Tourism and Hospitality

This article investigates consumer distrust and outcomes through a model incorporating mediation and moderation in five-star luxury hotels. Relying on signaling theory, service-dominant logic, and institutional trust theory, this model theorizes six precursors of consumer distrust (pricing opacity, service inconsistency, AI and automation anxiety, review manipulation, data privacy concerns, and post-pandemic expectations) and four outcomes: non-return behavior, negative electronic word-of-mouth, brand avoidance, and defection intentions. Trust repair is examined as a moderator. PLS-SEM on a sample of 640 hotel guests supports the hypothesized relationships. Pricing opacity was identified as the leading driver of consumer distrust, while consumer distrust strongly influenced negative electronic word-of-mouth. Trust repair significantly moderated the relationships between consumer distrust and all four adverse behavioral outcomes, with the interaction patterns indicating that higher levels of trust repair strengthen the positive association between consumer distrust and these outcomes. These findings collectively advance a novel, theoretically integrated account of relationship erosion in luxury hospitality, offering actionable guidance for hotel managers, brand strategists, and policymakers operating in comparable emerging market destinations. Full article

This study investigates how online discourse on sport tourism was structured during the COVID-19 pandemic and reshaped as tourism entered a period of recovery and restructuring. The analysis covered two three-year periods: 1 July 2020–30 June 2023, representing the pandemic and early recovery period, and 1 July 2023–30 June 2026, representing the post-pandemic recovery and restructuring period. Unstructured online texts related to sport tourism were collected and processed through text cleaning, morphological analysis, and stop-word removal. The 50 core keywords identified for each period were then examined using frequency analysis, degree and closeness centrality, semantic network visualization, and convergence of iterated correlations (CONCOR) analysis. During the first period, the discourse was largely organized around travel, hotels, tourism destinations, domestic tourism, facility operation, and outdoor or participatory leisure activities. In the second period, regional destinations, marine and water-based leisure, festivals, sport competitions, booking and ticketing, accommodation, and spectatorship became more prominent. CONCOR analysis further revealed four clusters in each period. The first-period clusters concerned destination and marine leisure tourism, regional sport events and industry support, facility operation and COVID-19 response, and active outdoor participation. The second-period clusters focused on marine and destination-based leisure experiences, the recovery of sport events and spectator tourism, regional sport facilities and support programs, and booking-, accommodation-, and consumption-related activities. Taken together, the findings indicate that online sport tourism discourse moved from a pandemic-era structure centered on domestic travel, outdoor participation, and operational concerns toward a more diversified configuration linking regional destinations, marine leisure, event resumption, spectatorship, and tourism consumption. The study contributes to sport tourism research by showing how participation, spectatorship, destination experience, accommodation, and consumption are connected within a broader discourse structure. Full article

As South Korea rapidly transitions into a multicultural society, multicultural families continue to face social exclusion, psychological withdrawal, and systemic barriers to belonging. This study investigates the role of inclusive, welfare-based tourism programs as a tool for the social integration of multicultural and diaspora families. Using a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design, a quantitative survey was administered to 87 families participating in the travel program. Results show that Overall Travel Satisfaction explains 69.9% of the variance in perceived Socio-Cultural Impact; all four attributes were individually significant predictors of Socio-Cultural Impact, with Tour Operator Service and Experiential Program the numerically strongest. A mediation analysis further shows that Socio-Cultural Impact fully mediates the relationship between travel satisfaction and participants’ intention to continue engaging with such programs. Korean-language proficiency and length of residence in Korea—but not gender, age, or nationality—significantly differentiated in perceived Socio-Cultural Impact. A qualitative follow-up using online interviews with four families was then conducted in August and September 2025. Qualitative findings reveal that travel functions as a “cultural bridge”, shifting participants’ identities from outsiders to respected members of Korean society. Full article

This study introduces the concept of contextuality in sustainable livelihood support, shaped by destination characteristics. In cultural tourism, support is most pronounced for human and social capital, reflecting the importance of knowledge, skills, creativity, cultural identity, community participation, and local institutions. In nature-based tourism, support is most pronounced for physical, human, and natural capital, highlighting the importance of infrastructure, accessibility, safety, innovation, adaptability, and environmental conservation. Meanwhile, social capital serves as a vital social investment during times of crisis. The research evaluates five types of capital—human, social, financial, physical, and natural—using the Sustainable Livelihood Framework for Tourism (SLFT) to explore the role of tourism villages in supporting sustainable livelihoods. The study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods approach. It collected quantitative data from 140 local stakeholders using a 25-item Likert-scale questionnaire and gathered qualitative data through semi-structured interviews with 90 stakeholders to validate the quantitative findings. The study concludes that community-based tourism does not yield uniform livelihood patterns. To achieve sustainable livelihoods, tourism village policies must be formulated contextually, based on local assets, to strengthen community resilience, inclusivity, and sustainability. Full article

In this study, we use gratifications (U&G) theory to explore how social media shapes Millennials’ gastronomic destination choices. Rather than treating social media influence as uniform, we identify three key gratifications obtained from gastronomy-related content: experiential–inspirational, utilitarian decision-making, and information search and assurance. The study investigates how these gratifications directly and indirectly affect destination choice through pre-visit destination impressions. Data were collected from 418 Chinese Millennials. Validity of measurements was confirmed through exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and reliability tests, with hypotheses tested using Hayes’ PROCESS Model 4. Findings indicate that pre-visit destination impression significantly predicts destination choice and mediates the influence of all three gratifications. Experiential–inspirational gratification has the greatest overall impact; experiential–inspirational and information search and assurance gratifications operate through both directly and indirectly, while utilitarian decision-making gratification operates primarily through pre-visit impressions. By integrating U&G theory with pre-visit impressions, this study offers a novel pathway-specific explanation of social media’s role in gastronomic destination choice, suggesting that different gratifications activate distinct psychological mechanisms rather than a uniform process. It also advances destination-choice research by highlighting pre-visit impression as a rapid evaluative mechanism linking digital gratification and behavioral decision. Full article

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly embedded across hotel service journeys, but limited research explain how guests’ perceptions of the overall AI-enabled service configuration are associated with their subsequent behavioral intentions toward the hotel. This study develops and tests an AI-enabled value realization model linking perceived AI service intensity with technology appraisal, service personalization, value co-creation, expectation confirmation, and behavioral intentions. A cross-sectional online survey was completed by 1733 guests who had encountered AI-enabled services in three-, four-, or five-star hotels located across 12 cities in mainland China. The model was examined using structural equation modeling, bias-corrected bootstrapping of indirect associations, and exploratory multi-group path comparisons. Perceived AI service intensity was positively associated with perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and behavioral intentions. The total indirect association was significant, and the largest reported specific indirect pathways involved service personalization. Ten of the eleven structural paths did not differ significantly across hotel tiers; the personalization–behavioral intentions association was nominally stronger in three-star than in five-star hotels. The findings position perceived AI service intensity as a journey-level service configuration and identify personalization as a prominent connection between technology appraisal and value realization, while recognizing the associational and exploratory boundaries of the evidence. Full article

This study examines how sustainable leadership fosters a regenerative mindset in the hospitality industry by enhancing ecological knowledge and promoting the development of sustainability-focused services. Drawing on Dynamic Capability Theory, the research demonstrates that sustainable leadership cultivates a range of organizational strengths, enabling hotels to transcend conventional sustainability practices and achieve substantive regenerative growth. A quantitative survey was administered to employees of four- and five-star hotels in Egypt. Data from 420 valid responses were analyzed using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) using JASP (0.98.1). The measurement model was evaluated, and the structural model and hypothesis testing were conducted in JASP. The results indicate that sustainable leadership enhances both ecological knowledge and sustainability-oriented service innovation. Furthermore, ecological knowledge serves as a catalyst for innovation that reinforces regenerative orientation. This study advances Dynamic Capability Theory by introducing a stepwise framework that elucidates how sustainable leadership supports regenerative orientation through interconnected organizational strengths. It contributes to the field of regenerative hospitality by shifting the emphasis from harm reduction to the development of capabilities that generate enduring ecological and social value. Additionally, the research provides practical guidance for hotels seeking to initiate a regenerative transformation. Full article

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly used in travel planning, yet limited research has examined how travelers evaluate AI-generated travel recommendations as an information source. This study examines travelers’ evaluations and behavioral intentions toward such recommendations, extending and contextualizing the Word-of-Machine (WOMa) perspective within tourism using an Information Adoption Model (IAM)-informed framework. An online survey of 485 U.S. respondents with prior experience using AI for travel planning measured trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, information presentation, and behavioral intention. Respondents generally evaluated AI-generated travel recommendations favorably, and all four predictors were positively associated with behavioral intention. The regression model explained 84.5% of the variance in behavioral intention (R² = 0.845), while demographic differences were observed, particularly across household-income groups. The study contributes to tourism research by extending the WOMa perspective to AI-generated travel recommendations and examining the factors associated with travelers’ willingness to use them. Practically, the findings highlight the importance of useful, trustworthy, clearly presented, and easy-to-use AI recommendations, while maintaining opportunities for verification and human judgment. Full article

Early-stage post-conflict regions must rebuild essential infrastructure while avoiding development pathways that create long-term environmental and institutional costs. This study examines how green reconstruction, policy sequencing, and sustainable regional competitiveness may co-evolve in Karabakh and Eastern Zangezur during 2025–2040. A scenario-based System Dynamics (SD) model developed in Vensim compares Baseline Reconstruction, Eco-Tourism Promotion, Green Investment, an Integrated Policy Mix, and Accelerated Reconstruction. The normalized simulations indicate that stand-alone interventions generate partial gains and trade-offs, whereas the full Integrated Policy Mix produces the most balanced outcome under its stated, more favourable policy settings. Eco-tourism promotion increases attractiveness and demand but may intensify carrying-capacity stress when services and environmental management lag; accelerated reconstruction can create institutional overload when implementation demands exceed absorptive capacity. A matched policy-intensity comparison does not show uniform mixed-package dominance over both stand-alone alternatives, so the full Integrated advantage cannot be interpreted as a pure coordination effect. An exploratory global uncertainty analysis preserves the original ranking under the specified perturbation design. The results are assumption-dependent policy experiments rather than empirically estimated forecasts and support conditional, phased, and capacity-sensitive reconstruction strategies. Full article

Mountain rural regions face persistent challenges related to agricultural fragmentation, demographic decline, and limited market integration. Although farm diversification is widely promoted as a strategy for rural development, the mechanisms through which diversified rural resources generate economic value remain insufficiently understood. This study advances a Tourism Translation perspective, conceptualizing agritourism integration as the mechanism linking farm diversification and economic performance. Using survey data covering 63% of the identified rural household-business population across eleven mountain villages in Northern Albania, the study examines the relationships among farm diversification, tourism integration, knowledge and capacity development, territorial constraints, and economic performance. The analysis combines composite indices, principal component analysis, mediation modelling, quantile regression, threshold analysis, and robustness tests. The findings indicate no significant direct association between farm diversification and economic performance, while tourism integration is positively associated with economic performance. The mediation results reveal a significant but negative indirect pathway, suggesting that diversification and tourism integration may represent distinct rather than automatically sequential upgrading strategies. Additional exploratory analyses indicate potential heterogeneity and non-linearity in the TII–EPI association. Knowledge and capacity development facilitate tourism integration, while territorial constraints influence participation in tourism-oriented activities. The study contributes to the rural tourism and agritourism literature by providing a mechanism-based explanation of economic upgrading and positioning tourism integration as a core process within multifunctional mountain rural systems. Full article

The aim of this study is to explore the adoption of Smart Tourism (ST) and Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) skills demanded by the tourism industry, graduate preparedness, and curriculum alignment in accommodation establishments in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. A pragmatic explanatory sequential mixed-methods approach involved a quantitative survey of 295 respondents, semi-structured interviews with 11 industry managers, and curriculum document analysis. Qualitative data were thematically analysed, while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, and exploratory factor analysis. The results show a high uptake of ST technologies and demand for digital competencies. The competencies most required by employers were digital marketing and social media (M = 4.13), mobile application use (M = 4.07), and basic computer literacy (M = 4.03). However, graduates were viewed as less proficient in AI (M = 2.69), cybersecurity (M = 2.67), virtual and augmented reality (M = 2.60), and blockchain technology (M = 2.55). Reliability analysis revealed good internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = 0.742–0.950). The integrated findings indicated a clear gap between industry expectations and curriculum provision, leading to the development of a proposed evidence-informed Transformative Curriculum Model (TCM) to enhance graduate employability and support ST implementation. Full article

Reliable and culturally appropriate measurement instruments are essential for advancing museum research and enabling meaningful comparisons across studies. However, evidence regarding the psychometric performance of existing scales outside their original cultural settings remains limited. This study aimed to develop and psychometrically validate integrated measures of museum quality and museum perceived value in the Slovenian museum context by combining newly developed items with items adapted from established measurement instruments. Scale development followed a multi-study design. First, measurement items were developed and evaluated through expert assessment to establish content validity. The scales were then refined using exploratory factor analysis and subsequently validated through confirmatory factor analysis to assess their factorial structure, reliability, convergent validity, and discriminant validity using an independent sample of museum visitors. Finally, nomological validity was examined by testing the relationships between museum quality, perceived value, and visitor satisfaction. The findings supported the proposed multidimensional structure of both scales and demonstrated satisfactory psychometric properties. The validated instruments provide reliable measures for assessing museum quality and perceived value in the Slovenian museum context and offer a methodological foundation for future research and further validation of these constructs in other cultural settings. Replication with larger samples is recommended to obtain more robust estimates of latent factor correlations. Full article

Wellness resorts often market natural scenery without knowing whether a structured way of attending to it changes guests’ immediate experience. We examined cloud noticing and forest-therapy elements as two low-infrastructure forms of nature-directed hospitality programming. This exploratory, randomised field study reports outcomes from three facilitator-led arms of a four-condition parent experiment whose service-evaluation findings were published separately. The parent experiment allocated 120 adult resort guests equally, by individual manual lottery, to cloud noticing, forest-therapy elements, an active-control session, or an ordinary stay. The present complete-case dataset comprised 84 participants with linked measurements immediately before and after an organised activity: cloud noticing (n = 29), forest-therapy elements (n = 28), and active control (n = 27). The ordinary-stay group was outside the analytical scope because no additional session, and therefore no matched session-level measurement interval, was available. Linear mixed-effects models estimated group-by-time contrasts for state anxiety, positive and negative affect, and subjective restoration; perceived stress, connectedness with nature, six activity-specific ratings, resting pulse, and blood pressure were secondary or descriptive variables. Both nature-focused sessions showed more favourable short-term psychological patterns than the active control, with the clearest contrasts for subjective restoration. Cloud noticing was associated descriptively with awe, mental spaciousness, and perspective distancing, whereas forest-therapy elements were associated with sensory immersion, bodily presence, grounding, and the greatest increase in nature connectedness. Pulse and blood pressure are reported only as physiological field descriptors. The earlier companion publication examined experience quality, satisfaction, novelty, added value, and recommendation intention; none of those endpoints are reanalysed here. Applicability is limited by the single-resort setting, lack of blinding, complete-case analysis, absence of preregistration, and lack of follow-up. Full article

As an open system, tourism is especially vulnerable to tourism turbulence such as economic shocks, crises, and disasters. Tourism is impacted by a wide range of events such as political instability, economic downturns, disease outbreaks, bushfires, cyclones, hurricanes, and terrorist attacks. Tourism also suffers from seasonality. The impact of any of these events negatively impacts tourism, but in combination (e.g., a natural disaster during peak tourism season) creates heightened problems for destinations. With disruptions and turbulence occurring more often, it is increasingly important for destinations to consider ways to manage tourism turbulence. Little examination has been undertaken on whether and how VFR travel may be an appropriate first-mover market in crises and disasters. This conceptual research article examines tourism turbulence through a VFR travel lens. Furthermore, it presents a framework for how destinations and communities can prepare for disruptive events to enable a faster and better recovery. Full article

Virtual Reality (VR) is increasingly used to enhance cultural heritage experiences, yet limited research explains how technological characteristics translate into sustainable cultural tourism intention (SCTI) through cognitive, experiential, and affective processes. This study develops and empirically tests an integrated framework combining the Stimulus–Organism–Response (S–O–R) framework, the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), and Flow Experience Theory. Data were collected from 360 Thai and international tourists at UNESCO World Heritage destinations in Thailand and analyzed using Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM). The results supported all 14 direct hypotheses. Information Presentation Quality (IPQ) had the strongest effect on Perceived Usefulness (PU), whereas Innovation Factors (IF) had the strongest effect on Flow Experience (FE). PU and FE contributed to Emotional Cultural Attachment (ECA) and Sustainable Cultural Tourism Intention, with ECA also exerting a significant effect on SCTI. Mediation analysis further showed that Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) transmitted the effects of technological stimuli to subsequent cognitive and experiential responses, while FE and ECA served as complementary mechanisms linking VR experiences to SCTI. The significant FE-specific indirect effects further confirmed the experiential pathway, while IPQ showed a stronger total indirect effect on SCTI than IF. These findings extend VR tourism research by demonstrating an interconnected cognitive–experiential–affective mechanism through which technological characteristics contribute to sustainable cultural tourism intention. The study also provides practical guidance for heritage authorities, destination managers, and VR developers seeking to design informative, immersive, and culturally meaningful VR experiences that support responsible tourism and heritage conservation. Full article