Tourist acceptance of travel bots in the hospitality industry

Abstract

[eng] Technological developments are changing the hospitality industry, and companies are investing in service automation. Among them, Chatbots play a significant role in the communication and marketing efforts of hospitality enterprises. Empirical evidence that demonstrate the importance and benefits of chatbots in has been acquired by the conducted research. However, the acceptance of chatbots in the hospitality industry, or travelbots, has not been studied yet. The purpose of this study is to explore the acceptance of travelbots in the hospitality industry by travellers. A research model is proposed based on the extended Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT2) model. New variables suggested by previous research were added to complement the original UTAUT2 model: Perceived Risk, Perceived Security and Need for Human Interaction. We used Smart PLS to estimate the model and PLSc to estimate reflective measurement models; the factor-weighting scheme for inner weighting were used, and statistical inferences were based on the bootstrap procedure. The results of the study demonstrate that hedonic motivation is the main predictor of intention to use travelbots. Also, the results showed that effort expectancy, performance expectancy, habit and perceived security significantly predict intention to use travelbots. Our results have significant managerial implications for understanding traveller’s views on travelbots and improving customer experience in the hospitality industry.