Purpose To date, only a small number of consumers have experienced robot hotels, and whether the past experience of consumers will influence their preferences of consumers regarding service robots has received limited attention from previous academic studies. To enhance knowledge development in this area, this study aims to investigate the preferences of experienced and inexperienced consumers toward a variety of hotel service robots based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Design/methodology/approach The preferences of consumers of a variety of hotel service robots were investigated through multinomial logistic regression analysis. Findings Findings show that consumers who have had robot hotel experiences, such as robot-shaped artificial intelligence-based robots and service delivery-based robots, can be explained by the effortless “peripheral” processing system of the ELM. Practical implications Valuable insights are provided to hospitality practitioners about the service robot design. In particular, robot-shaped robots will be preferred by consumers. Originality/value The present study explores the preferences of experienced and inexperienced consumers toward a variety of hotel service robots, extends the ELM into a hospitality context and contributes to the literature on the influence of past experience on the preference of consumers toward service robots.

The paper examines how international tourists' on-site embodied experience influences off-site communication. Drawing on embodied cognition theory, it develops and tests a framework linking sightseeing and experiential embodied tourism practice, cultural, natural and social embodied tourism experience, positive emotion, social distance, recommend intention, revisit intention and pre-travel information quality. Using survey data collected from 500 international tourists visiting Beijing from six countries, the study applies SmartPLS and SPSS to test the proposed relationships. The results show that sightseeing embodied tourism practice significantly enhances cultural, natural and social embodied tourism experience, whereas experiential embodied tourism practice significantly strengthens natural and social embodied tourism experience but does not significantly affect cultural embodied tourism experience. Cultural, natural and social embodied tourism experience all positively influence positive emotion and social distance. Positive emotion and social distance, in turn, significantly increase tourists' recommend intention and revisit intention, with positive emotion exerting the stronger effect. Pre-travel information quality positively moderates the relationship between positive emotion and revisit intention. By integrating on-site embodiment with post-visit communication, the study extends research on international tourist experience and provides implications for destination experience design and tourism communication management.

Environmental management education is an important part of post-secondary programs in tourism and hospitality. Event management graduates are expected to become pro-environmental event managers in their careers. However, to date, only a few studies have investigated whether the green knowledge of event management graduates would lead them toward initiating green actions. Using a qualitative research design, this study explored the pro-environmental behaviors of 21 graduates from the same event management program with a compulsory "environmental management" course, identified the drivers or inhibitors of these graduates' pro-environmental behaviors, and explored the impacts of the course on these graduates. Results show that involving industry players in education may drive more behavioral changes among graduates.

Lack of digital skills among job applicants has been a significant factor that prevents them from taking advantage of many career opportunities in an increasingly digitalized economy. Knowing what digital skills are currently required by employers would be important for addressing the skill shortage. In this study, we apply the natural language processing techniques to analyze digital skill requirements in online job advertisements from three data sources. All three sources provide the full text of job advertisements in which employers describe the required skills or qualifications for the advertised positions. We observe consistent evidence on the demand for digital skills in all three samples in recent years: the percentage of jobs requiring digital skills typically ranges between 20% and 30%. A few digital skills are consistently in high demand through the study period. There are substantial overlaps but also clear differences in the digital skills that are required for accounting and finance professionals. We also find strong similarity and some differences in digital skill requirements between Singapore and Hong Kong. The findings from our study can provide valuable evidence to inform curriculum planning and career preparation for college education and professional training in accounting and finance disciplines in both economies.

Purpose - Along with the rapid development of the robotic technology, various service robots, such as service delivery robots, have been gradually applied in hospitality. Although previous studies have examined the advantages or future trends of service robots, the use of robotic technologies in different hotel departments or the effects of hotel robot adoption on the stay intention of consumers, limited studies investigated the emotional complexity, cognitive-analytical and emotional-social responses of service robots from the perspective of consumers, as well as their influences on consumers' intention to stay at robot hotels. Hence, this study aims to examine emotional-cognitive-social responses of diverse service robots on consumers' intention to stay at robot hotels. Design/methodology/approach - This study adopted a mixed approach of qualitative (i.e. 18 in-depth interviews conducted with hotel technology managers) and quantitative (i.e. 449 questionnaire surveys collected among the young generation) research methods on the basis of the cognitive behavioral model. In the initial stage, descriptive statistics were presented. Thereafter, structural equation modeling was used for data analysis. Findings - Findings indicated that compared with the ability in completing cognitive-analytical and emotional-social tasks, hotel service robots are more able to complete services that require high emotional complexity. Moreover, results illustrated that artificial intelligence (AI) robots significantly affect the intention of consumers to stay at robot hotels. Practical implications - Hospitality practitioners can consider adopting AI robots (e.g. artificial intelligent robot for simple entertainment or communication) as their future strategic plans to enhance the intention of consumers to stay at robot hotels. Originality/value - This study examined the extent to which hotel robots can overcome the shortage of robot service requiring high emotional complexity, evaluated the effectiveness of hotel robots in performing cognitive-analytical and emotional-social tasks and investigated how emotional-social-related hotel robots influence consumers' intention to stay at robot hotels.

Purpose Technology and its applications were first applied to hospitality and tourism in the early 2000s. Along with the development of technology, a majority of studies discussed the advantages that technology has brought to hospitality and tourism, such as improving operation efficiency and enhancing customer experience. In recent years, technology-related issues, such as privacy and security concerns, have become evident. However, limited studies have investigated the drawbacks of advanced technology. This study aims to bridge the research gap by comprehensively analyzing 96 retrieved articles related to the negative consequences of advanced technology. Design/methodology/approach This study systematically analyzed 96 articles from the Social Sciences Citation Index-listed journals discussing the drawbacks of advanced technology in the past five years (2020–2024) and categorized technology-related risks based on complexity theory. Findings Major findings indicate that the drawbacks of advanced technology in hospitality and tourism do not refer to the technology itself; instead, they refer to the risk perceived by consumers. Research limitations/implications This study updates and extends the complexity theory within the concurrent context, provides valuable implications to hospitality and tourism practitioners about the risk categorization of technology to make necessary adjustments in relation to current technology adoption and facilitates the technology use and adoption among consumers. Originality/value Based on complexity theory, this study proposes a conceptual model of risk categorization that includes social, performance and perceived risks by analyzing 96 retrieved articles.

The outbreak of COVID-19 has offered a painful lesson to the stakeholders of the travel and hospitality industry. To speed up the recovery of the industry, practitioners need to better understand the factors that influence potential travelers' evaluation of infection risk when traveling abroad. Hence, this study proposes time orientation (future and present orientations) as a robust determining factor. Analyzing 614 pre-pandemic and 606 mid-pandemic survey responses, this study consistently found that future and present orientations positively predict the evaluation of infection risk because of the highly perceived value of cleanliness. The presence of the pandemic amplifies the positive prediction of present orientation on the evaluation of infection risk. These findings extend the literature of time orientation by revealing its influence on travel risk and the psychological mechanisms behind it. Meaningful implications are provided for travel operators to identify the potential travelers.

The new lease standard (Accounting Standards Codification [ASC] 842), which is expected to alleviate the reporting issues associated with operating leases, requires formal recognition of related assets and liabilities on the balance sheet. Disregarding the considerable controversy surrounding this standard, we find that ASC 842 has led to a significant increase in loan spread for treatment firms with heavier reliance on operating leases before the implementation of the standard. The increase is more pronounced for firms with higher default risk and noisier operating lease estimation before ASC 842 but is mitigated for firms that have closer relationships with banks. Our study thus provides insights into the real effects of ASC 842 through the lens of debt market participants.

Purpose With the disruptive evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), the roles of robotics in hospitality and tourism are shifting rapidly from automatic to emotional works. Although academics have focused on examining robotic applications in hospitality and tourism, concrete images of the different roles of robots are unclear. Thus, this study aims to systematically aggregate and evaluate existing robotic technology-related studies published in Social Science Citation Index-listed hospitality and tourism journals to link the fragmented knowledge and provide an up-to-date overview of robotic technology in hospitality and tourism. Design/methodology/approach This study retrieved 134 robotic technology-related articles and used descriptive and content analyses to analyze the retrieved papers thoroughly. Findings The top keyword identified was service robot. Robotic technologies are categorized into AI-supplemented, AI-generated, robotic technology anthropomorphism (RTA)-facilitated and RTA-mediated. Research limitations/implications Future studies can consider exploring service robots further from the perspectives of suppliers in tourism. A more comprehensive categorization of robotic technologies is also recommended. Originality/value This study contributes to the robotic research realm by providing a holistic view of robotic applications in hospitality and tourism research. This study also attempts to pin down the potential research directions to guide researchers in expanding future studies.

Purpose Existing tourism review articles have limited review topics and cover a relatively short period. This review paper aims to extend the coverage of the previous literature and enhances the completeness of tourism-related studies to provide comprehensive tourism-related literature from 1945 (World War II onward) to 2022. Specifically, this paper reveals the major research themes present in published tourism research during this time period and highlights the evolution of tourism research from the preliminary phase, the transversal phase, to the growth phase. Design/methodology/approach The present study visualizes tourism research through networks of coauthors and their countries and regions, cocitation analysis of keywords and explores the thematic evolution of tourism research after the World War II (i.e., 1945–2022) from Web of Science and Google Scholar through bibliometric analysis. Findings Findings reveal that the themes of tourism research in the past years can be divided into seven major research themes. The tourism research evolution from World War II to 2022 can be categorized into three stages: preliminary (1945–1970), transversal (1971–2004) and growth (2005–2022). In addition, the research themes of tourism are not static but evolve according to the dynamics of the society and the industry, and that seven main research themes have been formed, namely, “heritage tourism,” “medical tourism,” “adventure tourism,” “dark tourism,” “sustainable tourism,” “rural tourism” and “smart tourism.” Originality/value The present study expands and refines the comprehensive literature in tourism research, as well as reveals the trends and dynamics in tourism research through network analysis and thematic evolution research methods.

As a symbol of cultural exchange, destination clothing experience is of great importance in the construction of tourists' identity, especially the traditional clothing experience. In recent years, Hanfu has gradually become a representative symbol of Chinese culture, and many tourist attractions have become the initial platform of Hindu use. Nevertheless, previous research on tourism experience paid little attention to traditional clothing experiences in tourism, and the interaction mechanism therein has not yet been fully investigated. Hence, this study explores the experiential mechanism of tourists wearing Hanfu in a destination and analyzes the role of tourism experience in tourists' self-perception. Xi'an, China was chosen as the case location, and data were obtained through participant observation and semi-structured interviews. Based on grounded theory, this study extracted 53 initial categories which were then categorised into 13 sub-categories, which were further re-organised into six main categories, and then constructed a storyline of the process-mechanism model of tourists' Hanfu experience. Major findings show that tourists' self-consciousness is generated when wearing Hanfu. Furthermore, the interaction can strengthen tourists' cultural identity and contribute to the self-identity construction; self-consciousness sublimates self-identity, place attachment and patriotism. The present study supplements existing research on tourism experience and provides valuable insights for effective marketing in tourist destinations.

Purpose Along with the development of the robotics industry, service robots have been gradually used in the hospitality industry. Nevertheless, service robot categorization and the fulfillment of the cognitive and emotional needs of consumers by hotel service robots have yet to be fully explored. Hence, the purpose of this study are to categorize hotel service robots, to explore consumers’ robot hotel experience, to identify the consumers’ preference of hotel service robot in general, to reveal consumers’ preference for hotel service robots based on their fulfillment of emotional needs and to examine the completion of cognitive–analytical and emotional–social tasks. Design/methodology/approach Through in-depth interviews with technology managers and questionnaire survey among consumers who have and have not had robot hotel stay experience to achieve the aforementioned research objectives. Findings Findings of in-depth interviews show that service robots can be categorized as check-in/out robots, artificial intelligence (AI) robots and service delivery robots. Results of questionnaire survey indicate that consumers prefer non-humanoid robots (n = 213, p = 47.87%) among check-in/out robots, the Xiaodu Smart Display (n = 163, p = 36. 63%) among the AI robots and the machine-shaped robot porter (I) (n = 178, p = 40.00%) among the service delivery robots. Practical implications This study provides implications, such as the adoption of robot-shaped AI with a screen display, to hotel managers to meet the needs of consumers regarding the completion of cognitive–analytical and emotional–social tasks of robots. Originality/value This study extends uncanny valley theory by identifying preference for the shape and functions of different categories of service robots and contributes to the limited literature on hotel robots.

Health tourism has received increasing attention from academic researchers from a global perspective. Although mainland China (hereafter referred to as "China") has long been recognized as a health tourism destination, its health tourism development is still in its infancy stage. Hence, to minimize the aforementioned gap, the present study explored the perception of health tourism and effective health tourism promotion methods from the perspective of tourists before and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The major findings of this study showed that tourists perceived wellness tourism and medical tourism as critical activities/components after the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tourism industry is a major pillar of the economy of Hong Kong, and hospitality is an inseparable part. Front-line staff are of great importance for the hospitality industry, as their performance can largely affect the perception of a destination. Hence, the competencies of employees in the hospitality industry are critical. Although qualification frameworks (QFs) have been advocated in many different industries, a QF for hotels, particularly for front-line staff, is lacking. Thus, the present study aims to examine the core competencies required for front-office positions in hotels using Hong Kong, a popular tourism destination, as an example. Findings of the present study provide specific information to design an appropriate curriculum to fit the needs of the hospitality industry. Ultimately, the findings can serve as a reference for academic researchers and industry practitioners to facilitate the further development of a QF in the hospitality industry.

The number of tourists who use smartphones to make hotel reservation is continuously increasing. Nonetheless, only a few studies have investigated the attributes to make hotel reservation via mobile devices (e.g., smartphones). Hence, the present study comprehensively evaluates the attributes to make hotel reservation through mobile online travel agencies (OTAs) based on the web function design framework to identify the perceived important attributes to make hotel reservation via mobile OTAs from the perspective of tourists and to find out the possible factors with specific attributes to measure hotel reservation via mobile OTAs through an online questionnaire survey method. Findings reflect that the perceived important attributes of tourists have changed from those allowing them to meet their hierarchical needs to those supporting their nonhierarchical intertwined needs. In addition, four factors of hotel reservation via mobile OTAs are identified: hotel information provision, relationship and social media, design and layout, and consumer requests.

Purpose The purpose of this study is to systematically analyze the evolution of health tourism development, identify relevant themes and segments of health tourism research and offer future research directions and practical implications for academic researchers and tourism practitioners worldwide using China as an example. Design/methodology/approach Using a bibliometric analysis, the present study comprehensively analyzes the theme, segments and the evolution of health tourism research over the past 40 years in China. Findings Major findings show that health tourism research in China could be divided into four stages with different characteristics, and three segments, including wellness tourism, health and wellness tourism and medical tourism. Findings also reveal the trend of health tourism development tends to be industrialized, diversified and systematic under the guidance of recent policies. Theoretically, based on the theoretical framework developed by Hall (2011), the present study contributes to the establishment and extension of the framework for health tourism within the context of China. Practically, findings can provide health tourism-related policy implications for the future development of health or health sector-integrated tourism. Research limitations/implications The study proposes possible collaboration between government and academia in terms of health tourism-related policy formulation. Originality/value Through 40-year bibliometric analysis of health tourism evolution in China, the present study explores the main themes of health tourism development, identifies the segments of health tourism and analyzes the development stages of health tourism. Findings should be of use to international readers to better understand the uniqueness of health tourism development and find out possible future health tourism development research directions. As a result, major contributions of this paper are the comprehensive analysis of the evolution of health tourism research and the implications on other countries and regions to adopt a pragmatic approach to explore the trend and unique characteristics of health tourism for future development.

Recently, robots have been widely adopted in the hospitality and tourism industry. Efficient robots can help hoteliers and tourism suppliers with their repetitive or manual labor. Due to the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, there is an increasing number of publications on robotic applications in hospitality and tourism. However, a comprehensive literature review of this realm remains lacking. Therefore, to provide a holistic view of the existing literature on robotic applications in hospitality and tourism, this study reviewed 86 extant robotic application-related articles by conducting descriptive analysis and content analysis. The findings of this study showed that most of the existing relevant studies were conducted from the perspective of consumers in the hospitality context. Potential future research directions for academics are identified herein. Practical implications on robotic adoption are also provided for industry practitioners.

Novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has had a huge impact on the global tourism industry over the past couple of years. Most previous studies investigated tourism crises after the pandemic period. Hence, to minimize the research gap, the present study investigates the impact of COVID-19 on tourism during the pandemic period. By assessing this impact, this paper proposes a D (big data) I (impact module) S (strategy module) E (evaluation module) model to cope with the crisis in order to bring about feasible implications for tourism practitioners and governments. This paper is to provide real-time destination management adjustments. This model is based on a crisis management framework and governance theory through retrieving big data from China Unicom and major travel information delivery sources. The major finding shows that the detailed time points of pandemic information release in the early stage of crisis. In conclusion, through proposing a DISE model, the present study assesses the impact of the major emergency public health crisis, assists destination managers in adjusting tourism-related policy and reflects the priority of recovering tourism after the crisis for effective tourist destination management.

Infectious disease normally largely affects international tourist flow. For example, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has greatly affected global tourism, and its effect is expected to extend further. As the first country in the world to detect the pandemic, how the international tourist flow to Mainland China (hereafter known as China) changes along with the COVID-19 outbreak is still underexplored. To bridge this research gap, this study identifies the changes in the international tourist flows to China by categorizing international tourists to seven regions of the world and examines the degree of sensitivity among five clustered groups through Python modelling. Findings show that the international tourist flows from Europe, Asia Pacific and North America to China were largely affected by the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, different sensitivity levels of the five identified clusters among the 193 countries affected by infectious disease ranged from 'least sensitive' to 'most sensitive'. Practical implications are further discussed.

Aim/purpose – This paper aims at examining the value propositions of tourism market- ing for smartphone marketing and the value perceptions of tourists of using smartphone applications by investigating the National Tourism Organization (NTO) of Hong Kong and South Korea, respectively. Design/methodology/approach – Through conducting in-depth and focus group inter- views, the present study explored and compared the value proposition of smartphone destination marketing of the NTOs in Hong Kong and South Korea. Findings – Findings of the present study indicate seven value propositions of the NTO, including aesthetic, functional, hedonic, organizational, social, technological, and user experience values. Research implications/limitations – An increasing number of destination marketing organizations have been adopting smartphones to meet the demands of the competitive marketing environment. Hence, tourism organizations must enhance the delivery of quality travel-related information to improve tourists’ perceived value. A conceptual framework was proposed based on the findings of the present study, and valuable practi- cal implications were provided. Originality/value/contribution – The originality of the present study lies in the integra- tion of the value proposition concept in the consumption value theory to the mobile context in tourism. Keywords: smartphones, smartphone marketing, National Tourism Organization (NTO), value propositions, perceived value, Hong Kong, South Korea. JEL Classification: M31, N70, Z33.