Keywords

CACTUS

CACTUS J Tour Bus Manag Econ

CACTUS – Journal of Tourism Business, Management and Economics

2247-3297

ASE Publishing House

Bucharest, Romania

cactus-2026-16

Research Article

F21 L86 O31 O33 Z32

Embracing intelligent hospitality: exploring Romanian consumers’ acceptance of AI and robotic technologies

Nisipeanu

Andreea-Elena

https://orcid.org/0009-0008-6786-5400

nisipeanuandreea20@stud.ase.ro Stoian

Antonio-Valentin

https://orcid.org/0009-0003-7044-0597

University of Economic Studies / Faculty of Business and Tourism

31 5 2026

8 1 95 110 2142026 2752026 2752026

2026

The Author(s)

This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0).

https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/

<p>This paper examines the role of robots in the hospitality industry through their large-scale implementation, highlighting several relevant issues. The integration of advanced technologies has become a key pillar of the hospitality industry, particularly in the tourism sector. In recent years, ongoing digitalization has led to significant transformations in the tourism ecosystem. Today, the hospitality industry serves as a dynamic testing ground and implementation site for smart technologies, especially service robots. The need to increase efficiency, personalization, and service flexibility according to tourists’ preferences has encouraged the adoption of intelligent technologies, whose acceptance varies depending on the cultural characteristics of each country. To explore the acceptance of robots and the intention to use them in hotels, this study integrates key theoretical and methodological elements, focusing on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). Data were collected from a sample of 109 individuals in October 2025, and the hypotheses were tested using SmartPLS software. The model employed in this study shows that understanding and acceptance are influenced by perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and self-efficacy, each mediated by individuals’ attitudes toward adopting robots. This study contributes to understanding how to integrate robots and smart technologies within the hospitality industry, providing insights into strategies for integrating robots based on respondents’ opinions.</p>

Keywords robots artificial intelligence hospitality industry Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) technology

Full text available in PDF format.

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