What can we learn from Star Wars about the future of tourism? Absolutely everything!

Purpose – This viewpoint is a response to Yeoman's (2022) editorial on Sunderland AFC and the future of tourism. This viewpoint aims to outline the lessons one can learn from Star Wars about the future of tourism. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the live-action movies and series of the Star Wars franchise. Findings – The paper derives specific conclusions in the following directions: the future technology in travel, tourism and hospitality; the tourists' motivation and behaviour; the management of travel, tourism and hospitality companies; destination management; economy and society and lessons from the franchise. Originality/value – This is one of the first papers to elaborate on the lessons one can learn about the future of tourism from the Star Wars live-action movies and series

Great Expectations? Relation of Previous Experiences With Social Robots in Real Life or in the Media and Expectancies Based on Qualitative and Quantitative Assessment

Social robots, which mostly look and behave like humans, are often perceived as somehow alive and treated similar to humans, despite the fact that they are non-living electronic devices. Based on considerations of the uncertainty reduction theory, the question arises what expectancies regarding social robots people have and what sources they use to achieve these expectancies. To receive an in-depth understanding of people’s expectancies regarding social robots and particularly how these expectancies are influenced by people’s experiences with real robots but also with fictional robots from media, thirteen semi-structured interviews and a quantitative online study (n = 433) were conducted. Results indicate that people’s experiences with robots in the media lead to high expectations regarding the skills of robots, which in turn increase people’s general expectancies regarding social robots being part of the society as well as their personal lives. Furthermore, knowledge of negatively perceived fictional robots increases negative expectancies of robots becoming a threat to humans, while technical affinity reduces general robot anxiety