Service Robots in Post-COVID Era

Dear Colleagues,

This is an open call for potential submissions to a Special Issue of Sustainability on the topic of “Service Robots in Post-COVID Era”. Service robots are becoming increasingly popular in the hospitality and tourism industry. The demand to provide contactless services to consumers (e.g., robot concierge, robotic food ordering and delivery) further accelerates the adoption of service robots. Regarding the highly transmissive nature of COVID-19, it is suggested that the implementation of service robots can serve as an effective measure for creating sufficient social distance in the close-contact services between frontline staff and customers. The successful adoption of service robots in hospitality would therefore provide a great degree of reassurance for both customers and employees. Additionally, considering the reduction of the number of hotel employees and their strong turnover intention during COVID-19, the implementation of service robots could serve as a timely alternative for the much-needed manpower in the hospitality and tourism industry while protecting both customers and staff. What will be next for service robots in post-COVID era?

Proposed abstracts should be submitted to the Special Issue Guest Editors for initial consideration. Please send a 500-word (maximum) abstract that describes previously unpublished work. The document should also include each author's name, email address, affiliation, and 50-word biographical statement. If abstracts are accepted, we will invite authors to submit full-length articles for peer review. It is essential that abstracts are based on projects that have already completed data collection to ensure a timely delivery of the Special Issue. All articles will be double-blind reviewed. This Special Issue aims to provide an international forum for researchers to exchange the latest achievements in service robots and their various applications to address the main challenges facing hospitality and tourism services in the future. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Topics:

1. Development of service robots in smart hospitality and tourism;
2. Big data analysis for hospitality and tourism management;
3. AI privacy protection in smart hospitality and tourism;
4. Smart service solutions for hospitality and tourism;
5. The role of service robots in improving service efficiency;
6. Sustainable service robot applications;
7. Integrating smart service with hospitality and tourism environment;
8. Novel techniques and methods for removing challenges in the digitalization of service systems in hospitality and tourism;
9. Innovative approaches to novel digital technologies and AI applications aimed at future-proofing solutions in hospitality and tourism;
10. Application of new advanced smart services.

If you have any queries, please contact the editors (please include all editors in correspondence to ensure a timely reply over the summer period).

Prof. Dr. Jian Ming Luo
Dr. Anthony Kong
Prof. Dr. Rob Law
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.