Can Robots Save the Service Industry from COVID-19?

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Just how much of the global service industry will be left standing by the time COVID-19 is brought under control is anybody’s guess. In the US, an industry association says restaurants across the country are on track to lose US$240 billion in revenues by the year-end. Most hotels stand empty. But rest assured that all is not lost. A recent research study by The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) suggests that robots – which are not generally known for their personal touch – may be able to help the stricken hospitality industry weather and recover from COVID-19.

The study found that the use of robotics in a tourism and hospitality industry setting could help to draw customers back into restaurants and hotels, at a time when people are concerned about the risk of viral transmission from people-to-people interactions. Among the two countries studied, this was more pronounced in China than in the US.

“Our results show that with the pandemic dominating people’s awareness, service robots could signal low interpersonal contact, reduce the perceived risk of virus transmission, and in turn increase visit intention,” says study author Lisa Wan, Associate Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management and Department of Marketing at CUHK Business School.

Titled “Robots Come to the Rescue: How to Reduce Perceived Risk of Infectious Disease in COVID-19 Stricken Consumers”, the study was co-conducted by Prof. Elisa Chan at New York Institute of Technology – Vancouver and Xiaoyan Luo, a PhD student at CUHK Business School.

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