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Ivanov, Stanislav; Gretzel, Ulrike; Berezina, Katerina; Sigala, Marianna; Webster, Craig
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-08-2018-0087
This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of research on robotics in travel, tourism and hospitality, and to identify research gaps and directions for future research.Design/methodology/approachThis paper analyzes 131 publications published during 1993-2019, identified via Scopus, Web of Science, ResearchGate, Academia.edu and Google Scholar. It offers quantitative analysis of frequencies and cross-tables and qualitative thematic analysis of the publications within each of seven identified domains.FindingsThe paper identifies “Robot,” “Human,” “Robot manufacturer,” “Travel/tourism/hospitality company,” “Servicescape,” “External environment” and “Education, training and research” as the research domains. Most research studies are dedicated to robots in restaurants, airports, hotels and bars. Papers tend to apply engineering methods, but experiments and surveys grow in popularity. Asia-Pacific countries account for much of the empirical research.Research limitations/implicationsThe analysis was limited to publications indexed in four databases and one search engine. Only publications in English were considered. Growing opportunities for those who are anxious to publish in the field are identified. Importantly, emerging research is branching out from the engineering of robots to the possibilities for human/robot interactions and their use for service providers, opening up new avenues of research for tourism and hospitality scholars.Practical implicationsThe paper identified a myriad of application areas for robots across various tourism and hospitality sectors. Service providers must critically think about how robots affect the servicescape and how it needs to be adjusted or re-imagined to ensure that robots and employees can augment the service experiences (co-)created within it.Originality/valueThis is the first study to systematically analyze research publications on robotics in travel, tourism and hospitality.
Mehraliyev, Fuad; Choi, Youngjoon; Köseoglu, Mehmet Ali
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-08-2018-0076
The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic and quantitative review of published papers on smart tourism. More specifically, the paper aims to identify the smart tourism research life cycle, collaboration trends, main social structure, disciplinary approaches and foundations, research topics and methodological approaches.Design/methodology/approachSystematic quantitative review techniques were used to review smart tourism literature. Frequency analysis, network analysis, text mining techniques were performed on data obtained from 96 papers collected from three databases as follows: Web of Science, Scopus and EBSCOhost.FindingsThe smart tourism research life cycle has two turning points with an exponential increase: 2015 and 2017. The latter is mainly associated with the internationalization of collaboration. Social structure of smart tourism research was revealed. Many of the ideas and research trends are affected by one research cluster. Destination related articles are dominant in smart tourism research. Internet of things and tourist experience are less researched areas. Only a quarter of the articles was published in tourism and hospitality journals. In particular, there is a big gap in published papers in hospitality journals. An important gap from methodological aspect is limited number of qualitative studies with human subjects. The geographical limitation is high concentration of smart tourism studies in Korea.Research limitations/implicationsThis study collected and analyzed only full papers published in peer-reviewed journals. Future research may consider including book chapters and/or conference proceedings. This study was mainly based on quantitative review techniques. Qualitative or mixed review techniques may be conducted.Originality/valueThis study is the first literature review on an increasingly popular topic of smart tourism.
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-04-2018-0030
This paper aims to examine the main developments of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) research in hospitality and tourism. It also aims to pinpoint fruitful directions for tourism and hospitality research on VR and AR applications.Design/methodology/approachA selective literature review of full-length papers published in the period from 2000 to 2018 was conducted. A total of 60 journal papers were retrieved and thoroughly reviewed.FindingsThis paper first presents a summary of the distribution of published papers. Then, this paper synthesizes the stimuli, dimensions and consequences of VR/AR-related user behavior experience, upon which a theoretical framework is developed. Additionally, this paper provides a detailed report for the progress on the theories and research methodologies, offering a useful background concerning what remains to be achieved. Finally, this paper puts forward fruitful directions for advancing the current understanding of VR/AR and its management.Practical implicationsThis research presents diverse positive outcomes of using VR/AR technologies, which encourage industry practitioners such as destination marketing organizations (DMOs) and marketing firms to incorporate recent technological developments into their strategic plans.Originality/valueThis paper represents one of the first endeavors that critically reviews research progress on VR/AR in tourism and hospitality from 2000 to 2018. Not only are information technology researchers provided with a comprehensive guide to the latest, influential VR/AR literature but also the proposals of wide-ranging directions for future research would stimulate further investigation of VR/AR.
Moro, Sérgio; Rita, Paulo; Ramos, Pedro; Esmerado, Joaquim
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0059
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two technological breakthroughs that stimulate reality perception. Both have been applied in tourism contexts to improve tourists’ experience. This paper aims to frame both AR and VR developments during the past 15 years from a scientific perspective.Design/methodology/approachThis study adopts a text mining and topic modelling approach to analyse a total of 1,049 articles for VR and 406 for AR. The papers were selected from Scopus, with the title, abstract and keywords being extracted for the analysis. Formulated research hypotheses based on relevant publications are then evaluated to assess the current state of the broader scope of the large sets of literature.FindingsMost of research using AR is based on mobile technology. Yet, wearable devices still show few publications, a gap that is expected to close in the near future. There is a lack of research adopting Big Data/machine learning approaches based on secondary data.Originality/valueAs both AR and VR technologies are becoming more mature, more applications to tourism emerge. Scholars need to keep pace and fill in the research gaps on both domains to move research forward.
Navio-Marco, Julio; Ruiz-Gómez, Luis M.; Sevilla-Sevilla, Claudia
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0061
This paper aims to critically review the progression of wireless technologies in tourism and hospitality since 2000. Wireless technologies are a set of information and communications technologies (ICTs) involving radio transmission (such as mobile or satellite technologies) that are extensively used in tourism and hospitality, but which have not yet been studied comprehensively.Design/methodology/approachThis study is a mixed methods review combining a quantitative and qualitative approach and including a systematic review of the academic literature since 2000.FindingsContrary to the prevailing focus of study on mobile technologies, the authors open the field to other technologies (such as Zigbee or Bluetooth), and in a particular highlight, the large role played by satellite technology in tourism and how this is reflected in the literature. In literature reviews linking tourism and ICTs, the authors find that excluding some journals may leave out notable aspects for any systematic analysis. Moreover, the study highlights the importance of wireless technologies in a sensor-based convergence between the physical and digital worlds.Originality/valueThe contribution is mainly twofold: first, the authors develop the literature on tourism with a better understanding of the role played by these technologies in supporting tourism and hospitality, by updating sources and research work; second, the authors take a holistic, all-encompassing approach, providing a truly comprehensive view of the literature on tourism and ICTs, in which wireless technologies have always been approached with fragmented or limited scope, lacking a view in the round.
Johnson, Abbie-Gayle; Samakovlis, Ioanna
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0065
The purpose of this paper is to examine the production of smart tourism knowledge, thereby revealing the development of the concept through collaborative networks.Design/methodology/approachA bibliometric analysis, which enables visual mapping and observation of the domain, was conducted using journal articles retrieved during the period of 2000 to 2018.FindingsThe understanding of smart tourism is shaped and enhanced through collaborative network of researchers. As the domain develops, its reach expands across different networks as well as core themes.Research limitations/implicationsData for the study was generated from English-written journal articles that were produced from a database search of specific keywords associated with smart tourism.Practical implicationsFindings can prove useful to academic researchers and industry practitioners to aid their understanding of smart tourism research development, identify the underlying context and aid in coherent development of the concept.Originality/valueThe paper is one of the first articles to provide a greater understanding of smart tourism as a research topic by examining its evolution in an academic context through bibliometric analysis.
Cain, Lisa Nicole; Thomas, John H.; Alonso Jr, Miguel
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0066
This paper aims to review the extant hospitality and tourism literature on the state of robotics and artificial intelligence (AI) in the service industry. The aim was to highlight the current areas of research on this emerging topic and identify areas for future application and study.Design/methodology/approachA list of hospitality and tourism journals was used to identify articles related to AI and robotics using the terms AI, robots, robotics, hospitality and tourism, and several combinations thereof. Additional sources were identified through the literature reviews from the identified works.FindingsThe findings revealed several studies on the current state of robotics and AI in hospitality and tourism. Additional research examines and discusses implications for internal and external customer service, legal and ethical issues and theory.Originality/valueThis paper provides a compilation of the current studies that examine the impact of robotics and AI in hospitality and tourism. It offers scholars an overview of the current knowledge in the field on this rapidly emerging and evolving topic.
Cai, Wenjie; Richter, Shahper; McKenna, Brad
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0068
With the rapid development and implementation of cutting-edge information technologies in tourism and hospitality, it is necessary to update the progress of technology use in the past 18 years and set up research agenda for future research. By adopting information systems (IS) as a reference discipline, this paper aims to create a literature review of technology and tourism papers around the theme of use.Design/methodology/approachFollowing the systematic literature review process of Aguinis et al. (2018), 314 papers were downloaded to determine how they applied the concept of technology use.FindingsThree themes about technology use emerged: types of processing, organisational use and users. Among various types of technology processing, interactive and online are largely addressed in the tourism and hospitality literature. The organisational use theme explores how the competitive and strategic use of technology provides management support for organisations. There was a large amount of research focussed on direct users, such as individual characteristics, user attitudes and user behaviour. The theories of technology acceptance model and unified theory of acceptance and use of technology have been widely applied in these studies.Originality/valueThis paper provides a review of key issues which has been discussed in tourism research in relation to technology use. By applying the scheme developed in the IS discipline, this study provides new insights into the development of technology in tourism. In addition, it also gives us the opportunity to suggest a research agenda by identifying research gaps and future research collaboration opportunities between these two fields.
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-07-2018-0072
The purpose of this study is to identify the progress of research of information and communication technologies (ICT) in the restaurant industry. More specifically, this paper reviews the main academic contributions from the area of hospitality and tourism over the past 18 years by addressing the adoption and implementation of ICT in restaurant activities.Design/methodology/approachThis study analyses 68 full-length ICT research articles that were published in the period 2000-2018 in 29 journals (with Science Journal Citation Reports or Scimago Journal Rankings impact) and eight subject areas.FindingsThe review reveals a number of significant findings. It highlights the scarcity of contributions within academic research related to the area of hospitality and tourism focused on addressing the issue of ICT in restaurants. Moreover, and predictably, several dimensions clearly emerge from the consumer and supply perspectives as being the most prominent. On the one hand, the adoption of ICT has changed the behaviour of consumers in at least three dimensions: information search and evaluation of alternatives purchase decision and post-purchase behaviour. On the other hand, ICT has revolutionised the core business areas of restaurants by dramatically transforming the following areas: operational and strategic management, marketing and Web design, customer services, security, food and nutrition and human resources.Originality/valueGiven the fact that ICT in the restaurant industry remains a largely unexplored subject, this paper can offer a useful tool for researchers who pursue advances in this field, by providing an overview that outlines the main aspects that need further research.
Pourfakhimi, Shahab; Duncan, Tara; Coetzee, Willem
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-08-2018-0077
The purpose of this study is to evaluate eTourism technology acceptance literature to illustrate current gaps in the field and suggest two alternative perspectives that could be adopted.Design/methodology/approachA review of academic literature in the field of eTourism technology acceptance was undertaken combining a systematic keyword-based search and snowballing techniques leading to the identification of relevant academic journal articles published since the year 2000.FindingsWhile the field of eTourism technology acceptance research has grown substantially over the past few decades, this study highlights that the majority of this research seems to have been conducted within a narrow theoretical scope. The study suggests that this has led to contemporary theoretical and philosophical advancements in understanding the psychological, sociological and neuroscientific aspects of consumer behaviour not yet being mirrored in the eTourism technology acceptance research.Research limitations/implicationsThis study invites researchers to adapt alternative theoretical perspectives to create a more in-depth understanding of aspects of technology acceptance behaviour that have yet to be understood. Two distinct alternative perspectives, NeuroIS and interpretivism, are suggested.Practical implicationsThis study assists researchers in developing alternative research agendas and diversifying the theoretical foundations of eTourism technology acceptance research.Originality/valueeTourism technology acceptance research risks being left behind if it does not begin to think beyond current theoretical conceptions of consumer behaviour research. This study contributes to the wider literature by highlighting how eTourism literature is falling behind and by suggesting two innovative alternatives that allow eTourism research an exciting way forward.
Dinis, Gorete; Breda, Zélia; Costa, Carlos; Pacheco, Osvaldo
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-08-2018-0086
This paper aims to conduct a review of the literature published, between 2006 and 2018, that used search engine data on tourism and hospitality research, namely, Google Insights for Search and Google Trends. More specifically, it intends to identify the purpose and context of the data use, ascertaining the main findings and reviewing the methodological approaches.Design/methodology/approachA systematic literature review of Scopus indexed research has been carried out. Given the novelty of search engine data use in tourism and hospitality research and the relatively low number of search results in Scopus, other databases were used to broaden the scope of analysis, namely, EBSCO and Google Scholar. The papers selected were subjected to content and statistical analyses.FindingsGoogle Trends data use in tourism and hospitality research has increased significantly from 2012 to 2017, mainly for tourism forecasting/nowcasting; knowing the interest of users’ searches for tourist attractions or destinations; showing the relationship between the official tourism statistics and the search volume index of Google Trends; and estimating the effect of one event on tourism demand. The categories and search terms used vary with the purpose of the study; however, they mostly focus on the travel category and use the country as the search term.Originality/valueGoogle Trends has been increasingly used in research publications in tourism and hospitality, but the range of its applications and methods used has not yet been reviewed. Therefore, a systematic review of the existing literature increases awareness of its potential uses in tourism and hospitality research and facilitates a better understanding of its strengths and weaknesses as a research tool.
Mirzaalian, Farshid; Halpenny, Elizabeth
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-08-2018-0078
The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of hospitality and tourism studies that have used social media analytics to collect, examine, summarize and interpret “big data” derived from social media. It proposes improved approaches by documenting past and current analytic practice addressed by the selected studies in social media analytics.Design/methodology/approachStudies from the past 18 years were identified and collected from five international electronic bibliographic databases. Social media analytics-related terms and keywords in the titles, keywords or abstracts were used to identify relevant articles. Book chapters, conference papers and articles not written in English were excluded from analysis. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guided the search, and Stieglitz and Dang-Xuan’s (2013) social media analytics framework was adapted to categorize methods reported in each article.FindingsThe research purpose of each study was identified and categorized to better understand the questions social media analytics were being used to address, as well as the frequency of each method’s use. Since 2014, rapid growth of social media analytics was observed, along with an expanded use of multiple analytic methods, including accuracy testing. These factors suggest an increased commitment to and competency in conducting comprehensive and robust social media data analyses. Improved use of methods such as social network analysis, comparative analysis and trend analysis is recommended. Consumer-review networks and social networking sites were the main social media platforms from which data were gathered; simultaneous analysis of multi-platform/sources of data is recommended to improve validity and comprehensive understanding.Originality/valueThis is the first systematic literature review of the application of social media analytics in hospitality and tourism research. The study highlights advancements in social media analytics and recommends an expansion of approaches; common analytical methods such as text analysis and sentiment analysis should be supplemented by infrequently used approaches such as comparative analysis and spatial analysis.
Mandić, Ante; Garbin Praničević, Daniela
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-06-2018-0047
This paper aims to analyse the role of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in establishing destination appeal and reflect on the implications for smart tourism destination development. The focus is on identifying and analysing technological solutions by considering six elements shaping tourism destination appeal, namely, attractions, public and private amenities, accessibility, human resources, image and character and price.Design/methodology/approachTo deliver public and private sector implications, the authors have reviewed and analysed relevant papers that were published in hospitality and tourism journals (42 Q1 and Q2 ranked journals based on SCImago Journal Rank) between 2010 and 2018.FindingsICTs affect the marketing and management of tourism destinations. They foster their innovativeness (e.g. interpretation of destination factors, new travel trends, innovative products, VA and AR), contribute sustainability (e.g. visitor management and reducing the use of resources) and improve accessibility (e.g. information provision, navigation, availability of sites and travel planning). The adaptation of technological solutions in the hospitality industry can be related to increased productivity, profitability and quality of services. Additionally, ICTs facilitate visitor decision-making (e.g. online distribution channels and information accessibility), influence overall travel experience and enable the sharing of visitors’ impressions.Research limitations/implicationsThe significant limitations of this study include restrictions on the timing of publication and on journal selection.Originality/valueThis paper reviews full-length research papers that were published in relevant tourism and hospitality journals. This paper complements the current literature by addressing the role of ICTs in establishing destination appeal and reflecting on implications for smart destination development and future research.
2019 Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Technology
doi: 10.1108/jhtt-08-2018-0075
The purpose of this paper is to review the extant literature on Airbnb – one of the most significant recent innovations in the tourism sector – to assess the research progress that has been accomplished to date.Design/methodology/approachNumerous journal databases were searched, and 132 peer-reviewed journal articles from various disciplines were reviewed. Key attributes of each paper were recorded, and a content analysis was undertaken.FindingsA survey of the literature found that the majority of Airbnb research has been published quite recently, often in hospitality/tourism journals, and the research has been conducted primarily by researchers in the USA/Canada and Europe. Based on the content analysis, the papers were divided into six thematic categories – Airbnb guests, Airbnb hosts, Airbnb supply and its impacts on destinations, Airbnb regulation, Airbnb’s impacts on the tourism sector and the Airbnb company. Consistent findings have begun to emerge on several important topics, including guests’ motivations and the geographical dispersion of listings. However, many research gaps remain, so numerous suggestions for future research are provided.Practical implicationsBy reviewing a large body of literature on a fairly novel and timely topic, this research provides a concise summary of Airbnb knowledge that will assist industry practitioners as they adapt to the recent rapid emergence of Airbnb.Originality/valueThis is the first paper to review the extant literature specifically about Airbnb.