). Virtual tourism and digital heritage: An analysis of VR/AR technologies and applications. Int J Adv Comput Sci Appl, 13 (7): 303–15.
26. Papagiannidis S, Davlembayeva D (2022). Bringing smart home technology to peer-to-peer accommodation: Exploring the drivers of intention to stay in smart accommodation. Inf Syst Front, 24 (4): 1189–208.
27. Chan EK, Wan LC, Yi XS (2022). Smart technology vs. embarrassed human: The inhibiting effect of anticipated technology embarrassment. Ann Tour Res, 97: 103494.
28. García-Milon A, Olarte-Pascual C, Juaneda-Ayensa E (2021). Assessing the moderating effect of COVID-19 on intention to use smartphones on the tourist shopping journey. Tour Manag, 87: 104361.
29. Cheung C, Fang CC, Wang YC (2022). Consumer behavior and mobile payment: An empirical study of the restaurant industry. J China Tour Res, 18 (4): 735–55.
30. Khanra S, Dhir A, Kaur P, Joseph RP (2021). Factors influencing the adoption postponement of mobile payment services in the hospitality sector during a pandemic. J Hosp Tour Manag, 46: 26-39.
31. Bharwani S, Mathews D (2021). Post-pandemic pressures to pivot: Tech transformations in luxury hotels. Worldw Hosp Tour Themes, 13 (5): 569–83.
32. Coghlan A, Becken S, Warren C (2023). Modelling a smart tech user journey to decarbonise tourist accommodation. J Sustain Tour, 31 (3): 840–58.
33. Morosan C, Bowen JT (2022). Labor shortage solution: Redefining hospitality through digitization. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag, 34 (12): 4674–85.
34. Lau A (2020). New technologies used in COVID-19 for business survival: Insights from the Hotel sector in China. Inf Technol Tour, 22 (4): 497–504.
35. Srivastava PR, Sengupta K, Kumar A, Biswas B, Ishizaka A (2022). Post-epidemic factors influencing customer’s booking intent for a hotel or leisure spot: An empirical study. J Enterp Inf Manag, 35 (1): 78–99.
36. Matikiti-Manyevere R, Rambe P (2022). The impact of COVID 19 on the tourism industry: The role of fourth industrial revolution technologies in mitigating the impacts. Afr J Hosp Tour Leis, 11 (3): 1173–87.
37. Hassan TH, Salem AE, Refaat SA (2022). The impact of eatmarna application usability on improving performance expectancy, facilitating the practice of rituals and improving spirituality feelings during umrah amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Religions, 13 (3): 268.
38. Balasubramanian S, Sethi JS, Ajayan S, Paris CM (2022). An enabling framework for blockchain in tourism. Inf Technol Tour, 24 (2): 165–79.
39. Liu X, Zeng Y, Li Z, Huang D (2022). Understanding consumers’ motivations to view travel live streaming: Scale development and validation. Tour Manag Perspect, 44: 101027.
40. Cheong F, Law R (2022). Will Macau’s restaurants survive or thrive after entering the O2O food delivery platform in the COVID-19 pandemic? Int J Environ Res Public Health, 19 (9): 5100.
41. Hwang J, Choe JY, Choi YG, Kim JJ (2021). A comparative study on the motivated consumer innovativeness of drone food delivery services before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. J Travel Tour Mark, 38 (4): 368-82.
42. Cha SS (2020). Customers’ intention to use robot-serviced restaurants in Korea: Relationship of coolness and MCI factors. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag, 32 (9): 2947–68.
43. Kim JJ, Kim I, Hwang J (2021). A change of perceived innovativeness for contactless food delivery services using drones after the outbreak of COVID-19. Int J Hosp Manag, 93: 102758.
44. Putra AK, Islam MN, Hidayat WN, Fahmi MR (2022). Development of mobile virtual field trips in Ijen crater geosites based on 3600 auto stereoscopic and geospatial technology as geography learning media. Geo J Tourism Geosites, 41 (22): 456–63.
45. Shen S, Xu K, Sotiriadis M, Wang YC (2022). Exploring the factors influencing the adoption and usage of augmented reality and virtual reality applications in tourism education within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. J Hosp Leis Sport Tour Educ, 30: 100373.
46. Xu J, Tavitiyaman P, Kim HJ, Lo SK (2022). Hospitality and tourism higher education in the post-COVID era: Is it time to change? J Hosp Tour Educ, 34 (4): 278–90.
47. Li Y, Liang J, Huang J, Yang M, Li R, Bai H (2022). Would you accept virtual tourism? The impact of COVID-19 risk perception on technology acceptance from a comparative perspective. Sustainability, 14 (19): 12693.
48. Van NT, Vrana V, Duy NT, Minh DX, Dzung PT, Mondal SR, et al. (2020). The role of human–machine interactive devices for post-COVID-19 innovative sustainable tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sustainability, 12 (22): 9523.
49. Silva JH, Favoretto C, Amancio IR, Ganga GM, Lizarelli FL, Mendes GH (2022). Consumer behavioral intention to use restaurant, concert and education services online during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Brazil. Int J Qual Serv Sci, 14 (3): 504–23.
50. Lee UK (2022). Tourism using virtual reality: Media richness and information system successes. Sustainability, 14 (7): 3975.
51. Niewiadomski P (2020). COVID-19: From temporary de-globalisation to a re-discovery of tourism? Tour Geogr, 22 (3): 651–6.
52. Choi Y, Hickerson B, Lee J, Lee H, Choe Y (2022). Digital tourism and wellbeing: Conceptual framework to examine technology effects of online travel media. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 19 (9): 5639.
53. You Y (2022). Service-oriented architecture-guided information service system for design and implementation of rural tourism. Wirel Commun Mob Comput, 2022: 1480862.
54. Sharifi A, Khavarian-Garmsir AR, Kummitha RK (2021). Contributions of smart city solutions and technologies to resilience against the COVID-19 pandemic: A literature review. Sustainability, 13 (14): 8018.
55. Iskender A, Sirakaya-Turk E, Cardenas D, Harrill R (2022). COVID or VOID: A systematic literature review of technology adoption and acceptance in hospitality and tourism since the breakout of COVID-19. Tour Hosp Res: 14673584221133667.
56. Li M, Yin D, Qiu H, Bai B (2021). A systematic review of AI technology-based service encounters: Implications for hospitality and tourism operations. Int J Hosp Manag, 95: 102930.
57. Yung R, Khoo-Lattimore C, Potter LE (2021). Virtual reality and tourism marketing: Conceptualizing a framework on presence, emotion, and intention. Curr Issues Tour, 24 (11): 1505–25.
58. Chadee D, Ren S, Tang G (2021). Is digital technology the magic bullet for performing work at home? Lessons learned for post COVID-19 recovery in hospitality management. Int J Hosp Manag, 92: 102718.
2. Rogers EM (1962). Diffusion of innovations. New York: Free Press.
3. MacVaugh J, Schiavone F (2010). Limits to the diffusion of innovation: A literature review and integrative model. Eur J Innov Manag, 13 (2): 197–221.
4. Mohsin R, Abu BakarH, Luigi Pio Leonardo C (2021). The e-tourism beyond COVID-19: A call for technological transformation. J Lib Int Aff, 7 (3): 118–39.
5. Elkhwesky Z, El Manzani Y, Elbayoumi Salem I (2024). Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: A systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era. Tour Hosp Res, 24 (1): 115–33.
6. Balli F, Shahzad SJH, Uddin GS (2018). A tale of two shocks: What do we learn from the impacts of economic policy uncertainties on tourism? Tour Manag, 68: 470–5.
7. Torabi ZA, Rezvani MR, Hall CM, Allam Z (2023). On the post-pandemic travel boom: How capacity building and smart tourism technologies in rural areas can help-evidence from Iran. Technol Forecast Soc Change, 193: 122633.
8. Tuan LT (2022). How and when does hospitality employees’ core beliefs challenge foster their proactive coping for technostress? Examining the roles of promotion focus, job insecurity, and technostress. J Hosp Tour Manag, 52: 86–99.
9. Schiopu AF, Hornoiu RI, Padurean MA, Nica AM (2021). Virus tinged? Exploring the facets of virtual reality use in tourism as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Telemat Inform, 60: 101575.
10. Kim SS, Kim J, Badu-Baiden F, Giroux M, Choi Y (2021). Preference for robot service or human service in hotels? Impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Int J Hosp Manag, 93: 102795.
11. Zhong L, Coca-Stefaniak JA, Morrison AM, Yang L, Deng B (2022). Technology acceptance before and after COVID-19: No-touch service from hotel robots. Tour Rev, 77 (4): 1062–80.
12. António N, Rita P (2021). COVID-19: The catalyst for digital transformation in the hospitality industry? Tour Manag Stud, 17 (2): 41–6.
13. Lu J, Xiao X, Xu Z, Wang C, Zhang M, Zhou Y (2022). The potential of virtual tourism in the recovery of tourism industry during the COVID-19 pandemic. Curr Issues Tour, 25 (3): 441–57.
14. Trunfio M, Pasquinelli C (2021). Smart technologies in the COVID-19 crisis: Managing tourism flows and shaping visitors’ behaviour. Eur J Tour Res, 29: 2910.
15. Varelas S (2022). Virtual immersive platforms as a strategic innovative destination marketing tool in the COVID-19 era. Sustainability, 14 (19): 12867.
16. Omarova A, Nurumov A, Karipova A, Kabdullina G, Aimurzina B, Kamenova M (2021). Analysis of the development of innovative activities of the tourism industry in the influence of pandemic. J Environ Manag Tour, 12: 1442–53.
17. Buhalis D, Papathanassis A, Vafeidou M (2022). Smart cruising: Smart technology applications and their diffusion in cruise tourism. J Hosp Tour Technol, 13 (4): 626–49.
18. Marques J, Khoshkam M, Kiumarsi S (2022). Perceived impacts of Covid-19 in conference tourism: A partial least squares (PLS) analysis. Event Manag, 26 (7): 1565–76.
19. Ivanov SH, Webster C, Stoilova E, Slobodskoy D (2022). Biosecurity, crisis management, automation technologies and economic performance of travel, tourism and hospitality companies–A conceptual framework. Tour Econ, 28 (1): 3-26.
20. Saputra FE, Anggarawati S (2022). Will self-service technologies be widely adopted in travel, tourism, and hospitality industries during and after COVID-19? Int J Sustain Dev Plann, 17 (6): 1937–42.
21. Pinto AS, Abreu A, Costa E, Paiva J (2022). Augmented reality for a new reality: Using UTAUT-3 to assess the adoption of mobile augmented reality in tourism (MART). J Inf Syst Eng Manag, 7 (2): 14550.
22. Wong IA, Lin SK, Lin ZC, Xiong X (2022). Welcome to stay-at-home travel and virtual attention restoration. J Hosp Tour Manag, 51: 207–17.
23. Oncioiu I, Priescu I (2022). The use of virtual reality in tourism destinations as a tool to develop tourist behavior perspective. Sustainability, 14 (7): 4191.
24. Viñals MJ, Gilabert-Sansalvador L, Sanasaryan A, Teruel-Serrano MD, Darés M (2021). Online synchronous model of interpretive sustainable guiding in heritage sites: The avatar tourist visit. Sustainability, 13 (13): 7179.
25. Siddiqui MS, Syed TA, Nadeem A, Nawaz W, Alkhodre A (2022). Virtual tourism and digital heritage: An analysis of VR/AR technologies and applications. Int J Adv Comput Sci Appl, 13 (7): 303–15.
26. Papagiannidis S, Davlembayeva D (2022). Bringing smart home technology to peer-to-peer accommodation: Exploring the drivers of intention to stay in smart accommodation. Inf Syst Front, 24 (4): 1189–208.
27. Chan EK, Wan LC, Yi XS (2022). Smart technology vs. embarrassed human: The inhibiting effect of anticipated technology embarrassment. Ann Tour Res, 97: 103494.
28. García-Milon A, Olarte-Pascual C, Juaneda-Ayensa E (2021). Assessing the moderating effect of COVID-19 on intention to use smartphones on the tourist shopping journey. Tour Manag, 87: 104361.
29. Cheung C, Fang CC, Wang YC (2022). Consumer behavior and mobile payment: An empirical study of the restaurant industry. J China Tour Res, 18 (4): 735–55.
30. Khanra S, Dhir A, Kaur P, Joseph RP (2021). Factors influencing the adoption postponement of mobile payment services in the hospitality sector during a pandemic. J Hosp Tour Manag, 46: 26-39.
31. Bharwani S, Mathews D (2021). Post-pandemic pressures to pivot: Tech transformations in luxury hotels. Worldw Hosp Tour Themes, 13 (5): 569–83.
32. Coghlan A, Becken S, Warren C (2023). Modelling a smart tech user journey to decarbonise tourist accommodation. J Sustain Tour, 31 (3): 840–58.
33. Morosan C, Bowen JT (2022). Labor shortage solution: Redefining hospitality through digitization. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag, 34 (12): 4674–85.
34. Lau A (2020). New technologies used in COVID-19 for business survival: Insights from the Hotel sector in China. Inf Technol Tour, 22 (4): 497–504.
35. Srivastava PR, Sengupta K, Kumar A, Biswas B, Ishizaka A (2022). Post-epidemic factors influencing customer’s booking intent for a hotel or leisure spot: An empirical study. J Enterp Inf Manag, 35 (1): 78–99.
36. Matikiti-Manyevere R, Rambe P (2022). The impact of COVID 19 on the tourism industry: The role of fourth industrial revolution technologies in mitigating the impacts. Afr J Hosp Tour Leis, 11 (3): 1173–87.
37. Hassan TH, Salem AE, Refaat SA (2022). The impact of eatmarna application usability on improving performance expectancy, facilitating the practice of rituals and improving spirituality feelings during umrah amid the COVID-19 outbreak. Religions, 13 (3): 268.
38. Balasubramanian S, Sethi JS, Ajayan S, Paris CM (2022). An enabling framework for blockchain in tourism. Inf Technol Tour, 24 (2): 165–79.
39. Liu X, Zeng Y, Li Z, Huang D (2022). Understanding consumers’ motivations to view travel live streaming: Scale development and validation. Tour Manag Perspect, 44: 101027.
40. Cheong F, Law R (2022). Will Macau’s restaurants survive or thrive after entering the O2O food delivery platform in the COVID-19 pandemic? Int J Environ Res Public Health, 19 (9): 5100.
41. Hwang J, Choe JY, Choi YG, Kim JJ (2021). A comparative study on the motivated consumer innovativeness of drone food delivery services before and after the outbreak of COVID-19. J Travel Tour Mark, 38 (4): 368-82.
42. Cha SS (2020). Customers’ intention to use robot-serviced restaurants in Korea: Relationship of coolness and MCI factors. Int J Contemp Hosp Manag, 32 (9): 2947–68.
43. Kim JJ, Kim I, Hwang J (2021). A change of perceived innovativeness for contactless food delivery services using drones after the outbreak of COVID-19. Int J Hosp Manag, 93: 102758.
44. Putra AK, Islam MN, Hidayat WN, Fahmi MR (2022). Development of mobile virtual field trips in Ijen crater geosites based on 3600 auto stereoscopic and geospatial technology as geography learning media. Geo J Tourism Geosites, 41 (22): 456–63.
45. Shen S, Xu K, Sotiriadis M, Wang YC (2022). Exploring the factors influencing the adoption and usage of augmented reality and virtual reality applications in tourism education within the context of COVID-19 pandemic. J Hosp Leis Sport Tour Educ, 30: 100373.
46. Xu J, Tavitiyaman P, Kim HJ, Lo SK (2022). Hospitality and tourism higher education in the post-COVID era: Is it time to change? J Hosp Tour Educ, 34 (4): 278–90.
47. Li Y, Liang J, Huang J, Yang M, Li R, Bai H (2022). Would you accept virtual tourism? The impact of COVID-19 risk perception on technology acceptance from a comparative perspective. Sustainability, 14 (19): 12693.
48. Van NT, Vrana V, Duy NT, Minh DX, Dzung PT, Mondal SR, et al. (2020). The role of human–machine interactive devices for post-COVID-19 innovative sustainable tourism in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Sustainability, 12 (22): 9523.
49. Silva JH, Favoretto C, Amancio IR, Ganga GM, Lizarelli FL, Mendes GH (2022). Consumer behavioral intention to use restaurant, concert and education services online during and after the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Brazil. Int J Qual Serv Sci, 14 (3): 504–23.
50. Lee UK (2022). Tourism using virtual reality: Media richness and information system successes. Sustainability, 14 (7): 3975.
51. Niewiadomski P (2020). COVID-19: From temporary de-globalisation to a re-discovery of tourism? Tour Geogr, 22 (3): 651–6.
52. Choi Y, Hickerson B, Lee J, Lee H, Choe Y (2022). Digital tourism and wellbeing: Conceptual framework to examine technology effects of online travel media. Int J Environ Res Public Health, 19 (9): 5639.
53. You Y (2022). Service-oriented architecture-guided information service system for design and implementation of rural tourism. Wirel Commun Mob Comput, 2022: 1480862.
54. Sharifi A, Khavarian-Garmsir AR, Kummitha RK (2021). Contributions of smart city solutions and technologies to resilience against the COVID-19 pandemic: A literature review. Sustainability, 13 (14): 8018.
55. Iskender A, Sirakaya-Turk E, Cardenas D, Harrill R (2022). COVID or VOID: A systematic literature review of technology adoption and acceptance in hospitality and tourism since the breakout of COVID-19. Tour Hosp Res: 14673584221133667.
56. Li M, Yin D, Qiu H, Bai B (2021). A systematic review of AI technology-based service encounters: Implications for hospitality and tourism operations. Int J Hosp Manag, 95: 102930.
57. Yung R, Khoo-Lattimore C, Potter LE (2021). Virtual reality and tourism marketing: Conceptualizing a framework on presence, emotion, and intention. Curr Issues Tour, 24 (11): 1505–25.
58. Chadee D, Ren S, Tang G (2021). Is digital technology the magic bullet for performing work at home? Lessons learned for post COVID-19 recovery in hospitality management. Int J Hosp Manag, 92: 102718.
| Files | ||
| Issue | Vol 54 No 10 (2025) | |
| Section | Review Article(s) | |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.18502/ijph.v54i10.20133 | |
| Keywords | ||
| Global health crisis Pandemic Technology adoption Tourism | ||
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
How to Cite
1.
Rokni L, Rezaei M, Andreu Perez L, Jun B, Choi S- hee. Technology Adoption in Tourism to Deal with Global Health Crisis: A Narrative Review. Iran J Public Health. 2025;54(10):2127-2138.
