TOURISTS AWARENESS OF SERVICE ROBOTS IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY IN NIGERIA
Author(s): Department of Marketing, University of Calabar . Bassey, Frederick Offiong; Mbaze-Ebock Vivian Arrey; Professor Bassey. B Esu
Abstract
The study examined tourist awareness of service robots in the hospitality industry in Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: investigate tourists’ awareness of security robots in the hospitality industry, investigate tourists’ awareness of customer service robots in the hospitality industry, assess tourists’ awareness of domestic robots in the hospitality industry, and investigate tourists’ awareness of frontline service robots in the hospitality industry. This study adopted the cross-sectional research design the population for this study comprised of tourists who made use of hotel establishments while visiting Calabar from 2015 to 2018. Primary source of data was adopted for this study. The data collected through distributed questionnaire copies were presented in frequency tables and simple percentages were used to analyze the data. Based on the results, the following findings were revealed thus: hypothesis one revealed that the tourists visiting hotels in Nigeria have a fairly low knowledge about security robot in the hospitality industry. From the test of hypothesis two, it is seen that the tourists’ still have a fairly low knowledge about customer service robot in the hospitality industry as seen in the aggregate mean. Hypothesis three reveals that tourist visiting hotels in Nigeria have a fairly low knowledge about the existence of domestic robot as seen in the aggregate mean. Hypothesis four reveals that the tourists visiting hotels in Nigeria have a fairly low knowledge about frontline service robot in the hospitality industry as seen in the aggregate mean. The study concluded that the respondents have a fairly low knowledge about the service robots in the hospitality industry in Nigeria and no experience at all. The study recommended that service, frontline service, domestics and security service robot may not be introduced all at the same time; the firms may start with few just to deepen awareness. Also, recommended that that firms should properly sensitize their customers about the services of robots though short messaging services (SMS), public lecture and advertising to enhance acceptance. Finally, firms that have financial capacity should introduce the operation of service robot in their organisation and give room to receive feedback from clients
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