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The COVID-19 outbreak has had detrimental consequences on the cruise industry due to the suspension of commercial cruise trips, and these effects remain apparent in Saudi Arabia. The offered service quality (SQ) in the post-COVID-19 era seems to be a critical element for improving customer experiences and satisfaction, enhancing destination attractiveness, increasing revenue, and maintaining repeat business. The current study aimed to assess the impact of service quality on tourists’ satisfaction and corporate image as well as the intention to pay for cruise trips and revisit the destination among 315 tourists in Saudi Arabia. Service quality was measured using five subscales of the SERVQUAL scale, including reliability, tangibles, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy. Tourists’ satisfaction was significantly influenced by four domains of SQ, whereas the intention to pay more, intention to revisit the destination, and corporate image were significantly predicted by ≤3 domains of SQ. The study’s findings can help the cruise industry to improve its offerings and create more personalized and engaging experiences that meet the changing needs of customers in the recovery period after the COVID-19 outbreak.

Studying brand love is vital for hospitality establishments because it helps them understand their customers’ feelings and perceptions toward their brands, especially with the growing number of hospitality brands. However, previous hospitality research has neglected the relationship between customer value and brand love. Therefore, this study investigates the influence of customer value on brand love of fast-food restaurants with a moderating role of electronic word of mouth. The research model was empirically evaluated on 385 fast-food restaurant brand customers in Greater Cairo, Egypt, who had previously participated in restaurants’ online communities. We used structural equation modeling to examine the research data. Results indicated that customer value is crucial in increasing brand love sub-dimensions (i.e., intimacy, passion, and commitment). The results also confirmed that the utilitarian value affects more than the hedonic value of brand love sub-dimensions, and the latter significantly impacted customer loyalty. In addition, electronic word of mouth moderated the relationship between the two types of customer value and brand love sub-dimensions. Hence, the current study adds a new factor (i.e., customer value) that affects the brand love of restaurants to the hospitality literature. Accordingly, the study will present several practical implications to increase customer value and, thus, brand love and customer loyalty.

Over the past few years, great attention has been given to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences on employee psychological well-being (PWB), particularly in the hospitality industry. Like many aspects of human life, employee PWB is influenced by multiple factors. One of the factors that may affect employee PWB is transformational leadership (TLS). Accordingly, we aim through this study to empirically (1) examine the direct effect of transformational leadership on employee PWB and (2) investigate the potential independent and serial mediation effects of employee engagement (EEG) and job satisfaction (JS) on the TLS-PWB relationship after the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Data were gathered using an online questionnaire from a convenience sample of 403 front-line employees from five-star hotels in Saudi Arabia. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) with the bootstrapping technique was utilized to test the study hypotheses. Based on the demands–resources (JD-R) theory, the findings of this study reveal a significant positive effect of TLS on hotel employees’ PWB. Additionally, drawing on the stimulus–organism–response (S-O-R) model, the two main contributions of this study are: (1) EEG and JS serially and independently have a significant partial mediational effect on the TLS-PWB relationship among hotel employees, and (2) EEG has a greater impact on the TLS-PWB relationship as an intervening variable than the two other mediators (JS, as well as EEG and JS serially). Based on these findings, hotel management should mainly consider developing and encouraging TLS behavior among their managers to promote EEG and increase JS among their followers, which consequently enhances their PWB and alleviates negative psychological outcomes due to experiencing a disaster such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

The physical environment of airports plays a crucial role in improving travelers’ perceptions and well-being. Adopting a green physical environment may elicit customers’ cognitive and emotional responses and provide a convenient consumption environment. Brand experience and engagement are other important consumer–firm interactions that influence the attributes of the passengers’ well-being. The current study sought to assess the impact of the eco-design of buildings, brand experience and engagement on the well-being of travelers at an international airport in Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the current study investigated the possible effects of eco-design on airport experience and engagement. The results of the structural equation modeling analysis revealed that the eco-design of airport buildings was independently associated with passengers’ well-being and brand engagement, but not with brand experience. Additionally, well-being was significantly predicted by brand engagement and experience. Airport managers are advised to adopt an internal eco-design to help promote passengers’ connection with the brand and improve their well-being, which would eventually be reflected in their behavioral attributes and decision-making.

Service value is a crucial dominant indicator in customer decision-making. However, there is a lack of hospitality literature that investigates the multi-dimensional service value in emerging markets. Thus, this study aims to create a multi-dimensional scale for service value and to analyze how different service value dimensions affect customers repurchase intentions at fast-food restaurants. We make a conceptual framework with eight constructs, including service value and repurchase intention. A self-administrated questionnaire is used to gather empirical data from fast-food restaurant customers in Egypt. We employ confirmatory factor analysis to extract the model’s reliability and validity. Moreover, we use a structural equation model to extract the model regressions and correlations using AMOS software. We find that each of the eight proposed service value variables impacts fast-food restaurant customers’ repurchase intention. However, the factors that strongly influence customers’ preferences to make more purchases are service equity, confidence benefits, service quality, and service reputation. We contribute to the literature on hospitality customer value and repurchasing intentions by presenting a comprehensive multi-dimensional service value framework that affects customers’ repurchase intentions in fast-food restaurants. Practically, eight service value variables can help managers of fast-food restaurants meet customer needs and gain a competitive advantage. We suggest many crucial recommendations to restaurant managers regarding the priority of the service value constructs. For example, managers should consider service equity, service quality, and service reputations as a priority of the restaurant service value.

Recently, with increasing customer awareness about environmental issues, guests staying in hotels and potential consumers are more and more concerned about environmentally sustainable practices and their associated consequences. From the hotel industry perspective, empirical studies conducted on the association between customer citizenship behavior (CCB) and environmentally sustainable practices (ESPs) with the existence of green satisfaction (GS) are scarce. Consequently, the primary aim of the current study is to investigate the impact of ESPs on GS and CCB in a sample of five-star eco-friendly hotels in Egypt, as well as exploring the potential mediative role of GS in the relationship between CCB and ESPs. Additionally, we attempt to empirically determine to what extent GS directly impacts CCB. The study suggests a conceptual model for testing four hypothesized relationships between ESPs, GS, and CCB. Structural equation modeling (SEM) with bootstrapping was employed for testing our hypotheses. The findings of the study confirmed the significant positive impacts of ESPs on GS and CCB. Further, GS significantly and positively affects CCB. Moreover, GS partially mediates the relationship between CCB and ESPs. Given the study findings, some practical implications for improving GS and boosting CCBs in the green/eco-friendly hotel industry context are suggested.

This study aims to assess the impact of implementing corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices on sustainable tourism development in Al-Ahsa city, Saudi Arabia. A survey was electronically distributed to the managers of hotels and travel agencies in Al-Ahsa City. A total of eight CSR strategies, including information analysis, compensation, system, delegation, prevention, education, regulation, and marketing, were extracted from the literature, and their effects on overall, economic, ecological, and social sustainability were investigated in hotels and tourism establishments. The results showed that promoting CSR adoption (marketing) and providing sustainability-related educational materials to customers were the most influential CSR practices on sustainability (mean scores±SD were 13.75±1.73 and 12.82±1.98 out of 15, respectively). Sustainable development of hospitality and tourism corporates could be enhanced by implementing marketing and educational CSR practices, which ultimately support the rising trend of sustainable tourism in the Kingdom.

Digital-free tourism (DFT) has recently attracted tourism service providers’ attention for its benefits in terms of enhancing tourists’ experiences and well-being at destinations. DFT refers to tourists who are likely to voluntarily avoid digital devices and the Internet on holiday, or travel to destinations without network signals. DFT has advantages for tourists in increasing well-being, mental health, and social networking during their journeys. DFT also has a benefit for tourism marketers in that they can consider it as a new tourism approach. However, there is a lack of studies into tourists’ locus of control (LOC) while experiencing DFT holidays. LOC refers to how individuals assign the responsibility of event outcomes—whether they assign it to themselves (internal LOC) or they say it is beyond their control (external LOC). Therefore, the current study contributes to investigating tourists’ LOC impacts while experiencing DFT holidays. The study relies on semi-structured interviews with millennial tourists who have experienced DFT holidays. The study findings reveal that millennial tourists with an internal LOC (vs. external) are more likely to perceive the DFT advantages (vs. obstacles) during and after the DFT holidays. However, millennial tourists with external LOC incrementally change their attitudes and perceive the DFT holiday benefits through their self-efficacy enhancement. The findings propose managerial strategies for developing effective DFT holidays for millennial tourists regarding their LOC.

Tourism has a significant role in destination development, particularly in rural regions. However, within the context of the highly sensitive nature of rural areas to the ecological, economic, and socio-cultural effects of tourism development, it is important to assess the levels of satisfaction among the residents of rural destinations. The current study aimed to assess the impact of rural tourism development in the Al-Ahsa region, Saudi Arabia on the overall resident satisfaction and three relevant subdomains. The findings revealed that the three tourism development impacts under investigation, including the social, economic and environmental effects, were positively associated with resident overall satisfaction. The three influential developmental categories were also independent predictors of the satisfaction with the quality of life and environment subdomains. National policy makers are required to implement adequate rural tourism development measures and regulations to improve tourism services and activities, which would eventually be reflected in the quality of life of local residents.

Digital transformation has altered the way customers interact with restaurants. As a result, digital transformation has had an enormous impact, changing restaurant customer value. Therefore, this research aims to develop a dynamic and sustainable method for creating customer value in digital transformation. This study suggested digital dynamic capabilities and digital customer orientation as a process model (i.e., sensing, seizing, transforming, and refining) to develop digital transformation and create a dynamic customer value. We chose fast-food restaurants in Egypt to examine the proposed model using a qualitative approach of semi-structured interviews with fast-food managers and hospitality experts. The findings indicated that fast-food restaurants’ different digital transformation capabilities and tools (e.g., value innovation, SWOT analysis, artificial intelligence, new technology selection criteria, digital maturity, building several digital platforms, and gathering and analyzing customers’ online reviews) help them create customer value. However, interviewees highlighted how well-suited the suggested digital dynamic capabilities are to serve as drivers of digital transformation in fast-food restaurants and create a dynamic customer value. This research expands the dynamic capabilities theory by adding digital customer orientation (i.e., proactive and reactive to customer feedback) to develop digital transformation and create customer value in fast-food restaurants. This research provides fast-food restaurant managers with an in-depth explanation of how to implement the digital dynamic capabilities model for executing digital transformation and developing a new dynamic customer value.

Over the last decade, social media (SM) has dramatically influenced the tourism sector, and information exchange via SM platforms may affect tourists’ intentions to revisit a tourist destination. In the present study, we investigated the impact of content shared on SM on tourists’ intentions to revisit Saudi Arabia as a neighboring destination to Qatar during the period of a mega-event (Football World Cup). We also assessed the potential mediation effects of the perceived values and trust in local tourism services on such a relationship. A structured survey was distributed to football fans who came to visit Saudi Arabia (n = 300), and a partial least squares structural equation model was constructed to validate this study’s model. Results showed that SM content did not significantly impact the revisit intentions directly. SM content was a significant antecedent predictor of the perceived trust, and the perceived trust predicted future intentions to revisit Saudi Arabia. Therefore, the perceived trust in tourism services was a significant mediator of tourism SM’s effects on tourists’ intentions. However, the mediation path of the perceived value was not statistically significant. Tourism marketers had to ensure that they appropriately convey engaging content that focuses on supporting the trust in a destination, particularly during the periods of mega-events.

Although tourists’ judgments and interpretations are pivotal to fathom the essence behind their behavior toward tourism destination brands, there is a lack of investigation into theories that deal with tourists’ decisions and interpretations. To address this issue, this study investigates two critical theories in the tourism marketing literature: attribution and locus of control theories in the destination branding context. These theories heavily influence tourists’ perceptions and interpretations of the destination brands. Thus, using the PRISMA methodology (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), we inductively evaluated and synthesized the literature on attribution theory and destination branding from highly indexed journals in the ABDC list index. The research encompasses the issues of “What we know?”, “What we do not know?”, and “Where should we be heading?”. This study will better grasp the implications of attribution and locus of control theories in the literature on tourism marketing. The study would also explore how this hypothesis affects travelers’ assessment and interpretation of destination brands. The study found the potential to assess the implications of attribution and locus of control theories in the tourism marketing literature. The research would provide insights into how these ideas affect tourists’ evaluation and interpretation of destination brands. It would also offer other techniques that marketers may employ to influence consumer behavior.

The cross-border medical-care industry has recently grown exponentially, and medical-tourism development has been an integral part of the marketing strategies of medical institutions. However, having a successful medical-tourism destination that best attracts customers might be difficult to attain, particularly in the context of scarce relevant literature. Participants’ intentions to revisit a medical-tourism destination is better guided by the interplay of several factors, particularly clinical trust and well-being. The current study aimed to assess the impact of clinical trust and well-being on patients’ intentions to revisit a destination through an online survey on a sample of patients who visited three medical-tourism institutions in Egypt. We investigated also a possible mediation relationship of three institutional variables, including the infrastructure, service quality and the provision of bearable expenses within the hypothesized framework. A structured survey was distributed to medical tourists who visited international medical centers in Cairo city and Red Sea resorts. A partial-least-squares structural-equation-modelling technique was used to validate the used constructs. Results showed that participants’ intention to revisit the destination was significantly predicted by the affordable expenses, medical tourism infrastructure, clinical trust and well-being, but not predicted by service quality. Participants’ well-being fully mediated the relationship between service quality and the intentions to revisit, whereas clinical trust and well-being partially mediated the relationship between the affordable expenses and psychological intentions. Decision makers in the medical-tourism sector might benefit from enhancing tourists’ behavioral intentions via improving patients’ well-being and enhancing clinical trust.

The economic, cultural and environmental benefits of mega-events justify conducting tourism research articles based on tourists’ intention to visit the event destination. These decisions are likely influenced by behavioral attributes and social interaction. In the current study, we assessed potential predictors of tourists’ intention to visit the Riyadh Season using a theory of planned behavior (TPB) model and three variables of social networking service (SNS) variables, including SNS use, SNS content and trip experience sharing (TES). Results showed that the perceived behavioral control and subjective norms were antecedent TPB predictors of participants’ intentions to visit the destination. Additionally, the benefits of SNS content in organizing/planning events were independently associated with behavioral motivations. SNS attributes were not significant moderators of the relationship between subjective norms and tourists’ intentions. National authorities are required to focus on improving the content of SNS while planning for future mega-events to enrich tourists’ experience and support their motivation and decision.

Islamic pilgrimage has social, political, and economic benefits, but there are major challenges in the management of large numbers of groups at one time. This spiritually healing journey is likely to be influenced by the overall experience and the quality of logistical services provided while performing the rituals. In the postpandemic period, challenges were more apparent in preventing the spread of infection while maintaining acceptable levels of spiritual atmosphere. Pilgrims’ characteristics might mediate or moderate the changes in spirituality based on individuals’ satisfaction with service quality. In the current study, we investigated the potential service quality predictors of spiritual satisfaction among Muslim pilgrims and investigated the potential mediators and/or moderators of such relationships. The results showed that higher spirituality satisfaction scores were independently associated with enhanced satisfaction with medical services, religious guidance, and the overall Hajj experience. These relationships were not mediated by any demographic characteristics. The Hajj experience significantly moderated the relationship between satisfaction with religious guidance and spirituality. It is recommended that the national authorities should ensure the highest levels of spiritual satisfaction via improving medical and guidance services to achieve the spiritual healing of pilgrims.

The long-lasting impact of COVID-19 forced governments to continue with distance learning. Due to the absence of a formal digital learning management system (DLMS), public universities in many countries adopted social network sites (SNSs), e.g., Facebook and WhatsApp, and/or digital communication platforms, e.g., Microsoft (MS) Teams and Zoom for teaching and learning. This research investigates students’ learning experiences and responses to course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams as a sole distance learning platform during COVID-19. An online, pre-tested, questionnaire was used, directed at bachelor students in public institutions in Egypt, offering tourism and hotel programs, who received their courses using both SNSs and MS Teams. The results showed that the usage of both SNSs and MS Teams helped students to access information and learning resources, have good impact on their knowledge construction and critical refection, and report overall positive learning experience. The results of paired-samples t-test showed statistically significant differences between students’ experiences of course/s incorporating SNSs and MS Teams. However, students recorded limited support by their educators and peers and low participation in course activities that adopted MS Teams. They also reported poor assessment and feedback with course/s that incorporated SNSs. Hence, several implications for scholars, policymakers, and educators were presented for achieving better learning experience and to cope with the pandemic or similar crises, especially in universities with poor infrastructure, including unavailability of DLMS.

The cost of fuel and its availability are among the most major concerns for aircrafts and the aviation industry overall. Environmental difficulties with chemical pollutant emissions emitted by aviation machines are also connected to fuel consumption. As a result, it is crucial to examine factors that affect the overall fuel usage and consumption in the airport-based aviation industry. Several variables were investigated related to the total fuel consumed, such as dry operating weight (DOW) (KG), zero-fuel weight (ZFW), take-off weight (TOW), air distance (AIR DIST) (KM), and ground distance (GDN DIST). Analysis of the correlation between total fuel consumed as well as the extra fuel and selected variables was conducted. The results showed that the most positively associated factors with the total used fuel were the air distance (r2 = 0.86, p &lt, 0.01), ground distance (r2 = 0.78, p &lt, 0.01), TOW (r2 = 0.68, p &lt, 0.01), and flight time (r2 = 0.68, p &lt, 0.01). There was also a strong positive association between the average fuel flow (FF) and actual TOW (r2 = 0.74, p &lt, 0.01) as well as ZFW (r2 = 0.61, p &lt, 0.01). The generalized linear model (GLM) was utilized to assess the predictions of total energy usage after evaluating important outliers, stability of the homogeneity of variance, and the normalization of the parameter estimation. The results of multiple linear regression revealed that the most significant predictors of the total consumed fuel were the actual ZFW (p &lt, 0.01), actual TOW (p &lt, 0.01), and actual average FF (p &lt, 0.05). The results interestingly confirmed that wind speed has some consequences and effects on arrival fuel usage. The result reflects that thermal and hydrodynamic economies impact on the flying fuel economy. The research has various implications for both scholars and practitioners of aviation industry.

Low-cost carriers (LCCs) in Saudi Arabia operate in a competitive, highly demanding environment. Customer-related attributes may be influenced by the levels of service quality in a no-frills airline, which might impact satisfaction and loyalty. Given the unique traveler and market characteristics of the aviation sector in the kingdom, we sought to investigate the impact of service quality of LCCs on customer satisfaction and loyalty and the perceived airline image. A total of 299 passengers at two international airports were approached using a modified SERVQUAL scale. Results revealed that service quality was a significant predictor of customer satisfaction (β = 0.46, p < 0.0001), airline image (β = 0.55, p < 0.0001), and customer loyalty (β = 0.16, p = 0.006). The responsiveness dimension was the most important dimension of service quality, since it predicted all other constructs (satisfaction, loyalty, and brand image). Airline tangibles and reliability were independently associated with brand image and loyalty, respectively. Based on these results, LCCs should tailor future strategic plans that rely heavily on improving different service quality measures, particularly the responsiveness domain.

Travel decisions during the COVID-19 pandemic might be substantially influenced by destination-based attributes, in particular, health safety measures at airports. In the current study, we aimed to assess the effects of the perceived importance of safety measures at the Sharm El Sheikh airport on the intention of international passengers to revisit the destination, which might reflect their behavioral control for traveling to other tourism destinations. A total of 954 international travelers were asked to fill out a survey to reveal their travel risk perceptions, the importance of airport safety measures, and their future intentions to revisit the destination, and the data were integrated in an SEM model. The results showed that passengers with low-risk perceptions and highly perceived importance of logistic and sanitization procedures, as well as traveler- and staff-related safety measures, were more likely to exhibit greater intentions to revisit the city and lower intentions to cancel or change future travel plans to other touristic regions. Health safety at airports should be stressed in future strategic plans by governmental authorities and stakeholder activities to mitigate the psychological barriers of tourists.