Decent work and tourism workers in the age of intelligent automation and digital surveillance

Abstract

Technology is shifting not only how the tourism industry is run but also the nature of work, working conditions and management control. This article examines the potential implications of technologydriven transformations on lower-paid lower-skilled tourism workers. With tourism expected to be the sector most affected by intelligent automation, greater attention needs to be given to the variegated impact on the workforce. Drawing on the concepts of surveillance capitalism, disruptive innovation and techno-solutionism, the article problematises these transformations and unpacks the rhetoric used by tourism and technology companies. Situating the discussion within UN Sustainable Development Goal 8 (SDG8), the article explores how -without proactive regulatory measures and worker-centric approaches -the expansion of intelligent automation in tourism workplaces risks exacerbating inequalities and precarisation of lower-skilled workers, exposing them to job losses and dislocation, dehumanising their role and gradually automating them out. Additionally, digital surveillance may shift power further towards employers, reducing worker agency and impacting on worker wellbeing. Overall, despite clear benefits, unfettered intelligent automation and digital surveillance risk disrupting established worker rights and protections and inadvertently moving the tourism sector away from the ideals of decent work for all.

Driving hospitality and tourism to foster sustainable innovation: A systematic review of COVID-19-related studies and practical implications in the digital era

“…Physical-digital process technologies (high share of hardware components/low level of connectivity) including manufacturing equipment and novel materials, as well as energy management solutions such as hydrogen and fuel cell technologies have been identified as key Regional Innovation Policies (RIP) solutions for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy consumption ( Cooke and Nunes, 2021 ), or LanzaTech’s Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) produced from waste gas-derived ethanol ( Kondo and Hegedus, 2020 ), and intelligent automation in tourism workplaces ( Rydzik and Kissoon, 2021 ).…”

“…Firms took various initiatives such as remote working capabilities and digitization; digital platforms for ease in working; document online exchange; business intelligence systems; implementation of digital management systems ( Ajmal et al, 2021 ); and automation in processes, production, and distribution channels, to make them more resistant to pandemics in the future ( Ajmal et al, 2021 ; Rydzik and Kissoon, 2021 ). Studying four hotels or lodging, Farías and Cancino (2021) found that the impact of digital innovation on core process management, both in the back office and in the front office, was determined to be critical.…”

“…Also, firms have adopted digital monitoring and control for work ( Rydzik and Kissoon, 2021 ). For instance, Nguyen et al (2021) proposed a MCDM-based framework combining the FAHP and the WASPAS that allows online food delivery to control their work based on a comprehensive set of environmental, economic, quality, and technology criteria.…”

Locus of control as a moderator of the effects of COVID‐19 perceptions on job insecurity, psychosocial, organisational, and job outcomes for MENA region hospitality employees

“…Hospitality sector workers have precarious employment not only because they are frontline and at risk of exposure, but they also face obsolescence due to employers quickly introducing labour saving tools and robotics (Rydzik & Kissoon, 2021). In the case of workers in the sector, compensation, working conditions, and employer support have not traditionally been generous.…”

Power and Resistance: Digital-Free Tourism in a Connected World

“…In addition, the choice of positive words such as "smart," "connect," and "intelligent" reinforce the normalized dominant discourse of digital technology in society. In recent years, some studies have adopted a more critical approach to problematize the dominant neoliberal discourse of technology transformation in tourism (Rydzik and Kissoon 2021) and criticize the impersonal mass quantification of big data (Weaver 2021).…”