Chapter 10: Leveraging IoT and AI in Smart Hospitality: Enhancing Halal Tourism with Seamless and Efficient Travel Solutions

Artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are substantially changing service delivery all over the globe in the domain of tourism as intelligent technology has emerged as one of the mighty change agents. This study explores the benefits of AI in hospitality systems on Halal tourists, Muslim travelers for whom matters including religion (halal and haram), cultural sensitivity as well operations effectiveness are prioritized particularly. A total of 400 Muslim travelers that used technology-enabled services during their trip completed the standardized 26-item questionnaire. Descriptive analysis, reliability assessment, and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the basic components leading to satisfaction were employed. Six parameters are identified to be critical ones: intelligent infrastructure and engagement, personalization with AI at the core to enable accessibility with known mind-sets & cultural/religious alignment, trust & privacy, and make things prepared for service offering. All constructs showed adequate reliability (α > 0.70), and the KMO and Bartlett’s significance test revealed that data are appropriate for component analysis. The higher-order six-factor model accounted for 73.58% of the total variance in the response satisfaction. There was statistical support for all seven hypotheses, indicating the positive impact of smart technologies on the ethical, spiritual, and most importantly experiential needs of Muslim travelers by service providers. This study provides substantial theoretical contributions in smart Halal tourism and practical implications for service providers, as well as governments. Religion-centered design, digital trust, and organizational preparedness are imperative to steward true and accessible tourism inclusion.