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Perceived Appropriateness and Intention to Use Service Robots in Tourism

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019

Abstract

This research investigates the ways in which customers of tourism and hospitality facilities view the appropriateness of robots in tourism-related industries. From a global sample with over 87 countries and territories represented and over 1,000 respondents, the findings illustrate that the most commonly approved of usage of robots is perceived to be information provision, housekeeping activities and processing bookings, payments and documents. Multiple regression analyses suggest that many different dimensions of robot application influence how willing potential customers are to use robots in a hospitality setting, while the best indicator of willingness to use a robot in a hospitality setting is a person’s general attitude towards robots.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Ulrike Gretzel, Katerina Berezina, Iis Tussyadiah, Jamie Murphy, Dimitrios Buhalis and Cihan Cobanoglu for their valuable comments on the initial drafts of the questionnaire. The authors also thank Sofia Yanko, Katerina Berezina, Nadia Malenkina, Raul Fernandez Martin, Antoaneta Topalova, Florian Aubke, Nedra Bahri, Frederic Dimanche, Rosanna Leung, Kwang-ho Lee, Minako Okada, Isa Veira, Jean Max Tavares, Seden Dogan and Isabella Ye for devoting their time and effort into the translation of the questionnaire.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Tourism, Varna University of Management, Varna, Bulgaria

    Stanislav Ivanov

  2. Department of Management, Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA

    Craig Webster

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  1. Stanislav Ivanov
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Correspondence to Stanislav Ivanov .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Business School, University of Eastern Finland, Joensuu, Finland

    Juho Pesonen

  2. Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien, Vienna, Austria

    Julia Neidhardt

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Ivanov, S., Webster, C. (2019). Perceived Appropriateness and Intention to Use Service Robots in Tourism. In: Pesonen, J., Neidhardt, J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-05940-8_19

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