Adoption of robots and service automation by tourism and hospitality companies

Abstract

This paper explores the current state and the potential adoption of service automation and robots by tourist, travel and hospitality companies. Despite the huge advancements in social robotics, the research on robots in tourism has been extremely limited – a gap that is partially filled by this paper. Specifically the paper looks at service automation in hotels, restaurants, events, theme and amusement parks, airports, car rental companies, travel agencies and tourist information centres, museums and art galleries. The paper elaborates on the challenges that companies will face when adopting service automation and robots to serve tourists.