What Do People Think Robots Should Do in Hospitality and Tourism? Preliminary Findings from a Global Study of Market Segments

Abstract

While manufacturing has been using robots widely for many years, it was not until 2015 that a major hotel opened manned almost entirely by robots. The technical ability to automate many services in travel, tourism, and hospitality means that the knowledge of attitudes and demographic segments that will be more accepting of such technologies must be developed. The authors illustrate the preliminary findings (1003 respondents) of a global online survey to learn about which robotic tasks various attitudes and demographic segments support in the travel, tourism, and hospitality industries. The findings show that those with generalized attitudes favourable towards robots and those who have a predilection towards technology have favourable attitudes towards using robots for specific tasks in tourism-related industries. In addition, the findings suggest that there is also a major gender divide, showing that females tend to be more reserved in their support for using robots for various tasks.