The Rise of Robots to Help Combat Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic caused worldwide tragic loss of human life along with social and economic disruptions. The hospitality and tourism sectors were particularly hit hard due to lockdowns for maintaining social distancing to handle the spread of the disease. In this crisis scenario, the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics gave massive support to hospitals, hotels, airports, transportation systems, scenery areas and society. Technology played a significant role to reduce human contact and the potential spread of the virus. Humanoid robots, drones, autonomous driving vehicles, and socially intelligent robots performed essential tasks like disinfecting public areas, delivering necessities at people’s doorstep, giving safety, measuring body temperature and comforting the patients. This article depicts different roles played by the robots in various sectors during the pandemic and particularly highlights the opportunity that AI and robotics can provide to the hospitality and tourism industry. Tourism and hospitality scholars should develop and adopt robotic applications to foster guests’ experiences and protect natural and cultural resources. The use of robotic applications in future can be further used to improve people’s collaboration in tourism development.