Review: The guest lectures of Prof. Stanislav Ivanov

As part of the digital international guest professorship, Prof. Stanislav Ivanov has been a guest at the Chair of Tourism / Center for Entrepreneurship on two dates in December 2020. Prof. Ivanov teaches tourism economy at Varna University of Management (VUM) in Bulgaria and is an internationally renowned expert on Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation (RAISA) in tourism. In addition, he is editor of the two scientific journals “European Journal of Tourism Research” and “ROBONOMICS” as well as author of six books, over 20 book chapters and more than 95 scientific articles.

The first guest lecture on December 7, 2020, was on “Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality – Introduction”. Right at the beginning, Prof. Ivanov showed his sense for humor by introducing the audience into the world of robots and AI by a selection of pictures from movies like Star Wars or Terminator. Subsequently, he presented a variety of robots that are part of our every-day lives: in production, logistics, agriculture, medicine, household or in military conflicts. Robots already assist us in a variety of easy, repetitive tasks such as delivery or lawn mowing, as well as complex one such as surgeries, that require a high degree of tact and sensitivity. Even online search engines, social media chat bots or smart home devices are “robots” and use artificial intelligence (AI) to fulfill simple tasks. Prof. Ivanov continued by presenting the theories behind that use of RAISA. The contemporary level of RAISA development is just a first stage of a long-term, extensive implementation of the so-called “artificial super intelligence”, that does not only manage simple tasks, but instead learns technical, motoric and cognitive aspects to adequately replace human labor. In tourism, AI is used for instance in autonomous cars, service robots, check in counters, passport checks or chat bots. The forces behind this development are multifaceted – from hygiene and safety concerns to demographic change to more efficient and cost-saving processes and procedures.

In his second guest lecture on December 14, 2020, on “Robots, Artificial Intelligence and Service Automation in Travel, Tourism and Hospitality – Economic Fundamentals”, Prof. Ivanov introduced the economic fundamentals of a broad economic and social RAISA use. The decision whether to use RAISA or not is usually made by doing a cost-benefit-analysis, that includes factors such as marketing, human capital, finances or operating procedures. In addition, economic and market developments as well as decisions by competitors can encourage businesses to invest in RAISA technologies. In that case, it needs to be clarified which tasks will be continued by human labor and which ones would be taken by robots. In order to do so, productivity, economies of scope, scale effects or marginal profits need to be examined. Some of the RAISA advantages are constant, accurate and more efficient work, long-term cost saving, higher service quality and easier handling, whereas some disadvantages are high costs for acquisition and operating, a lack of creativity and sensitivity, data security concerns and a possible hostile stance by consumers. However, Prof. Ivanov is confident that an increasing replacement of human labor by robots cannot be prevented. This also allows businesses to automate repetitive tasks, expand the customer service by reallocation of the workforce and, ultimately, build stronger, more individual and more adaptive customer relationships.

Following both guest lectures, extensive discussions with the students as well as the chair team took place and led Prof. Ivanov to share further interesting insights of his personal and scientific experience within the RAISA world. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was a central topic of these discussions, as it is assumed to further accelerate the implementation of RAISA technologies.

We thank Prof. Ivanov once again for the interesting presentations and look forward to future cooperation in research and education. The guest professorship was fostered by the Bavarian Ministry of Science and Art and was held digitally via Zoom.