Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how demographic changes in developed countries will continue to drive the tourism and hospitality industries to adopt automation in business operations. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is an analysis of the trends in human reproduction in...

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Main Authors: Craig Webster, Stanislav Ivanov
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Emerald Publishing 2020-12-01
Series:Journal of Tourism Futures
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JTF-10-2019-0109/full/pdf?title=demographic-change-as-a-driver-for-tourism-automation
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author Craig Webster
Stanislav Ivanov
author_facet Craig Webster
Stanislav Ivanov
author_sort Craig Webster
collection DOAJ
description Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how demographic changes in developed countries will continue to drive the tourism and hospitality industries to adopt automation in business operations. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is an analysis of the trends in human reproduction in the developed countries and a discussion of their implications for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. Findings – There are three major solutions to the demographic problem faced in developed countries and the replacement of human labour with automation is the most practical, immediate and has the fewest risks and negative externalities. Practical implications – Industry has to adapt to the new demographic reality and embrace automation of services, educate their customers and have policies to deal with the resistance expected by labour. Social implications – Society can expect that many of the tasks they commonly expect humans to be involved in will be done by machines and artificial intelligence in the near future, if demographic trends continue and massive immigration into developed countries is not a continuing phenomenon. Originality/value – This links the relationship between demographic trends to the use of automation in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.
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spelling doaj.art-f769dfe8b5ce4c9f9619459f46ca18252022-12-22T04:29:44ZengEmerald PublishingJournal of Tourism Futures2055-59112055-592X2020-12-016326327010.1108/JTF-10-2019-0109642736Demographic change as a driver for tourism automationCraig Webster0Stanislav Ivanov1Department of Family and Consumer Sciences, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, USADepartment of Tourism, Varna University of Management, Varna, BulgariaPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to discuss how demographic changes in developed countries will continue to drive the tourism and hospitality industries to adopt automation in business operations. Design/methodology/approach – The approach is an analysis of the trends in human reproduction in the developed countries and a discussion of their implications for the travel, tourism and hospitality industries. Findings – There are three major solutions to the demographic problem faced in developed countries and the replacement of human labour with automation is the most practical, immediate and has the fewest risks and negative externalities. Practical implications – Industry has to adapt to the new demographic reality and embrace automation of services, educate their customers and have policies to deal with the resistance expected by labour. Social implications – Society can expect that many of the tasks they commonly expect humans to be involved in will be done by machines and artificial intelligence in the near future, if demographic trends continue and massive immigration into developed countries is not a continuing phenomenon. Originality/value – This links the relationship between demographic trends to the use of automation in the travel, tourism and hospitality industries.https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JTF-10-2019-0109/full/pdf?title=demographic-change-as-a-driver-for-tourism-automationrobotsdemographyartificial intelligenceservice automationpopulation decline
spellingShingle Craig Webster
Stanislav Ivanov
Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
Journal of Tourism Futures
robots
demography
artificial intelligence
service automation
population decline
title Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
title_full Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
title_fullStr Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
title_full_unstemmed Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
title_short Demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
title_sort demographic change as a driver for tourism automation
topic robots
demography
artificial intelligence
service automation
population decline
url https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JTF-10-2019-0109/full/pdf?title=demographic-change-as-a-driver-for-tourism-automation
work_keys_str_mv AT craigwebster demographicchangeasadriverfortourismautomation
AT stanislavivanov demographicchangeasadriverfortourismautomation