Contactless Technology: A Bridge Within Different Industries

The hospitality and tourism industry has recently undergone an unprecedented

drastic shift in how guests and staff interact. This shift has been contributed by

different factors, including technology advancement and the outbreak of the

COVID-19 pandemic. Being an industry that operates based on contact and

interaction between guests and customers, it received the most brutal hit

because of the pandemic. The hit led to a significant drop in business and

business closure. As a result, industry practitioners have settled for contactless

technology to proceed with regular business while protecting the guest and

customer success.

Scholars have therefore gone ahead to conduct studies about different

contactless technologies that practitioners in the industry utilize to get around the

challenge of reduced contact between guests and staff. For example, Pillai,

Haldorai, Seo, and Kim (2021) support the use of contactless technologies. Their

study indicates the hygienic benefit of using these technologies in the hospitality

and tourism industry. However, other scholars do not seem to share the same

school of thought about contactless technology in the hospitality and tourism

industry. In their study, Kim, Kim, Badu-Baiden, Giroux, and Choi (2021) discover

new trends in respondents' responses towards replacing humans with robots in

hospitality service. They allude that their study is different following the outbreak

of the pandemic. Previous studies (e.g., Ivanov, Webster & Garenko, 2018) were

opponents of replacing humans with robots. Most experts have maintained that

robots might not fully replace the human hospitality service experience. Chan
and Tung (2019) found robots exhibiting high intellectual characteristics and

deficient emotional responses during the service experience. Nevertheless, Kim

et al. (2021) found a contradicting finding after the outbreak of COVID-19. A

finding which they termed as situational because of the fear of the pandemic. 

There is no conclusive study to show whether the recently emerged contactless

technology is more beneficial or a demerit to the hospitality industry. This

scholarly debate is still ongoing. Most importantly,  studies have not only been

conducted in the service of food alone. Other researchers (e.g., Wörndl, Koo,

Stienmetz, Buhalis, & Moldavska, 2020) have delved into contactless check-in

and check-out, with evidence of some hotels already implemented some if not

most of the contactless technologies in their hotel operations.

References 
Pillai, S. G., Haldorai, K., Seo, W. S., & Kim, W. G. (2021). COVID-19 and
hospitality 5.0: Redefining hospitality operations. International Journal of
Hospitality Management, 94, 102869.
Kim, S. S., Kim, J., Badu-Baiden, F., Giroux, M., & Choi, Y. (2021). Preference
for robot service or human service in hotels? Impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 93, 102795.
Ivanov, S., Webster, C., & Garenko, A. (2018). Young Russian adults' attitudes
towards the potential use of robots in hotels. Technology in Society, 55, 24-32.
Chan, A. P. H., & Tung, V. W. S. (2019). Examining the effects of robotic service
on brand experience: the moderating role of hotel segment. Journal of Travel &
Tourism Marketing, 36(4), 458-468.
Wörndl, W., Koo, C., Stienmetz, J., Buhalis, D., & Moldavska, I. (2020,
November). In-room Voice-Based AI Digital Assistants Transforming On-Site
Hotel Services and Guests' Experiences. In Information and Communication
Technologies in Tourism 2021proceedings of the ENTER 2021 Etourism
Conference, January 19-22, 2021 (pp. 30-44).