Featured faculty: Robert Li Xiang
Written by Ellis Ng

“Travel changes you. As you move through this life and this world, you change things slightly, you leave marks behind, however small. And in return, life—and travel—leaves marks on you,” said the late American documentarian, Anthony Bourdain. Travelling is supposed to be an exercise for the soul.

However, tourist misbehaviour has constantly dotted headlines. Last year, anti-tourism protests erupted in Spain’s Canary Islands over tourists’ bad behaviour and overtourism, and similar strikes have since spread to Barcelona, Málaga, Athens, and other European cities. In Japan, the same problem has driven the city of Fujiyoshida to cancel its annual cherry blossom festival.

Most misconducts, like being noisy, littering, queue-jumping, and disregarding local customs, might seem minor, but they add up for locals. Traditional countermeasures, such as signage or staff patrolling to issue reminders, often fall short. Visitors easily overlook signs, and confrontations can flare up between tourists and staff.

As tourism boards and site managers search for better ways to manage visitors, Robert Li Xiang, the Fung King Hey Memorial Professor of Tourism Management and Director of the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School, suggests that robots can be an effective tool for this.

Equipped with artificial intelligence (AI), Professor Li notes that robots can act as persuasion agents to encourage positive behaviour. Far from replacing human interaction, they provide a non-confrontational means to foster responsible conduct and enhance the experience for both tourists and locals.

“Intelligent robots can influence behaviour through a few simple but powerful mechanisms. When a robot approaches a visitor or speaks to them, it creates a sense that ‘someone is watching,’ which can make people more aware of their actions,” he says.

Smart robots to encourage smart behaviour

A study titled Robot guardians: Mitigating tourists’ deviant behavior with intelligent robots documents the findings of Professor Li, as well as Zhang Mengyang, Pang Shuo, and Liu Na at Southwest Jiaotong University, and Shi Si at the Southwestern University of Finance and Economics in Chengdu, that robots outperform signage and humans when it comes to persuading tourists to behave.

In a field experiment at a busy intersection in southwestern China, among 8,148 observed tourists over three consecutive weekends, 17 per cent jaywalked when human staff were on patrol and 25.1 per cent when only signage was placed. This number dropped to 12.5 per cent when a robot was present.

“Robots feel less personal than human staff, so people may be more open to listening without feeling judged or embarrassed.”

Professor Robert Li Xiang

In other scenario-based experiments and AI-generated simulations with participants in China and the US, the results also show that intelligent robots are more influential in affecting tourist behaviour. The reason is that robots created a keen sense of being watched without the psychological tension that human intervention often triggers.

Professor Li grounds the findings in impression management theory, which holds that people control their behaviour when they feel they are being seen. Unlike surveillance cameras, robots can provide on-site intervention and activate self-awareness, but not as personally intimidating as a human figure, reducing the defensiveness that can undermine compliance.

“Robots feel less personal than human staff, so people may be more open to listening without feeling judged or embarrassed. This fusion, being noticeable but not confrontational, helps nudge people towards better behaviour,” Professor Li says.

Different looks for different messages

How a robot looks and speaks also needs to match. When a human-looking robot delivers a stern warning, it can feel socially threatening, and people get defensive. But if that same robot uses a touch of humour, the interaction feels lighter, and people are more willing to conform.

The underlying reason comes down to social threat and embarrassment. A basic-looking robot, on the other hand, doesn’t trigger much social pressure on its own, so a direct message works best. Humour from something that clearly isn’t human can make the message feel unserious.

Therefore, if its primary function is to intervene in deviant behaviour, a less human-looking robot with a more serious tone would be effective. “A simpler-looking robot may be more effective with a direct message, but a human-like robot can get away with using humour. Getting this combination right makes a big difference in how people respond,” Professor Li says.

“The key is finding the right balance. Robots need to be noticeable enough to catch attention and signal that behaviour matters, but not so intimidating that people feel uncomfortable or defensive.”

The future of smart and sustainable tourism

Smart robots offer a consistent, safer way to address daily misconduct, and the study opens new possibilities for smart tourism as authorities grapple with growing challenges in visitor management.

“For policymakers, robots provide a softer approach to public management, encouraging better behaviour through gentle reminders rather than strict enforcement,” Professor Li adds. “For businesses, robots can ease the burden on frontline staff, who often have to deal with difficult or confrontational situations.”

This approach could work in other environments too, including transport hubs, hospitals, shopping malls, campuses, and residential communities. “We’re already seeing early examples, for instance, robots helping with traffic guidance or reminding people of public rules in some Chinese cities.”

Looking ahead, Professor Li sees the most promising approach is likely a combination of robots and humans. Robots can handle routine reminders in a consistent, non-confrontational way, while human staff can step in for more complex or sensitive situations.

Still, organisations will need to address practical challenges before deploying robots in public. “On the practical side, organisations need to think about costs, maintenance, and whether the technology is reliable enough for daily use,” he says. “It’s also important to consider how robots will work alongside human staff.”

Privacy is another concern, especially if robots collect or process data. “Organisations should be transparent about how the robots are used and avoid making public spaces feel overly watched. Most importantly, robots should be used to give gentle reminders, not to shame or punish people.”

The post Could intelligent robots be the cure for bad tourists? first appeared on China Business Knowledge.

By Jaymee Ng, Principal Writer, China Business Knowledge@CUHK

It’s been a bad year for tourism and a boom in the travel and hospitality sector would no doubt be good for the economy. However, it could also be a nightmare for people living and working amid the flux of transient tourists. It wasn’t that long ago that we saw media reports of tourist misbehaviour from carving names on ancient Egyptian bas reliefs to chasing geishas down the streets in Kyoto. Around the world, countries are looking for ways to curb bad behaviour from tourists. Iceland, for instance, launched the Inspired by Iceland pledge in June 2017 that urges tourists to travel responsibly. Apart from implementing official rules, a recent research study reveals that poor tourist behaviour could be reduced by simply making the tourists feel closer to the locals.

To illustrate the magnitude of opportunity, international tourist arrivals fell by 72 percent in January to October over the same period in 2019, translating into a loss of US$935 billion – more than 10 times the loss the industry suffered during the 2009 global financial crisis. Hotels and the tourism industry are hoping for “revenge travel” to take place, a riff on the concept of “revenge spending” that describes shopping starved consumers overcompensating by splurging when the pandemic is over. But how can places that seek to cash in on the return of tourist dollars do so while avoiding a return to the old days of bad tourist behaviour?

“The best advice is to remind visitors to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’.”

Prof. Lisa Wan.

This is the subject of a paper titled Tourist Misbehaviour: Psychological Closeness to Fellow Consumer and Informal Social Control. The study is the first to examine the psychological closeness between locals and tourists and how this “psychological distance” affects tourists’ intention to misbehave. It was conducted by Lisa Wan, Associate Professor at the School of Hotel and Tourism Management and Department of Marketing at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK) Business School and her co-authors Prof. Michael Hui at University of Macau and Yao Qiu at CUHK Business School.

Psychological closeness refers to one’s feelings of attachment and connection towards other people. We tend to feel psychologically closer to someone whom we perceive as “one of us”. People who belong to the same social group are likely to follow the same set of social or cultural norms because they care about the consequences of their behaviour due to the need for approval and belongingness. In-group members are also likely to impose informal social control on fellow members, such as showing angry looks or sharing comments on those who violate the social norms to reinforce the order of the group. However, the same social practice does not usually apply to out-group members.

In the tourism context, Prof. Wan and her co-authors explain that when people are travelling abroad, they feel less connected to locals than they would at home. In other words, tourists feel psychologically distant from locals. Since they do not perceive themselves as belong to the same “group”, it is less likely for them to comply with local norms because they are less concerned about the consequences of their behaviour and they do not expect their actions to invoke informal social control from locals. Locals, on the other hand, consider tourists as outsiders and therefore may not always voice out their disapproval of tourist bad behaviour.

In addition, the more local residents suffer directly or indirectly from the bad behaviour of the tourists, the higher the likelihood they would impose informal social control on tourists who are violating the social norms. This is emphasised when locals feel victimised or responsible for protecting the interests of their community. For example, local residents in Sai Kung – a district in Hong Kong, protested after getting upset at the influx of tourists during the pandemic and the mounting garbage problem left behind. The researchers predict that tourists would have a higher intention to misbehave when they think their behaviours are less likely to affect local residents.

“It is essential for cities and destination organisations that rely heavily on tourism sector but suffer from the influx of tourists to grasp the underlying reasons or even the motivations for tourists’ misbehaviour,” Prof. Wan says.

The Importance of Psychological Distance

Prof. Wan and her co-authors conducted three experiments to test their hypotheses. In the first study, the participants – recruited from a local Hong Kong university, were asked to imagine themselves either as tourists in Bangkok or as local residents in Hong Kong. They were asked if they would eat on a public bus, something that is banned in many cities in the world (including Hong Kong). The results show that those who imagined themselves as tourists in Bangkok reported a higher intention of eating on the bus because they feel less close to fellow passengers on the bus and consequently, they perceive a significantly lower likelihood of disapproval from other passengers.

A second study was conducted to test whether the degree to which local residents would suffer as a result of tourist misbehaviour could contribute to how likely this said misbehaviour would occur. A total of 200 American participants were asked to imagine themselves at a supermarket checkout before catching a train. They were surveyed on whether they would misuse the express checkout service (by having more items than the supermarket’s limit for the lane) in order to catch the train, which they were about to be late for.

According to the results, the participants who imagined themselves as tourists showed a higher intention to use the express checkout lane when they thought their actions would not significantly affect other customers at the supermarket. This shows that tourists would indeed consider how deeply it would affect local residents before committing misbehaviour.

In the third experiment, the researchers examined the notion of excitement and its relation to tourists’ misbehaviour. The researchers theorised that excitement may lead to misjudgement on whether their behaviours are disapproved by locals. Over 200 students and staff members from a Hong Kong university were recruited for the study.

The participants were randomly told that they were tourists in Tokyo, tourists in Bangkok or non-tourists. They were asked whether they would occupy a priority seat on public transport. The results reveal that when the participants believe their actions were less likely to affect other passengers, those who imagined themselves as tourists in Bangkok were more likely to misbehave than those who imagined themselves as tourists in Tokyo. In addition, the participants who imagined themselves as tourists in Bangkok also perceive a significantly lower likelihood of disapproval from fellow passengers than they were tourists in Tokyo due to the difference in psychological distance.

Prof. Wan explains that since Hong Kong is known to be the “most Japanese City” outside Japan, it is understandable that Hong Kong people feel psychologically closer to locals in Tokyo than locals in Bangkok. Furthermore, the findings rule out the excitement factor because if it was indeed associated with tourist misbehaviour, then a higher intention to misbehave should be reported by both groups regardless of their travel destinations.

Implications for Destination Marketers

As the study results show that tourists are less likely to misbehave if they believe their bad behaviours will cause significant harm to other consumers, the researchers suggest marketers and authorities in the tourism industry to remind tourists about the negative consequences of even seemingly minor misbehaviour and for tourists to constantly put themselves in the shoes of the locals. For example, hotel managers could design table decorations that remind tourists about the bad consequences of wasting food and the unnecessary burden on locals due to their wasteful behaviour.

“At the end of the day, the best advice is to remind visitors to ‘do unto others as you would have them do unto you’,” says Prof. Wan. “They need to know that their actions will cause the same level of nuisance and provoke a similar level of disapproval if they were done back home.”

On the other hand, destination marketers should also remind the tourists that bad conduct may tarnish the image of their home country. Above all, marketers should try to increase the psychological closeness between tourists and local residents by highlighting their similarities, such as promoting a friendly and welcoming image of the destination and the local residents, thereby creating opportunities for healthy interactions between tourists and locals.

“For instance, Koreans and Americans both love eating friend chicken and drinking beer. Perhaps destination marketers can think of some promotional materials based on such similarity,” says Prof. Wan. “However, the easiest way to make their guests feel at home is always a warm smile.”

The post How to Help Tourists Behave Better Abroad first appeared on China Business Knowledge.

By Louisa Wah Hansen

The hotel and tourism industry has for too long been relying on a fixed way of doing things — so fixed that customers need to compromise their level of comfort to fit to the hotel’s own needs. CUHK Business School is resolved to lead the industry in making some drastic changes that put the customer’s needs first and foremost.

As consumers’ needs become more and more diverse, it is getting increasingly obvious that the hotel and tourism industry’s traditional “one-model-fits-all” star-rating system is getting outdated. Creating niche and customized services for tourists is the key that will drive innovation in the industry in 2014 and beyond. According to Prof. Denis Wang, Director of the School, the traditional “star system” adopted by hotels around the world is based on tourists’ social economic status.Increasingly, tourists care more about “functions” when they travel.

“Human needs are becoming more and more sophisticated and diverse, we need to come up with innovative and creative ways to satisfy those needs, which are not necessarily bound by social economic classes,” he says. “When you travel, what do you actually look for? This is the question we need to ask.”

To help practitioners in the hospitality and real estate industries in China and Hong Kong to become more competitive through innovation, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management at the CUHK Business School has been forging close collaborations with industries working on two big themes: function-based hotels which better serve human needs and the ‘China Wallet’ strategy.

Serving Human Needs

Prof. Wang cites a project that his school and a hotel developer have recently collaborated on as an example of a creative way to break the old star-based paradigm. The project aimed to renovate a three-star hotel near the Shanghai railway station to make it an attraction among the transient travelers passing through the area.

The key, he says, is to leverage on the strategic location of the hotel and the high traffic flow, and provide the most important features that train travelers crave for. After an open assessment of the customers’ needs, the team decided to focus on only two things: an ultra “heavenly” bed for a good night’s sleep and a spacious and well-equipped bathroom for cleaning up after a long train journey. As for other facilities, clean and simple furniture and vending machines would be sufficient to fulfill the guests’ needs. There are many restaurants nearby so it would be a waste of resources to provide room service, he says.

“This concept clearly breaks away from the rigid star system,” explains Prof. Wang. “Instead of having to install multiple features to satisfy the requirements of the star system, hotels can focus more on installing individual components that not only fulfill their guests’ needs but exceed their expectations. In this case, the bathroom fixtures and the beds are even better than those you’d normally find in a five-star hotel.”

Prof. Wang says that CUHK Business School hopes to further develop this function- or theme-based concept into a classification system to replace the arcane star system. “The old one-model-fits-all system classifies hotels based on very objective things like staff-to-customer ratio, interior decoration and facilities,” he says, adding that some of these “must-have’s” are superfluous. For example, personal butlers who follow guests around actually deprive them of their privacy. Many of the decorations and facilities just sit there as if “for display only.”

“What would make it more cost-efficient and competitive for hotels is to profile customers’ actual needs and invest in facilities to cater for their needs,” he continues. “The basic, common features across the board, no matter what ‘star’ the hotel belongs to, should include cleanliness, security and courteous and friendly service. Based on these prerequisites, a hotel can then leverage on other unique advantages it has, such as its particular environment and location, to further develop its niche market.”

Prof. Wang is leading an effort with his industry network to start a dialog with hotel and other travel-industry associations to replace the star-based system with a new accreditation system that assesses for quality, individual components, functions, logic and more.

This month, the School of Hotel and Tourism Management will launch an industry-based seminar to brainstorm and initiate new and emerging theories in hospitality and real estate. Professors, students and companies will be invited to collaborate with the aim of promoting innovations in the industry.

‘China Wallet’ Strategy

Another research and collaboration area that the School has been working on is the ‘China Wallet’ strategy. As an ever-increasing number of mainland Chinese are traveling around the world, the hotel and tourism industry must pay attention to their needs so as not to lose out to the competition, stresses Prof. Wang.

The School’s collaboration with Dorsett Hospitality International, a Hong Kong-based hotel operator, has yielded a number of interesting observations and innovative strategies that the company has applied to its 19 hotels in Hong Kong, Mainland China and Southeast Asia.

For example, the team has been observed that mainland tourists generally keep their purse strings tight except for purchases that would enhance their mianzi (face). So they would not pay for such hotel fees as late check-out charges, even if they insist on checking out late. This has made it difficult for hotel staff to check in new guests. To solve this problem, it came up with a new concept: a spa with free facilities, massage services and beverages for guests who need to leave the hotel later than the usual check-out time. The spa provides them with a place to hang out free-of-charge, while the hotel staff prepares the vacated rooms for the new guests.

“This strategy makes use of Mainland tourists’ psychology and has proven to be very popular,” recalls Prof. Wang.

Another new way of catering for Mainland customers’ needs is to take them on shopping tours by providing not only bus tours to popular shopping areas and stores, but also having the drivers take their shopping bags and depositing them in their rooms so they can continue on other tourist destinations without having to lug the bags around. “This is very function-based and matches Mainland tourists’ traveling style perfectly,” says Prof. Wang.

Another detail that the hotel group has covered is to skip the bed-sheet turndown service. This is because Mainland tourists like to spread the goods they have shopped on the bed in the evening. A turndown service would be inconvenient for them. On the other hand, hot water is provided in the room for free as Mainlanders have the habit of drinking hot or warm water and believe that one should not have to pay for it. In addition, extra insulation is installed in the walls because Mainland guests have the habit of talking very loudly.

“In the past, five-star hotels required customers to fit their habits to the hotel facilities,” Prof. Wang points out. “But today, it should be the other way round. People’s lifestyle has changed. They prefer having more choices. So hotels need to come up with innovative and creative ways to satisfy their guests’ needs based on their profiles.”

From Academia to Industry

To promote collaboration between the hotel school and the industry, the curriculum is designed in such a way that theory and practice are seamlessly integrated. For example, in the “Hospitality Facilities Planning and Design” course—required by the School’s final-year hotel students, some students have chosen to do in-depth research on the changing lifestyle and behavioral preferences of Mainland tourists and shoppers for their group projects. The goal is to come up with facilities design and managerial implications for hotels in Hong Kong that aim to adopt the “China Wallet” strategy.

“The findings and outcome of these group projects will have practical and useful implications for the hotel industry,” says Prof. Wang.

Hotel owners and operators interested in leveraging the ‘China Wallet’ strategy will be invited to attend the student presentations and learn from their research and analysis, and from the professor, who will be giving detailed guidance, comments and critique for the improvement of the projects.

The post A Shift in Service Paradigm first appeared on China Business Knowledge.