Robots in Tourism and Hospitality: The Perception of Future Professionals

Table 1

Research on the use of robots in the hospitality industry.

Author(s)	Main results
Andrew	The use of service robots should be encouraged because, as opposed to the costs associated with traditional resources, which are likely to increase over time, robotic technology costs are expected to decrease in the following years [24].
Melis	The intention to use robotic technology is largely influenced by the perceived usefulness and benefits inherent in its use [25].
Wanner and Herkommer	Service robots, in the hospitality industry, are mostly used for performing physical tasks, and the great potential of AI for performing tourism operations remains overlooked [26].
Werthner and Klein	The robotic technology used in the tourism and hospitality sector focuses essentially on back-office activities and contributes little or nothing to stimulate customer-robot interaction [27].
Kawarazaki et al.	Service robots still lack the skills to establish a friendly relationship with humans (e.g., kindness and friendliness), although there is a growing effort on the part of their programmers for communication to occur through natural language, gestures, and more humanized expressions [28].
Melis et al.	Service automation triggers a major ethical dilemma with hotel managers: (a) should they replace their employees with robots to make more profit? (b) Or should they use technology to improve the working conditions of their employees and, consequently, the offer of the services provided? [29].
Melissen et al.	Hospitality is largely dependent on human resources, and it is this heavy dependence that makes this sector increasingly attractive for the introduction of service robots that offer innovative, fast, and effective experiences [30].
Ivanov and Webster	The perception of human-robot interaction is not only influenced by the characteristics of the robot but also by the situational context and the characteristics of the customer, since this perception is strongly influenced by sociocultural factors [31].
Rosete et al.	The use of service robots has diminished the affective experience as they cannot mimic humans in terms of emotions nor are they advanced enough to perform social activities, leaving guests frustrated [32].
Belanche et al.	Human likeness contributes positively to increasing customer affinity with service robots, which in turn is a strong predictor of their success in the hospitality industry [4].
Khaliq et al.	The introduction of AI, in particular robots, brings numerous benefits at the hospitality level, namely, in terms of cost reduction, accuracy, and speed in the service provided [33].

Source: elaborated by the authors.