Purpose

In the tourism industry, immersive technologies become increasingly vital, amplifying traveler experiences and industry growth. By studying “e-booking” applications prevalent in hotels, this study aims to analyze the impact of integrating an anthropomorphic virtual agent (AVA) on user perceptions of humanness and service usage intent.

Design/methodology/approach

Two experiments were conducted to examine the effects of using an AVA and explain the psychological mechanism of how AVA’s attributes increase intention to use “e-booking” application.

Findings

The results highlight the positive influence of AVA on the intention to use. They illustrate the psychological mechanism of how AVA’s attributes (agency and emotionality) influence perceived humanness and intention to use. More specifically, the results indicate that perceived humanness mediated the effect of an AVA on intention to use.

Research limitations/implications

Further research should delve into additional capabilities related to humanness.

Practical implications

This study provides useful insights for hotels’ managers about incorporating AVAs in digital services to enhance the perceived humanness of AVAs. The findings suggest that such efforts could yield benefits, especially when they involve conveying that AVAs possess agency and emotionality.

Originality/value

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is the first to investigate how AVA impacts hotel human–computer interaction. It examines agency and emotionality features on humanness perception and behavioral intent. It also guides successful digitalized hotel service development and design, expanding existing research on human–virtual agent digital services, which mainly focuses on superficial traits like face and gender.

中文翻译：

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旅游业的数字化革命：拟人化虚拟代理在数字化酒店服务中的作用

目的

在旅游业中，沉浸式技术变得越来越重要，可以增强旅行者的体验和行业的增长。通过研究酒店中流行的“电子预订”应用程序，本研究旨在分析集成拟人虚拟代理（AVA）对用户人性感知和服务使用意图的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

我们进行了两项实验来检验使用 AVA 的效果，并解释 AVA 的属性如何增加使用“电子预订”应用程序的意愿的心理机制。

发现

结果凸显了 AVA 对使用意图的积极影响。它们说明了 AVA 属性（能动性和情感性）如何影响感知人性和使用意图的心理机制。更具体地说，结果表明感知的人性介导了 AVA 对使用意图的影响。

研究局限性/影响

进一步的研究应该深入研究与人性相关的其他能力。

实际影响

这项研究为酒店管理者提供了有关将 AVA 纳入数字服务以增强 AVA 人性化感知的有用见解。研究结果表明，此类努力可能会产生好处，特别是当它们涉及传达 AVA 拥有代理权和情感性时。

原创性/价值

据作者所知，本研究是第一个调查 AVA 如何影响酒店人机交互的研究。它检查人类感知和行为意图的代理和情感特征。它还指导成功的数字化酒店服务开发和设计，扩展了对人类虚拟代理数字服务的现有研究，该服务主要关注面部和性别等表面特征。