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1 – 10 of 44Stanislav Ivanov and Veronika Achikgezyan
The purpose of this paper is to identify the attitudes of Bulgarians towards country’s historical monuments, communist heritage, communist heritage tourism and their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to identify the attitudes of Bulgarians towards country’s historical monuments, communist heritage, communist heritage tourism and their willingness to participate in communist heritage trips.
Design/methodology/approach
The sample includes 359 respondents recruited via an online survey. Mann-Whitney U-test is used to identify the differences in the respondents’ attitudes towards communist heritage tourism in Bulgaria on the basis of their age, gender, frequency of visit to historical monuments, attitudes towards country’s communist past, prior visit to, familiarity with and attitude towards communist monuments and identification of communist monuments with country’s heritage.
Findings
The respondents who visited historical monuments more frequently, had more positive attitudes towards communist past of the country and its communist monuments, those who had visited and were very familiar with the communist monuments were more supportive towards donating money for the restoration of communist monuments and their inclusion in tourism supply.
Practical implications
The paper reveals that domestic communist heritage tourism demand exists in Bulgaria and tour operators need to focus on including communist heritage in tourism supply.
Social implications
Communist heritage is controversial and different social groups perceive it differently, depending on their attitudes towards communism as a political, economic and social system.
Originality/value
The paper compares the attitudes towards historical and communist monuments and revealed that communist monuments received less support for inclusion in tourism supply than historical monuments; the respondents were less inclined to participate in trips to them and to donate money for their restoration.
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This paper aims to analyse three decision-making approaches that involve humans and artificial autonomous agents, namely, human “in the loop”, “on the loop” and “out of…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to analyse three decision-making approaches that involve humans and artificial autonomous agents, namely, human “in the loop”, “on the loop” and “out of the loop” and identifies the decision characteristics that determine the choice of a decision-making approach.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a conceptual paper that analyses the relationships between the human and the artificial autonomous agents in the decision-making process from the perspectives of the agency theory, sustainability, legislation, economics and operations management.
Findings
The paper concludes that the human “out of the loop” approach is most suitable for quick, standardised, frequent decisions with low negative consequences of a wrong decision by the artificial intelligence taken within a well-defined context. Complex decisions with high outcome uncertainty that involve significant ethical issues require human participation in the form of a human “in the loop” or “on the loop” approach. Decisions that require high transparency need to be left to humans.
Originality/value
The paper evaluates the decision-making approaches from the perspectives of the agency theory, sustainability, legislation, economics and operations management and identifies the decision characteristics that determine the choice of a decision-making approach.
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Craig Webster and Stanislav Ivanov
Future tourism will take place in a robonomic economy (aka robonomics). The massive introduction of robots, artificial intelligence and automation technologies which will…
Abstract
Purpose
Future tourism will take place in a robonomic economy (aka robonomics). The massive introduction of robots, artificial intelligence and automation technologies which will lead to the advent of an economy that will be qualitatively different from the current economy. The robonomic economy will have profound implications on the nature of work, level and sources of incomes, leisure time, politics, international trade and relations, ownership rights, etc., hence leading to major social, economic and political challenges and tension. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate on how tourism will be in a robonomic society.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a perspective paper that shows how tourism will be in a robonomic society. This is a conceptual perspective article that shows how tourism will be in a robonomic society.
Findings
This paper elaborates on the tourism/hospitality implications of robonomics, the positive and negative impacts of robonomics on tourism and vice versa.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to discuss tourism implications of a future automated society.
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Craig Webster and Stanislav Ivanov
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how demographic changes in developed countries will continue to drive the tourism and hospitality industries to adopt automation in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to discuss how demographic changes in developed countries will continue to drive the tourism and hospitality industries to adopt automation in business operations.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach is an analysis of the trends in human reproduction in the developed countries and a discussion of their implications for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.
Findings
There are three major solutions to the demographic problem faced in developed countries and the replacement of human labour with automation is the most practical, immediate and has the fewest risks and negative externalities.
Practical implications
Industry has to adapt to the new demographic reality and embrace automation of services, educate their customers and have policies to deal with the resistance expected by labour.
Social implications
Society can expect that many of the tasks they commonly expect humans to be involved in will be done by machines and artificial intelligence in the near future, if demographic trends continue and massive immigration into developed countries is not a continuing phenomenon.
Originality/value
This links the relationship between demographic trends to the use of automation in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.
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Faruk Seyitoğlu and Stanislav Ivanov
The purpose of this study is to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world and understand the components of robotic restaurant experience.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world and understand the components of robotic restaurant experience.
Design/methodology/approach
Travellers who had experienced a robotic restaurant were purposefully selected as a sample group for the study. As the robotic restaurants are limited around the world, multiple case study method has been chosen to gather richer data. A user-generated content technique which is a form of qualitative case study method has been benefited to gather data from travellers’ reviews.
Findings
The results reveal a model of components of robotic restaurant experience that include six main themes: attraction for kids, robotic system, memorable experience, ambience related attributes, food related attributes (economic value and gastronomic aspects) and deficiencies (in robotic system, in ambience related attributes and in food related attributes).
Originality/value
This paper is one of the first to investigate the robotic restaurant experience of travellers around the world. Moreover, it contributes to the research on restaurant experience and offers a model of components of the robotic restaurant experience.
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Sheena Carlisle, Stanislav Ivanov and Corné Dijkmans
This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies.
Design/methodology/approach
Mixed methods research was adopted. The sample includes 1,668 respondents (1,404 survey respondents and 264 interviewees) in 5 tourism sectors (accommodation establishments, tour operators and travel agents, food and beverage, visitor attractions and destination management organisations) in 8 European countries (UK, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Hungary, Germany, the Netherlands and Bulgaria).
Findings
The most important future digital skills include online marketing and communication skills, social media skills, MS Office skills, operating systems use skills and skills to monitor online reviews. The largest gaps between the current and the future skill levels were identified for artificial intelligence and robotics skills and augmented reality and virtual reality skills, but these skills, together with computer programming skills, were considered also as the least important digital skills. Three clusters were identified on the basis of their reported gaps between the current level and the future needs of digital skills. The country of registration, sector and size shape respondents’ answers regarding the current and future skills levels and the skills gap between them.
Originality/value
The paper discusses the digital skills gap of tourism and hospitality employees and identifies the most important digital skills they would need in the future.
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Francesc Fusté-Forné and Stanislav Ivanov
This research discusses the role of service robots in gastronomic and dining experiences in a post–coronavirus disease (COVID) world.
Abstract
Purpose
This research discusses the role of service robots in gastronomic and dining experiences in a post–coronavirus disease (COVID) world.
Design/methodology/approach
The research note draws on secondary data to analyse the use of robots as an important mechanism to address the impacts of global disease outbreaks on the food industry, as related to hospitality and tourism.
Findings
Hospitality and tourism services are highly affected by the current travel bans, lockdowns and health-related rules that have emerged to manage the current pandemic (COVID-19). This research showcases the role of service robots in food encounters in hospitality and tourism as agents that contribute to safe and innovative experiences.
Originality/value
This research note explores how the use of robots in tourism futures will not only transform food experiences, but it is also critical to sustainable development of communities and destinations in a future that will continuously have to deal with disease outbreaks and pandemics with continued travel mobilities.
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Stanislav Ivanov and Craig Webster
This paper aims to investigate potential consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality, and the factors that shape their…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate potential consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality, and the factors that shape their willingness to pay.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey yielded a sample of 1,573 respondents from 99 countries. Independent samples t-test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA), cluster, factor and regression analyses were used.
Findings
Respondents expected to pay less for robot-delivered services than human-delivered services. Two clusters were identified: one cluster willing to pay nearly the same price for robotic services as for human-delivered services, whilst the other expected deep discounts for robotic services. The willingness-to-pay was positively associated with the attitudes towards robots in tourism, robotic service experience expectations, men and household size. It was negatively associated to travel frequency, age and education.
Research limitations/implications
The paper’s main limitation is its exploratory nature and the use of a hypothetical scenario in measuring respondents’ willingness to pay. The data were gathered prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and do not reflect the potential changes in perceptions of robots due to the pandemic.
Practical implications
Practitioners need to focus on improving the attitudes towards robots in tourism because they are strongly and positively related to the willingness to pay. The marketing messages need to form positive expectations about robotic services.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality and factors that shape their willingness to pay.
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