Hotel customers’ behavioral intentions toward service robots: the role of utilitarian and hedonic values

Purpose: This study aims to investigate the effects of hotel customers’ perceived utilitarian and hedonic values on their intention to use service robots. In addition, the influences of innovativeness, ease of use and compatibility on hotel customers’ perceived utilitarian and hedonic values were examined. Design/methodology/approach: The data of the current study was collected from 11 countries including the USA, UK, Turkey, Spain, Romania, Japan, Israel, India, Greece, Canada and Brazil. A structural equation modeling was used to test the study hypotheses. Findings: The results indicated that hotel customers’ intention to use service robots was positively influenced by their utilitarian and hedonic value perceptions. In addition, customers’ perceptions of robots’ ease of use and compatibility had a positive impact on their perceived utilitarian and hedonic values. Originality/value: The findings of the current study provide unique contributions in the context of hospitality robotics technology adoption literature. In addition, this study provides valuable insights and novel opportunities for hospitality decision-makers to capitalize on, as they strive to strategize the integration of robot-based services into their operations

Senior foodies: a developing niche market in gastronomic tourism

The world's population is ageing. Because of these global demographic changes it has resulted in the increased participation of older (or senior) adults in tourism and leisure activities and has prompted governments and tourism providers in many developed regions of the world to identify senior travellers as a priority market. An increasingly healthy senior market segment now has the time and purchasing power to travel more frequently, because many want to seek out and experience new and often exotic destinations in their desire to enjoy a healthy and active lifestyle. This has helped to create an emerging special interest or niche market that has been termed culinary or gastronomic tourism. The relationship between food and tourism has always been an increasingly important segment in the real worlds of hospitality, destination marketing, and tourism development. However, only recently we have seen the acceptance of the growth in interest in gastronomic tourism as an academic field of study. However at the same time, there has been little research that has been carried out on the socio-demographics of this niche market, and in particular, older gastronomic tourists. In other words, researchers have previously assumed that they all tourists experience gastronomic tourism in similar ways. As a result, little research has been found in the tourism literature, however there is some evidence to suggest that older gastronomic tourists are often very experienced travellers who have the time and money to seek out and experience foreign cultures through local food consumption that display different food preferences. On the other hand, other studies have noted diminished taste and olfactory sensitivity of older tourists, and a preference for familiar foods rather than trying out local cuisine so as to avoid any negative effects from change in diet or to control existing health problems. More research needs to be conducted to assist tourism providers and marketeers to better understand and promote the importance of the gastronomic consumption needs and expectations of the older market segment

Exposición a plaguicidas organoclorados en niños indígenas de Potam, Sonora, México

La principal actividad en el sur de Sonora es la agricultura, donde por muchos años se han usado de manera irracional e indiscriminada una amplia diversidad de plaguicidas, incluyendo compuestos prohibidos en otros países. Debido a la falta de datos sobre residuos de plaguicidas en muestras biológicas y ambientales de residentes de la etnia yaqui el objetivo de éste estudio fue evaluar la exposición de niños a p,p’-DDT, p,p’-DDE, p,p’-DDD, α, β-endosulfan y lindano para conocer los niveles basales de la población a éstos tóxicos. Se realizó un estudio transversal incluyendo niños de Potam (alta exposición) y niños de Cd. Obregón (baja exposición). Se analizaron muestras de sangre para determinar éstos plaguicidas mediante cromatografía de gases. El 100% de las muestras tuvo niveles detectables de p,p’-DDE, en un rango de 0.3-4.3 g/L, lindano sólo estuvo presente en el 33.33% de los niños de Potam con valores entre 0.7±0.2 g/L. El endosulfán se encontró en ambas comunidades, pero los niveles mas altos fueron para los niños de Potam en el rango de no detectable (ND) hasta 2.8 g/L. La concentración en suelo para el DDT total (Σ pp-DDT, pp-DDE, pp-DDD) estuvo en el rango de ND hasta 36.60 g/Kg. También se encontró una asociación estadísticamente signifi cativa entre los niveles de p,p’-DDE en la sangre y el consumo de alimentos marinos. La presencia de éstos agroquímicos en ambas comunidades muestra la alta residualidad y biodisponibilidad de éstos compuestos en el ambiente a través de diferentes rutas de exposición a la población

Factors affecting hotel managers’ intentions to adopt robotic technologies: A global study

The objective of this study that was conducted with 1077 hotel managers in 11 countries in North and South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, was to identify the effects of technological, organizational, and environmental (TOE) factors on hotel managers’ intentions to adopt robotic technologies in their hotels. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was utilized to test the study hypotheses. The results indicated that hotel managers’ intention to adopt robotic technologies were positively influenced by their perceived relative advantage, competitive pressure and top management support and negatively influenced by their perceived complexity of the technology. The study results further demonstrated that the impacts of relative advantage, complexity, top management support, and competitive advantage on intention to adopt were moderated by innovativeness. The current study also addressed the theoretical and practical implications to existing knowledge and practice in the hotel industry

The role of perceived risk and information security on customers' acceptance of service robots in the hotel industry

This study proposed and tested a theoretical framework that investigated the influences of perceived risk and information security on hotel customers’ intention to use service ts. In addition, the impacts of self-efficacy, innovativeness, and facilitating conditions on perceived risk and information security were examined. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test the proposed model by utilizing data collected from eleven countries including the United States, United Kingdom, Turkey, Spain, Romania, Japan, Israel, India, Greece, Canada, and Brazil. The study results demonstrated that perceived risk had a negative impact on customers’ intention to use service ts while information security had a positive impact. In addition, the study results indicated that self-efficacy negatively influenced perceived risk, and positively influenced perceived information security; and innovativeness and facilitating condition positively influenced information security. The study findings offer several important contributions to the hospitality tics technology adoption literature and present valuable implications for hospitality practitioners and service t vendors

The restrictions on travel of elderly tourists and their mitigation by facilitators and negotiation strategies

The segment of the elderly population has taken on a heterogeneous character due to the various economic and social policies and reforms that have been implemented by the governments of the various countries. This is the baby-boom generation, that is, individuals who were born between 1946 and 1964, and who currently have greater purchasing power than previous generations and have a high interest in leisure moments where travel ends up having great meaning. However, about half of the population is affected by several factors, which prevent travel. In this sense, the objective of this work aims to investigate how, in the literature review, travel constraints are mitigated or eliminated through facilitators or negotiation strategies. Tourism promoters and managers, stakeholders and DMO’s, have, thus, the great challenge of mitigating, as much as possible, the travel restrictions of elderly tourists, through several strategies and tools that allow a greater participation of this segment of the population in tourism activities.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio