PurposeThe hospitality industry in developed countries is under pressure due to labor shortages a... more PurposeThe hospitality industry in developed countries is under pressure due to labor shortages and it is likely more food and beverage operations will have to be automated in the future. This research investigates the public’s perceptions of the use of robots in food and beverage operations to learn about how the public perceives automation in food and beverage.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a survey disseminated online in 12 languages, resulting in a sample of 1,579 respondents. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and OLS regressions.FindingsThe data also reveal that generally positive attitudes toward the use of robots in tourism and hospitality is a strong indicator of positive attitudes toward the use of robots in an F&B setting. The data also illustrate that the public’s perception of appropriateness of the use of robots in F&B operations is positively related to robots’ perceived reliability, functionality and advantages compared to human employe...
The COVID-19 pandemic has a massive influence upon the working environments of scholars globally.... more The COVID-19 pandemic has a massive influence upon the working environments of scholars globally. In this paper, we investigate how the changing conditions under which individuals work because of various restrictions have inuenced the productivity of scholars based on a global sample of 1073 scholars from 83 countries. The findings show that tourism and non-tourism scholars react in similar ways to the changes in the social and physical environment of the pandemic with one exception: teleworking stressors positively affected all scholars' perceived safety and did not impact tourism scholarly productivity. Tourism and non-tourism researchers' productivity had also a positive relationship with social isolation and perceived safety. Additionally, perceived safety mediated the relationship between the psychological factors and scientic production. Moreover, perceived risk moderated the link between perceived safety and scholarly productivity. This paper contributes to tourism st...
This paper explores the current state and the potential adoption of service automation and robots... more 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.
Robots are increasingly discussed in academic literature as well as public discourse because of t... more Robots are increasingly discussed in academic literature as well as public discourse because of their introduction into consumers’ lives. The increased usage of robots in industry will meet with resistance from customers in the service industry as well as employees in industry, as their capabilities increase and they are used to augment or replace human labour. This article explores data gathered from a 2017 survey of 393 Iranian consumers to determine how Iranians perceive the use of robots in hotels, indicating which tasks Iranian consumers find robots can do for them and those that they want humans to continue doing. The findings reveal that Iranian consumers’ attitudes towards having services performed for them by robots is largely driven by general attitudes towards robots, a recognition of the advantages of robots compared to humans, experience with robots, and the social skills of robots. It is noteworthy that no demographic variables explored seem to play a role in shaping a...
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019, 2018
This research investigates the ways in which customers of tourism and hospitality facilities view... more 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.
This paper investigates the official tourism websites for the Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia... more This paper investigates the official tourism websites for the Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey to learn about their depiction of the nations for international tourism markets. The research combines Pauwels’ (2012) multimodal discourse analysis method designed for cultural websites with Smith’s (1998) six main institutional dimensions to seek out potential nationalistic patterns involving the state, territory, language, religion, history, and rites and ceremonies. The findings mostly involve verbal and visual signifiers that have a historical context to the nations such as antiquity, communism, Yugoslavia, religion, irredentism, the Ottoman Empire, and national identity. The findings illustrate that official tourism websites while being sensitive not to alienate international tourists, portray a sense of nationalism but do so in a different way, based upon the historical ...
New technologies offer employers the ability to replace tasks done by human labour with those don... more New technologies offer employers the ability to replace tasks done by human labour with those done by machines. There are challenges for both employers and employees, as employers look for strategies for the implementation of automation technologies and employees may have concerns about their employment being threatened by automation technologies. In this research, we analyse data of over 500 Bulgarians to learn about how they perceive the automation of their job. The analysis finds that there are segments of the population defined by demographics and attitudes that are more fearful of the automation of their jobs than others. Additionally, we see that attitudes towards the dehumanizing effects of automation, peer-pressure, technical expertise of the respondent, and a person’s self-perception of professionalism are the main drivers of the fear of automation. Finally, the paper evaluates respondents’ attitudes towards various individual, corporate and social solution to automation fe...
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will have a significant influence on travel, tourism, and hospitali... more The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will have a significant influence on travel, tourism, and hospitality globally. With a massive reduction in tourism globally because of the health crisis, the industry will have to plan recovery and rebuilding of the industry with greater consideration of the biosecurity of customers. A critical element in the reorganisation of the industry will involve the increased incorporation of automation technologies. This paper adopts a supply-side perspective and elaborates on the opportunities that automation technologies provide to travel, tourism, and hospitality companies to mitigate the negative impacts of biosecurity threats on their economic performance. It discusses the costs and benefits of the incorporation of increased levels of automation, especially in regards to the benefits of the safety and health of the consumer. It elaborates on how the current pandemic would stimulate the adoption of automation technologies. Finally, the paper discusses how t...
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the link between political ideology and the manag... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the link between political ideology and the management of tourism in countries. The authors stipulate that the predominant political ideology in the country influences the nature and logic of state interventions in the tourism industry.Design/methodology/approachThe paper elaborates several case studies from various countries – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Scandinavia, Russia, USA, China, Japan, Indonesia, and North Korea.FindingsCountries with predominant (neo)liberal ideology do not typically interfere in tourism regulation, while nationalism leads governments to stimulate inbound and domestic tourism. Communist ideological approaches tend to be burdensome, inhibiting growth while stressing the promotion of the socialist achievements of a country. Countries that are traditionally thought of as social democratic have been evolving in recent years to regulate tourism in ways that are more liberal in nature than social democratic.Practical implica...
While there is substantial literature investigating the economic benefits of tourism for countrie... more While there is substantial literature investigating the economic benefits of tourism for countries, less literature delves into the political benefits of tourism. In this paper, the authors investigate the issue of political conflict and the theoretical reasons that it is believed that tourism should lead to peacebuilding and political stability. Then, the authors deal with several case studies in which tourism has played a role or could play a role in political stability or peacebuilding. The authors illustrate via examples (Cyprus, Korea, and Ireland) that there are situations in which tourism has played a role or could play a role in supporting political cooperation and supporting political stability. The authors conclude, illustrating general observations regarding the relationship between tourism and political stability and the related concept of peacebuilding. In addition, the authors make comments regarding what concrete and practical measures countries can take in order to utilize the engine of tourism for the purposes of bolstering political stability and encouraging the building of peace both within and between societies.
The authors explore the different approaches to political economy and the role that national tour... more The authors explore the different approaches to political economy and the role that national tourism organizations (NTOs) may play in different national systems of political economy. The authors explain the different relationships between state, society, and economy in the four major archetypes of political economy. Then, the authors explain how the three dimensions (market-orientation, openness of the economy, and the value put on equitable social and economic outcomes) are linked with each of the four archetypes of political economy. The authors then link these three dimensions to the NTOs of states and explain how an understanding of these three dimensions can give insight into understanding the ideological underpinnings of NTOs and can be linked with the underlying philosophy of political economy upon which states are based.
Promoting a country's destination is one of the major tasks of a National Tourism Organizatio... more Promoting a country's destination is one of the major tasks of a National Tourism Organization (NTO). NTOs have many ways in which to promote their countries' tourism products, one of which is participating in tourism and travel fairs. This paper analyses the effectiveness of destination promotion through tourism fairs by investigating the practice of the Bulgarian State Agency for Tourism. The paper concludes that the promotion of Bulgaria as a tourist destination is linked with attendance at travel fairs, and suggests that more aggressive promotion practices by the government would further boost the number of tourism arrivals in Bulgaria.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the major political and economic changes in th... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the major political and economic changes in the world and the likely impact that these changes will bring to tourism and hospitality industries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a geopolitical perspective on the dynamics of tourist flows, stipulating that geopolitics has a major impact on the size, structure, and direction of these flows.FindingsThe paper identifies six geopolitical drivers of tourist flows in the future, namely: the fall of the American Empire, the rise of the BRIC and the PINE countries, increased global political instability, increased importance of regional supranational organisations, greater control of the individuals on a global scale, and the greater importance and power of corporations than national governments.Originality/valueThe paper critically evaluates the geopolitical drivers of tourist flows, their likely future development and the impact they have on tourism.
Abstract: In this paper, the authors analyze how microchips embedded into humans will impact upon... more Abstract: In this paper, the authors analyze how microchips embedded into humans will impact upon the tourism industry in general and in Europe in particular. The authors discuss how the implanted microchips function and how tourism establishments will have to adjust to this change in the near future. Both positive and negative impacts of human microchip implants on tourism and travel industry are discussed, as well the impediments to microchipping humans. The paper furthermore pays attention to the implications of the ...
The paper reviews the various methods and tourism development proxy variables used to measure the... more The paper reviews the various methods and tourism development proxy variables used to measure the impact of tourism on economic growth. The growth decomposition methodology is employed with data for 174 countries covering 2000 to 2010 to measure the impact of tourism on a country-by-country basis. Tourism's contribution to economic growth is highest in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. It is slightly negative in Europe, North America and Oceania. The paper also investigates the factors that influence tourism's contribution to growth. The results show that this contribution is higher in those economies where tourism accounts for a higher share of gross domestic product (GDP). The implications and limitations of the growth decomposition methodology are also discussed.
PurposeThe hospitality industry in developed countries is under pressure due to labor shortages a... more PurposeThe hospitality industry in developed countries is under pressure due to labor shortages and it is likely more food and beverage operations will have to be automated in the future. This research investigates the public’s perceptions of the use of robots in food and beverage operations to learn about how the public perceives automation in food and beverage.Design/methodology/approachData were collected from a survey disseminated online in 12 languages, resulting in a sample of 1,579 respondents. The data were analyzed using factor analysis and OLS regressions.FindingsThe data also reveal that generally positive attitudes toward the use of robots in tourism and hospitality is a strong indicator of positive attitudes toward the use of robots in an F&B setting. The data also illustrate that the public’s perception of appropriateness of the use of robots in F&B operations is positively related to robots’ perceived reliability, functionality and advantages compared to human employe...
The COVID-19 pandemic has a massive influence upon the working environments of scholars globally.... more The COVID-19 pandemic has a massive influence upon the working environments of scholars globally. In this paper, we investigate how the changing conditions under which individuals work because of various restrictions have inuenced the productivity of scholars based on a global sample of 1073 scholars from 83 countries. The findings show that tourism and non-tourism scholars react in similar ways to the changes in the social and physical environment of the pandemic with one exception: teleworking stressors positively affected all scholars' perceived safety and did not impact tourism scholarly productivity. Tourism and non-tourism researchers' productivity had also a positive relationship with social isolation and perceived safety. Additionally, perceived safety mediated the relationship between the psychological factors and scientic production. Moreover, perceived risk moderated the link between perceived safety and scholarly productivity. This paper contributes to tourism st...
This paper explores the current state and the potential adoption of service automation and robots... more 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.
Robots are increasingly discussed in academic literature as well as public discourse because of t... more Robots are increasingly discussed in academic literature as well as public discourse because of their introduction into consumers’ lives. The increased usage of robots in industry will meet with resistance from customers in the service industry as well as employees in industry, as their capabilities increase and they are used to augment or replace human labour. This article explores data gathered from a 2017 survey of 393 Iranian consumers to determine how Iranians perceive the use of robots in hotels, indicating which tasks Iranian consumers find robots can do for them and those that they want humans to continue doing. The findings reveal that Iranian consumers’ attitudes towards having services performed for them by robots is largely driven by general attitudes towards robots, a recognition of the advantages of robots compared to humans, experience with robots, and the social skills of robots. It is noteworthy that no demographic variables explored seem to play a role in shaping a...
Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2019, 2018
This research investigates the ways in which customers of tourism and hospitality facilities view... more 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.
This paper investigates the official tourism websites for the Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia... more This paper investigates the official tourism websites for the Balkan countries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, and Turkey to learn about their depiction of the nations for international tourism markets. The research combines Pauwels’ (2012) multimodal discourse analysis method designed for cultural websites with Smith’s (1998) six main institutional dimensions to seek out potential nationalistic patterns involving the state, territory, language, religion, history, and rites and ceremonies. The findings mostly involve verbal and visual signifiers that have a historical context to the nations such as antiquity, communism, Yugoslavia, religion, irredentism, the Ottoman Empire, and national identity. The findings illustrate that official tourism websites while being sensitive not to alienate international tourists, portray a sense of nationalism but do so in a different way, based upon the historical ...
New technologies offer employers the ability to replace tasks done by human labour with those don... more New technologies offer employers the ability to replace tasks done by human labour with those done by machines. There are challenges for both employers and employees, as employers look for strategies for the implementation of automation technologies and employees may have concerns about their employment being threatened by automation technologies. In this research, we analyse data of over 500 Bulgarians to learn about how they perceive the automation of their job. The analysis finds that there are segments of the population defined by demographics and attitudes that are more fearful of the automation of their jobs than others. Additionally, we see that attitudes towards the dehumanizing effects of automation, peer-pressure, technical expertise of the respondent, and a person’s self-perception of professionalism are the main drivers of the fear of automation. Finally, the paper evaluates respondents’ attitudes towards various individual, corporate and social solution to automation fe...
The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will have a significant influence on travel, tourism, and hospitali... more The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020 will have a significant influence on travel, tourism, and hospitality globally. With a massive reduction in tourism globally because of the health crisis, the industry will have to plan recovery and rebuilding of the industry with greater consideration of the biosecurity of customers. A critical element in the reorganisation of the industry will involve the increased incorporation of automation technologies. This paper adopts a supply-side perspective and elaborates on the opportunities that automation technologies provide to travel, tourism, and hospitality companies to mitigate the negative impacts of biosecurity threats on their economic performance. It discusses the costs and benefits of the incorporation of increased levels of automation, especially in regards to the benefits of the safety and health of the consumer. It elaborates on how the current pandemic would stimulate the adoption of automation technologies. Finally, the paper discusses how t...
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the link between political ideology and the manag... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to identify the link between political ideology and the management of tourism in countries. The authors stipulate that the predominant political ideology in the country influences the nature and logic of state interventions in the tourism industry.Design/methodology/approachThe paper elaborates several case studies from various countries – Bulgaria, Cyprus, Scandinavia, Russia, USA, China, Japan, Indonesia, and North Korea.FindingsCountries with predominant (neo)liberal ideology do not typically interfere in tourism regulation, while nationalism leads governments to stimulate inbound and domestic tourism. Communist ideological approaches tend to be burdensome, inhibiting growth while stressing the promotion of the socialist achievements of a country. Countries that are traditionally thought of as social democratic have been evolving in recent years to regulate tourism in ways that are more liberal in nature than social democratic.Practical implica...
While there is substantial literature investigating the economic benefits of tourism for countrie... more While there is substantial literature investigating the economic benefits of tourism for countries, less literature delves into the political benefits of tourism. In this paper, the authors investigate the issue of political conflict and the theoretical reasons that it is believed that tourism should lead to peacebuilding and political stability. Then, the authors deal with several case studies in which tourism has played a role or could play a role in political stability or peacebuilding. The authors illustrate via examples (Cyprus, Korea, and Ireland) that there are situations in which tourism has played a role or could play a role in supporting political cooperation and supporting political stability. The authors conclude, illustrating general observations regarding the relationship between tourism and political stability and the related concept of peacebuilding. In addition, the authors make comments regarding what concrete and practical measures countries can take in order to utilize the engine of tourism for the purposes of bolstering political stability and encouraging the building of peace both within and between societies.
The authors explore the different approaches to political economy and the role that national tour... more The authors explore the different approaches to political economy and the role that national tourism organizations (NTOs) may play in different national systems of political economy. The authors explain the different relationships between state, society, and economy in the four major archetypes of political economy. Then, the authors explain how the three dimensions (market-orientation, openness of the economy, and the value put on equitable social and economic outcomes) are linked with each of the four archetypes of political economy. The authors then link these three dimensions to the NTOs of states and explain how an understanding of these three dimensions can give insight into understanding the ideological underpinnings of NTOs and can be linked with the underlying philosophy of political economy upon which states are based.
Promoting a country's destination is one of the major tasks of a National Tourism Organizatio... more Promoting a country's destination is one of the major tasks of a National Tourism Organization (NTO). NTOs have many ways in which to promote their countries' tourism products, one of which is participating in tourism and travel fairs. This paper analyses the effectiveness of destination promotion through tourism fairs by investigating the practice of the Bulgarian State Agency for Tourism. The paper concludes that the promotion of Bulgaria as a tourist destination is linked with attendance at travel fairs, and suggests that more aggressive promotion practices by the government would further boost the number of tourism arrivals in Bulgaria.
PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the major political and economic changes in th... more PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the major political and economic changes in the world and the likely impact that these changes will bring to tourism and hospitality industries.Design/methodology/approachThe paper adopts a geopolitical perspective on the dynamics of tourist flows, stipulating that geopolitics has a major impact on the size, structure, and direction of these flows.FindingsThe paper identifies six geopolitical drivers of tourist flows in the future, namely: the fall of the American Empire, the rise of the BRIC and the PINE countries, increased global political instability, increased importance of regional supranational organisations, greater control of the individuals on a global scale, and the greater importance and power of corporations than national governments.Originality/valueThe paper critically evaluates the geopolitical drivers of tourist flows, their likely future development and the impact they have on tourism.
Abstract: In this paper, the authors analyze how microchips embedded into humans will impact upon... more Abstract: In this paper, the authors analyze how microchips embedded into humans will impact upon the tourism industry in general and in Europe in particular. The authors discuss how the implanted microchips function and how tourism establishments will have to adjust to this change in the near future. Both positive and negative impacts of human microchip implants on tourism and travel industry are discussed, as well the impediments to microchipping humans. The paper furthermore pays attention to the implications of the ...
The paper reviews the various methods and tourism development proxy variables used to measure the... more The paper reviews the various methods and tourism development proxy variables used to measure the impact of tourism on economic growth. The growth decomposition methodology is employed with data for 174 countries covering 2000 to 2010 to measure the impact of tourism on a country-by-country basis. Tourism's contribution to economic growth is highest in Africa, Asia and Latin America and the Caribbean. It is slightly negative in Europe, North America and Oceania. The paper also investigates the factors that influence tourism's contribution to growth. The results show that this contribution is higher in those economies where tourism accounts for a higher share of gross domestic product (GDP). The implications and limitations of the growth decomposition methodology are also discussed.
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