The future of urban travel and tourism: a text mining analysis of robotaxi sentiment and adoption

Abstract

The recent launch of robotaxis as an alternative urban travel and tourism mode has sparked heated debate. This study collects 87,027 online reviews of Apollo Go from Douyin to understand attitudes toward robotaxis. Under the text mining approach, this study uncovers the complex but relatively positive sentiment on adoption, aligning with the diffusion of innovation theory. Ten topics are unveiled via topic modeling that influences robotaxi adoption, which can be categorized into four dimensions of innovation: service, technological, societal, and experiential. This is the first empirical study in tourism using a text-mining approach to identify a deeper understanding of robotaxi.