Since the pandemic accelerated the penetration of AI-based autonomous service robots (ASRs) in hospitality and tourism, people are more likely to experience these service innovations, which raises critical ethical concerns from consumers’ perspectives. This dissertation focuses on the ethics of ASRs in hospitality and aims to 1) explore consumers’ ethical perceptions of ASRs, 2) investigate factors that can affect consumers’ intention to adopt ASRs in a post-pandemic context, and 3) examine how initial trust can mediate the relationship between consumers’ ethical perceptions and facilitate the intention to adopt ASRs. This dissertation conducted two studies using the exploratory mixed methods approach to achieve these goals. Study one explored the consumers’ ethical perceptions of ASRs, driven by various ethical theories, such as teleology and deontology. Using triangulation methodology, data collection proceeded through semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and on-site interviews. The findings revealed eight themes of consumers’ perceived ethical issues of ASRs. These themes were categorized into two dimensions: ethical issues that arise during interactions and ethical issues that are inherent to the characteristics of ASRs. Therefore, a total of 16 ethical issues were identified. Study two further developed measurements of consumers’ perceived ethical issues of ASRs by conducting two rounds of online surveys. A second-order model based on Technology Acceptance Model and Initial Trust Model was built to understand better the relationship between consumers’ ethical perceptions and their intention to adopt ASRs. By utilizing second-order confirmatory factor analysis and partial least square structural equation modeling, the main results demonstrated the relationships between the two dimensions of consumers’ perceived ethical issues, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, initial trust, and behavioral intention. Furthermore, initial trust significantly mediated the relationship between consumers’ ethical perceptions and behavioral intention, while personal innovativeness moderated the relationship between initial trust and behavioral intention. This study is the first to empirically explore, measure, and validate a framework regarding consumers’ ethical perceptions of ASRs in hospitality. The findings contribute to the literature on ethics studies in business and information technology and provide valuable implications for managers in tourism and hospitality, policymakers, and those implementing ASRs in broader service contexts.

This dissertation examines travelers’ innovation adoption and repurchase behaviors in the sharing economy. The central question is to what extent the tourism industry embraces service innovations in the sharing economy. Predicated upon behavioral reasoning theory, this research makes a contribution to the tourism study and diffusion of innovation literature, by exploring the influence of travelers’ reasonings in the innovation decision process. The dissertation follows a two-study format. The analysis contextualizes reasons for and against adoption, by incorporating appropriate constructs relevant to service innovations in social dining services (Study 1) and ride-sharing services (Study 2). An exploratory mixed methods approach is taken in both studies. The survey data and the semi-structured interviews are used to identify the context-specific reasons for and against adoption. And, a series of statistical analyses are employed to examine how reasonings influence intentions to adopt social dining services (Study 1) and intentions to repurchase ride-sharing services for the next trip (Study 2).

The main results suggest that both reasons for and reasons against adoption have countervailing influences in the psychological processing, supporting the validity of the research models. The findings also reveal that different psychological paths in travelers’ adoption and repurchase intentions. In Study 1, the trustworthiness of service providers attenuates the reasons against adoption and enhances the likelihood of adopting social dining services in the pre-adoption stage. In Study 2, attitude strength functions as an additional construct, which mediates travelers’ attitudes and ultimately intentions to repurchase ride-sharing services for the next trip in the post-adoption stage. By developing and testing a framework comprising a set of consumers’ beliefs, reasonings for adoption and resistance, attitudes towards adoption, and behavioral responses to the sharing economy, the insights gleaned from this research allow practical recommendations to be made for service providers, platform providers, and policy makers in the tourism industry.

The emergence of social media in concert with improved camera and cell phone technologies has helped usher in an age of unprecedented visual communication which has radically changed the tourism industry worldwide. Serving as an important pillar of tourism and leisure studies, the concept of the tourist gaze has been left relatively unexamined within the context of this new visual world and more specifically image based social media. This phenomenological inquiry sought to explore how image based social media impacts the concept of the tourist gaze and furthermore to discover how the democratization of the gaze in concert with specific features of image based social media applications impacts the hermeneutic circle of the tourist gaze. This in-depth analysis of the user experience within the context of travel consisted of 19 semi-structured photo elicitation interviews and incorporated 57 participant generated photos. Six salient themes emerged from the study of this phenomenon; 1) sphere of influence, 2) exchange of information, 3) connections manifested, 4) impression management and content curation, 5) replicated travel photography, and 6) expectations. Analysis of these themes in conjunction with examples from the lived user experience demonstrate that the tourist gaze is being accelerated and expanded by image based social media in a rapid manner. Furthermore, democratization of the gaze as enabled by technological developments and specialized social media platforms is actively shifting the power role away from a small number of mass media influencers towards a larger number of branded individuals and social media influencers. Results of this inquiry support the theoretical assertions that the tourist gaze adapts to social and technological developments and demonstrates that the concept of the tourist gaze is increasingly important within tourism studies. Practical implications regarding the prevalence of real-time information, site visitation, and “taking only pictures” as sustainable touristic behavior are discussed.

Environmental friendly, green, or sustainable practices are a growing concern in the international hospitality industry. This exploratory study seeks to assess the complex motives that drive hotels on becoming environmentally active by examining the benefits and barriers for hotels to adapt sustainable practices. With this assessment, the study strives to identify small measures the less environmentally active hotels can adapt to their daily operations. An initial study was first conducted in international hotels located in Beijing, China, as international hotels are considered more environmentally proactive and their standards are in keeping with the latest industry trends. The preliminary findings suggested that environmental participation may be affected by the age, size and management structure of the hotel. The actual study, which was conducted in three cities across Arizona, United States, took into account of the initial analysis and looked at both large chain hotels and smaller independents hotels located in urban areas. A quantitative and qualitative research methodology using a questionnaire along with an interview was used to collect the data. The findings show that the decision for hotels to implement environmental practices goes beyond the financial and operational sphere. The results point to the role played by political and upper management policies and how their decisions trickle down to the entire organization. Although unexpectedly, there seemed little influence linking customer satisfaction and the hotel’s environmental commitment. Instead, hotels tend to focus their efforts mainly on backroom operations as opposed to measures that directly impact the consumer experience. It is recommended that hotels increase employee and customer awareness of its environmental policies and reveal the statistic impact of each.

Currently, show management for convention centers have several resources to help determine where to place their efforts in facility services for exhibitors, one of which is to use research results from an importance-performance analysis study. In order to help show management refine their understanding of the needs of exhibitors before a trade show, this study explores the relationship between the exhibitor’s ranking of importance placed on facility services through the Importance-Performance Analysis, and the goals exhibitors have for the trade show. A survey was conducted at three different trade shows taking place in two convention centers. Using a sample of 115 exhibitors, the underlying factors were determined for the importance exhibitors placed on facility attributes and their goals. The findings from the research show that the correlations between importance factors and goals are statistically weak, albeit some notable correlations were made. The importance performance analysis remains a strong and useful tool for show management to use and implementing the iso-rating line provides more detail for a show manager to work with. The finding of this study offer insights into the factor analysis of facility attributes as well as the importance-goals analysis conducted.

Arts and culture function as indispensable parts of humans’ lives. Numerous studies have examined the impact and value of arts and culture, from individual quality of life to overall community health. However, research has been less focused on identifying the influence of crucial dimensions of arts and culture on overall community well-being, and contributing to understanding the intertwining connection between these elements and community well-being. To explore the dimensions of arts and cultural resources and community well-being, and in turn, to present the relationship between them in a community, this dissertation was based on three subsequent studies. A total of 518 counties were included in the analysis. Specifically, this study is unique in that it sought evidence based on county-level data drawn on the Local Arts Index (LAI) from Americans for the Arts (AFA) and County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHRR) variables to provide an arts-community measurement system suggesting critical and meaningful variables among a wide range of existing data. The results revealed the positive impacts of arts and cultural resources on community well-being. Each arts and cultural domain also has critical relationships with community individual, social, and economic well-being. Specifically, the ‘arts business’ domain was considerably associated with community individual well-being and comprehensive community well-being. The ‘arts consumption’ domain showed synthetically significant associations with community’s individual and economic well-being, and by extension, influenced comprehensive community well-being. Lastly, the ‘arts nonprofits’ domain was related to all the components of community well-being. In conclusion, residents’ arts consumption and the existence of arts and cultural/creative industries, including arts nonprofits, are constantly suggested as key to improving county-level community well-being. This study centers on presenting a more realistic vision of how arts and cultural resources are associated with community well-being components. Recognizing the power of arts and cultural resources in society and bolstering them to promote community well-being is a global issue of the utmost pertinence. Thus, research utilizing a longitudinal data-driven approach is likely to continue measuring the impact of arts and culture, and examining how they are related to and can strengthen community well-being.

Because of its ability to harbor social values, norms, and beliefs, heritage has always been utilized as an ideological vehicle. One prominent example of politicizing heritage is Chinese red tourism, comprised of state-promoted tours to revolutionary memorial sites. It is expected to generate political, economic, and social benefits, particularly to reinforce the legitimate leadership of the Chinese Communist Party. Statistics show that dramatic market growth in red tourism has occurred over the past decade. Yet it is still heavily driven by the government and thus whether long-term sustainability can be achieved is still questionable.

This dissertation explores the dynamics of red tourism from the perspective of a meaning-making process, where tourism discourses circulate among the processes of production, transmission, and consumption. The results reveal that higher-level government primarily assumes the leading role, whereas local government is largely excluded from strategy making processes and primarily responsible for implementation and operation. Some dissonance exists between higher and lower-level governments in their goals and involvement in red tourism development. Second, intermediaries are not altruistic and attempt to maximize their own benefits. While site interpreters may provide officially authorized narratives, their primary focus is hosting higher-up administrative visitors. On the contrary, tour guides are more customer-oriented, which may lead to officially undesirable interpretations. Third, driven by multiple motives, tourists have increasingly diverse attitudes towards red heritage and participate in various political and non-political activities. A considerable degree of congruence was found between tourists' participation, motivation, memories, and perception. Quantitative results indicate that the majority of tourists have learned about the political significance and/or content of red heritage, and developed more positive attitudes towards, and support for, the CCP and the government, to a certain extent.

This dissertation contributes to current research by adopting a systematic and emic perspective to explore the dynamics of red tourism. Several conceptual frameworks were developed inductively to describe the meaning-making process. Mixed methods were used to learn about tourists' consumption and perceptions of red heritage. Implications regarding enhancing the effectiveness of the meaning-making process, limitations of the study, and potential directions for future research are also discussed.

Commitment to an activity is widely studied in leisure research. Serious Leisure Perspective (SLP) describes characteristics a committed activity participant possesses. The Psychological Continuum Model (PCM) describes the psychological process a person goes through to become committed to a leisure activity. Awareness, attraction, attachment and loyalty make of the four stages of PCM. Both perspectives have been used to describe committed leisure activity participants and commitment to organized recreational events. Research on leisure activity has yet to determine how the individual becomes loyal. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the process in which recreation activity participates becomes loyal and to identify who can be labels as serious within the PCM Framework. Data was obtained from an online electronic survey distributed to participants of four U.S. marathon and half marathon events. A total of 579 responses were used in the final analysis. Path analysis determined the process in which a runner becomes committed. MANOVA is used to determine difference between leisure groups in the four stages of PCM. Results indicate that activity participants need to go through all four stages of PCM before becoming loyal. As knowledge increases, individuals are more motivated to participate. When the activity satisfies motives and becomes a reflection of their identity, feelings become stronger which results in loyalty. Socialization is instrumental to the progression through the PCM Framework. Additionally, attachment is the "bottleneck" in which all loyal activity participants my pass through. Differences exist between serious leisure groups in the attachment and loyalty stages. Those that are `less serious' are not as committed to the activity as their counterparts.

Numerous studies have examined the attachments individuals have to the places they visit, and that those attachments are formed through experiencing a place in person. This study is unique in that it examines pre-trip place attachment formation via the use of mobile technology and social media. It proposes that media experienced through the use of a participant's smartphone can foster the development of positive emotions, which in turn, facilitates greater mental imagery processing that ultimately influences pre-trip place attachment formation. An experimental design was constructed to examine how text and video on a destination's Facebook page influences an individual's emotions, mental imagery, and subsequently attachment to that destination. Specifically, a 2 (narrative text vs. descriptive text) x 2 (short, fast-paced video vs. long, slow-paced video) between-subjects design was used. A total of 343 usable participant responses were included in the analysis. The data was then analyzed through a two-step process using structural equation modeling. Results revealed no significant influence of textual or video media on emotions although the choice in text has a greater influence on emotions than choice in video. Additionally, emotions had a significant impact on mental imagery. Finally, mental imagery processing had a significant impact on only the social bonding dimension of place attachment. In conclusion, while media had no significant impact on emotions, the effect of previous traveler's retelling of personal accounts on the emotions of potential travelers researching a destination should be examined more closely. Further, the study participants had no prior experience with the destination, yet emotions influenced mental imagery, which also influenced social bonding. Thus further research should be conducted to better understand how potential traveler's image of a destination can be affected by the stories or others.

In order to be competitive in the hotel market, more and more hotels have proposed various types of "wow" services to inform customers' impressions of the hotel in a positive way. Many customers consider these services excellent, and they often exceed their expectations. However, some "wow" services only generate the effect of amazement instead of meeting customers' needs and wants. Applying the notion of the Zone of Tolerance (ZOT: the range between customers' desired and adequate levels of service expectations) to the unique services provided by the Hotel Royal Chiao Hsi Spa in Taiwan, this research study explores hotel customers' service expectations and perceived service quality while revealing the relationship between service quality, satisfaction, and future behavioral intentions. The findings indicate that the ZOT indeed exists in customers' service expectations through the significant difference between the desired and adequate levels of expectations. In addition, findings indicate that customers have diverse tolerance zones toward different hotel services regarding the perceived level of essentialness. Ultimately, the findings specify that customers' perceived service quality has a direct effect on both customer satisfaction and future behavioral intentions.