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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.

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.

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.

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.

Communist heritage is controversial and different social groups perceive it differently, depending on their attitudes towards communism as a political, economic and social system.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This paper elaborates on the tourism/hospitality implications of robonomics, the positive and negative impacts of robonomics on tourism and vice versa.

This is one of the first papers to discuss tourism implications of a future automated society.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

This links the relationship between demographic trends to the use of automation in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.

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.

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.

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).

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.

This viewpoint is a response to Yeoman's (2022) editorial on Sunderland AFC and the future of tourism. This viewpoint aims to outline the lessons one can learn from Star Wars about the future of tourism.

The paper reviews the live-action movies and series of the Star Wars franchise.

The paper derives specific conclusions in the following directions: the future technology in travel, tourism and hospitality; the tourists' motivation and behaviour; the management of travel, tourism and hospitality companies; destination management; economy and society and lessons from the franchise.

This is one of the first papers to elaborate on the lessons one can learn about the future of tourism from the Star Wars live-action movies and series.

This paper aims to present the findings from a European study on the digital skills gaps in tourism and hospitality companies.

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).

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.

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.

The purpose of this perspective paper is to investigate the role of robots in tourism’s contribution to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

With a deep analysis of the 17 SDGs and their 169 targets, the authors provide an interpretation on both the positive and negative impacts of robots in tourism towards the achievement of the SDG.

For several SDGs, the positive impact of robots in tourism is evident, whereas for others, it can be debated as the adoption of robots can lead to both positive and negative impacts, mostly dependent on how robots will be used. In particular, robots can provide a decent work environment for tourism and hospitality (TH) employees (SDG 8) who perform dangerous tasks while decreasing the consumption of resources (SDGs 2, 6, 7, 12, 13) due to their contribution to a company’s effectiveness and efficiency. In the meantime, robots have some impacts on the environment, both in terms of the use of resources (their manufacturing relies on rare Earth materials and robots are energy demanding) and output, especially for the management of toxic waste (e.g. batteries).

The main limitation of this perspective paper is the lack of empirical measurement of the effects of robots in tourism on the achievement of the SDGs. However, it is a necessary exploration as a foundation for future research.

This perspective paper may be useful for robot manufacturers in identifying the positive and negative aspects of robots when designing sustainable robots (in terms of energy efficiency, management of the end-of-life of components, etc.) to conform to the expectations of the SDGs. It can be useful to TH companies when their managers evaluate whether to adopt robots in service operations or not.

This contribution discusses the social implications in adopting robots in TH, specifically in terms of new opportunities for employment and in the substitution of humans in dirty, dull and dangerous tasks. It helps policymakers adopt the best policies for fostering the use of robots in TH with an eye to the environmental and social ramifications of robots.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this perspective paper is one of the first studies to investigate the role that robots can play in achieving the SDGs by TH companies.

本文旨在研究机器人在旅游业对实现永续发展目标(SDGs)的贡献。

从 17 个 SDGs及其 169 个目标深入分析后, 本文从正反两面向解释机器人在旅游业中对实现SDGs的影响。

机器人总体对旅游是有正面影响的, 但对少数SDGs可能衍生负面影响。机器人可为执行高风险任务的员工(SDGs)提供安全的工作环境, 也能因其效率使公司减少资源消耗(SDGs 2、6、7、12、13)。但无论在资源使用(制造仰赖土料及能源)或废弃物 (例电池)的管理, 机器人对环境有一定的风险。

本文是少数研究机器人在旅游和酒店业实现SDGs所扮演的角色。

本文缺乏旅游机器人对实现SDGs的实证测量, 但本研究可为未来研究奠定基础。

据SDG设计机器人时, 本文从能源效率和组件报废等角度, 为制造商点出机器人的正反面影响。当经理需评估是否在服务中采用机器人时, 本文也可提供方向。

本文在促进旅游和酒店业使用机器人的同时, 也讨论它们的社会影响, 特别是提供就业机会, 及代替高风险工作的员工。

El propósito de este artículo de perspectiva es investigar el papel de los robots en la contribución del turismo al logro de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS).

Los autores aportan una interpretación sobre los impactos, tanto positivos como negativos de los robots en el turismo hacia el logro de los ODS sobre un profundo análisis de los 17 ODS y sus 169 metas.

Para varios ODS, el impacto positivo de los robots en el turismo es evidente, mientras que para otros puede debatirse, ya que la adopción de robots puede generar impactos tanto positivos como negativos, dependiendo principalmente de cómo se utilicen. En particular, los robots pueden proporcionar un entorno de trabajo digno para los empleados de turismo y hostelería (ODS 8) que realizan tareas peligrosas, al tiempo que reducen el consumo de recursos (ODS 2, 6, 7, 12, 13) debido a su contribución a la eficacia y eficiencia de una empresa turística. De igual forma, los robots tienen algunos impactos en el medio ambiente, tanto en términos de uso de recursos (su fabricación se basa en materiales de tierras raras y los robots demandan energía) como de producción, especialmente para la gestión de desechos tóxicos (p. ej., baterías).

Este artículo de perspectiva es uno de los primeros estudios que investigan el papel que pueden desempeñar los robots en el logro de los ODS por parte de las empresas de turismo y hostelería.

La principal limitación de este artículo de perspectiva es la falta de medición empírica de los efectos de los robots en el turismo en el logro de los ODS. Sin embargo, es una exploración necesaria como base para futuras investigaciones.

Este artículo de perspectiva puede ser útil para que los fabricantes de robots identifiquen los aspectos positivos y negativos al diseñar robots sostenibles (en términos de eficiencia energética, gestión del final de la vida útil de los componentes, etc.) y así cumplir con las expectativas de los ODS. Puede ser útil para las empresas de turismo y hostelería cuando sus gerentes evalúan, si adoptar o no robots en las operaciones de servicio

Esta contribución discute las implicaciones sociales en la adopción de robots en el turismo y la hostelería, específicamente en términos de nuevas oportunidades de empleo, y en la sustitución de humanos en tareas rutinarias, aburridas o peligrosas. Ayuda a los responsables políticos a adoptar mejores políticas para fomentar el uso de robots en el turismo y la hostelería teniendo en cuenta las ramificaciones ambientales y sociales de éstos.