Humans and/or robots? Tourists’ preferences towards the humans–robots mix in the service delivery system

Abstract

This paper investigates tourists’ preferences toward the humans-robots ratio in the service delivery systems of tourism and hospitality companies and the factors that shape them. The sample includes 1537 respondents from nearly 100 countries. The findings show that a higher preferred share of robots is positively associated with the perceived emotional skills of robots, their perceived usefulness in the tourism/hospitality context, perceived robotic service expectations, attitudes towards robots in general, and the male gender. On the other side, it is negatively associated with the perceived disadvantages of robots compared to human servers and the household size of respondents.