Attitudinal and Behavioral Loyalty: Do Psychological and Political Factors Matter in Tourism Development?

Abstract

The growth of tourism in the Middle East suffers from ongoing political unrest and conflicts across the region. While previous studies have discussed the impact of psychological factors and political unrest on the tourism industry in the Arab world at an aggregated level, the role of major and dominant political factors such as perceived risks, media, and neutral diplomatic foreign relations on tourism have not yet been investigated. The objectives of this study are to compare the differences between local and international tourists, in the psychological and political risk factors affecting their loyalty to Oman as a tourist destination; investigate how attitudinal and behavioral loyalty is influenced by tourists’ satisfaction, perceived value, attachment, familiarity, and motivations; and measure the extent to which political factors could mitigate the risk of political instability in the region, thereby enhancing the tourism industry in the case of Oman. This study employed qualitative (descriptive and comparison analyses) and quantitative (multiple regression and ordinal logistic models) techniques in the analyses. Findings reveal that international tourists have developed both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty toward Oman in which its neutrality does matter, despite risk perceptions of the region. International tourists significantly report higher satisfaction than locals’ satisfaction with Oman as a tourism destination. It can be concluded that the psychological factors of Omani tourists have outperformed the risk factors associated with the region. Results are important for decision-makers as they reveal the best practices to increase the quantity and quality of tourists based on their characteristics, knowledge, and behaviors. This study reveals potential reforms to increase re-visitations that contain important implications for tourism agencies and private sectors—improving services around tourism sites; investing in sports, wildlife, and adventure tourism; hiring public relations firms for tourism marketing; eliminating any bureaucracy around investors and businesses and welcoming competition; and enhancing domestic tourism in stimulating the economy during downturns.

1. Introduction

Over the past 40 years, the global tourism industry has emerged as one of the leading industries that drives socio-economic and sustainable development [1]. This sector has an increasingly important role in many countries, as it provides revenue and employment. The tourism sector contributes by creating new jobs and enterprises, supporting infrastructure development, protecting heritage and cultural values, and exporting earned revenues [2]. The tourism industry experienced 3.5% growth in 2019, outpacing that of the global economy (2.5%) for the ninth consecutive year and generated $8.9 trillion, adding 10.3% to the global GDP [3]. The tourism sector in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region grew by about 10% in 2018 and earned 6% of the world’s revenues from tourism, making it the fastest-growing region in the same year. This growth reflects the region’s economic desire for diversification, particularly for oil-dependent countries [1]. These numbers also reflect the region’s ability to recover from previous setbacks driven by political conflicts and wars. However, there is a pattern of growth and deflation in the tourism sector in the region due to occasional political turmoil resulting in some tourists avoiding the entire region [4], especially since these incidents had attracted national and international media coverage [5].

Despite the region’s richness of cultures, heritage, nature, history, and climate, political volatility negatively impacts the overall perception of the region and discourages tourism, as well as its economic profile. Promoting a destination during times of crisis is a challenging task—for many reasons including “imperfect information” on what is happening in various destinations [4] and the intense media coverage of the regional unrest such as the Arab Spring which adversely influenced the risk perception of the region as a whole [5,6]. Global media coverage of terror and political conflicts discourages tourists not only from the destinations experiencing them but from the neighboring countries as well. Most tourists are concerned with safety as their main priority when traveling, and any lack of security can influence a tourist’s destination selection [7].

While many studies have examined tourism and political instability in the Middle East, examining tourists’ behavior in an Arab nation with diplomatic neutral stances such as Oman remain absent in the literature. Within the MENA region, oil-dependent countries such as Oman recognize the importance of diversifying the economy aside from oil and gas [8,9], as is clearly stated in Oman’s strategic plan for 2040. While impressive efforts are being made toward diversification [10,11], the economy continues to heavily rely on oil revenues. In fact, one of the major pillars in the strategic plan for 2040 is for the government to profoundly invest in the tourism sector, and investments in a sustainable tourism approach to continuously attract tourists from around the world have been made. Some characteristics of Oman support this ambitious plan, including its diplomatic independence from the Gulf Cooperation Council’s regional issues and its neutrality concerning international affairs—and one effective enough to play an important role in negations between Oman and the United States during the Obama administration [12]. Oman has strong relationships with a number of countries that may conflict with one another, and there is an absence of domestic terrorism incidents. These factors increase tourism-related investments and attract visitors by distinguishing Oman regionally as a safe and risk-free area in the Middle East and beyond. Although the ongoing political unrest and conflicts across the Middle East have negatively impacted tourism growth and development in the region, Oman’s characteristics make it an interesting case to study.

Still, Omani tourism has grown consistently since 2010 [13] and the number of tourists increased by 15% since 2010 [14]; reaching 3.5 million tourists in 2019 [15]. One possible explanation for this growth is that Oman offers a wide variety of tourist activities, ranging from adventure tourism and sports activities to cultural landmarks and traditional markets [16]. According to the National Center of Statistics and Information (NCSI), tourists favor Oman for its ecology and natural resources, beaches, and weather. Some of the most important attractions for tourists were the wildlife and nature. The natural resources of Oman were the most preferred aspects for tourists, followed by the beaches and the weather. Security and safety were also one of the most recognized aspects of the country. On the other hand, the most disfavored aspect of visiting Oman was the high prices, followed by the lack of tourism information [15].

The objectives of this study are fourfold. First, this study describes the demographic variables of local and international tourists in Oman. Second, this study compares the differences between local and international tourists in their psychological and political risk factors of loyalty to Oman as a tourist destination. Third, it investigates how attitudinal and behavioral loyalty is influenced by tourists’ satisfaction, perceived value, attachment, familiarity, and motivations. Last, it evaluates perceived risks and the role of regional conflicts, political neutrality policy, and media in those perceptions as well as the effects of misinformation.

This paper examines the tourism industry’s challenges, mainly misinformation related to political instability in the Middle East. The novel contribution is that this study analytically investigates the role of political neutrality in tourism development in a country located within a politically unstable region. Previous studies indicated that social unrest and terrorist-related attacks have negatively impacted tourism development [17]. However, the focus of this study goes beyond previous studies to examine the extent to which political instability in the region could affect the tourism industry in a politically neutral country. Furthermore, this study is the first attempt to investigate how Oman’s unique characteristics could mitigate the risk of regional conflicts, thus encouraging the development of tourism in the long term. In addition, this study reveals which Oman-specific policies have more positive impacts on tourism. The resulting insights, which attract tourists and increase their re-visitations to Oman, contain important implications for decision-makers especially tourism agencies and private sectors.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Attitudinal and Behavioral Loyalty

Tourists’ decision-making processes are important to the tourism industry, and a number of studies have examined demographic factors that influence tourists’ decision-making. Among these factors are age, income, education, health, family size, household size, residential area, and traffic conditions [18,19,20,21,22,23,24]. On a psychological level, travel motives can also impact a tourist’s decision-making process. For example, the travel ladder approach describes five levels of needs that influence travel motives: relaxation, safety/security, relationship, self-esteem and development, and self-fulfillment [25,26]. In addition, motivations for travel are divided into push and pull psychological factors [27]. The push factors are represented by the desire to travel, while the pull factors are influenced by the destination itself [28].

Sometimes, tourists decide to travel to the same destination multiple times, and those motivations are explained by the concept of loyalty, which is defined as a deep commitment to repurchase a preferred product or service despite efforts to create switching behaviors caused by marketing efforts and situational influences [29,30]. In tourism, some of the indicators used to measure loyalty include intentions to recommend, intentions to revisit, and continued future visitation [29,31]. These behaviors and intentions are often described as behavioral loyalty, which is the result of emotional attachment, often driven by satisfaction levels, familiarity with the destination, attachment, and perceived value. Attitudinal loyalty reflects the level of affection and feelings of satisfaction regarding the destination. Behavioral loyalty goes beyond that, where consumers express their satisfaction with true intent to revisit and recommend the destination to others in the future. Attitudinal loyalty is a lower level of loyalty relative to a behavioral one; it conveys that loyalty stems from feelings of affection and emotions towards a destination, which manifests into intentions of re-visitation in the future [32,33]. Unlike other industries, non-commercial experiences and the bonds made with a country are important aspects of loyalty in the tourism industry that cannot be directly quantified [34]. Standard consumer loyalty is normally measured by repurchasing on a regular basis. However, tourism purchases are rare and infrequent in nature; hence, tourism loyalty is measured by intentions of revisiting and recommendations to others [32]. Both attitudinal and behavioral loyalty are influenced by tourists’ satisfaction, perceived value, attachment, familiarity, and motivations, and such influences differ between local and international tourists.

Previous studies have provided evidence of the correlation between satisfaction and loyalty. Prayang and Ryan [35] explored the relationship between destination image, personal involvement, place attachment, and satisfaction as antecedents of loyalty via a structural model and found that satisfaction mediates the relationship between loyalty and the mentioned antecedents. Moreover, Bhat and Darzi [36] analyzed the impact of a destination’s image on tourist satisfaction and loyalty using exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses and modeling techniques. They found that a destination’s image has a positive effect on satisfaction as well as a direct and indirect effect on tourist loyalty. Consistently, Chi and Qu [37] modeled the relationship between destination image, attribute satisfaction, and loyalty. Their results support the previous findings, emphasizing the relationship between destination image and its effect on satisfaction and, consequently, destination loyalty.

Loyalty is also derived from the perceived value of tourists. Perceived value can be generally defined as different consumers having different perceptions of what is valuable in a certain destination. For example, some tourists greatly value lower prices, while other tourists assign a higher value to luxurious goods and services. In its essence, perceived value is subjective, it differs based on various factors such as tourists’ background and culture. Zhang et al. [38] argued that perceived value is one of the best methods of analyzing tourist behaviors. Sanchez et al. [39] concluded that tourists’ evaluation of a tourism purchase is not separate from the actual experience of consumption but is evaluated as a whole.

Given its nature, attachment to a location is a destination-oriented factor of loyalty in which an emotional bond exists between an individual and recreational resources [40]. In tourism, tourists’ emotions regarding a particular destination are simplified into positive and negative reactions to external events. Tourist activities can elicit a wide set of emotions, from joy and happiness to disgust and sadness, depending on the type of tourism. Tourists’ emotions often influence their cognitive and emotional components of a destinations’ images and their intentions to revisit. Post-visit emotions have been found to influence revisit intentions, recommendations, and willingness to pay for a destination [31,35].

Familiarity is considered a psychological and cognitive variable that influences the choice of a destination. Familiarity with tourism can be difficult to conceptualize as it is self-described, which is subjective. Previous studies have defined familiarity as both knowledge/information [41] and previous experiences for a more comprehensive consideration. Familiarity with a destination has several dimensions, including geographical distance, the level of general knowledge, and the information gathered from previous visits [32]. Familiarity affects a destination’s image, intentions to revisit, and overall satisfaction which affects destination loyalty [42,43]. Based on this subsection, this study develops three hypotheses that local and international tourists differ in their psychological factors of loyalty to Oman as a tourist destination; destination experience (satisfaction, perceived value, attachment, and familiarity) has a positive effect on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty; and variables of attitudinal loyalty have a positive influence on behavioral loyalty.

2.2. Political Risk and Tourism

The development of the tourism industry is negatively affected by the political environment, which includes both the regulatory environment, as well as political instability and terrorism [29,44,45,46,47]. Some scholars believe that political stability is a necessary condition for tourism to prosper [48,49]. Political instability sometimes leads to social unrest and riots, which negatively impact tourism [29,48]. Richter and Waugh [49] also showed that the effects of political instability on tourism are far more severe than the effects of one-off terrorist attacks. This study is the first attempt to directly investigate the impact of policies, specifically political neutrality, as well as risk perceptions on tourists’ loyalty and the perception of a safe tourist destination. Moreover, the geographical location of terrorist incidents can influence neighboring countries, leading to a decline in tourism demand [27,50]. These effects are known as the “spillover effect” or “generalization effect”. In the spillover effect, inter-regional tourists would select calmer countries neighboring those in conflict. In contrast, the generalization effect describes tourists who blacklist entire regions from their travel list labeling them as risky due to a threat in one country within that region. The deterrence of tourism in perfectly safe countries when their neighbors experience conflict was witnessed by Iraq’s neighbors in the Gulf region [44]. It was argued that unless the characteristics of tourism attractions in one region were highly valued, tourists tended to visit other regions with similar attractions if that region experiences violence [51,52].

Media coverage of tourists who are among the casualties of political violence can negatively impact tourism to that destination [44]. Muslim countries were generally negatively impacted by negative media coverage of Islam and Muslims after 9/11. The media play an important role in influencing public opinion and setting policy agendas [53]. The U.S. media coverage of Islam and Muslim societies relies on stereotypes and has created a culture of fear of Muslims and predominantly Muslim countries through consistently biased coverage [54]. Exposure to the global media can deter tourism. Despite these challenges, destination marketing is employed to rebrand a destination’s image and attract tourists [7].

In addition to the global media, personal evaluations of destinations are broadcast through social media [55]. Social media posts contain visual, textual, emotional, and information content before, during, and after a tourist travels. Social media is useful for tourists when making decisions and searching for information, and it is useful for tourism destinations to promote their products and suppliers [56]. Around 90% of worldwide tourists consider online reviews before choosing a destination. For example, more than half of travelers are willing to change their choices based on the Trip Barometer of TripAdvisor (2014) [57].

Several studies have concluded that the perceived risk associated with the consumption of services is higher than the perceived risk related to the consumption of commodities [58]. This is because intangible services, such as tourism, do not allow tourists to touch, feel, taste, or test the products before purchasing them. According to Cong [58], risk factors facing the tourism industry include health, political instability, terrorism, food, cultural barriers, crime, and nations’ political and religious characteristics. The perceived risk reduces satisfaction with a destination, given the uncertainties associated with tourism. Perceived risk also adversely affects the destination selection process, thereby influencing not only tourists’ intention to travel to certain areas but also their post-tourism recommendations and intentions to revisit [58].

Perceived risk is important to study because tourism can contribute to the abolition of racial stereotypes and stereotypes of the region. It is a major contributor to economic growth and job creation. However, Avraham [7] notes that attracting tourists is a challenge due to prolonged conflicts in the region. Based on this subsection, this study hypothesizes that low perceived risk, media coverage of tourism, and the neutrality policy of Oman have a positive impact on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty, as detailed in the following section.

3. Conceptual Framework and Research Hypothesis

Mohammed et al. [29] found that the political environment moderates tourist satisfaction and revisit intentions, reporting that there are personality and environmental factors that interact to develop the tourists’ loyalty to a destination. Mechinda, Serirat, and Gulid [32] designed a conceptual framework to study how demographic and psychological variables impacted the attitudinal and behavioral loyalty for Thailand. Based on these studies and the literature review, the conceptual framework was constructed and evaluated for the case of Oman while accounting for risk variables resultant from the political environment in the region. Figure 1 illustrates the process of conceptualizing attitudinal and behavioral loyalty of tourists in Oman (local and international) which can be assessed by considering various demographic, psychological, and risk variables. These variables influence the attitudinal and behavioral loyalty of local and international tourists as indicated by the arrows in Figure 1. It has been argued that in order to truly be loyal, positive feelings towards the destination need to be supported by actual repurchasing of the service [29,32], which is what this study aims to determine based on this conceptual framework. Therefore, the following hypotheses are examined as part of the quantitative analysis of this study.

H1. 

Local and international tourists differ in their psychological factors of loyalty to Oman as a tourist destination. (Objective 2)

H2. 

Destination experience (satisfaction, perceived value, attachment, and familiarity) has a positive effect on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. (Objective 3)

H3. 

Variables of attitudinal loyalty (such as future trip, revisitation intention, recommendation, and positive feedback) have a positive influence on behavioral loyalty. (Objective 3)

H4. 

Low perceived risk of Oman has a positive impact on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. (Objective 4)

H5. 

Media coverage of tourism in Oman has a positive influence on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. (Objective 4)

H6. 

The neutrality policy of Oman has a positive influence on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty. (Objective 4)

4. Methods and Methodology

This study focuses on Oman as it has a reputed diplomatic neutral stance in the Arab World. The sample targeted for this study consisted of two groups of tourists: locals and internationals. The data was collected via two questionnaires, one for each group. Specifically, the questionnaire was designed into two versions: one for locals and another for international tourists. Both questionnaires have similar structure and content. The first two sections evaluated behavioral loyalty variables such as re-visitations and duration of stay, and attitudinal loyalty such as intentions to revisit, recommendations, and positive feedback. The push motivations section of the questionnaire examined the drivers of tourism, while the pull motivations section determined what attracts tourists to a destination. A section for the respondents’ profiles was also included, as the demographic variables play a vital role in determining tourism decisions. Questions within the two versions of the questionnaires were formulated such that the locals’ version is more catered to domestic tourism, while the international version is a bit broader. The international survey contains a more detailed section for risk perception evaluation. This section focuses on the perceptions of risk in Oman and the Middle East, fears of terrorism, risk-related knowledge such as the crime rate, the role of the media, and the role of Oman’s neutrality policy. A combination of yes-no questions, open-ended questions, and a 5-point Likert scale items are used in the questionnaires. Questions about demographic and psychological variables and their impact on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty were adopted from Mechinda et al. [32], and the risk-related questions were designed based on previous studies [29,44,45,47,49,51,52].

Table 1. Reliability of measures used in this study.

Variables Definition	Measurement Item and Its Reliability
Behavioral loyalty	1 item measured by the number of repeated visits.
Attitudinal loyalty	5 items, 5-point rating scale *, α = 0.88 (1) I consider myself a loyal visitor of tourist attraction places in Oman (2) My next journey will most likely be visiting tourist attraction places in Oman (3) I would visit tourist attraction places in Oman for several times (4) I will recommend local tourism to people who seek my advice (5) I would tell other positive things about tourist attraction places I visited in Oman
Satisfaction	3 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.85 (1) How does tourist attraction places in Oman, in general, rate compared to what you expected? (2) Was this visit worth your time and effort? (3) Overall, how satisfied were you with your holiday in Oman?
Perceived value	3 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.88 (1) Spending my vacation in tourist attraction places in Oman represents good value. (2) Considering what I pay to spend my vacation in tourist attraction places in Oman, I get much more than my money’s worth. (3) I consider traveling to these places to be a bargain because of the benefits I receive.
Attachment	3 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.87 (1) Tourist attraction places in Oman mean a lot to me. (2) I enjoy staying in Oman more than any other place. (3) I am very attached to Oman
Familiarity	3 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.89 (1) How familiar are you with Oman as a vacation destination? (2) How interested are you Oman as a vacation destination? (3) How knowledgeable are you about vacation travel to this place relative to other people from your country?
Push motivation	5 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.80 (1) I travel to experience a simpler lifestyle. (2) I travel to experience new and different lifestyles (3) I travel to meet new and different people (4) I travel to do/seek things that represent a destination’s unique identity (5) I travel to visit friends and relatives
Pull motivation	8 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.87 (1) I travel to experience the destination’s history, archeology, and places (2) I choose my destination depending on the availability of visits to natural ecological sites (3) I travel to experience the interesting rural countryside (4) I travel for opportunities to increase knowledge (5) I travel to experience arts and cultural attractions (6) Personal safety is an important factor when determining travel destinations (7) Availability of pre-trip and in-country tourist information is an important factor when determining travel destinations (8) Availability of activities for the entire family is an important factor when determining travel destinations
Political risk perception	3 items, 5-point rating scale, α = 0.66 (1) Being a victim of a terrorist act is a concern when visiting the Middle East (2) Being a victim of a terrorist act is a concern when visiting Oman (3) I think spreading the word internationally regarding Oman neutrality in international relations and the very low crime rate will attract more tourists to the country 5 items, 3-point rating scale **, α = 0.60 (1) How risky would you perceive the Middle East region? (2) How risky would you perceive Oman? (3) I think the media coverage of the region has affected the tourism sector in the region (4) I think the media coverage of Oman has affected the tourism sector in Oman (5) Oman neutrality in international relations affect (could affect) my visit to the country 4 items, Yes/No questions (1) Do you believe that perceived risk in the Middle East region reflects reality? (2) Did the instability situation in the neighborhood countries (Iran, Yamen, Iraq…etc.) influenced your visit to Oman? (3) Do you have any background information about the crime rate in Oman? (4) Does Oman neutrality in international relations affect your visit or could affect your future visit to the country?

* Strongly Agree, Agree, Undecided, disagree, strongly Disagree. ** Very Risky, Somehow Risky, Safe.

provides a summary of each category’s internal consistency measurement for the scales used in this study. All scales used achieved a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.80 and above, indicating a strong internal consistency with the items used in each scale and overall reliability of the measures used. In the risk perception category, the questions were of three types, a 5-point scale, a 3-point scale, and yes/no questions. For the 3-point scale questions, the reliability was measured using the inter-rater reliability and achieved an alpha level of 0.60 passing the minimum requirement. As for the 5-point scale regarding terrorism fears and raising awareness, a reliability analysis returned a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.66. The bottom of Table 1 also lists the yes/no questions about respondents’ beliefs and knowledge. Quantitatively, this study employed ordinal logistic and linear regression models to estimate the influence of psychological and political risk variables on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty so as to test the hypotheses of this study.

The questionnaires were administrated by a statistical consulting company in Oman. The specific methods of data collection involved phone calls for locals and online surveys for international. For local tourists, given the wide spread of tourism sites throughout the whole country, a stratified sample was selected to cover all districts. The trained data collectors used phone calls based on the lists of individual numbers owed by the company to randomly call and collect responses. In Oman, collecting data by phone calls is an effective and common method as it does not require any advanced technology nor literacy capabilities, and it offers instant data synchronizing and direct conversation with the respondents. For international tourists, data collectors reached out to respondents through an online questionnaire based on a random list of international tourists who had visited Oman which was provided by local travel and tourism agencies. Since the purpose of this study went beyond a specific tourism location to examine overall tourism in Oman, interviewing tourists at specific places during a specific time might not be fully representative.

Prior to actual data collection, pilot testing was performed to confirm that all the questions were relevant to the population and to ensure the reliability of the outcomes. This procedure helped in condensing and finalizing the two questionnaires to ensure comprehension, content, and other concerns such as the length of the questionnaire. After that, the data was collected in a span of five months in 2019 and the total sample size was 370 divided between 205 locals and 165 international respondents. The response rate was approximately 50% of the targeted population, based on the pilot test.

5. Results

5.1. Demographic Variables: Local and International Tourists

The first objective of this study is to describe the demographic variables of locals and international tourists in Oman. As shown in

Table 2. Respondent profile.

Category	Local	International
	N (%)	N (%)
Gender  Female   Male	60 (30%) 145 (71%)	74 (45%) 91 (55%)
Age  Less than 30  30–49  50 and higher	70 (34%) 107 (52%) 28 (14%)	6 (4%) 90 (54%) 69 (42%)
Children   No  Yes	41 (20%) 164 (80%)	60 (36%) 105 (64%)
Marital status  Single  Separated  Married  Widowed  Divorced	45 (22%) 0 (0%) 155 (76%) 5 (2%) 0 (0%)	18 (11%) 2 (1%) 142 (86%) 1 (1%) 2 (1%)
Education  Bachelor’s degree or higher  Less than bachelor’s degree	50 (24%) 155 (76%)	159 (97%) 5 (3%)
Occupation  Professional  Administrative, managerial, and entrepreneur commercial  Production and agriculture worker  Government officer state enterprise  Housewife, student, retired, unemployed, and others	94 (46%) 8 (4%) 12 (6%) 2 (1%) 89 (43%)	142 (86%) 5 (3%) 0 (0%) 8 (5%) 10 (6%)
Income  Less than $50,000  $50,000 and higher  Not specified	74 (36%) 101 (49%) 30 (15%)	107 (64%) 58 (35%) 0 (0%)
Residence	Muscat 20 (10%) Dhofar 13 (6%) Musandam 2 (1%) AlBuraimi 7 (3%) AlWusta 5 (1%) ADhaklyia 43 (21%) ADhahira 17 (8%) AlBatinah 70 (34%) AlSharqiyah 32 (16%)	Africa 6 (4%) Asia 72 (44%) Europe 15 (9%) GCC 40 (24%) The Americas 2 (1%) Other Arab Countries 18 (11%) Other 12 (7%)

, the sample consisted of 55.4% locals and 44.6% international respondents. In terms of international tourists, the gender is almost balanced in the sample and the majority are more than 30 years old, married, and traveling with children. They have at least a bachelor’s degree and practice the professional type of occupation with less than $50,000 annual income. Considering the country of origin, tourists came from all over the world with 44% of the respondents coming from Asia, followed by the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) at 24%. The influx of Asian and GCC tourists is predictable given the proximity and relations between Oman and its neighboring countries, as well as the contribution of Southern Asian labor to the local workforce. Furthermore, about 59% of the international sample have never visited other countries in the Middle East, and 64% have never been to other GCC countries. On the other hand, for local tourists, most of the respondents are male and aged between 30 and 49. Similar to international tourists, most locals are married and traveling with children. Unlike international tourists, most locals have less than a bachelor’s degree and earn more than $50,000 annually. Regarding governorates of origin, the local sample represents all governorates in Oman, the largest share is from Al Batinah (34%), followed by Ad Dhaklyia (21%) as both are populated governorates.

5.2. Psychological Variables: Local and International Tourist Comparison

This section examines differences in psychological factors of loyalty between local and international tourists which serves the second objective and the first hypothesis of this study. Part A of

Table 3. The difference in means between local and international tourists.

	Local Mean	International Mean	p-Value
A. Push Motivations
Seeking simple lifestyle	3.48	3.87	0.00
Seeking new lifestyle	3.72	4.03	0.00
Meeting new people	3.07	4.04	0.00
Experience the destination’s uniqueness	3.75	4.13	0.00
Visiting friends/relatives	3.68	3.40	0.00
B. Pull Motivations
Experience history and archeology	3.64	4.04	0.00
Availability of natural ecology sites	4.28	3.85	0.00
Experience rural countryside	3.95	3.91	0.61
Learning and gaining knowledge	3.39	4.07	0.00
Experience culture and arts	3.45	4.02	0.00
Personal safety is key when choosing a destination	4.66	4.39	0.00
Availability of tourist information	4.41	4.27	0.10
Availability of activities for the whole family	4.56	4.18	0.00
C. Destination Experience
Satisfaction average	3.57	4.17	0.00
Perceived Value average	3.27	3.86	0.00
Attachment average	4.09	4.13	0.65
Familiarity average	3.27	3.99	0.00

considers the push motivations to visit Oman. It is first noticed that both local and international tourists rank the experience of unique attractions as the highest push motivation to visit Oman, indicating that some unique and niche local attractions are the main reason behind Oman tourism. However, this aspect is more motivating to international tourists compared to locals. Specifically, in comparison with local tourists, international tourists are significantly more motivated to visit Oman due to seeking a simple and new lifestyle, meeting new people, and experiencing the destination’s unique prospects. These aspects of Oman are not as motivational to domestic tourists who are familiar with each other’s lifestyles, people, and unique aspects. For locals, however, visiting friends and relatives has considerably driven domestic tourism among all push factors, compared to international tourists. This is due to the fact that most respondents have families and children, making safety a key determinant in choosing a destination.

As for the pull motivations, as shown in part B of Table 3, there are no significant differences between local and international tourists in being motivated by experiencing the rural countryside of Oman or the availability of tourist information. In addition, both groups of tourists rank personal safety in choosing a destination as the highest pull motivation for visiting Oman. In comparison with local tourists, international tourists are significantly attracted by the history and archeology experience, gaining knowledge, and the culture and arts experience. On the other hand, local tourists are more attracted by natural ecology sites, personal safety, and the availability of activities for the whole family, compared to international tourists, which is consistent with the fact that most domestic tourism in Oman is dominated by families. This implies that local tourists favor natural locations and the availability of ecological sites unlike international tourists, who are more fascinated by educational tourism and traveling to learn about the history and culture. The homogenous nature of Oman’s culture and heritage would explain why locals are not as interested in seeking such while traveling.

Part C of Table 3 presents aggregated destination experience variables as psychological factors of tourists; specifically, satisfaction, perceived value, attachment, and familiarity. It is interesting that both local and international tourists are highly attached to Oman and that the level of this attachment does not differ between local and international tourists. In addition, the most interesting result is that international tourists are more satisfied with tourism in Oman than locals, as the largest significant difference occurs in the average satisfaction level. Consistently, international tourists are also more familiar with and have a higher perceived value of tourism in Oman than locals. These results support the first hypothesis of this study (H1).

The destination experience variables from part C of Table 3 are disaggregated into their own categories, as shown in

Table 4. Destination experience disaggregated variables.

	Disagree and Strongly Disagree		Agree and Strongly Agree
	International	Local	International	Local
A. Satisfaction
Expectation	8%	35%	83%	29%
Worthiness	7%	4%	85%	76%
Satisfaction	7%	2%	82%	84%
B. Perceived Value
Monetary gain	12%	33%	69%	32%
Bargain value	13%	21%	68%	35%
Perceived value	8%	5%	80%	67%
C. Attachment
Emotional Connection	9%	2%	83%	87%
Enjoyment	11%	3%	68%	77%
Attachment	7%	1%	80%	95%
D. Familiarity
Interest	9%	14%	74%	55%
Knowledge	10%	35%	71%	43%
Familiarity	10%	20%	72%	42%

. Surprisingly, on average, international tourists are more satisfied, attached, familiar, and value Oman as a tourism destination than local tourists. For example, looking at the satisfaction variables in part A of Table 4, nearly 82% of international respondents agree and strongly agree that they are satisfied with Oman as a tourism destination including their expectations, the worthiness of the destination, and their overall satisfaction. Comparing the agreement of local and international tourists across all categories in Table 4, locals score considerably higher in attachment only compared to international respondents indicating that local tourists (95%) are more attached to Oman than international tourists (80%). However, local tourists disagree and strongly disagree that spending their vacation in Oman meets their expectations (part A of Table 4). Considering the cost, they also indicate that they did not get more than their money’s worth (Part B of Table 4). More interestingly, 35% of local respondents reveal that they are not knowledgeable about Oman as a vacation destination and 20% of them are not familiar with the vacation aspects of the country.

Considering both groups of respondents, familiarity has the lowest average among local and international tourists. They also expose some level of disagreement regarding monetary gains and bargain value. This implies that both local and international tourists do not fully agree that their tourism experience in Oman is realistically reflected in the prices.

In addition, when locals are questioned about their loyalty to Oman as a tourism destination, 56% strongly agree that they are loyal, while only 4% strongly agree that any future trips would be to Oman and 5% strongly agree that they had the intent of revisiting local attractions. For international, 60% and 69% of respondents agree that their future trips would be to Oman and have the intent of revisiting, respectively. Furthermore, about 58% of locals agree that they would recommend Oman to others, and 61% of them agree that they would give positive feedback to others about Oman. Although locals indicate more than 50% loyalty, this indication is not supported by their average attitudinal loyalty indicators. This implies that locals do not have a sufficiently strong attitudinal loyalty to boost their intention to re-visit attractions in Oman based on their current feelings of affection and emotions towards traveling within Oman.

5.3. Political Risk Perception of the Middle East and Oman

In order to gain a better understanding of how international tourists perceive the Middle East and Oman as destinations in terms of safety, this section aims to provide a qualitative analysis examining regional and local risk perception, Oman’s political neutrality stance, and the influence of media. As shown in Figure 2, the international perception of the Middle East is not in consensus where 54% of tourists perceive it as a safe region and 46% of them feel the region is somehow risky or very risky. Looking at Oman’s risk perception, 94% of tourists believe that Oman is a safe destination, while only 5% of respondents believe the country has some level of risk. The survey shows that half of those who perceived Oman to be somehow risky are GCC nationals, which is unexpected considering the long-established relationship between Oman and other GCC nations, the similarities in societies and cultures, and the lack of social and civil conflicts in Oman. However, this can be attributed to Oman’s diverse nature, topography, and vast roads, some of which could be perceived as risky in comparison to the rest of the GCC countries. Additionally, we do not have evidence of whether those respondents are GCC nationals or expatriates as the survey question targeted area of residence and not nationality per se and the GCC countries are dominated by expatriate workers.

In addition, the most revealing result was whether the perceived risk reflected reality. Sixty-one percent of tourists believe that the perceived risk of the Middle East does not reflect reality. This disparity between perceived and real risk specifies that there is a gap in the information provided by different news outlets. This is supported by the fact that 70% of international tourists do not have any background knowledge of the low crime rate in Oman prior to their visit. This indicates that this information is either not easily accessible for them or that international tourists are not specifically interested in the crime rate in comparison to general safety standards.

As for terrorism concern and fear of being a victim of terrorism, Figure 3 indicates that Oman is seen to be more favorable as a tourism destination. Where tourists indicate that the concern of being a victim of a terrorist attack is substantially less compared to the rest of the region. The results shown in Figure 2 and Figure 3 reveal that international tourists believe that Oman is a safe destination compared to the rest of the Middle East.

5.4. Oman’s Political Neutrality

In terms of the region’s influence on tourists’ decision-making process, nearly 86% of respondents are unfazed by the ongoing conflicts in areas surrounding Oman, such as Iran, Yemen, and Iraq. This shows that despite the existence of regional unrest, Oman is still perceived as a safe destination. This could be credited to Oman’s political neutrality policy, where 78% are aware of it, and 68% of tourists are positively affected by the neutrality policy, as shown in Figure 4. These results support the role of political neutrality not only in mitigating political conflicts but its influence on economic development such as enhancing the tourism sector. The impact of such a policy is not exclusive to diplomatic relations, it actually has a multiplication effect where international people’s positive perceptions of Oman and the resultant loyalty would attract tourists and foreign investments, thereby boosting the tourism and foreign direct investment (FDI) share of the GDP.

5.5. Media Coverage

Based on the discussion above and given the gap in information between tourists’ perception of the Middle East and reality, this sub-section seeks to dissect the role of the media and news outlets, and their influences on the tourism sector. As shown in Figure 5, international respondents report that the regional media is as likely to affect regional tourism positively as negatively. However, 64% of respondents believe that local media coverage about Oman positively affects Oman’s tourism sector compared to 36% who indicate a negative or no effect. Further, 28% of tourists think that both regional and local media converge has no effect on tourism.

Social media travel blogs and videos have helped people gain a better understanding of destinations based on viewing other people’s experiences, as opposed to solely relying on formal sources. The personal and intimate nature of watching and reading other people’s experiences could help in forming realistic perceptions. These new media have helped combat incorrect perceptions about destinations that have had falsehoods perpetuated about them in traditional media outlets. Respondents indicate that their trusted sources about potential destinations include social media sources; travel websites such as Booking and Tripadvisor; and news channels such as CNN and BBC Travel. Moreover, respondents report they also access other sources such as official government websites, past experiences, friends, and family recommendations. It is not conclusive which information channels are preferred among respondents based on the survey as tourists have diverse and tourism-related sources of information.

5.6. Analysis of Attitudinal and Behavioral Loyalty: Psychological and Risk Variables

This section provides quantitative analyses for objectives 3 and 4 using an ordinal logistic model and a linear regression model to test the hypotheses regarding the influence of psychological (H2, H3) and risk variables (H4–H6) on attitudinal and behavioral loyalty.

5.6.1. Attitudinal Loyalty

An Ordinal Logistic Model (OLM) was estimated to examine the influence of psychological and risk variables on attitudinal loyalty. The model was statistically significant (p < 0.01) and specified as follows. The cumulative logistic model for the ordinal response model is given by.

$$\mathrm{logit}\left(\mathrm{Y}\le \mathrm{i}\right)={\alpha }_o+{\mathsf{\beta }}_{\mathrm{i}1}{\mathrm{X}}_{\mathrm{i}1}+{\mathsf{\beta }}_{\mathrm{im}}{\mathrm{x}}_{\mathrm{im}},\mathrm{I}=1,\dots ,\mathrm{m}$$

(1)

where Y is the ordinal dependent variable (attitudinal loyalty scale from 1 to 5), ${\alpha }_o$ and ${\beta }_i$are the coefficients of the model, and $x_i$ represents the independent variable(s).

Thus, the estimated equation is defined as follows:

$$\begin{array}{ll}Attitudinal loyalty& \\ & =\beta 1 Satisfaction Average+\beta 2 Perceived Value Average+\beta 3 Attachment Average\\ & +\beta 4 Familiarity Average+\beta 5 Perceived Risk of Oman\\ & +\beta 6 Media Coverage of Tourism+\beta 7 Neutrality Policy\end{array}$$

(2)

Based on the results shown in

Table 5. OLM Model Estimates.

Variables	Coefficient	Std. Error	p-Value
Satisfaction average	1.79	0.43	0.00
Perceived value average	0.63	0.33	0.05
Attachment average	0.93	0.32	0.00
Familiarity average	−0.04	0.32	0.91
Perceived risk of Oman	2.75	1.08	0.01
Media coverage of tourism	0.12	0.22	0.58
Neutrality policy effect	0.86	0.44	0.05

, those who are more satisfied and attached to Oman as a destination and have a high perceived value are more likely to be attitudinally loyal visitors to Oman as stated in hypothesis 2. Oman’s perceived risk also has a significant, positive coefficient indicating that those who perceive Oman as a safe destination are more likely to have a higher level of attitudinal loyalty which supports hypothesis 4. However, familiarity and media coverage (H5) have an insignificant impact on the likelihood of loyalty.

Considering hypothesis 6, the neutrality policy is statistically significant and has a positive relationship with loyalty, meaning that those who consider Oman’s neutrality policy are more likely to have a greater attitudinal loyalty level. This mostly shows that, when it comes to tourist choices, loyalty is influenced by Oman’s political standing in the region. These findings reveal that country-specific policy, and psychological and risk factors have an influence on attitudinal loyalty. By trading off positive aspects of traveling to Oman (neutrality, absence of terrorism incidents, strong foreign relations, and attractions) and negative aspects (regional conflicts), results show that tourists’ decisions are more influenced by positive aspects of Oman, despite it being located in a politically unstable region. This implies that there is not a misinformation effect associated with being a politically neutral country in a politically unstable region. Therefore, there is a limited extent to which political instability in the region could affect the tourism industry in Oman.

5.6.2. Behavioral Loyalty

A linear regression model (OLS) was estimated to examine the influence of psychological and risk variables on behavioral loyalty where the number of visits was the dependent variable representing the behavioral loyalty. Unlike the OLM estimation, and to meet hypothesis 3, this analysis included variables of attitudinal loyalty to test if attitudinal loyalty is correlated with behavioral loyalty as tourists first develop attitudinal and then behavioral loyalty. The general form of the linear regression equation and the estimated equation are defined respectively as follows:

$$Y={\alpha }_o+B_i{X}_i+\epsilon$$

(3)

where Y is the dependent variable (number of visits), ${\alpha }_o$ is the coefficient of the constant term, ${\beta }_i$ are the coefficient(s) of the independent variable(s), $x_i$ represents the independent variable(s), and $\epsilon$ is the error term.

$$\begin{array}{ll}The Number of Visits& \\ & ={\alpha }_o+\beta 1 Satisfaction Average+\beta 2 Perceived Value Average \\ & +\beta 3 Attachment Average+\beta 4 Familiarity Average+\beta 5 Future Trips\\ & +\beta 6 Revisitation+\beta 7 Recommendation+\beta 8 Positive feedback\\ & +\beta 9 Perceived Risk of Oman+\beta 10 Media Coverage of Tourism\\ & +\beta 11 Nuetrality Policy\end{array}$$

(4)

The model was statistically significant (p < 0.10) with an adjusted${\mathrm{R}}^2$ of 22% indicating that about 22% of the variability in the number of visits are explained by tourists’ psychological and risk variables. Based on the results shown in

Table 6. OLS Model Estimates.

Variables	Coefficient	Std. Error	p-Value
Constant	6.85	4.29	0.11
Satisfaction Average	3.30	1.72	0.06
Perceived Value Average	0.33	1.22	0.79
Attachment Average	4.61	1.25	0.00
Familiarity Average	−2.67	1.15	0.02
Future Trips	−0.08	0.98	0.94
Revisiting	0.27	1.15	0.82
Recommendations	−5.26	1.53	0.00
Positive feedback	−0.83	1.50	0.58
Perceived risk of Oman	4.53	2.39	0.06
Media coverage of tourism	−0.47	0.67	0.48
Neutrality policy effect	−1.89	1.47	0.20

, satisfaction and attachment have a significant positive impact on the number of visits to Oman indicating that as tourists become more satisfied and attached to Oman as a tourism destination, the more they would revisit. When feelings of attachment and satisfaction are backed by actual re-visitations, we can conclude that behavioral loyalty is attained. These findings support hypothesis 2 of this study. Moreover, familiarity has a significant negative effect on the number of visits which means as tourists become more familiar with the places in Oman, they would tend to reduce their revisits in an attempt to explore new places. Considering hypothesis 3, the recommendation to visit Oman is statistically significant and negative. This means that tourists would reduce their visits to Oman once they start actively recommending Oman as a destination. Tourists tend to prominently recommend a destination after multiple visits that prompt them to become familiar with its attractions. Therefore, consistent with our results of the familiarity indicator, recommending a destination after getting familiar with it can reduce future re-visitation.

Oman’s perceived risk significantly and positively influences the number of visitations, indicating that perceiving Oman as a safe destination would increase the re-visitation; thus, attaining a higher level of behavioral loyalty which clearly supports hypothesis 4. Despite the high-risk perceptions of the region, tourists would still frequently re-visit Oman indicating behavioral loyalty. These findings are supported by the fact that 51% of international tourists consider themselves to be loyal visitors to Oman, 67% would visit Oman in the future, and 91% would consider revisiting in the future [15].

For hypotheses 5 and 6, the media coverage and neutrality policy were insignificant. Statistically, nearly 59% of Oman’s visitors in 2018 relied on word of mouth, friends, relatives, and social media for knowledge about Oman [15]. This mainly indicates that visitors’ impressions of Oman are not driven fully by politics or the general media but are shaped by actual experiences and impressions of Oman, which is consistent with this study’s findings.

6. Discussion

This study has theoretical implications; particularly, it focuses on the challenges related to misinformation and media facing the tourism industry. The conceptual framework of this study is built upon the one introduced by Mechinda et al. [32] which integrates risk variables and media (risk perception, perceived vs. actual risk, crime rate, terrorism concern, neutrality, and media influence) into the framework to examine the impact of these factors on tourism development. Unlike prior research in this context, this study goes beyond comparing mean differences to fully test hypotheses using multiple regression and ordinal logistic models. In addition, this study is the first to attempt to analytically examine the extent to which political instability in a region could affect the tourism industry in a politically neutral country within that region. Furthermore, this study reveals which country-specific policies have more positive impacts on tourism. The resulting insights, which attract tourists and increase their re-visitations to Oman, contain important implications for decision-makers especially tourism agencies and private sectors.

On the other hand, this study has several managerial implications. Overall, locals were less satisfied with the state of domestic tourism than international tourists. Differences in satisfaction and preferences are important for decision-makers as those could reveal the factors that attract more tourists to the country. For locals who are not as satisfied with the state of domestic tourism, their specific concerns need to be addressed, with a focus on improving the infrastructure and services around natural and ecological sites in Oman so that these attractions can offer the best domestic tourism experience without compromising the integrity of the site itself. Tour guides, gift shops, themed restaurants, and cafes around these sites could boost their revenues and attract more tourists. In their current state, most natural sites are left unattended and unaccompanied by services that an average tourist wants, thus stopping short of fulfilling their potential. As for international tourists, their interest in the culture and history of a location is met with Oman’s rich culture and art. However, solely focusing on heritage and cultural tourism is not sufficient to fully utilize other tourism attractions in Oman. Oman possesses incredible geography and topography, and a diverse climate across all governorates. This diversity should be employed in sports, nature, wildlife, and adventure tourism. These all represent a unique aspect of Oman, something that both local and international tourists are seeking. Results regarding the push and pull factors that drive the tourism sector are consistent with the findings of Dann [27] and Crompton [28] who discussed tourists’ willingness to travel to certain destinations as well as their motivation factors and loyalty. This study has proven that Oman has a multitude of pull factors that influence both locals and internationals; these findings are supported by the SWOT analysis in Oman tourism presented by Subramoniam et al. [59].

The analyses reveal that Oman has a more positive image compared to the Middle East region with regard to risk perception and terrorism concerns. Consistently, tourists believe that Oman is a much safer destination than the rest of the Middle East, and they believe that the political neutrality policies and media coverage positively influence the tourism sector in Oman. However, current media coverage has no clear effect on increasing the number of tourists or enhancing their attitudinal or behavioral utility. The government could effectively invest in promoting tourism in the media by hiring public relations firms that specialize in destination marketing. Further, the ministries promoting tourism and communication can develop websites for ecological tourism, cultural tourism, and other types of motivations that domestic and international tourists have reported. Findings of media coverage and safety of this study are supported by Prayag and Ryan [35], Bhat and Darzi [36], and Chi and Qu [37] who found that a destination image positively affects loyalty and satisfaction both directly and indirectly. The results also support the findings of Richter and Waugh [49], Drakos and Kutan [51], and Cong [58] who concluded that political stability encourages tourism.

Considering risk perceptions, international tourists believed that risk perceptions of the Middle East do not reflect reality, and most of the respondents are unaware of the crime rate in Oman. These results show that there is a misperception, which could be facilitated by the lack of channels for credible information. This gap needs to be addressed by decision-makers, which can take advantage of Oman’s peaceful and serene image, as well as publicize market numbers and statistics that support that image. As it currently stands, most tourists get their information and knowledge of Oman from other people’s experiences, whether they are close friends, relatives, bloggers, or social media influencers. While word of mouth gives positive feedback most of the time, there needs to be an official effort to promote tourism in Oman. Most importantly, the popularity of travel blogs and YouTube bloggers emphasizes the need to diverge from traditional marketing campaigns to effectively using social media as a tool to advertise and spread information about Oman as a tourist destination. Cites such as Tripadvisor allow people to leave reviews based on their experiences as most tourists rely on these for information. Some countries partner with social media influencers to promote tourism to millions of followers. Initiatives such as ‘Experience Oman’ are a great steppingstone in developing the tourism sector. However, a more creative and urban approach should be taken in order to reach a wider audience. Global public relations firms have experienced monitoring social media content and pitching stories to the mainstream press. It is highly recommended to work with these communication professionals to achieve the information objectives that tourists need [58]. The results regarding risk perception generally align with the findings of Cong [58], who specified that low perceived risk results in tourists’ feelings of satisfaction, re-visitation intentions, and recommendations to others. International tourists perceived Oman to be less risky, and they are generally satisfied. This quantitative analysis does not support the qualitative analysis reported by Subramoniam et al. [59] who listed ethnic and religious conflicts as well as competing economic activities in the adjoining countries as potential threats of Oman as a tourism destination.

Considering locals’ desire to support the economy and partake in domestic tourism, as well as international tourists’ attachment and loyalty to the destination, it is surprising that international investors are not flocking for a share of the tourism industry. In an environment where all the factors are aligned, the government along with investment authorities in Oman should eliminate the bureaucracy that often gets in the way of investors and businesses and welcome the competition. This competition would not only resolve the pricing issue, but also address locals’ dissatisfaction with their own domestic tourism and compete regionally and internationally. Seeking negative feedback from investors and tourists, which can be done for the purposes of creating solutions, should serve as a research component in a larger examination of how to attract investments related to Omani tourism. Furthermore, there are many stakeholders in the process of tourism development in which the government role is crucial in establishing an effective integration system among relevant sectors, thus maximizing stakeholders’ involvement and sectors’ profitability.

As mentioned by Mechinda et al. [32] and Almeida and Moreno [33], emotional attachment driven by satisfaction, familiarity, and perceived value can lead to the development of behavioral loyalty, which has been observed in the case of international tourists in this study. Mechinda et al. [32] and Almeida and Moreno [33] also noted that a positive indicator of tourists’ experience would be reflected in future re-visitation and recommendations, which is consistent with the findings of this study. International tourists seem to have attitudinal and behavioral loyalty to Oman, which is a positive indicator of their experience and would be reflected in future re-visitation and recommendations. However, local and international tourists are equally important in the sustainable development of the sector. In fact, local tourism can play a greater role during a crisis that may block international inflows of tourists, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Having dissatisfied local tourists, deflated by the sector’s inability to reach its full potential, would hinder the role of domestic tourism in stimulating the economy during downturns.

7. Conclusions

This study compares the differences between local and international tourists in their demographic, psychological, and perceived political risk factors of attitudinal and behavioral loyalty to Oman as a tourist destination. It also assessed perceptions of Oman as a tourism destination despite being located in an unstable region characterized by political and civil conflicts. The results support the hypotheses that have been set and show several significant differences between local and international tourists in terms of their push and pull motivations. International tourists’ push motivations included seeking a new lifestyle, meeting new people, and experiencing a destination’s unique prospects. Unlike international tourists, visiting friends and relatives has considerably driven domestic tourism. International tourists were pulled to Oman by their interest in educational tourism, culture, and arts. Meanwhile, the tourism decision-making of locals was driven by the availability of the natural and ecological sites, where Dhofar governorate is frequently chosen as a favorite destination mostly due to the monsoon season. Furthermore, both groups of tourists prioritized personal safety as a major pull motivation for tourism. In addition, both local and international tourists revealed that their tourism experience in Oman was not realistically reflected in the prices. Inflated prices of goods and services in the tourism sector would constrain spending, which would negatively impact the sector’s profitability, thus the economic contribution, and the share of the country’s GDP.

This study has few limitations; however, as it used phone calls and online surveys to collect data, face-to-face interviews may provide further information. Findings of local tourism are limited to visiting places outside one’s own town, analysis can be extended to cover local tourism within one’s own town. The current analysis is aggregated at the country level, future research may target specific tourism destinations and examine the effect of factors such as distance, cost of fuel, and related expenses. Considering the international tourists’ profile, the majority of respondents come from Asian and GCC, followed by Europe. It is of importance to tourism authorities and marketers to specifically learn the characteristics of each group of tourists based on their country of residence. Future research can add value by conducting further analysis such as using multigroup analysis to further quantify the differences between local and international tourists in a multipath conceptual model. Studying the vulnerability of local tourism to exogenous risk, such as pandemics, is another important research topic.