The application of Robots, Artificial Intelligence, and Service Automation in the Egyptian Tourism and Hospitality Sector (Possibilities, Obstacles, Pros, and Cons)

摘要

Robots (R), artificial intelligence (AI), and service automation (SA) (RAISA) technologies are greatly applied in the tourism and hospitality industry around the globe. Research on this area is getting momentum, however, investigating the topic in the Egyptian tourism and hospitality industry has been fairly neglected. This study aims to analyze the application of RAISA technologies in travel agencies and hotels in Egypt. The researchers adopted an in-depth semi-structured interview method and analyze the qualitative data collected from a sample of twenty IT managers and IT assistant managers in travel agencies and hotels. The results confirmed that there are no robots’ applications in the Egyptian tourism and hospitality sector. However, there are some AI (chatbots, AI search platforms) and SA technologies adopted (digital kiosks, virtual reality, mobile check-in/out, smart rooms). The main obstacles of applying RAISA are cost and the absence of qualified human resources. From the interviewees' viewpoint, the most significant pros of RAISA are increasing the quality of services provided, improving performance, reducing human mistakes, and overcoming problems related to employees' mental and psychological state. While the cons are huge investments required and decreasing the essential human interactions between customers and employees. Additionally, the interviewees declared that the tourism and hospitality sectors are witnessing significant technological changes in Egypt vision 2030.