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The purpose of this study is to explore robot-phobia as a source of occupational stress among hospitality employees in the context of increasing robotization in the industry.

The study sampled 321 lodging employees and 308 food service employees in the USA. An online panel company recruited the participants and administered an online survey. The study used various analytical methods, including structural modeling, t-tests and multi-group analyses.

The study results reveal that hospitality workers experience robot-phobia regardless of their sector or position. Robot-phobia causes job insecurity and stress, which increases turnover intention. These negative outcomes are more pronounced for those who interact more frequently with robots.

The study findings suggest that hospitality workers fear being replaced by robots in the near future. Therefore, hospitality organizations should offer adequate training and education on the advantages and drawbacks of robots and establish a supportive and collaborative work environment that values human–robot interaction.

This study offers new insights regarding human–robot interaction from the employee perspective by introducing the concept of robot-phobia in the hospitality workplace. A comprehensive picture of how hospitality employees confront the increasing presence of robots is provided in this study.

Although virtual worlds, such as the Metaverse, can disrupt the hospitality sector, few empirical investigations have critically evaluated the scope and scale of this disruption from an industry perspective. This study aims to rectify this knowledge gap by exploring the opportunities and challenges of the Metaverse as seen by hospitality professionals.

This is a Delphi study conducted with UK-based senior hospitality industry practitioners experienced in designing and implementing digital innovations within their organisations.

The Metaverse is most likely to be adopted by hospitality organisations willing and able to take risks, such as large and/or chain-affiliated enterprises. The Metaverse will not replace traditional hospitality services but supplement and enhance them with new layers of service. The main applications are in the context of events and experiences. The Metaverse will also provide the “try before you buy” option, revealing the opportunities to design digital twins of physical businesses. Young and technology-savvy individuals are most likely to first adopt the Metaverse. The key challenges of the adoption are attributed to the technological unpreparedness of hospitality organisations; market immaturity; inflated customer expectations; a skills gap among hospitality employees; and regulatory issues. These challenges require the engagement of various stakeholders to create an operational and monitoring framework for hospitality organisations to embrace the Metaverse.

This study highlights how the Metaverse can disrupt the hospitality industry at the level of strategic planning and business operations.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first empirical investigations of the potential of the Metaverse from the viewpoint of hospitality industry practitioners.

This study aims to offer an overview of hospitality and tourism research on artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on the industry. More specifically, this study examines hospitality and tourism AI research trends in hospitality and tourism customer service experience creation and delivery, service failure and recovery, human resources and organizational behavior. Based on the review, this study identifies the challenges and opportunities and provides directions for future studies.

A narrative synthesis approach was used to review the hospitality and tourism research on AI and its impact on various aspects of the industry.

AI and AI applications in customer service experience creation and delivery and its possible effects on employees and organizations are viewed as a double-edged sword. Although the use of AI and AI applications offers various benefits, there are also serious concerns over the ethical use of AI, the replacement of human employees by AI-powered devices, discomfort among customers and employees and trust toward AI.

The paper offers an updated holistic overview of AI and its implications in different facets of the hospitality and tourism industry. Challenges and opportunities are discussed to foster future discussions on the use of AI among scholars and industry professionals.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a thematic content analysis of facial emotion recognition (FER) research within the context of the hospitality and tourism industry. Through this analysis, the study aims to identify key themes, trends and implications of the utilization of FER technology in enhancing customer emotions and experiences within hospitality and tourism settings.

This is qualitative research that utilizes thematic content analysis. The research data were obtained from the Scopus database. A total of 45 articles (titles, abstracts and keywords) were coded into MAXQDA and VOSWiever programs for data analyses and mapping.

Based on the analyses, the predominant term used in titles was emotion, indicating its centrality in the research domain. Moreover, the most prevalent concepts in this field were emotion and experience. Notably, facial emotion recognition emerged as the most frequently utilized term within this context. Within the hospitality and tourism industry, FER was primarily employed within the travel sub-branch. Finally, the research culminated in the visualization of the theoretical framework and conceptual background, offering a comprehensive overview of the field.

There is a growing demand for using FER technology specifically within the hospitality and tourism industry context; therefore, growing scientific research has been conducted on this topic recently. By conducting a thematic content analysis, this study uncovered novel insights into the utilization of this technology to enhance customer emotions and experiences, thereby contributing to a deeper understanding of its potential implications and applications within the hospitality and tourism industry.

This study aims to identify the causes of the academia-industry divide in hospitality marketing research in the form of the “Research Devaluation Map” and offers ideas for discussion points and suggestions for change.

The conceptualization of the Research Devaluation Map was developed at an invitational thought-leadership conference. The authors were asked to produce a forward looking, critical reflection of hospitality marketing scholarship. The authors generated a preliminary idea and developed a methodology for its implementation. They then proposed a framework that explicated the divide between hospitality marketing research and industry practice and a list of discussion points regarding possible solutions.

The issues currently challenging the hospitality research field are found to include the choice of research topics (the “what”), the methods used in research (the “how”) and the systemic factors that shape the academic culture (the “systemic”). These three factors lead to a mutual devaluation of the academic–industry relationship in hospitality marketing, causing a schism between research and industry practice.

The Research Devaluation Map serves as a springboard for future research studies, providing a framework for naming and operationalizing the antecedents and results of the divide between hospitality marketing research and practice.

This paper takes a holistic look at the gaps in current hospitality marketing research and puts forth a framework to explain the roots of these issues. While certain of these issues are known to both researchers and practitioners, the originality of this paper lies in the creation of the Research Devaluation Map that identifies the causes and results of the disconnect between research and practice.

This meta-analysis aims to examine and compare the pleasant ambient scent effects on consumers’ affective, cognitive and behavioural responses in the retail and hospitality sectors.

55 articles, including 102 effect sizes, are collected from electronic databases and search engines. The effect of pleasant ambient scents on consumer responses is examined using meta-regression analysis.

The results show a positive effect of pleasant ambient scent on all responses in both sectors, while the effects on cognitive and behavioural responses are stronger in hospitality than retailing. Moreover, the scent effects in hospitality research vary with method aspects, including sampling frame, research design, setting and location.

The findings provide theoretical insights on the sensory tangibilization of experience and methodological insights on designing scent research.

The stronger effect of pleasant ambient scents on cognitive and behavioural responses in a hospitality environment signals that contextual differences should not be neglected. Moreover, hospitality researchers need to stay vigilant to the methodological influence on the findings about scent effects. These findings enrich the sensory marketing literature, in which contextual comparison is scarce.

This paper aims to provide a critical reflection on the impact of the gig economy on the hospitality workforce. The impact of the gig economy on hospitality workforce management is explored, with the paper delving into both theoretical insights and practical implications.

This paper offers reflections on the emerging trend of the gig economy and its impacts on the hospitality workforce, based on evidence collected from the selected literature, industry report and authors’ personal reflections. A micro-meso-macro analytical framework was also applied to assist authors in building the arguments and propositions.

The findings not only revealed the impacts of the gig economy on the hospitality workforce at micro-meso-macro levels but also underscored its close relationships with various concepts in the hospitality management literature. Both future research directions and practical implications are provided.

Amid the gig economy’s transformative influence, stakeholders must continually innovate for an empowering and secure work environment. A holistic approach is necessary to establish a harmonious gig ecosystem, ensuring fair treatment, benefits and protection for workers while fostering growth and well-being.

Throughout the paper, a critical reflection on the impact of the gig economy on the hospitality workforce is presented, along with suggestions for coping with current labor issues in hospitality and tourism. Future research directions are outlined.

This paper aims to bridge the extended reality framework and the luxury hospitality literature by providing insights into how immersive technologies using artificial intelligence (AI) can shape luxury value and consumer differentiation.

The authors conducted three experimental studies comparing immersive AI versus traditional hospitality across luxury contexts (hotels, restaurants and spas). Study 1 investigates the effect of immersive AI (vs traditional hospitality) on customers’ behavioral intentions and the need for differentiation using virtual-assisted reality. Study 2 tests the underlying mechanism of the need for differentiation and luxury value in an augmented reality context. Study 3 provides additional support for the proposed underlying mechanism using virtual-assisted reality in luxury hospitality.

The findings reveal that immersive AI (vs traditional) luxury hospitality reduces customers’ behavioral intentions of using such services and perceived luxury value. Moreover, the findings indicate that the intention to use immersive AI (vs traditional) luxury hospitality services is contingent upon customers’ need for differentiation.

The findings have important theoretical and managerial implications for immersive technologies in luxury hospitality. They shed light on the dynamics between integrating immersive AI into luxury hospitality and its impact on customers’ differentiation motives and perceived luxury value. The findings reveal the detrimental effect of using immersive AI (vs traditional hospitality) within this context.

Amidst ongoing digital transformation, the current paper provides a 360-degree overview of technology-adoption in Tourism and Hospitality. By combining and consolidating a wide range of sources, mainly in the tourism literature, the analysis depicts how the complex technological ecosystem often enhances or hinders the successful adoption, integration and interoperability of different technologies.

The critical review method was used to assess, analyse and synthesise existing literature in the area of digitisation in tourism and hospitality. The critical review process included a thematic analysis of the literature, where recurring themes, patterns and trends were identified towards addressing the study’s research questions.

The analysis identifies current trends, opportunities, challenges and strategies for technology adoption in tourism and hospitality, the implications for theory, practicable executive directions and avenues for further research.

The paper’s main contribution lies in its comprehensive identification, consideration and incorporation of all primary contemporary technological elements, and the ensuing development of a corresponding conceptual charting framework, which illustrates a multifaceted process with practical implications for various stakeholders, including businesses, authorities, consumers and employees.

This study, a conceptual paper, analyses the growth of curation in tourism and hospitality and the curator role in selecting and framing products and experiences. It considers the growth of expert, algorithmic, social and co-creative curation modes and their effects.

Narrative and integrative reviews of literature on curation and tourism and hospitality are used to develop a typology of curation and identify different curation modes.

Curational techniques are increasingly used to organise experience supply and distribution in mainstream fields, including media, retailing and fashion. In tourism and hospitality, curated tourism, curated hospitality brands and food offerings and place curation by destination marketing organisations are growing. Curation is undertaken by experts, algorithms and social groups and involves many of destination-related actors, producing a trend towards “hybrid curation” of places.

Research is needed on different forms of curation, their differential effects and the power roles of different curational modes.

Curation is a widespread intermediary function in tourism and hospitality, supporting better consumer choice. New curators influence experience supply and the distribution of consumer attention, shaping markets and co-creative activities. Increased curatorial activity should stimulate aesthetic and stylistic innovation and provide the basis for storytelling and narrative in tourism and hospitality.

This is the first study of curational strategies in tourism and hospitality, providing a definition and typology of curation, and linking micro and macro levels of analysis. It suggests the growth of choice-based logic alongside service-dominant logic in tourism and hospitality.