Technology Application in the Tourism and Hospitality Industry: The Contexts of India and Bangladesh

Depending on tourist attractions, few of the countries of Asia hold superiority in advanced tourism and hospitality industry. Bangladesh and West Bengal of India, in reality, share similarities in culture, language, and traditional customs. Advancement of technology also adds inimitable dimensions for tourism industry in both cases. Tourists become more technology oriented and collect information from searching destinations to booking a hotel online in developed countries. The availability of applicable innovative technologies for tourists also varies between countries when few countries are the global leaders (i.e., Japan, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, etc.). Even with diversified tourism market, Bangladesh and West Bengal seemingly stay far behind using innovative technology than other countries of the region. This chapter focuses on the contexts of innovative technology application in Bangladesh and West Bengal of India. This conceptual paper reveals that the number of technological oriented tourists is increasing, as well as there are different organizations that developed tourist-friendly applications for both tourist and tourism enterprises. Still a gap exists between tourist expectations and the offers in relation to innovative technologies for tourism in both cases. There is a lack of skilled human resources who can serve. The study also explores that tourists can hardly get enough support underdeveloped technological applications and infrastructure provided by the authorities of both Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. This research suggests the creation of support systems and making necessary information accessible on the Internet as well as enforcing knowledge-able HR. The chapter also suggests making and implementing strategies for the betterment of tourist experience from the use of innovative technological application.