International Journal of Sub-Saharan African Research (IJSSAR)

Background: Emerging technologies are reshaping hospitality entrepreneurship by transforming service delivery, customer engagement, operational decision-making, innovation, and value creation in the industry. Despite the growing adoption of emerging technologies in hospitality, existing studies remain fragmented across individual technologies and operational contexts, resulting in a limited and fragmented understanding of the opportunities and barriers that influence hospitality entrepreneurship.
Objective: This study critically examines the opportunities created by emerging technologies for hospitality entrepreneurship and synthesizes the major factors constraining their adoption and diffusion within the hospitality sector in Zanzibar.
Method: An analytical literature review guided by the Diffusion of Innovation Theory was conducted, drawing on secondary sources, including peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2025, identified through Google Scholar, Scopus, and Emerald Insight. This review covered 33 published articles. Sources were included if they addressed emerging technologies, hospitality entrepreneurship, opportunities for technology adoption, and implementation challenges in the industry. The selected literature was analyzed thematically and analytically using Diffusion of Innovations Theory as the guiding framework. The analysis focused on recurring themes related to technological opportunities and adoption barriers. Results: The review shows that emerging technologies create opportunities for hospitality entrepreneurship through service personalization, automation, forecasting, pricing decisions, operational efficiency, sustainability, digital marketing, and platform-based business models. Specifically, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, and big data support decision-making and responsiveness; the Internet of Things (IoT) improves smart facility control, monitoring, maintenance, and personalized services; cloud computing enhances scalability and coordination; blockchain enhances transaction trust; and virtual, augmented, and metaverse applications support customer engagement and experience-based marketing. However, adoption is constrained by high costs, weak infrastructure, cybersecurity and privacy risks, regulatory uncertainty, weak data governance, limited digital skills, and employee or guest resistance.
Conclusion: Emerging technologies provide significant opportunities for innovation, competitiveness, service personalization, and operational transformation in hospitality entrepreneurship. However, their successful diffusion depends not only on technological benefits but also on organizational readiness, stakeholder acceptance, digital capabilities, responsible data governance, and supportive institutional environments.
Unique Contribution: This study provides an integrated framework for understanding how emerging technologies create entrepreneurial opportunities while simultaneously generating barriers to adoption, thereby addressing fragmentation in hospitality technology literature.
Key Recommendation: Entrepreneurs should adopt technologies through a phased implementation approach, staff training, governance safeguards, and public–private partnerships.