Bridging Digital Divide: Empirical Evidence of the Hotel Sector in Vietnam

Research purpose: Many scholars have long been arguing that digital divide is defined as the terms to differentiate between those who have access to digital technology and those who have not. That is also the case for the tourism industry in general and the hotel sector in particular. Research motivation: The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted Vietnam’s hotel sector with a large proportion of non-booked empty rooms. Just as recently as the hospitality industry has showed some initial signs of recovery, the digital divide has resurfaced as the most serious problem because Vietnam’s hotel sector could not recoup the opportunities. Research design, approach, and method: The economic losses that Vietnam’s hotel sector has been incurring take the forms of occupancy rate is low; digital marketing platforms sometime are poor and can not attract its customers based on their different demands. We adopt the quantitative approach in this empirical study in an effort to investigate the status-quo of digital divide with the use of self-administered questionnaire. Main findings: By collecting the data from interviews to hotel owners, we use the collected information to perform the quantitative analysis with the aim to find the answer to research questions. The main findings are: we have identified several factors that affected the digital divide among the hotel sector in Vietnam to different degree. Also, we have discover a very strong inter-relationship that have existed between the dimensions of independent variables therefore assisting the concerned stakeholders in bridging the digital divide for Vietnam’s hotel sector. And last but not least, we have had strong foundations to understand that the existing digital divide has profoundly affected the whole hotel sector should the digital inclusion index be ever constructed. This might be helful in measuring the degree to which the consequent affects can be exerted on the other hotel segments? Practical/managerial implications: Based on the research results, recommendations and suggestions are drawn for public policy makers to modernize their decision making process so that the digital divide can be bridged to bring the economic benefits to hotel sector at its full-capacity.