From disabled tourists to impaired cyborg tourists: What would it take to transform?

Despite the media reports and governments promoting tourism as a fundamental right for everyone, traveling is still not accessible for disabled people. This study has highlighted the need to make tourists with disabilities accessable for inaccessible destinations. Cyborg products in the form of technological implants can make tourists with disabilities accessable for inaccessible destinations. Since tourists with a mobility disability (TMD) will be one of the primary beneficiaries of technological implants, little is known about their acceptance of technological implants during traveling.Therefore, this study assesses the willingness of TMD to use technological implants during traveling through a qualitative research approach. The results from thematic analysis identified two main themes: the use of assistive devices during traveling with four sub-themes (freedom of traveling, physical and attitudinal barriers, cost, and additional assistance and battery issues), and drivers of impaired cyborg tourists with seven sub-themes (independence, improved well-being, convenience/ease of use, social inclusion, positive emotions, motivation, and other issues). The study contributed to the literature by introducing drivers of impaired cyborg tourists along with previously identified concepts. The results also provided implications for the stakeholders of the tourism industry.

Employees' perception of robots and robot-induced unemployment in hospitality industry under COVID-19 pandemic.

The impact of the pandemic is driving the recent upsurge in service automation and the adoption of service robots in the hospitality industry. As service paradigm and customer expectations shift from conventional customized and personalized services towards a digitalized service environment, such customer orientation may favor using service robots at scales that could render service employees redundant. This study aims to answer the above question by investigating service employees' perceptions of service robots. Data solicited from 405 service employees in the United States of America via Amazon's MTurk were analyzed using structural equation modeling. The result revealed that employees' awareness of adopting and using service robots significantly impacts their perception of robot-induced unemployment. Further, results indicated that the perception of robots' social skills significantly influences service employees' perception of robot-induced unemployment. Employee status was found to moderate the relationships mentioned above. Specifically, entry-level employees perceive the unemployment risk more than managers.

The role of clean energy in the development of sustainable tourism: does renewable energy use help mitigate environmental pollution? A panel data analysis.

The tourism industry has long been accused of being the major driver of global warming as a result of the size of the industry and its subsequent high energy consumption, most of which comes from sources that emit carbon dioxide. However, in spite of the criticism directed towards tourism due to its negative effects on the environment, there is a scarcity of research that has aimed to ascertain its impact on the environment, thus revealing the existence of a gap in the literature. The current study uses a dynamic GMM model for 38 OECD countries from 2008 to 2019 for the purpose of filling the gap in the literature by investigating the effects of tourism development on the environment, as well as ascertaining the role of renewable energy in mitigating environmental impact. Unlike past studies that have alluded to the fact that tourism development exacerbates the emissions of carbon dioxide and hence global warming, the current research shows that in the OECD countries, tourism does not have any significant link with greenhouse gas emissions. This is because OECD nations have long started to shift from the use of fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy that do not exacerbate greenhouse gas emissions. However, the current research concurs with the findings of past studies that renewable energy consumption significantly decreases greenhouse gas emissions. The use of renewable energy sources instead of fossil fuels should continue to be encouraged in all nations for the purpose of achieving the carbon neutrality goal of the United Nations.

The environmental sustainability effects of income, labour force, and tourism development in OECD countries.

The impacts of the increasing human activities mostly through socio-economic and environment interactions have continued to generate more scientific studies and contemporary discussion on issues ranging from the climate change to income and gender gap. Accordingly, the current study employed the cointegration and a two-step (system) SYS-Generalized Method of Moments to examine the environmental sustainability effects of income, international tourism arrivals, and labour force vis-à-vis gender unemployment in the panel of (32) Organization for Economic Development and Corporation (OECD) for the period 1995-2016. The study revealed that income growth in the OECD countries and increase in the inflow of international tourists into the OECD member countries are significant endangering factors for the bloc's environmental sustainability. More striking is the environmental impact of labour force in the panel countries. Intuitively, a positive labour force-environmental degradation nexus is expected; the negatively desirable labour force-environmental degradation nexus in the current study is a justification of (1) the prevailing gender employment/unemployment classifications in the OECD member countries, and (2) the increasing adoption of more environmental friendlier working conditions or operation among the member countries. Moreover, the current study strongly posits a significant policy framework for the governments and stakeholders of the OECD member countries.