ABSTRACT
Service robots have become an efficient service option in retail, hospitality, and tourism settings. However, customers tend to be dissatisfied with robot-provided services. This article investigates customers' satisfaction with service robots from the perspective of a neglected factor: spatial distance. COVID-19 prevention policies have brought various challenges to service providers and have highlighted the importance of spatial distance. We propose that adopting service robots during a pandemic could be a win–win strategy for customers and providers. Our three studies included experimental manipulations of service providers and spatial distance. Study 1 examined the correlation between service robots and customers' service satisfaction. Studies 2 and 3 indicated that customers were more satisfied with robot services (vs. human services) in settings featuring close spatial distance, whereas customers preferred human staff (vs. robots) under far spatial distance. We also verified approach–avoidance motivation as the underlying mechanism of the above interaction. These results excluded other factors, such as consumers' tech savviness, perceived expertise, and knowledge level. Findings can help service providers to better understand how spatial distance influences customers' satisfaction with service robots and devise competitive marketing strategies.
ABSTRACT
Using data of online ticket sales for attractions in the seven provinces of South Central China, this study focuses on the impact of COVID-19 on tourists' destination preferences after the end of lockdown. Empirical results reveal that tourists' destination preferences have changed significantly, which holds under a number of robustness checks. Specifically, we find that tourists avoid traveling to destinations with more confirmed cases of COVID-19 relative to their places of origin, especially Hubei Province, and prefer destinations close to home, especially local attractions. The empirical findings have significant implications for managers and policymakers in tourism and we provide potential mechanisms for these findings based on signaling, risk perception, and prospect theory.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Train travel is a common mode of public transport across the globe; however, the risk of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) transmission among individual train passengers remains unclear. METHODS: We quantified the transmission risk of COVID-19 on high-speed train passengers using data from 2334 index patients and 72 093 close contacts who had co-travel times of 0-8 hours from 19 December 2019 through 6 March 2020 in China. We analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution of COVID-19 transmission among train passengers to elucidate the associations between infection, spatial distance, and co-travel time. RESULTS: The attack rate in train passengers on seats within a distance of 3 rows and 5 columns of the index patient varied from 0 to 10.3% (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.3%-19.0%), with a mean of 0.32% (95% CI, .29%-.37%). Passengers in seats on the same row (including the adjacent passengers to the index patient) as the index patient had an average attack rate of 1.5% (95% CI, 1.3%-1.8%), higher than that in other rows (0.14% [95% CI, .11%-.17%]), with a relative risk (RR) of 11.2 (95% CI, 8.6-14.6). Travelers adjacent to the index patient had the highest attack rate (3.5% [95% CI, 2.9%-4.3%]) of COVID-19 infection (RR, 18.0 [95% CI, 13.9-23.4]) among all seats. The attack rate decreased with increasing distance, but increased with increasing co-travel time. The attack rate increased on average by 0.15% (P = .005) per hour of co-travel; for passengers in adjacent seats, this increase was 1.3% (P = .008), the highest among all seats considered. CONCLUSIONS: COVID-19 has a high transmission risk among train passengers, but this risk shows significant differences with co-travel time and seat location. During disease outbreaks, when traveling on public transportation in confined spaces such as trains, measures should be taken to reduce the risk of transmission, including increasing seat distance, reducing passenger density, and use of personal hygiene protection.