Robots on the Tourist Industry—A Review for Future Research Directions

Abstract

Robots were originally designed to carry out simple tasks. However, during the past years, robots have been used also in the workplace. An example is the hospitality and tourist industry where robots are used in some services, such as refectories, housekeeping, and receptions. However, the use of robots in hotels is in its initial stage. For this reason, the aim of this paper is to examine the current literature and to indicate future directions for research. From the research made, it is understood that there are some research gaps that need to be examined. For example, future research needs to focus on why there is high employee turnover in departments with robots and what the hotel managers can do to deal with this issue. Also, three is a need to better understand why consumers may trust or not trust the use of robots. Finally, there is a new area of research that future research can focus on. This is the use of robots for social distancing in hotels to ensure the health of customers for the hotels working in the post-Covid-19 era. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.