Purpose

This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies.

Design/methodology/approach

Mixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria).

Findings

The most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents’ answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them.

Originality/value

The paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future.

中文翻译：

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数字技能鸿沟：来自欧洲旅游业的证据

目的

本文旨在介绍欧洲一项关于旅游和酒店公司数字技能差距的研究结果。

设计/方法/途径

采用混合方法研究。样本包括 8 个欧洲国家（英国、意大利、爱尔兰、西班牙）5 个旅游行业（住宿机构、旅行社和旅行社、食品和饮料、旅游景点和目的地管理机构）的 1,668 名受访者（1,404 名调查受访者和 264 名受访者） 、匈牙利、德国、荷兰和保加利亚）。

发现

未来最重要的数字技能包括在线营销和沟通技能、社交媒体技能、MS Office 技能、操作系统使用技能和监控在线评论的技能。当前和未来技能水平之间最大的差距被确定为人工智能和机器人技能以及增强现实和虚拟现实技能，但这些技能与计算机编程技能也被认为是最不重要的数字技能。根据报告的当前数字技能水平与未来数字技能需求之间的差距，确定了三个集群。注册国家、行业和规模决定了受访者对当前和未来技能水平以及他们之间技能差距的回答。

原创性/价值

本文讨论了旅游业和酒店业员工的数字技能差距，并确定了他们未来需要的最重要的数字技能。