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It is salient to be acquainted with the key elements that determine educational tourists’ decision in selecting an overseas destination while considering the rise of international competition amidst nations concerning international students. There has been a growth in the number of nations committed to attracting educational tourists. This issue is evident in countries involved in higher education (HE), such as Northern Cyprus, identified as an edu-tourism destination. Northern Cyprus can attract a whopping number of tourists, and the higher population is most likely to be made up of international students regardless of its interdiction on direct flights and political pressure. This chapter centres on analysing educational tourists’ motivators in selecting a tourism education destination abroad and on revealing effective recruitment and promotion plans towards attracting them. The chapter includes the descriptions and discussions of educational tourism, the HE industry over the years, globalisation and internationalisation of educational tourism, factors influencing educational tourists’ decision-making process and key elements influencing educational tourists’ decisions in HE institutions. At the end of the chapter, a case study is presented that reports the findings of interviews with educational tourists, overseas recruitment agents and Eastern Mediterranean University staff responsible for promoting the institution. The results identified eight factors affecting educational tourists’ decisions on study destination. Those factors comprise cost, ease of access, location, social factors, quality of education, instruction language, cultural environment and communication quality. The sub-factors of the main eight factors are scholarships, destination’s scenery, safety, friends’ and relatives’ influence and cultural differences. This chapter brings a significant knowledge about the motives that affect educational tourists in selecting at a particular HE destination. Based on the study’s findings, educational institutions may consider various recommendations to redesign their strategies towards attracting educational tourists more effectively. Generally, this study promotes an apprehension about the diverse elements that affect educational tourists’ selection of a destination study. An in-depth understanding of these factors will help education institutions’ decision-makers better develop plans of action to provide desired services to educational tourists, attract and keep them in return.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between tourism service quality and destination loyalty through investigating the mediation effect of destination image in the Dead Sea tourism destination, Jordan, from international tourists perspectives. The paper also investigates the tourism service quality dimensions from international tourists’ viewpoints.

A structured and self-administered survey was used targeting international tourists who were visiting the Dead Sea tourism destination, Jordan. The authors delivered 300 questionnaires to international tourists from which 237 were retained and valid for the analysis. A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were performed to assess the research constructs dimensions, unidimensionality, validity and composite reliability. Structural path analysis was also used to test the hypothesised relationships of the research model.

The empirical findings indicate that tourism service quality is, in fact, a four-dimensional (4D) construct as opposed to five as proposed by the original hypothesised model. The 4D model consists of four facets: assurance-responsiveness, tangible facilities-empathy, reliability and reliability-quality of directions. Also, the results indicate that brand image loaded onto two dimensions named as “physical environment” and “people characteristics”. The structural findings indicate that the four dimensions of tourism service quality have positively and significantly affected destination image. Further, brand image has positively and significantly affected destination loyalty. Finally, destination image fully mediates the relationship between tourism service quality and destination loyalty.

This paper has examined only five dimensions of tourism service quality that affected destination loyalty directly and indirectly; meanwhile, other service quality dimensions such as technical quality may affect both destination image and destination loyalty. Further, destination image is the only mediator investigated in this paper. Other consumer-based brand equity factors such as brand salience my act as another mediator. Also, this paper investigated international tourists’ perspectives in the Dead Sea tourism destination only, which means that its generalisation to other tourism destinations is limited. Therefore, comparative studies inside and outside Jordan’s tourism destinations are potential areas of future research. Other limitations and future research areas are also outlined.

The paper highlights the strategic importance of brand image on the relationship between tourism service quality and destination loyalty. Tourism service quality acts as an antecedent to brand image and the later is essential to destination loyalty. In other words, brand image of the physical environment and people friendless and kindness are the critical linkage that create destination loyalty. Further, an integrated model of tourism service quality, destination image and destination loyalty is required by tourism organisations operating in the Dead Sea destination to win international tourists again.

This paper represents one of the very few attempts that investigate tourism service quality and destination loyalty through understanding the mediating role of brand image in the Dead Sea destination. Accordingly, it should shed more light into the strategic role of brand image dimensions and how they affect destination loyalty. Further, the paper is the first of its kind to investigate an integrated model of tourism service quality and destination loyalty from international tourist perspectives in Jordan. The main issue here is that tourism organisations operating in the Dead Sea tourism destination have now valuable empirical evidence concerning the drivers of destination loyalty in an integrated manner.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the experiences of international tourists with healthy signature food at a tourist destination, and explore the perceptions of food providers regarding the preparation of healthy signature foods. Healthy signature food at tourist destinations has become a crucial factor that can determine whether tourists revisit a tourist destination. The relevant literature review and Urry’s tourist gaze theory indicate that there is a lack of previous research on healthy signature foods among international tourists and food providers. The current study addresses this gap by providing a holistic understanding of healthy signature foods and how they have led to a culture of healthy eating in the tourism industry.

A case study was conducted in Malacca, a World UNESCO Heritage Site, to identify the experiences of international tourists with local signature foods. A purposive sampling method was selected to gather information from international tourists and food providers. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews to gain a detailed perspective of healthy signature foods.

The results revealed four thematic analysis outcomes, namely, memorable food experiences, food hygiene consciousness, cultural values and tourist happiness, which directly impact tourists’ satisfaction and intention to revisit. Additionally, aspects such as type of trip, trip frequency and the purpose of the trip influenced tourists’ experiences with healthy signature food. Furthermore, it was found that the selected food providers prepared their meals according to the standard procedures.

The current study extends Urry’s tourist gaze theory by exploring tourists’ perceptions of healthy signature food as well as exploring the way the food is prepared. Healthy signature food has much potential as a means of attracting and sustaining international tourists at tourist destinations. Furthermore, it strengthens the supply chain relationship between international tourists (customers) and food providers (suppliers) in the food tourism industry.

The main purpose of the study is to determine international leisure tourist perceptions with regard to crime, to assess the influence of demographic factors and to investigate the influence of prior, during and post-visit measures on international leisure tourists’ crime perceptions.

A personal intercept interview survey was used to collect the data at popular Cape Town (CT) tourist attractions via structured questionnaires. A generalized linear model was used to statistically assess respondents’ crime-related perceptions. Qualitative data was also generated via individual in-depth interviews, which were conducted among nine international leisure tourists.

The study found that international leisure tourists exhibited favorable sentiments regarding crime preparations; general safety information; post-visit crime related perceptions but were less positive about security safety information during their visit. International leisure tourists maintained that crime did not inhibit their activities and was not worse than anticipated during their visit. A majority of tourists indicated that they were not deterred by crime and would revisit CT.

The research was limited to a single city and to English-speaking international leisure tourists. The study was cross sectional in nature and the number of data collection sites was limited to four of the popular tourist attractions in CT.

The study showed that a relatively high number of international leisure tourists had either witnessed or experienced crime in CT. Hence, a separate South African Police Service tourism protection unit could be established to help circumvent crime in CT.

The study used both quantitative and qualitative approaches to provide a comprehensive overview of international leisure tourist crime perceptions, which included prior, during and post-visit measures, of one of the top tourist destinations in the world. Additionally, this study is one of the few recent endeavors to assess the influence of a broad range of demographic and crime-related factors on international leisure tourists’ prior, during and post-visit crime perceptions in an African developing country.

This study aims to develop a robust long short-term memory (LSTM)-based forecasting model for daily international tourist arrivals at Incheon International Airport (ICN), incorporating multiple predictors including exchange rates, West Texas Intermediate (WTI) oil prices, Korea composite stock price index data and new COVID-19 cases. By leveraging deep learning techniques and diverse data sets, the research seeks to enhance the accuracy and reliability of tourism demand predictions, contributing significantly to both theoretical implications and practical applications in the field of hospitality and tourism.

This study introduces an innovative approach to forecasting international tourist arrivals by leveraging LSTM networks. This advanced methodology addresses complex managerial issues in tourism management by providing more accurate forecasts. The methodology comprises four key steps: collecting data sets; preprocessing the data; training the LSTM network; and forecasting future international tourist arrivals. The rest of this study is structured as follows: the subsequent sections detail the proposed LSTM model, present the empirical results and discuss the findings, conclusions and the theoretical and practical implications of the study in the field of hospitality and tourism.

This research pioneers the simultaneous use of big data encompassing five factors – international tourist arrivals, exchange rates, WTI oil prices, KOSPI data and new COVID-19 cases – for daily forecasting. The study reveals that integrating exchange rates, oil prices, stock market data and COVID-19 cases significantly enhances LSTM network forecasting precision. It addresses the narrow scope of existing research on predicting international tourist arrivals at ICN with these factors. Moreover, the study demonstrates LSTM networks’ capability to effectively handle multivariable time series prediction problems, providing a robust basis for their application in hospitality and tourism management.

This research pioneers the integration of international tourist arrivals, exchange rates, WTI oil prices, KOSPI data and new COVID-19 cases for forecasting daily international tourist arrivals. It bridges the gap in existing literature by proposing a comprehensive approach that considers multiple predictors simultaneously. Furthermore, it demonstrates the effectiveness of LSTM networks in handling multivariable time series forecasting problems, offering practical insights for enhancing tourism demand predictions. By addressing these critical factors and leveraging advanced deep learning techniques, this study contributes significantly to the advancement of forecasting methodologies in the tourism industry, aiding decision-makers in effective planning and resource allocation.

本研究旨在开发一种基于LSTM的强大预测模型, 用于预测仁川国际机场的日常国际游客抵达量, 结合多种预测因素, 包括汇率、WTI原油价格、韩国综合股价指数 (KOSPI) 数据和新冠疫情病例。通过利用深度学习技术和多样化数据集, 研究旨在提升旅游需求预测的准确性和可靠性, 对酒店与旅游领域的理论和实际应用有重要贡献。

本研究通过利用长短期记忆（LSTM）网络引入创新方法, 预测国际游客抵达量。这一先进方法解决了旅游管理中的复杂管理问题, 提供了更精确的预测。方法论包括四个关键步骤: (1) 收集数据集; (2) 数据预处理; (3) 训练LSTM网络; 以及 (4) 预测未来的国际游客抵达量。本文的其余部分结构如下：后续部分详细介绍了提出的LSTM模型, 呈现了实证结果, 并讨论了研究的发现、结论以及在酒店与旅游领域的理论和实际意义。

本研究首次同时使用包括国际游客抵达量、汇率、原油价格、股市数据和新冠疫情病例在内的大数据进行日常预测。研究显示, 整合汇率、原油价格、股市数据和新冠疫情病例显著增强了LSTM网络的预测精度。研究填补了现有研究在使用这些因素预测仁川国际机场国际游客抵达量的狭窄范围。此外, 研究证明了LSTM网络在处理多变量时间序列预测问题上的能力, 为其在酒店与旅游管理中的应用提供了坚实基础。

本研究首次将国际游客抵达量、汇率、WTI原油价格、KOSPI数据和新冠疫情病例整合到日常国际游客抵达量的预测中。它通过提出同时考虑多个预测因素的全面方法, 弥合了现有文献的差距。此外, 研究展示了LSTM网络在处理多变量时间序列预测问题方面的有效性, 为增强旅游需求预测提供了实用见解。通过处理这些关键因素并利用先进的深度学习技术, 本研究在旅游业预测方法的进步中做出了重要贡献, 帮助决策者进行有效的规划和资源配置。

The purpose of this study is to examine the association between international tourists' demographics with travel motives to Uzbekistan through the utilization of push and pull theory.

This study utilized a convenience sampling technique to collect data from 563 international tourists visiting Uzbekistan. Chi-square test of independence (χ²) was employed to test the association between visitors' demographics and travel motives.

The results illustrated that nationality and frequency of visitations of the international tourists to Uzbekistan were statistically associated with their travel motives. In terms of gender, age, marital status and religion, no significant association with travel motives was established.

The statistical test and instrument for data collection might limit the generalization of this study to represent the whole population of international tourists in Uzbekistan.

The findings of this study show that in order to develop tourism in Uzbekistan, businesses and practitioners should consider segmenting tourists based on their national background to serve their needs and preferences. As tourist's visitation frequency plays a role in their travel motives, the product and service quality of tour packages must be improved and monitored.

The findings of this study provide valuable insights for businesses, managers, practitioners and policymakers to understand international tourists' motives to Uzbekistan to formulate better policies and tour packages.

The purpose of this paper is to examine an integrated model of perceived brand salience, perceived brand quality, perceived brand image and perceived brand loyalty in the Dead Sea tourism destination of Jordan from international tourists’ perspectives.

A structured and self-administered survey was employed targeting international tourists who were visiting the Dead Sea tourism destination. The authors delivered 300 questionnaires to international tourists, from which 237 were retained and valid for the analysis. A series of exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses was used to assess the research constructs dimensions, unidimensionality, validity and composite reliability. Structural path analysis was also used to test the hypothesized relationships of the research model.

The structural findings show that perceived brand salience has positively and significantly affected each of perceived brand quality and perceived destination loyalty. Perceived brand quality has positively and significantly affected each of perceived brand image-physical environment, perceived brand image-people characteristics and perceived destination loyalty. Each of perceived brand image-physical environment and perceived brand image-people characteristics has positively and significantly affected perceived destination loyalty. The structural findings indicate that perceived brand quality has exerted the strongest effect on each of perceived brand image-physical environment and perceived brand image-people characteristics. Further, the structural results show that R2 result of 0.48 indicates that 48 per cent of variation in perceived destination loyalty was caused by perceived brand quality, perceived brand image dimensions (physical environment and people characteristics) and perceived brand salience path.

This paper has examined only three drivers of destination loyalty; meanwhile, other factors such as tourists’ satisfaction and retention are potential areas of future research. Also, this study investigated international tourists’ perspectives in the Dead Sea tourism destination only, which means that its generalization potential to other destinations is limited. Therefore, comparative studies inside and outside Jordan’s tourism destinations are potential areas of future research. Other limitations and future research areas are also outlined.

The paper highlights the strategic importance of perceived brand quality and perceived brand image dimensions (physical environment and people characteristics) on perceived destination loyalty. Perceived brand quality acts as strong antecedent to perceived brand image dimensions, and perceived brand salience is an essential element of perceived destination loyalty. Perceived brand quality, perceived brand image dimensions and perceived brand salience are major drivers of perceived brand destination in an integrated manner. Also, perceived brand image dimensions of the physical environment and people friendless and kindness are also vital for creating perceived destination loyalty. Further, an integrated model of perceived brand salience, perceived brand quality, perceived brand image dimensions and destination loyalty is required by tourism organizations operating in the Dead Sea destination to win international tourists now and in the future.

This paper represents an early attempt to reveal and examine potential drivers of perceived destination loyalty in the Dead Sea, Jordan. Accordingly, it should shed more light into the strategic role of perceived brand quality, perceived brand salience and perceived brand image dimensions and how they affect perceived destination loyalty. Further, the paper is the first of its kind that investigated an integrated model of perceived brand salience and perceived destination loyalty via perceived brand quality and image dimensions from international tourist perspectives in Jordan. The main issue here is that tourism organizations operating in the Dead Sea tourism destination have now valuable empirical evidence concerning the drivers of perceived destination loyalty from international tourists’ perspectives.

This study aims to explore the connection between demographic traits and the choice of attraction patterns among international repeat tourists.

The study employed a questionnaire survey to collect data from 1550 international repeat tourists who visited Tanzania between November 2022 and July 2023. Convenient sampling was employed as tourists were selected from the three international airports of Tanzania, namely Kilimanjaro International Airport, Julius Nyerere International Airport, and Abeid Aman Karume International Airport. A multinomial logistic regression model was used to examine the impact of socio-demographic characteristics on the selection of attraction patterns among international repeat tourists.

The study revealed that demographic factors, including age, marital status, income level, occupation, and education level, exhibit statistically significant correlations with preferences for distinct attraction patterns. This significance was established through a p-value of less than 0.05 for all the aforementioned variables.

This study is primarily focused on international repeat tourists, thereby limiting insights into the preferences of domestic tourists. To better inform strategies aimed at attracting a larger domestic tourist base, future research may prioritize the investigation of choice of attractions patterns among domestic tourists in relation to their demographic characteristics.

This study contributes to the nuanced understanding of international tourist behavior by unraveling the extent to which demographic traits impact tourists’ choices of attraction patterns, thereby providing insights crucial for effective marketing strategies, improved visitor experiences, and sustainable tourism development strategies.

This paper aims to examine the relationships between brand equity, customer satisfaction and cultural distance for a tourism destination. The mediating role of customer satisfaction and the moderating effect of cultural distance in these relationships are assessed.

The direct–indirect–moderating relationships were assessed by applying covariance-based SEM (CB-SEM), mediating and multi-group analysis. A paper survey was used to collect data from 618 tourists (domestic and international tourists) visiting a destination in Vietnam.

The findings support direct positive links between the dimensions of brand equity and customer satisfaction, except for the effect of destination brand awareness on destination brand loyalty. This work further demonstrates the mediating effect of customer satisfaction on the indirect relationships between the dimensions of brand equity. Cultural distance was found to moderate the connections between the research concepts.

Future research should explore the model’s relationships based on comparisons in different destinations, to better understand the impact of cultural factors.

This study identifies specific factors to increase branding efficiency by developing and testing the relationship between brand equity and customer satisfaction. Using moderating variables through the lens of cultural distance, it proposes a mediated model. This work contributes to practice by informing destination managers on how to improve brand equity and satisfaction based on the cultural characteristics of international and domestic visitors.