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What Should Robots Do? A Comparative Analysis of Industry Professionals, Educators and Tourists

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019

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Abstract

While robots have been used extensively for many years in manufacturing, many robots are fairly new arrivals in tourism-related industries. This paper delves into how the general public and stakeholders in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries view the incorporation of robots into tourism-related industries. Based upon a sample of over 1,000 respondents to an international online survey, it analyses which tasks are deemed as most appropriate for being delegated to a robot. In addition, it segments the respondents to determine whether the professions of those responding view the delegation of tasks to robots differently. The results indicate that in general, the occupation of respondents did not seem to play a significant role in perceptions of which tasks are most appropriate for robots in tourism-related industries, although respondents employed in robotics seem to be more receptive towards robots, while tourism educators – more pessimistic.

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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.

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Authors and Affiliations

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

    Stanislav Ivanov

  2. Department of Management, Ball State University, Muncie, 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). What Should Robots Do? A Comparative Analysis of Industry Professionals, Educators and Tourists. 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_20

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