Robotic Trends In Tourism And Hospitality Industry

Factors Driving the Global Trends in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

Robotic Trends In Tourism And Hospitality Industry

Tourism and hospitality has served as one of the areas of application of robotic technology in the recent times. The robotic technology is getting increasingly prevalent in the industry. The adoption of the technology in the industry is driven by a couple of factors. The need for a better customer experience has been one of the target in every industry. Typically, the tourism and hospitality industry have been dealing with human employees. But the robotics have proven to be having potential to increase customer experience in the industry (Hudson & Hudson, 2017).  The key to ensuring a better customer experience is greater personalization. While ensuring personalization may be a challenge to human beings, robotic technology have shown the potential to be able to dramatically improve personalization.

The technology may not have smile but can clearly identify faces and remember names which would be essential in personalization. Time is another critical factor in every business. Every business strive to provide better services within a short time and so does the tourism and hospitality industry. Robotic technology has enable automation which is a greater enabler in time management. Robots have the potential to save a great deal of time through automation (Ivanov, Gretzel, Berezina, Sigala & Webster, 2019). The ideas of automation is one of the reasons why the robotic technology have emerged to be a great technology trend within the tourism and hospitality industry. The ideas of automation and self-service plays an important role in customer experience hence calling for adoption of the technology within the industry. This has precipitated the need to explore the robotic technology trend in the industry.

The idea of robots was identified in 1920 by Karel Capek who is a Czechoslovakian playwright, in his play Rossum’s Universal Robots. Then Isaac Asimov popularized and coined the robotic term via several science-fictions. Asimov also envisioned a positronic brain for robot control in the 1930s.

Asimov then invented three laws of robotics which stated that: only through inaction that a robot may harm a human, they must obey human being’s orders except if they conflict with the first law of not humming human being, and lastly a robot must be in protection of its existence as long as it does not affect the first two laws (Stone, 2018). These laws have enabled human beings not to be fried with robots. However, it took many years before the idea was integrated entirely in the widely held culture. By the 1950s, the popular culture and holly wood had then widely concentrated the robot concept and inspired its development. The first robot company producer was founded in 1956. This first industrial company was built in Programmable University Manipulator Arm.

A Brief History of Robotic Trends in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

These days’ the uses of robots are widely spread and they are used in various ways including agriculture, logistics, and warehousing, medical services, and transportation. With these services done by the robot people ask the definition of the term robot, which can de define in simple terms as a programmable exes actuated mechanism with degree self-sufficiency to perform wished-for work and to locomotion within the environment.

The Robots and computer technology came together to form artificial intelligence with the rice of computer industries (Yates, Vaessen & Roupret, 2011). These developments were as follows:

In 1959, the use of computers in manufacturing was revealed at the servomechanisms laboratory at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

In 1963 the initial computer-controlled man-made robotic arm was created. This was specifically designed for people with physical disabilities. It was known as the Rancho Arm, I made with 6 joints that enable it to have the human arm flexibility.

In 1965, the General system enabled an automatic decision-making procedure and problem-solving behavior of organic chemists. This used the knowledge of chemistry to differentiate between recognized organic molecules.

In 1968, an octopus-like Tentacle Arm was designed, this had twelve joints, and the arm was computer-controlled and was hydraulically powered.

In 1969 a first electrically powered controlled robot was initiated, Stanford Arm was invented by victor Scheinman a mechanical engineering student.

In 1970, the first locomotion robot was designed by the Rofin Sinar Technology International. Sharkey the first mobile robot.

In 1974, another robotic arm, silver Arm was produced.

It is predicted that the robotic technology will pose disruptive impacts in the hotel and tourism industry in future. A study by Tung & Law (2017) depicts disruptive impacts of the robotic technology in the tourism and hospitality industry. The scholar predict that more than 20 percent of the daily routine tasks will be done by human beings by 2030. It can be predicted that this will transform the industry and come with new service models. Robots will take over and do the task in an efficient manner with minimal errors.

The robotic technology will enable hotels to provide the previously cost prohibitive services. According to Tussyadiah, Zach & Wang (2017) the types of robots known as autonomous cars will be picking up quests from airports. If the guests have not checked into tourist hotels, the cars will be able to check them in and set their devices like smartphones so that they use them as keys to get into their rooms.

Uses of Robotic Technology in the Hospitality and Tourism Industry

The robotic cars will be having capabilities to make suggestions about the restaurants that are near the hotels for customers based on their available information. The robots then make reservations for the customers according to their response. This technology will not only create a great initial experience for the guests on behalf of the human employees with in the hotel but will also create an additional value by dramatically saving both time and money for customers (Zsarnoczky, 2018).

Over the past decade, there have been many systems based on robots that have been helping in making economic decision making for consumers and engage in a flawlessly tourism and hospitality experience. Some of the technologies involves robots while others involve the artificial intelligence enabled software programs (Bowen & Morosan, 2018). Such approaches are also seen in future as the consumers in the tourism and hotel industry are likely to be having intelligent agents at their disposal that will be making decisions on their behalf. Additionally, it is predicted that there will be integration between users’ software and hardware which will create an environment that will enable continuous interactions between robots. Studies predict that by 2030, there will be an increased amount of travel products that will be operated without human intervention (Collins, 2015; Nawabi et al. 2013; Ivanov & Webster, 2019). These products will be enabled by artificial intelligence software and human machines that represent the hospitality organizations and the system will understand customers’ needs and respond as anticipated by the clients.

The robotic technology also promise some rewarding experience to customers in future. The human-machine are predicted to offer recommendations that are associated with the communication habits of the users, guest preferences, the stated goals and many other users behaviors. Ivanov & Webster (2018) predicts that there will be various hospitality models that will rely on how organizations in the hospitality industry adopt the robotic innovations.

Besides the promising significance of robotic technological trends in the tourism and hospitality industry, the technology have been facing criticism in various ways. Robotics would reduce time for service provision within the industry, but implementing the technology would be the most uninformed decision as it would degrade efficiency and security in the industry and degrade what hospitality is all about (Zaitseva, Goncharova & Androsenko, 2016).  

The robotics are not 100 percent efficient therefore they are subject to technological breakdowns. Malfunctioning with devices has been a common trend in the technology pervaded environment but the issues are always solved by the specialists (Mezei, Malbasa & Stojmenovic, 2010). However, how would such issues get solved suppose a system is fully operated by robotics? In the fully robotic technology operated systems, guests are not provided with access to staff members where they can seek support in case of any fault. As such, on the off chance that a malfunction is experienced in the robots, it will turn to hassle and frustrations to guests which would affect their experience with the tourism and hospitality organization. Consequently, the service efficiency would be greatly compromised.

Current and Future Impact of Robotic Technology on the Industry

Additionally, it is essential that the guests order their own rooms in hotels according to their preferences but they cannot do it with the aid of the robotic technology because of the lack of comprehension. The intelligence of the robotic technologies are still bound to the limited programming (Rubenstein, Cornejo & Nagpal, 2014). But human beings can intelligently understand the requests of one another. The limitation of the robotic technologies regarding programming suggest the fact that the technology operates based on computer programs and nothing more than that thus making them fall short of service efficiency.

The robotic technology depends on the customers’ information in making suggestions. Also, Internet of things IoT have to be incorporated within the system to enable communication between the human machines. This is however risky as far as information security is concerned (Higgins, Tomlinson & Martin, 2009). This is supported by the fact that the system curries sensitive data about users that every hacker would like to hack. As a result, the hackers may gain access into the system illegally and still the users’ information. The system technology would therefore be a threat to security and privacy.

Welcoming mind set is a critical aspect in tourism and hospitality; these activities demonstrates what is expected as far as hospitable behavior is concerned. The welcoming mind set involves curiosity for instant the extent at which the guests are valued, openness i.e. the willingness to solve issues and provide alternatives in a limited time, humility, presence, respect as well as dialogues. Hospitality is all about how well emotions can get understood and given response. The robotic technology however fall short as far as demonstrating the welcoming mind set as with human beings since the technology is only a highly sophisticated computer programs which cannot make emotional connection with human beings (Murphy, Hofacker & Gretzel, 2017). This would not only degrade what hospitality have been known to be but will also affect efficiency of services within the industry.

Conclusion 

In summary, this article has presented an analysis on the current trends including robotic technology in the tourism and hospitality industry. In doing so, the article has examined a few key factors that drive a global trend within the industry. We also looked at a brief history of the technological trend and how the chosen trend is applied in the hospitality and tourism industry. The article further documents the current impacts of the robotics technology trend on the industry. It must be noted that the robotic trends promise a considerable ramifications within the industry. However, it also face some criticism and concerns. This technology will be an important asset in the tourism and hospitality industry in future besides the concerns associated with it. 

Criticisms and Concerns of Robotic Technology in the Industry

References

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