Past, present, and future of anthropomorphism in hospitality & tourism: conceptualization and systematic review

ABSTRACT

The employment of anthropomorphism in promotion has witnessed a notable surge in recent times, surpassing prevous levels in the hospitality and tourism sectors. This research examines the development of anthropomorphism in hospitality and tourism over the past 13 years between 2010 and 2023, showcasing recent research themes, methods, national, international, interdisciplinary, or multidisciplinary alliances, and prominent anthropomorphism researchers and institutes in the hospitality and tourism field. One hundred and twenty-five research papers were published for hospitality and tourism in anthropomorphism. The research reveals that this topic is exponentially growing. This is the first study to provide a bibliometric analysis followed by content analysis of anthropomorphism research in the hospitality and tourism research niche, with theoretical and practical contributions. The findings of cluster analysis reveal several futuristic themes, such as machine learning, robotics, etc., which marketers can focus on for building resilient strategies in the long run. The last section of the paper discusses the conclusion and future research avenues.

近年来,拟人化在晋升中的应用显著激增,超过了酒店和旅游业以往的水平. 这项研究考察了2010年至2023年过去13年来酒店和旅游业拟人化的发展,展示了最近的研究主题、方法、国家、国际、跨学科或多学科联盟,以及酒店和旅游领域著名的拟人化研究人员和机构. 125篇关于酒店和旅游拟人化的研究论文发表了. 研究表明,这个话题呈指数级增长. 这是第一项在酒店和旅游研究领域对拟人化研究进行文献计量分析和内容分析的研究,具有理论和实践贡献. 聚类分析的发现揭示了几个未来的主题,如机器学习、机器人等,从长远来看,营销人员可以专注于这些主题来构建弹性战略. 论文的最后一节讨论了结论和未来的研究方向.

KEYWORDS:

• Anthropomorphism
• hospitality
• tourism
• mascot
• and bibliometric analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).