Journal of Smart Tourism

Smart Tourism Research Center, Kyung Hee University (경희대학교 스마트관광연구소)
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AI's Role in Making Space Tourism More Sustainable: Applying Mixed Methods to Compare onEarth, Sub-orbital, and Orbital Space Tourism

  • Myung Ja Kim (Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism, Prince of Songkla University) ;
  • C. Michael Hall (Department of Tourism, Hanyang University) ;
  • Ohbyung Kwon (Department of Big Data Analytics, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Kyunghwa Hwang (Department of Big Data Analytics, Kyung Hee University) ;
  • Jinok Susanna Kim (Faculty of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Macau University of Science and Technology)
  • Received : 2024.04.26
  • Accepted : 2024.06.24
  • Published : 2024.09.30
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Abstract

Space tourism is a growing industry sector that faces challenges of cost, risk, environmental impact, and sustainability. However, few studies address space tourism in an Asian culture, particularly in the context of artificial intelligence (AI), which is an increasingly significant topic b oth in the tourism sector and in society overall. To address the research gap, this work establishes an analytical framework which contrasts t hree varieties of space tourism using partial least squares, multi-group analysis, and fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. It surveyed 1,000 prospective space travelers from South Korean who are eager to take part in space to urism to examine AI's role in enhancing sustainable space tourism. Findings indicate that recognizing AI benefits are crucial for sustainable on-Earth, suborbital, and orbital space tourism, particularly the latter. The study offers both conceptual and applied knowledge to enhance the sustainability of space tourism.0000

Keywords

Acknowledgement

The authors thank Mr. Minseong Kim, and Ms. Nayoung Yang for their thoughtful advice on refining the survey instrument. This work was supported by Institute of Information & communications Technology Planning & Evaluation (IITP) grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (RS-2022-00155911), Artificial Intelligence Convergence Innovation Human Resources Development (Kyung Hee University), and the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2020S1A3A2A02093277).

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