Willingness-to-pay for robot-delivered tourism and hospitality services – an exploratory study
International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management
ISSN: 0959-6119
Article publication date: 30 August 2021
Issue publication date: 17 November 2021
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate potential consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality, and the factors that shape their willingness to pay.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey yielded a sample of 1,573 respondents from 99 countries. Independent samples t-test, Analysis of variance (ANOVA), cluster, factor and regression analyses were used.
Findings
Respondents expected to pay less for robot-delivered services than human-delivered services. Two clusters were identified: one cluster willing to pay nearly the same price for robotic services as for human-delivered services, whilst the other expected deep discounts for robotic services. The willingness-to-pay was positively associated with the attitudes towards robots in tourism, robotic service experience expectations, men and household size. It was negatively associated to travel frequency, age and education.
Research limitations/implications
The paper’s main limitation is its exploratory nature and the use of a hypothetical scenario in measuring respondents’ willingness to pay. The data were gathered prior to the COVID-19 pandemic and do not reflect the potential changes in perceptions of robots due to the pandemic.
Practical implications
Practitioners need to focus on improving the attitudes towards robots in tourism because they are strongly and positively related to the willingness to pay. The marketing messages need to form positive expectations about robotic services.
Originality/value
This is one of the first papers to investigate consumers’ willingness to pay for robot-delivered services in travel, tourism and hospitality and factors that shape their willingness to pay.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Ulrike Gretzel, Katerina Berezina, Iis Tussyadiah, Jamie Murphy, Dimitrios Buhalis and Cihan Cobanoglu for their valuable comments on the initial drafts of the questionnaire. The authors also thank Sofya Yanko, Katerina Berezina, Nadia Malenkina, Raul Hernandez Martin, Antoaneta Topalova, Florian Aubke, Nedra Bahri, Frederic Dimanche, Rosanna Leung, Kwang-Ho Lee, Minako Okada, Isa Vieira, Jean-Max Tavares, Seden Dogan and Isabella Ye for devoting their time and effort into the translation of the questionnaire. Ethics approval for the research was granted by Ball State University, Muncie, IN, USA. The authors would like to thank Hosco (www.hosco.com) and Industrial Engineering and Design (www.facebook.com/Ind.eng.design) for their support in the distribution of the link to the online questionnaire. Finally, the authors are grateful to all those anonymous respondents who participated in the survey and made their opinion heard
Citation
Ivanov, S. and Webster, C. (2021), "Willingness-to-pay for robot-delivered tourism and hospitality services – an exploratory study", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 33 No. 11, pp. 3926-3955. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJCHM-09-2020-1078
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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