Tour. Hosp., Volume 7, Issue 7 (July 2026) – 29 articles

Guided forest bathing is increasingly incorporated into resort wellness portfolios, yet tourism evaluations often report average programme outcomes without examining how guests differ at entry or what the findings imply for product and service design. This prospective one-group pre–post field study examined a three-day guided forest bathing programme delivered as part of the organised wellness offer of a forest-rich Northern Adriatic resort. Of 150 enrolled adults, 132 provided matched questionnaires. Six study-specific experiential and relational dimensions were assessed before and after the programme: nature connectedness, restorative perception, sensory awareness, environmental-ethical sensitivity, planetary health orientation, and intention to continue nature-based self-care. All six post-programme scores were higher after Holm adjustment. The largest standardised differences were observed for sensory awareness (mean difference = 0.91, Cohen’s dz = 1.42), restorative perception (mean difference = 0.61, Cohen’s dz = 1.17), and future nature-based self-care (mean difference = 0.59, Cohen’s dz = 1.04). Change in sensory awareness correlated with change in restorative perception (r = 0.62) and nature connectedness (r = 0.58). Previous nature contact, nature-related hobbies, and spiritual-existential orientation predicted baseline nature connectedness, whereas integrative health orientation, wellness self-care, spirituality, and expectations predicted baseline future self-care. In baseline-adjusted models, lower previous forest contact was associated with higher post-programme sensory awareness. Because the study had no control group, these differences cannot be attributed specifically to guided forest bathing rather than to the wider resort stay, time away from routine, recreation, social interaction, expectancy, or repeated measurement. Co-created restorative value is proposed only as an interpretive framework and was not measured as a construct. For tourism and hospitality management, the findings generate testable decisions concerning guest onboarding, adaptive facilitation, guide training, expectation management, and the development of low-infrastructure nature-based wellness products. Full article

Experience has become a central source of competitiveness in wellness tourism, yet natural features in resorts often remain passive scenery rather than deliberately designed service content. This prospective, four-group randomised controlled service-evaluation study examined whether brief nature-based wellness micro-interventions developed from natural elements already present in a coastal health and wellness resort were associated with more favourable immediate evaluations of experience quality, satisfaction, perceived innovativeness, added value, and recommendation intention. Of 120 adult hotel guests randomly allocated in equal proportions to cloud noticing, forest therapy elements, active control, or standard stay, 114 completed the final evaluation. A contextually adapted 22-item instrument based on service-performance logic and tourism-experience research was used. The forest-therapy-elements and cloud-noticing conditions showed the most favourable overall evaluation profiles, followed by active control and standard stay. The clearest differentiation concerned perceived innovativeness, while recommendation intention was most strongly associated with perceived added value and satisfaction. These findings are relevant to wellness-tourism development because they indicate that natural elements already present in a resort may acquire additional perceived service value when translated into structured, facilitated, and place-sensitive guest activities. Because outcomes were immediate self-reports obtained in a single resort and participants and facilitators could not be blinded, the findings should not be interpreted as proof of lasting behavioural effects. They suggest a promising low-infrastructure service-development pathway whose effects on actual recommendation, repeat visitation, willingness to pay, loyalty, and destination outcomes require confirmation in multi-site and longitudinal research. Full article

Community-based tourism (CBT) destinations create sustainability value that tourists may not fully observe during short visits. This study examines how perceived sustainability communication is associated with tourist support. Its originality lies in showing that sustainability communication in CBT is not directly associated with destination image or behavioral intention but appears to operate through destination personality as a symbolic interpretation mechanism before destination evaluation. Drawing on signaling theory and the stimulus–organism–response framework, perceived sustainability communication is conceptualized as a sustainability signal, destination personality as symbolic interpretation, destination image as cognitive–affective evaluation, and behavioral intention as tourist support. Data from 390 domestic tourists visiting six CBT destinations in Surat Thani Province, Thailand, were analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results show that perceived sustainability communication was associated with destination personality, which was subsequently associated with destination image and behavioral intention. Destination image was also associated with behavioral intention, while the direct associations with destination image and behavioral intention were not significant. Destination personality and destination image sequentially mediated the relationship. IPMA identified destination personality as the primary managerial priority, followed by destination image. The findings suggest that sustainability messages become behaviorally meaningful through symbolic interpretation and destination evaluation. Full article

The growth in the number of half-marathon participants reflects a transformation from performance-centred participation towards sporting experiences of a social and hybrid nature, with a great capacity to generate tourism flows. This study examines the social motivational structure of participants in the Bidasoa Half Marathon and identifies distinct profiles based on their social motivations. In this event, with a strong tourism appeal, 59.15% of respondents reside outside the Bidasoa region, a characteristic already recognised by the organisers, who promote parallel social activities aimed at enhancing the participant experience and encouraging overnight stays. A self-administered questionnaire was distributed to all runners registered for the 2025 edition (N = 1496), yielding 284 valid responses (an 18.98% response rate). The instrument measured three specific dimensions: event inclusivity, face-to-face socialisation, and digital interaction/validation. Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses validated a robust three-dimensional model explaining 85.04% of the total variance, with adequate reliability and convergent and discriminant validity indices. Inclusivity emerged as the primary motivational driver, followed by digital interaction and physical socialisation. Furthermore, cluster analysis identified three segments: the Inclusive Runner (38.03%), characterised by a high valuation of inclusivity and low digital interest; the Connected Runner (31.34%), with high and balanced scores across the three dimensions and a peak score in digital interaction; and the Autonomous Runner (30.63%), displaying low levels across all social dimensions. Significant associations with age, gender, and educational attainment evidence the inherent heterogeneity of the participants. Consequently, the findings extend traditional models by integrating social and digital dimensions, thereby providing strategic implications for the contemporary management of sporting events. Full article

AI-based interpretation is increasingly used in heritage tourism, yet its relationship with stewardship-relevant visitor responses remains insufficiently theorised. Drawing on the stimulus-organism-response framework, this study examines how visitor-perceived AI-based interpretation is associated with emotional experience and conservation-oriented behavioural intention at the Emei Mountain-Leshan Giant Buddha World Heritage Site in China. Survey data from 418 adult visitors collected in 2025 were analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. AI-based interpretation was positively associated with perceived authenticity (β = 0.657), parasocial interaction (β = 0.530), emotional experience (β = 0.355), and conservation-oriented behavioural intention (β = 0.117). The direct association with conservation-oriented behavioural intention was small. Approximately four-fifths of the total AII-CBI association was accounted for by statistically significant indirect pathways through authenticity, parasocial interaction, and emotional experience. Emotional experience was the strongest proximal predictor of conservation-oriented behavioural intention (β = 0.422). Supplementary indirect-effect and moderation analyses further indicate that authenticity-based and relation-based pathways link AI interpretation with stewardship-oriented intention, and that the AII-authenticity association is stronger among first-time visitors. These findings extend smart-tourism research beyond technology acceptance by showing how AI interpretation can operate as a heritage-communication resource when it is perceived as authentic, socially engaging, and emotionally meaningful. Full article

This study investigates how restaurant guests in Germany evaluate digital service technologies and examines whether perceived digital service quality contributes to overall perceived service quality. Drawing on SERVQUAL, DINESERV, the Technology Acceptance Model, and self-service technology research, a quantitative cross-sectional online survey was conducted with N = 235 restaurant guests across Germany. Seven digital touchpoints along the restaurant customer journey were assessed, ranging from online reservation and contactless payment to chatbots and service robots. Data were analyzed using Spearman rank-order correlations, hierarchical linear regression, and Welch-corrected one-way ANOVAs. Results show that contactless payment and online reservation are the most frequently used and most positively evaluated digital services, whereas chatbots and service robots are rarely used and broadly rejected. Perceived digital service quality was significantly and positively associated with overall service quality (ρ = 0.32, p < 0.01), perceived experience improvement (ρ = 0.39, p < 0.01), and recommendation intention (ρ = 0.24, p < 0.01). Quality perceptions were stable across demographic subgroups, while general digital attitudes varied by gender and technology affinity. The findings suggest that restaurant operators should prioritize investment in transactional digital tools while maintaining human service as the experiential core of the dining experience, as digital technologies function as complements to rather than substitutes for personal service. Full article

This study examines the role of smart digital systems in shaping the tourist experience, with a particular focus on perceived safety, comfort, and convenience, and their relationship with satisfaction and future intention to use digital services. The research was conducted on a sample of 104 respondents using a structured questionnaire and a quantitative research design. Data were analyzed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient and the Mann–Whitney U test. The results show that perceived comfort and convenience had the strongest positive association with satisfaction with the tourist experience, whereas perceived safety showed a weaker positive association. Satisfaction, perceived effectiveness of smart technologies in larger destinations, and comfort were positively associated with the intention to use smart digital services. The findings also indicate that perceived digital competence positively affects perceived safety and comfort, while gender differences were not statistically significant. The study contributes to the smart tourism literature by proposing and empirically examining an integrated conceptual framework that simultaneously considers perceived safety, comfort and convenience, satisfaction, and behavioral intention in the context of smart tourism technologies. The results highlight the importance of developing simple, intuitive, and user-oriented digital solutions in tourism. Full article

This study examines green skills and sustainability readiness in Albania’s tourism sector using survey data from 224 tourism organizations operating across five subsectors and several regions of the country. The analysis focuses on current environmental management capabilities, future skill requirements, environmental training, and green investment. The conceptual framing combines the literature on green skills and Green Human Resource Management. Descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, paired-samples t-tests, independent-samples t-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Spearman correlations, and ordinary least squares regression were employed. The findings show that current green skills are moderate, while future skill requirements are significantly higher, indicating a substantial skills gap. The largest gaps are observed in sustainable transport promotion and climate change knowledge. Organizations providing environmental training report stronger current green skills and greater sustainability readiness than those that do not. Green investment is also positively associated with current environmental capability. In addition, significant differences emerge across tourism subsectors, while size effects appear less consistent. The regression results confirm that environmental training and green investment are important predictors of current green skills. The study contributes to the literature by extending empirical evidence on green skills to an underexplored Southeast European context and by linking green skills with sustainability readiness in tourism organizations. The findings suggest that the green transition in tourism depends not only on environmental intent but also on organizational learning and investment. Full article

Agritourism has emerged as an increasingly important strategy for rural diversification and multifunctional agricultural development, particularly in transition economies characterized by fragmented farm structures, limited rural investment capacity, and growing tourism demand. Despite the expansion of agricultural support schemes aimed at promoting rural diversification, empirical evidence on their effectiveness in supporting agritourism development at the farm level remains limited, especially in Southeast European contexts. Against this background, the study addresses the following research question: To what extent have agricultural support schemes contributed to agritourism development, rural diversification, and rural resilience in Albania, and what factors constrain their long-term effectiveness? To answer this question, the study examines the role of agricultural support schemes in shaping agritourism development in Albania, with particular emphasis on farm diversification, rural resilience, and implementation constraints. The study adopts a mixed-methods case study approach, combining secondary policy and statistical analysis with primary field research. The fieldwork involved 60 semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with agritourism farm owners across the regions of Korçë, Berat, Vlorë, Shkodër, and Lezhë, conducted during September–October 2025. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis to assess investment patterns, perceived socio-economic impacts, and institutional barriers associated with agricultural support schemes. The results show that agricultural support schemes primarily function as catalysts for investment and diversification rather than stand-alone drivers of sustainable rural transformation. However, persistent structural constraints were identified, including administrative complexity, limited marketing capacity, infrastructure deficiencies, and a strong dependence on seasonal tourism demand. These factors reduce the long-term sustainability and scalability of agritourism enterprises. The paper contributes to the literature on agritourism and rural development by providing empirical evidence from the context of a transition economy and demonstrating that financial support alone is insufficient to ensure sustainable rural transformation. Full article

Hotel distribution decisions are commonly analysed through objective performance indicators such as costs, profitability, and revenue outcomes. However, in multichannel environments characterised by attribution challenges and overlapping customer journeys, managerial evaluations and realised booking outcomes may reflect different dimensions of channel importance. This study examined the relationship between perceived channel efficiency and realised booking allocation in urban hotels. Survey data were collected from 54 three- to five-star hotels in Madrid, Spain, of which 49 provided complete channel-level information. Using non-parametric analyses, the study investigates whether managers’ evaluations of channel efficiency are associated with observed booking-share allocations across distribution channels. The results reveal two complementary patterns. First, perceived channel efficiency is positively associated with realised booking share within individual channels. Second, a notable divergence emerges between perceived channel efficiency and realised booking allocation: direct channels receive the highest efficiency evaluations, whereas online intermediaries account for the largest share of bookings. This finding suggests that channels most valued by managers are not necessarily those generating the greatest booking volumes. The study contributes to hospitality distribution research by linking managerial evaluations to observed allocation outcomes and by highlighting a distinction between perceived channel efficiency and realised channel dependence. Rather than viewing channel allocation solely as a performance-optimisation problem, the findings suggest that managerial evaluations are closely associated with observed allocation patterns in multichannel environments. The results also underscore the value of complementing managerial judgement with systematic channel-performance benchmarking. Full article

Food festivals have become important instruments of regional tourism development, destination branding, agricultural promotion, and cultural policy. Yet the authenticity of food festivals is often evaluated through visitor perception or promotional discourse, leaving limited room for scalable assessment across large festival systems. This study develops a Location Quotient (LQ)-based framework for measuring agricultural embeddedness as a supply-side structural condition that can support objective material authenticity claims. Using a dataset of 277 South Korean regional food festivals, the study examines how featured food materials are connected to regional agricultural specialization and how this structural connection compares with budget scale, infrastructure, and material-duplication factors in explaining administrative visitor attendance and portfolio-level governance patterns. The results show that agricultural embeddedness is unevenly distributed across the national festival portfolio. Festival budget is the strongest predictor of log-transformed visitor attendance, whereas agricultural embeddedness is not significantly associated with visitor attendance after budget and infrastructure controls are included. Material-level duplication is useful as a portfolio diagnostic for identifying crowded food categories where place-product credibility may become strategically important. Scenario-based portfolio comparisons provide planning benchmarks suggesting that targeted restructuring and reallocation would be associated with higher average agricultural embeddedness under specified portfolio assumptions, although these scenarios should not be interpreted as causal forecasts. The study contributes to food tourism, event governance, and destination branding research by offering a reproducible way to assess the material grounding of food festival authenticity claims and by shifting policy discussion from festival proliferation toward portfolio quality. Full article

Agritourism is increasingly intersecting with digital technologies to foster rural resilience, economic growth, and sustainable development. This study conducts a comprehensive systematic bibliometric review to map the intellectual structure, thematic evolution, and collaborative networks characterizing the digitalization of agritourism from 2010 to 2025. Guided by the PRISMA framework, data from the Scopus database were analyzed using scientific mapping techniques, including keyword co-occurrence, thematic evolution tracking, and spatial collaboration analysis. The findings reveal a paradigm shift categorized into three evolutionary phases: an incubation period of basic web adoption (2011–2017), a disruptive phase catalyzed by the COVID-19 pandemic (2018–2022), and an exponential maturation phase driven by Industry 4.0 technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, and Virtual Reality (2023–2025). Four primary thematic clusters emerged: digital marketing and connectivity, smart tourism and advanced analytics, immersive technologies for heritage preservation, and macro-level sustainability policies. Geopolitically, research is driven by two distinct networks: an Asian-centric hub led by China focusing on state-sponsored smart villages, and a Western hub anchored by the USA and Italy emphasizing entrepreneurial diversification. The study concludes that digitalization has transitioned from a reactive survival mechanism to a proactive strategic necessity. It highlights the critical need to bridge the digital divide through human capital investment and provides a future research agenda focusing on the ethical application of AI, the circular economy, and the preservation of rural authenticity in emerging ’phygital’ environments. Full article

Dark tourism (travel to sites of death, disaster and collective trauma) is increasingly mediated by AI-driven content systems, but the conditions under which visitors accept AI interpretation tools in emotionally sensitive heritage contexts remain empirically unexplored. Our study examines the cultural, experiential and affective predictors of AI/immersive technology acceptance among Romanian dark tourism consumers. A quantitative cross-sectional survey (n = 232, predominantly urban respondents, January–March 2026) measured cultural belonging, prior visit experience, dominant emotional response, perceived educational value and technology acceptance; data were analyzed using non-parametric inference and bootstrapped mediation. The results are organized within a descriptive framework we term the Interpretive Legitimation Mechanism (ILM): perceived educational value fully mediates the effect of prior experience on AI acceptance (95.5% of total effect) and partially mediates the effect of cultural belonging (36.4%), while emotional state and gender conditionally moderate receptivity (fascination-dominant visitors show the highest openness and sadness-dominant visitors the lowest). These findings characterize the conditions of receptivity to AI mediation, a necessary precondition for any subsequent influence, and indicate that acceptance in dark tourism is primarily an interpretive and cultural phenomenon rather than a technological one. Full article

This study examined the extent to which corporate social responsibility (CSR) dimensions shaped hotel reputation (REP) through customer trust (TRU), and whether customer engagement (ENG) moderated this relationship in the Mekong Delta context. Although prior studies had acknowledged the importance of CSR in shaping customer perceptions, they had paid limited attention to the distinct effects of multidimensional CSR and the conditions under which TRU was transformed into REP. A structured questionnaire survey was administered to 874 hotel guests in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. The measurement scales were adapted from previous studies and refined through a pilot test. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), together with bootstrapping, was used to test the direct, mediating, and moderating effects. CSR dimensions exhibited heterogeneous effects. Customer-oriented responsibility had the strongest impact on both TRU and REP, followed by environmental and economic responsibilities. Legal responsibility directly enhanced REP but did not significantly affect TRU, whereas community responsibility strengthened TRU without directly influencing REP. TRU significantly improved REP and mediated most CSR–REP relationships. ENG positively moderated the TRU–REP link, amplifying reputational outcomes. The study contributed to CSR and hospitality research by modeling CSR as a multidimensional construct and by identifying ENG as a boundary condition that strengthened the TRU–REP mechanism. Managers should prioritize customer-focused CSR and enhance engagement to maximize reputational gains. Full article

In the literature on dark tourism, conceptual diversity has often been addressed as a definitional or thematic problem. This study was conducted to identify the dominant epistemological orientations in a focused corpus of 172 English-language, open access articles indexed in Scopus that explicitly use the term dark tourism. An additional aim was to describe the temporal and methodological distributions of these articles. The articles were analysed using qualitative content analysis on a systematically constructed corpus. They were coded in terms of representational/heritage-centred, functional/social practice, motivational/audience-typology, experiential/affective, and activity-based/performative visitor orientations. Thirty-five randomly selected articles were re-coded by a second researcher, who was blind to the initial coding decisions. The percentage agreement for the dominant orientation was 71.4%, with Cohen’s κ = 0.641, and the percentage agreement for method classification was 94.3%, with κ = 0.888. In the post-consensus distribution, the representation/heritage orientation was the largest category, with 54 articles. Motivation, experience, and performative visitor orientations together constituted 52.3% of the corpus. These findings do not indicate a linear paradigm shift but rather a descriptive pattern in which different forms of knowledge production coexist within the corpus examined. This study extends beyond thematic classification by providing evidence for and explaining how dark tourism is constructed as an object of inquiry. The results should be interpreted only with respect to the defined Scopus-based open access corpus. Full article

This research aims to analyze audiovisual productions related to the development of tourism at the Armero ruins and the visitor experience in the area. The methodology used is qualitative and was carried out in two phases. This research began in August 2023 with interviews with visitors to Armero and a content analysis of YouTube videos that recount the Armero tragedy. The impact on collective memory and the sense of belonging among visitors is highlighted. The visitors’ personal productions show that the experience in Armero becomes an emotional journey, where history is tangled with the hope of rebuilding the social fabric and honoring the memory of the thousands who lost their lives. This research reveals a range of emotions: from awe at the natural beauty to respect and sadness when remembering the tragedy that buried this prosperous Colombian city in 1985. In conclusion, the importance of preserving historical memory is evident, so that tragedies like Armero’s are not forgotten and can promote reflection on natural risk management and community resilience. Full article

Official tourism websites play an important role before travel, when potential visitors look for information and begin to form expectations about a destination. However, studies of these websites have often followed separate lines of analysis, treating marketing, communication, and tourism management as distinct fields. This article proposes a framework for examining these dimensions within a single analytical structure. The study is qualitative and exploratory, and is based on documentary analysis of institutional tourism websites. The framework draws on three theoretical foundations: established website evaluation criteria from international tourism organizations, a communicational and participatory approach to digital media, and the integrated 7Cs + 1C marketing model. From these sources, dimensions, categories, and indicators are defined for the analysis of official destination websites. The findings suggest that these portals shape destination image before travel through content, images, navigation, interaction resources, and institutional discourse. The illustrative application of the framework suggests weaknesses in direct interaction, multilingual provision, and international reach. The proposed framework can support comparative research on digital tourism and future assessments of official tourism websites. As an exploratory and qualitative proposal, however, it should be understood as an initial analytical structure that still requires further testing and validation. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping tourism service operations, smart tourism ecosystems, and digital customer engagement, yet many tourism SMEs still struggle to convert AI readiness into operational capability and firm performance. This study develops a staged capability-conversion model that integrates the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, Social Cognitive Theory, the Resource-Based View, and Dynamic Capabilities Theory. Using a quantitative cross-sectional design, data were collected from employees and managers of tourism SMEs, particularly small and medium-sized travel agencies in mainland China. After data screening, 433 valid responses were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, covariance-based structural equation modeling, and 5000-resample bootstrap mediation testing. The results suggest that organizational readiness is the most consistent readiness-related antecedent, digital self-efficacy is positively associated with AI adoption and operational capability, and operational capability shows the strongest direct association with perceived firm performance. These findings are consistent with the view that AI-enabled value in tourism SMEs is associated less with technology adoption alone than with the conversion of readiness into behavioral and operational capabilities. Full article

Tourism destinations increasingly operate through digital platforms, real-time data, and online connectivity tools, yet service coordination among stakeholders remains constrained. This study analyses how tourism logistics information is created, updated, verified, shared, and used in service coordination at coastal destinations in Vietnam’s South Central Coast subregion. The study adopts a multi-stakeholder qualitative case study design, in which qualitative data from 42 participants provide the main source of evidence, while a supplementary descriptive survey of 358 participants is used only to contextualise and clarify selected issues within the sample. The findings show that existing digital tools and information channels support information search, transaction confirmation, operational coordination, and service feedback. However, coordination at the destination and inter-provincial levels remains limited when information flows are fragmented across stakeholders, channels or platforms, data or procedures, and local or regional spaces. On this basis, the study conceptualises the Tourism Logistics Information System (TLIS) as a socio-technical, inter-organisational, and coordination-oriented structure in which the value of information depends on the extent to which data are updated, verified, shared, and translated into coordinated action among stakeholders. The paper contributes to research on smart destinations, destination governance, and tourism supply chains by clarifying information fragmentation (IF) as a mechanism that constrains service coordination in inter-provincial coastal destination contexts. Full article

The rapid growth of the pet-humanisation trend has generated a distinct segment of tourists who regard pets as family members and seek travel experiences that accommodate both human and animal needs. This study examines the causal relationships among service quality, destination image, perceived value, and travel intention among Thai pet-humanising tourists. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 280 Thai respondents with experience or interest in pet-friendly tourism and analyzed via Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The findings indicate that service quality and destination image significantly enhance perceived value, which subsequently exerts the strongest positive effect on travel intention. While service quality directly increases travel intention, destination image demonstrates a significant negative direct effect but a positive indirect effect through perceived value, highlighting a competitive mediation mechanism. By extending value-based behavioural models to this emerging segment, the study suggests that tourism and hospitality operators should prioritise tangible pet-friendly infrastructure and value-enhancing experiences over mere destination image, supporting the strategic development of inclusive pet-friendly destinations. Full article

The Milano Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Games represent a significant departure from traditional mega-event models due to their markedly polycentric territorial structure. This study investigates the sustainability of this “decentralized” model by analyzing the environmental impact of mobility flows across a vast geographic area. Adopting a methodological approach, the research integrates historical attendance data from previous Winter Games with official projections and travel time simulations to model the event’s carbon footprint. Specifically, the framework quantifies gas emissions by categorizing mobility flows into external international travel and internal inter-cluster transit. The analysis highlights a significant discrepancy between the stated sustainability objectives and the actual implementation of the infrastructural plan. Findings reveal that the total carbon debt is heavily driven by international travel, yet the localized impact on Alpine clusters remains critical due to a persistent reliance on road infrastructure over rail systems. The results suggest a “paradox of decentralized sustainability”, where the benefits of reusing existing sporting venues are offset by the environmental costs of connecting geographically fragmented sites. We conclude that without a robust and efficient public transport network, territorial dispersion acts as a catalyst for widespread anthropogenic pressure on fragile mountain ecosystems, challenging the long-term ecological legacy of the event. By empirically exposing these dynamics, this study offers a novel evaluative framework for assessing the true sustainability of distributed governance in future mega-events. Full article

Sustainable rural tourism governance in the Global South faces a persistent challenge: enabling genuine community participation in destination management while protecting environmental assets and cultural heritage. This study examines participatory governance practices at Kampung Senyum Homestay, Cibeusi Village, West Java, Indonesia, a community-based tourism (CBT) initiative that has sustained operations for over eight years, despite a 60% failure rate among comparable initiatives. A qualitative case study design was employed, with data collected over six months (November 2022–May 2023) through participant observation (12 days), in-depth interviews with 14 stakeholders, and document analysis. Data were analyzed using Miles et al.’s interactive model and critical discourse analysis. Findings reveal three interrelated participation layers shaping tourism governance outcomes: interpersonal engagement fostering horizontal host–guest relationships (89% of tourists report kinship-based experiences); deliberative governance through musyawarah desa enabling community-led environmental stewardship, including the collective rejection of a proposal to bring 100 tourists monthly to protect waterfall ecosystems; and digital storytelling by youth extending local heritage narratives globally (150 posts, 7.2% engagement rate). The study proposes a ‘layered participation’ model demonstrating that tourism sustainability depends on participatory governance mechanisms that build social trust, integrate traditional ecological knowledge, and balance economic development with environmental conservation and cultural heritage management. The study also critically examines structural inequalities, including gender asymmetries, unequal benefit distribution, and linguistic barriers, that persist within participatory governance structures, offering a contextually grounded governance framework for rural tourism destinations in the Global South. Full article

This study assesses perceived changes associated with the application of a structured co-creation process to the redesign of an authentic rural tourism product by aligning local resources, stakeholder knowledge, and potential users’ expectations. The empirical context is Salinas de Guaranda, Ecuador, where a tourism product was redesigned and evaluated through an applied one-group pretest–posttest design involving a purposive evaluation panel of 28 participants, including tourism stakeholders, local representatives, and potential users with direct knowledge of the product and destination. The assessment covered perceived preference fit, learning opportunities, participation in activities, social interaction potential, memorability, purchase intention, and willingness to share experiences, all measured using five-point Likert scales. The results show statistically significant perceived improvements across all indicators after the redesign, even after applying the Bonferroni correction for multiple comparisons (p < 0.00556). The largest increases were observed in satisfaction with interests and preferences (Δ = 1.32; dz = 2.78), purchase intention (Δ = 1.21; dz = 1.32), and learning (Δ = 1.07; dz = 2.83). Significant increases were also found in perceived interaction with the local community (Δ = 0.64), participation in activities (Δ = 0.55), memorability (Δ = 0.82), and willingness to share experiences. These findings suggest that structured co-creation may help strengthen the perceived fit between rural tourism products and user expectations while enhancing the anticipated experiential and relational potential of authentic tourism products, including situated learning, active participation, and social interaction. The article contributes applied pre–post evidence on how participatory tourism design may support more marketable, memorable, and locally grounded rural tourism experiences, while recognizing that the design does not establish definitive causal effects. Full article

By linking the technology–organization–environment (TOE) framework with dynamic capabilities, this research investigates the various organizational enablers for Industry 4.0 technology (I4T) adoption in the hotel industry, and the relationship between I4T and overall hotel performance during the supply chain disturbances. The proposed model was tested using data collected from hotel executives in Hong Kong and Shenzhen, China. Results revealed that perceived benefits, technology readiness, and supply chain partner pressure were significant predictors for I4T adoption by hotels. The direct positive relationship between I4T and overall hotel performance during disruptions was not found. This relationship was mediated by the hotel’s supply chain resilience (SCR) capability, highlighting the importance of I4T and SCR for improving performance during disruptions. This study provides both theoretical insights and practical implications regarding the adoption of I4T in the hospitality sector. Full article

Crisis management has become a critical strategic concern in hospitality, particularly following the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed limitations in conventional approaches to preparedness, response, and recovery. Although existing hospitality crisis management research has generated valuable insights into individual crisis phases, a limited understanding exists regarding how preparedness, crisis response, and organizational learning interact as an integrated strategic process across the crisis lifecycle. Addressing this gap, this study examines strategic crisis management within Jakarta’s five-star hotel sector and develops an integrated understanding of crisis management across pre-crisis, during-crisis, and post-crisis phases. A constructivist grounded theory approach was employed based on in-depth semi-structured interviews with 25 senior hospitality leaders, including hotel executives, owners, and industry association representatives. The findings suggest that crisis management is best understood as an integrated strategic capability rather than a series of discrete emergency responses. Three interrelated theoretical dimensions emerged: Continuous Strategic Preparedness, characterized by adaptive readiness, environmental sensemaking, decision readiness, and financial preparedness; Coordinated Strategic Crisis Response, encompassing liquidity discipline, operational adaptation, workforce adaptability, leadership coordination, and cross-functional alignment; and Strategic Renewal Through Organizational Learning, involving the retention of effective crisis practices, capability strengthening, and strategic reorientation toward ongoing uncertainty. The study proposes an Integrated Strategic Crisis Management Framework for Hospitality Organizations that explains the mechanisms linking preparedness, response, and organizational learning as a cyclical capability-building process. By reconceptualizing crisis management as an integrated strategic capability rather than a phase-based operational response, the study contributes to hospitality crisis management scholarship and provides practical insights for hospitality organizations operating in increasingly uncertain environments. Full article

The concept of dark tourism has obtained significant attention in recent years, and its appeal to younger generations is a topic of great interest. This study examines the behavioral intentions of Generation Z towards dark tourism in Albania, a country with a strong cultural and historical heritage. Using a quantitative research design, the study collected data from 312 respondents and analyzed them using exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression. The results found several key variables that influence the behavioral intentions of Generation Z towards dark tourism, including attitude, motivations, social media, and perceived psychological risk. Interestingly, the study found that attitude is the strongest predictor of behavioral intentions towards dark tourism. This suggests that if young people have a positive attitude towards dark tourism, they are more likely to visit dark tourism sites. On the other hand, the variable of perceived psychological risk was found to have a negative influence on the behavioral intentions of Generation Z to visit dark tourism sites. This implies that if young people perceive dark tourism as risky or threatening, they are less likely to participate in it. The study contributes to dark tourism research by offering empirical evidence from Albania and by highlighting the importance of educational, reflective and ethically sensitive interpretation for Generation Z visitors. The findings of the study reveal the importance of developing tourism experiences that are not only educational and emotionally engaging, but also ethically based. This is particularly relevant for emerging destinations like Albania, where dark tourism remains underdeveloped despite its significant cultural and historical potential. By shaping tourism experiences for younger audiences, destinations like Albania can tap into the potential of dark tourism and offer unique, meaningful experiences for visitors. Full article

Social media platforms and user-generated content (UGC) have become central to how travelers discover and evaluate cultural destinations, yet lesser-known second-tier heritage sites remain substantially underrepresented in digital tourism research. This study investigates how Chinese tourists perceive and engage with the intangible cultural heritage (ICH) of Lamphun, Thailand, through UGC collected from three major Chinese social media platforms (WeChat, Douyin, and Rednote) spanning the period from 2019 to 2023. A total of 642 relevant posts were analyzed using a mixed-methods analytical framework comprising SnowNLP-based Chinese-language sentiment analysis, rule-based tourism intention classification, and TF-IDF-driven K-means thematic clustering. Results indicate an overall predominance of positive sentiment, with sentiment score emerging as the strongest predictor of tourism intention. Thematic clustering revealed three distinct experiential dimensions, with culinary heritage and contemporary local lifestyle and cafe exploration generating the highest sentiment distribution and within-cluster tourism intention rate. These findings demonstrate the analytical value of integrated UGC data mining for underrepresented ICH destinations and offer empirical insights to support data-driven destination marketing strategies and destination management organization (DMO) decision-making for the promotion of secondary cultural heritage destinations. Full article

This study claims that the Nigerian tourism and hospitality industry must shift from traditional business practices to innovative, knowledge-based approaches to remain competitive and achieve long-term wealth creation. Facing volatility, evolving consumer demands, technological change, and sustainability pressures, the sector cannot rely on outdated models. Through a quantitative survey of 391 staff and top-level managers from the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation and tourism organizations in Southwest and North-Central Nigeria, this research tests how creativity, knowledge management, and innovation operations, defined as value creation, environment, and capability, drive wealth creation. Findings through the Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling show that innovation and knowledge management both directly and, through the mediating role of innovation operations, significantly enhance wealth creation. By highlighting how these factors interact, the study advances understanding of wealth creation dynamics between emerging and developed economies and delivers actionable recommendations for managers and policymakers to institutionalize innovation for sustainable industry growth. Full article

Cape Coast is a prominent tourism destination in Ghana, distinguished by its historical landmarks, coastal ecosystems, and cultural heritage. Yet the city faces mounting threats from environmental hazards such as coastal erosion, flooding, extreme heat, and lagoon degradation, which directly compromise the sustainability of its tourism sector. Guided by the Sustainable Tourism Development Theory (STDT) and the Tourism Resilience and Adaptation Theory (TRAT), this study investigates the impacts of these hazards on tourism development, the effectiveness of current disaster risk reduction (DRR) strategies, and the roles of key stakeholders in building sectoral resilience. Using a qualitative research design, data were collected through in-depth interviews with eighteen stakeholders comprising four policymakers, six community leaders, five tourism business operators, and three representatives from non-governmental organisations, alongside documentary analysis of four institutional reports. The study contributes to the literature by demonstrating that fragmented, reactive DRR strategies and weak stakeholder coordination undermine Cape Coast’s tourism resilience, and by showing how urban natural assets, a dimension largely neglected in existing tourism–DRR scholarship, are central to both hazard exposure and adaptive capacity. The findings call for integrated, ecosystem-based DRR frameworks that align governance mechanisms with sustainable tourism imperatives. Full article